Home walk-through advice

[N-Smooth]

I’m sure a lot of you have purchased new homes and done walk-through’s with your builders. My understanding is we go around the house and check everything, putting masking tape on crap we want fixed. I expect people on here have learned something from this experience and may have advice about certain things they wish they would’ve checked and/or done differently or what level of “picky” to be. Please share! We do our walk-through on Tuesday afternoon and I’m freaking out 🤣

The builder has already gone through and put tape on a bunch of stuff, probably to virtue signal that they want it to be perfect. Not that I have broken in and looked at it or anything…


Thanks in advance!

 

[mbryson]

Posting later

 

[N-Smooth]

I've broken some hearts with punch lists this past year. It's a damn good sign that you have a contractor who sees things before you do.

No need to freak out. Now is the time to do it. If there's stuff you're unsure of, have someone experienced (or really picky) walk through with you. I'm not sure how much time you have, but at dusk or low light conditions, we bring lights to help out and a flashlight is always helpful.

My dad has offered to come with as he is generally more handy than me (not that I’m a dummy) but my wife is concerned he’s too anal and will make it a terrible experience.

It’s from 2-4 in the afternoon so I’m hopeful we’ll have some good light. I thought about that as well

 

[Evolved]

This may be too late (3 PM) but if you notice anything that stands out to you at all put tape on it. There were a few things that I felt I was being too picky and anal about so I didn’t say anything. Flash forward three years and when I walk these certain rooms that is all. I. Look. At.

It drives me nuts that I didn’t say anything then. Our painters were easily our worst subs and I still find drips, over sprays and all kinds of flaws that just piss me off. They either didn’t let the caulking dry or did something funny because there are a ton of places where the caulking is pulling away from the finish work and now has gaps.

Be anal. It’s your house and you are paying for a service. Use the service to its full potential!

 

[cjncustoms]

This may be too late (3 PM) but if you notice anything that stands out to you at all put tape on it. There were a few things that I felt I was being too picky and anal about so I didn’t say anything. Flash forward three years and when I walk these certain rooms that is all. I. Look. At.

It drives me nuts that I didn’t say anything then. Our painters were easily our worst subs and I still find drips, over sprays and all kinds of flaws that just piss me off. They either didn’t let the caulking dry or did something funny because there are a ton of places where the caulking is pulling away from the finish work and now has gaps.

Be anal. It’s your house and you are paying for a service. Use the service to its full potential!

This 100%. Be extremely picky. If you don’t like something, don’t settle. You’re dropping a good chunk of change on house, and it should be exactly how you want it. I did the same thing as Evolved and didn’t bring up items that bothered me, and now they just drive me nuts!!

 

[N-Smooth]

This may be too late (3 PM) but if you notice anything that stands out to you at all put tape on it. There were a few things that I felt I was being too picky and anal about so I didn’t say anything. Flash forward three years and when I walk these certain rooms that is all. I. Look. At.

It drives me nuts that I didn’t say anything then. Our painters were easily our worst subs and I still find drips, over sprays and all kinds of flaws that just piss me off. They either didn’t let the caulking dry or did something funny because there are a ton of places where the caulking is pulling away from the finish work and now has gaps.

Be anal. It’s your house and you are paying for a service. Use the service to its full potential!

This 100%. Be extremely picky. If you don’t like something, don’t settle. You’re dropping a good chunk of change on house, and it should be exactly how you want it. I did the same thing as Evolved and didn’t bring up items that bothered me, and now they just drive me nuts!!

It’s next Tuesday so you’re good. I appreciate the input from both you guys. I know it’s going to be tough if not impossible to get them to fix stuff afterwards and I would be the same way- annoyed by stuff I didn’t have them fix.

 

[mbryson]

This may be too late (3 PM) but if you notice anything that stands out to you at all put tape on it. There were a few things that I felt I was being too picky and anal about so I didn’t say anything. Flash forward three years and when I walk these certain rooms that is all. I. Look. At.

It drives me nuts that I didn’t say anything then. Our painters were easily our worst subs and I still find drips, over sprays and all kinds of flaws that just piss me off. They either didn’t let the caulking dry or did something funny because there are a ton of places where the caulking is pulling away from the finish work and now has gaps.

Be anal. It’s your house and you are paying for a service. Use the service to its full potential!

this, times eleventy billion


YOU paid for quality craftsmanship. Get your moneys worth. If if you notice it, get it fixed. There will be enough you don’t notice that you need to get the stuff you see fixed. My biggest beefswith my house are frankly the squeaking floors. They are glued and nailed but frankly pretty shittastic. I HATE that I paid someone, a professional that I paid SOLID $ to, and have ANYTHING this poorly done in my house. Contractor doesn’t think they’re an issue. This is our fifth house. Worst floors of any home I’ve had (best sealed house though and that’s nice).

Walk every square inch of the floors. Imagine your routines as you live there. Walk those. Walk those with your wife. Sit on the can and see how things feel on your throne. Dry run a meal prep in the kitchen. How’s your laundry going to work out? You can’t really change anything at this point but your contractor will get awesome feedback and night have a few fix it tips for you.

 

[frieed]

something I'll do if/when I buy again is to get a cheap IR camera for my phone and look for any screwups in the insulation, window leaks, or hot wiring.

 

[Spork]

Sorry just a flashback, my neighbor up the street was doing something with siding on his house years after he moved in, noticed that he didn't have a fresh air intake on the outside of his house but in the furnace room he had a tube going out. The siding folks didn't cut the hole . I just got my siding replaced on my house and they didn't cut a hole for the dryer exhaust so take a look on the outside, find your intake and dryer exhaust.

 

[nnnnnate]

I was told paint work was a 6' view. If you could stand 6 feet away and see the flaw then it would be fixed. I kind of think that was BS but I had them fix a lot of paint/mud issues.

I was in my house several times a week if not every day so I pointed out things as I saw them.

I disagree that this is the only time you'll be able to have them fix issues. We had a 1 year warranty on everything and continued a list of things to have looked at as we found them. From the top of my head this included nail pops, paint problems, engineered wood floor issues (slats moving), cabinet alignment issues, dryer electrical issues (wrong plug in basement), HVAC return wasn't connected in the attic to the upstairs unit, so it was sucking in attic air and would never cool, gutter issues that caused dry stack stone to pop off the house... I'm sure the list goes on but that's all stuff the individual subs were required to fix on their time and labor since it was an install issue.

I got pissed at the painter and told him to get out of my house because he started to whine about things. He said I was rude to one of his guys for pointing out a spot he totally missed. After that I just have dealt with any paint stuff on my own.

The only things that I look at and don't love now 3 years out is the garbage concrete work they did in the rain and snow (dripped off the roof that didn't have gutters), the rust on the trex deck from the railing guy that used a grinder which embedded metal into the decking that I can't get out, and a couple drywall squiggles that should be straight lines. I know there are other things but it's not worth me being upset and angry about them now.

 

[Tonkaman]

I write and repair punch-list items quite often in my line of work. My advice is be extremely picky knowing damn well they will try to fight you on some items and half ass some others.

No contractor can make money if they are making return trips to take care of trivial BS. If they know your expectations are high and they will just keep getting calls, they will go the extra mile with every repair they have to do.

 

[Kiel]

Had a work friend buy a flipped house only to say... we don't the test the ac in winter. It never got wired up, literally everything else, but electrical

 

[N-Smooth]

Thanks for all the tips, guys. We already had an issue with the builder because of the way they did the grading from the neighbor’s house to ours. When they initially “fixed” it after I said something it was still wrong. They said it was fine so I went to the city and suddenly they were going to do a rock retaining wall all along 🤣
I’m not sure if that put me on their naughty list or not but either way they know I’m not an idiot or a pushover 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’m really curious to see what the punch list situation looks like. One of the neighbors that just closed said it took them forever to finish their punch list and they felt like they were being punished for being picky. The thought of that really pisses me off.

 

[Pike2350]

My only recent experience is kitchen related. My mom had a fire in Feb. 2020. It took the GC 9 months to get her back into her house and another 10 months to fix punch issues that mostly dealt with the kitchen and cabinets.

Open EVERY drawer and cabinet door. Our guys had a few non-softclose hardware mixed in. They finish was full of saw dust and doors were warped. Inspect the finished end panels. Some went to the front of the door while some went to the front of the box. They also tried to fill in scratches with wood putty...i'm talking 6" scratches that were over 1/8" deep and they didn't even stain/seal the putty. They put the crown up the easiest way and the reveal between crown and cabinet door in some spots was 0" (instead of scribbing it to the ceiling)

These were "custom" cabinets and it was a joke. I wish we would've bought some generic semi-custom ones from a cabinet shop. No dovetail joinery, particle board boxes. It was a shit show. They even installed the island out of square to the 2 walls of the kitchen. It drives me nuts going there. We ended up withholding a pretty decent chunk in the end. At 83 my mom just wasn't going to continue to suffer dealing with it.

That was until the basement flooded from the cemetery next door in April. Now we are having the same fun all over again. Barely at finishing coat of mud as of Friday

 

[comingdown]

My advice is avoid buying track homes. Having worked construction it is 100% a shit show as fast and as cheap as they can build them. It’s a lot of lipstick on a pig. I’ve watched inspectors walk through houses for 10 seconds or less and pass everything and move on. It’s incredible. They just want to keep the money flowing and not slow them down at all.

 

[N-Smooth]

My advice is avoid buying track homes. Having worked construction it is 100% a shit show as fast and as cheap as they can build them. It’s a lot of lipstick on a pig. I’ve watched inspectors walk through houses for 10 seconds or less and pass everything and move on. It’s incredible. They just want to keep the money flowing and not slow them down at all.

I get it. One of the days that I (allegedly) broke in I happened to find the builder's internal punch list as well as the punch list from the city inspection. Between them it was 3 pages of tiny print and very detailed. I was actually surprised. Naturally I took pictures of the list and will be checking all of the items

 

[nnnnnate]

I was the 5th house to move in to our neighborhood. We are at like 40 houses now. Do you plan to move in before the punch lost is done or are you going to hold off until all the work is done? We've had people do both here. We had moving deadlines set with buyers of my in laws home so that is what dictated when we moved in. We actually didn't close until a week or two later. My neighbor was in a position that they could hold out until the work was finished and to their liking. That lit a fire to get the builders on the subs to gets things taken care of. If you can wait and don't have those big moving deadlines that could be helpful.

Do you get any sort of warranty from the builder to fix things that come up for a certain amount of time?

 

[N-Smooth]

I was the 5th house to move in to our neighborhood. We are at like 40 houses now. Do you plan to move in before the punch lost is done or are you going to hold off until all the work is done? We've had people do both here. We had moving deadlines set with buyers of my in laws home so that is what dictated when we moved in. We actually didn't close until a week or two later. My neighbor was in a position that they could hold out until the work was finished and to their liking. That lit a fire to get the builders on the subs to gets things taken care of. If you can wait and don't have those big moving deadlines that could be helpful.

Do you get any sort of warranty from the builder to fix things that come up for a certain amount of time?

It's looking like we'll be the 16th or 17th house out of 20 in our neighborhood but the builder has other projects super close by. We walk through tomorrow but close date is set for the 29th so I hope they'll have time (15 days) to fix most things. We've been renting back our current house from the buyers and have to be out on the 31st so we'll move in regardless. The only things I currently know of that may have to be fixed after close are a couple of the windows don't have the internal "grid" to match the rest of the house. That is a back-order issue and I don't really blame the builder. We've already discussed it and know it'll be fixed when they get them in.

Yes, we have a 2 year warranty.

 

[nnnnnate]

With that info then I honestly wouldn't be super concerned myself about issues you find. It'll come down to you deciding to continue to pester them to get things fixed versus deciding it's not worth the hassle.

I have a couple nail pops in drywall I had intended to have them fix as we approached the year mark (1 year warranty). In the end we didn't call them about it because my MIL had just passed and I had a huge knee surgery. It's not a big deal to me and I intend to fix them when I pull out the putty to fix the screw holes I out in the wrong place and the dings from my kid carrying around his step stool.

 

[N-Smooth]

With that info then I honestly wouldn't be super concerned myself about issues you find. It'll come down to you deciding to continue to pester them to get things fixed versus deciding it's not worth the hassle.

I have a couple nail pops in drywall I had intended to have them fix as we approached the year mark (1 year warranty). In the end we didn't call them about it because my MIL had just passed and I had a huge knee surgery. It's not a big deal to me and I intend to fix them when I pull out the putty to fix the screw holes I out in the wrong place and the dings from my kid carrying around his step stool.

Yeah it'll all depend on the severity of the issue. I'd like to keep a running list of stuff that we find over the next couple years and just have them come out and fix it all at once. We'll see. I'm also a sucker for just fixing stuff myself rather than even having to make a phone call.