House Walkthrough

[Swayze11]

So I bought a brand new house from a builder and I have my walkthrough tomorrow. This is my first ever house so I am extremely new to the whole process.

What are some things I should look for?

I have heard I should bring food colouring and see if there are any toilet leaks, also to bring a night light to test all the plug ins. Anything else?

[MrMastodonFarm]

It's never Lupus.

[surferguy]

bring a two foot square and watch the builders eyes get huge.

[Caged Great]

Look for any spaces or gaps in both the exterior and interior. If there are any holes the size of a quarter or bigger, a mouse can get in. Also, if the appears to be wet spots in the basement on the concrete, that might be a concern (the moisture is getting in somewhere)

Also, if there are any cold spots, the space needs more insulation.

[Caged Great]

The garage should also be completely sealed from the house when the door to the house is closed, so if there are any spaces or holes, carbon monoxide can get in.

[troutman]

Bring a home inspector.

[topfiverecords]

Bring a home inspector, thermal scanner, level, square, ladder, and a lawyer.

[Regulator75]

Bring a Holmes inspector.

[Jedi Ninja]

Your Purchase Agreement may actually preclude you bringing a home inspector to the walkthrough.

I'm sure if you did some googling, you could find a good checklist somewhere.

One thing you want to catch for sure is any sort of cosmetic defect that they could later claim was your fault (e.g. scratched floors).

Glaring technical issues like dead outlets would be covered under the builder's 1-year warranty, so that sort of thing is not absolutely critical to find at the walkthrough, though you want to be sure that there are no glaringly obvious problems that would prevent you from being able to move in.

[Fobulous]

Be anal. Very anal.

If you don't know how to be anal, bring someone that is.

You just spent a bucket load of $ in building your home, so the last thing you need is to let something go because it is to small for you to take note of during the walk through.

The builder can be very nice to your face, but the reality is that he does not want to come back to your house once he has received his cash. I would suggest bringing in a friend or two with you to the walk through just in case they are able to catch something you don't.

The whole leaking toilet or electrical outlet not working can always be done after the walk through. Most builders give you a year to take note of any little issues that they will fix.

[The Yen Man]

I dunno, my walkthrough was relatively painless. I was a total noob at it, and the site manager actually was the one who caught most of the things. Even if you miss something, all the builders have a 3 month checkup, and then a year check up. If you miss anything, you can get them to fix it then. Of course, I guess this depends on the builder. My builder was pretty good in fixing anything when I called them. I built with Shane Homes.

[Northendzone]

when we moved into our house there were a couple of outlets not working and they forgot to cap off one of the ducts - meant that there was very little heat getting upstairs.

[Knut]

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...use+inspection

If you want to find a good home inspector here are some reccomendatioms.

[Derek Sutton]

Take a stack of Post Its with you and use them to indicate every paint touch up. It will take some time for the painter to show up, usually after possession so even after you move in, any dings, scuffs etc... from moving can be fixed as well.

[Bean]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

Your Purchase Agreement may actually preclude you bringing a home inspector to the walkthrough.

Bumping an old thread but if you are precluded from having a home inspector during the walkthrough, is it more valuable to have the inspection performed shortly after possession or before the one year warranty is up?

I can see pros/cons for both but can't figure out which has more benefit.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by Bean

Bumping an old thread but if you are precluded from having a home inspector during the walkthrough, is it more valuable to have the inspection performed shortly after possession or before the one year warranty is up?

I can see pros/cons for both but can't figure out which has more benefit.

If you are going to do it, I would say do it immediately, like immediately after you get your keys. Not having stuff in the home is one benefit, but the main reason is that you want as much stuff as possible handled by the builder's construction team and the original site super and not by the "warranty department". I guess the only disadvantage of doing it now in the summer is that an IR camera wouldn't show much?

One thing I suggest checking out is the insulation and vapour barrier on the rim joists in the basement. Also, check the top of the "frost walls" in the basement to make sure that there is a vapour barrier there too.