Most people think buying a new house is like buying a new car. It Isn’t! There is no production line. Every home is built by hand and people aren’t perfect. Even the most trusted builders can have a bad crew or make mistakes. Get your house inspected or don’t be surprised if you face major problems within the next few years.
Foundation
While rare, some of the most important problems concern the foundation. Yes, your new house could have foundation issues. The most fundamental problem with foundations is impatience.
In one house, the concrete foundation had been poured, but it rained. This rain caused the concrete to become uneven, slanting in all directions with holes and a rough surface at the top. Rather than use time and a grinder to relevel the concrete, the builder built the house on the shaky surface, which led to walls jutting out at unseemly angles and doors scraping across the ground as they attempted to open. Nothing was level.
That house had a bad surface but the concrete itself was strong. However, there have been multiple times when a house has had a poorly mixed foundation. A properly mixed foundation should have a water to cement ratio of .45 to .50. That means that for one cubic yard of the mix, each pound of cement should have about half a pound of water. With too much water, your concrete will not be strong enough to hold the house up against stress. With too little water or a poor mix, dry spots in the concrete may occur, leading to separations.
There is more to consider than the foundation in Houston, however. Since Houston floods, builders will often build a house up by placing an extra layer of dirt before building the foundation on top of it. This process requires the builder to wait at least a few weeks before building, but a geotechnical test is required to determine the exact amount of time, since every soil is different. For soil to settle naturally, it can take up to 4 years. If the builder starts before the soil is ready, it can fall away from beneath the foundation. This resulted in a thirteen-month-old house needing $56,000 of work to prevent the back of the foundation from falling off the house.
Electrical
Electrical mistakes can be alarming – even in new homes. In a new house, you would expect a builder to have all of the receptacles installed correctly, but the most common issues are missing GFCI or missing AFCI.
GFCI or Gound Fault Circuit Interrupters keep people from being electrocuted when they sense a difference between the hot and neutral wires. They cut off the electricity between 1/33rd to 1/60th of a second. This saves a person from being electrocuted. Yet, we often see receptacles that are labelled, but the builder forgot to actually make them GFCI protected. Some builders misunderstand the 6-ft rule which has been in the code since the national code was first created. Any receptacle within 6-ft of a water source (whether sink, toilet, tub, or more) must be protected. This includes if it is in a different room and it doesn’t stop because there is a door. Most cords for lamps, hair dryers, or appliances have a 6-ft cord. This cord can easily travel under a door or through the side of an open door. Without protection, someone can get hurt.
A new issue we often encounter is cheap breakers that don’t trip immediately. Eaton has produced a breaker that can take up to three seconds to trip with a tester. This means that we cannot be sure if it will trip during an emergency. One to two seconds of electrocution is enough to trigger cardiac arrest – even in a healthy person. A person with heart problems can trigger much faster. There can even be permanent damage to the heart, brain and muscles.
AFCI or Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters are also important. These detect for a surge and shut off electricity to prevent a possible fire. They protect the house, not you. Many builders do not keep up with the latest requirements and are missing them. At this point, most receptacles in the house are required to have AFCI breakers.
Appliances
Appliances frequently don’t perform as the manufacturers intended. Sometimes, they have an issue from the factory. It is better to find out and replace it before you move in. One of the most common mistakes is not dedicating the receptacle of a gas range. Many builders don’t think they need to do this since it isn’t stated in the code. However, the popular manufacturers do require it and the code says to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. The manufacturers don’t want your oven to turn off just because you try to run a blender at the same time.
Dishwashers are also frequently not installed correctly. Many people don’t understand what a high loop is or why it is important. The high loop is similar to a reversed P-trap. A P-trap keeps water trapped in it to keep sewer air from coming back up the pipe. Conversely, a high loop traps air to prevent water from backing up. Your dishwasher needs to expel the dirty water when it is done. Without a high loop or air admittance valve, it may back up the nasty water into your sink.
One appliance you may not consider is your HVAC. When inspecting it for performance, even a new house often fails to perform according to the Texas standards. Sometimes, the builder just forgets to turn it on. Other times, there are major issues to correct. You don’t want to wait until winter to discover that your heater doesn’t work.
The heater and the water heater are also required to be visibly bonded. 85%-90% of these are not. Many times they are bonded, just not visibly, so trust your builder if they tell you it is bonded. Inspectors cannot see inside walls. Still, if the bond cannot be seen, the inspector must write it up.
Roof
For some reason, builders in the Houston area forgot how to properly install a roof in 2020. Due to crew shortages, many houses were rushed and we have observed that new house roofs have still not fully recovered. We have seen roof holes large enough for a raccoon in new houses! We have also seen roofs with over 50 lifted shingles. Thankfully, they have gotten better, but it is clear that a new roof needs to be inspected.
Inside the attic, insulation should provide a barrier to the outside heat. This is also often not correct. The insulation certificate will specify what depth is needed for the house, but often builders will pile it high at a marker and leave it too low everywhere else. Some builders have even forgotten to install insulation in the first place!
An attic needs more than just insulation. It also needs to vent air. Since the attic heats in the sun, it needs colder air to be brought in and the hot air to be let out. The most common method is to use soffit vents to bring air in the bottom and ridge vents to let air out the top. 1 in every 4 homes has accidentally installed the roof sheathing or underlayment in a way that blocks the vent. This lets heat build in the attic and strains your roof life as well as the HVAC system.
Over 95% of new houses are also making a mistake with the HVAC air ducts. For supply air ducts, the builder is required to use R-8 duct work or better. The R is for thermal resistance. Builders are allowed to build a home for energy efficiency without following a lot of prescriptive minimums by using a performance method to hit a number goal. This is why many builders think using R-6 ducts is enough. This decision also saves them at least $400 dollars per house. However, it hasn’t been allowed since 2012. The minimum R value allowed is 8.
Having your home inspected by a third party can keep your bills from going through the roof.
New houses are not perfect. Don’t forget to get your house inspected!