I am considering contracting with an inspector to help identify and address any building problems that may occur with all phases of the home construction process from laying the foundation to the final punch list. Is this something that is done / recommended if we are not using a Realtor or should we trust to the inspections provided by the City? Additionally, if this is the route I wanted to go to, do you guys have any recommendations for individuals in College Station who would be qualified to do foundation inspections as well as other construction inspections?

For some background, we are using a builder who comes highly recommended and is well respected on these forums. I trust that he is going to do a great job with our home. My concern is primarily that I would have no idea if something with the foundation was done incorrectly or there was an issue with the framing, and to me, hiring a contractor would act as that individual who would give me another level of confidence. Am I over thinking the process? Should I only consider an inspector to come in at the end of the process to help me put together the final punch list? Would it be a waste of money to use an inspector from start to finish considering that the city already performs inspections at various phases?

I'm a Dallas inspector. I highly recommend doing as you said, with a few twists. Mainly because quality control is lacking in pretty much all new residential construction.

I always Recommend that my clients jump straight to having a professional structural engineer inspect the foundation prior to pour. If an inspector like myself see problems at that point you still may need to get the engineer, so just jump straight to them. The cost should be about the same.

Then have an inspector do the predrywall and final Inspections. Definitely used someone with infrared for the final.

I don't have anyone on my list for bcs. But there are people here that should.

Why would the inspector who is already going to do it not be enough? they don't work for the builder so why wouldn't they give a honest accurate inspection.

What inspector? The City Inspector is just making sure it is done per Code; they are not necessarily spending the time to make sure everything is done per the design.

That makes sense. I guess i haven't thought about inspections enough. Would the goal of an independent inspector be to make sure the builders subs followed the plan or more to make sure it is well above city code standards? Or both.
This topic is of interest to me because I'm building And Haven't thought about an independent inspector. Thanks OP for sparking my interest.

Absolute nailed this one.

Depending on where you are, city inspectors arent even that great at identifying code problems. With one house I've owned I could swear that paperwork was turned over to the code inspector with a bunch of cash paperclipped to it. The mistakes were obvious.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Absolute, how can a structural engineer inspect the foundation prior to pour? What kind of issues can they see at that time?

Edit: I spoke with a local structural engineering firm, and they mentioned offering both a Pre Pour inspection (checking rebar and other areas) as well as an Elevation Inspection at 4 weeks and 6 months. Is this elevation inspection recommended or should the Pre-Pour inspection give me enough assurance to have confidence in our foundation?

Thank you for the insight.

Are engineer inspections not required anymore? I know when I built my house, it had to be inspected by an engineer at four different phases pre pour, post pour, framing inspection, and then a final inspection at completion. No idea what good that process did, but I have a nice letter from a PE confirming each inspection was completed and a bunch of legal jargon to say it looks good but this is not a guarantee or a warranty on the work performed.

CJS4715, that may still be the case. I plan on giving my builder a call this morning to more fully understand that part of the process. I think it comes back to what Absolute and JBLHAG03 said, in that, the city inspector is just confirming something is done to code, and not necessarily identifying any other issues.

Pre pour is the only time you can see most of the design. After pour it is covered and everything is guesswork. I would do both with them on that. The elevation surveys are very good information to have for later.

I'm not going to badmouth city inspection. Let's just say they are looking at very specific things and they are looking at 40 houses a day.

A third party inspection is basically a quality control check. Supervision is pretty poor on must new construction. So things get done wrong then covered up. Sometimes those things are no big deal. Sometimes they are. I have found some truly amazing things over the years. The price of a few Inspections is small in comparison and just a good hedge against problems.

this only addresses foundation and framing, but you could have the foundation and framing engineered. the engineer will design the foundation and provide the specifics of framing and additional required supports. this process includes inspections pre-, during, and post- pour on the foundation and during and after on the framing. in the end, you'll have a letter stating the foundation and framing were engineered. my understanding is that the work of structural engineers is insured in case something fails (like malpractice insurance for physicians). you would still need a different inspector for the other stuff.

City inspectors only check a minimum code, which more than likely is not even up to date usually 2012 code vs. 2015. The city probably requires engineer letters on the foundation, so you may ask your builder.

At a minimum I would have a pre-drywall inspection done at frame stage after all trims have gone in and before insulation. Everything from that list should be completed before they sheetrock, as long as it doesn't interfere with adopted city code.

Burgess does very good pre-drywall and final inspection on new homes.

I am a home builder in Dallas that has burgess inspections at frame on all my homes. (they are zeroed out before we move on)

I reviewed my paperwork, because I couldn't remember what services the engineer did for us. He designed the foundation, including # of piers as well as the framing design for our house. Because of that, he came out and did inspections of the pad, pre-pour inspection of piers & foundation, inspection of poured foundation, inspection of framed structure, & inspection of completed structure. At each stage, he issued a letter with a signature and a nice PE seal of approval. For whatever that is worth.

quote:

---

this only addresses foundation and framing, but you could have the foundation and framing engineered. the engineer will design the foundation and provide the specifics of framing and additional required supports. this process includes inspections pre-, during, and post- pour on the foundation and during and after on the framing. in the end, you'll have a letter stating the foundation and framing were engineered. my understanding is that the work of structural engineers is insured in case something fails (like malpractice insurance for physicians). you would still need a different inspector for the other stuff.

---

This assumes custom work. The typical production builder is probably not being quite as precise. The typical subcontractor and crew definitely isn't.

Inspections, such as the OP initially asked about, are designed to CHECK the actual work of the subs and give an opinion on that work. They are not guaranteeing or warrantying that work. I believe it makes sense to have the foundation checked by an engineer. It is a specific and specialized system. As the house gets farther along in the process, it makes sense to move to a more general inspector to be able to look at more systems.

Personally, I think it is a set up for disappointment if you are banking on being able to sue someone for failures if they occur. My experience suggests this is harder than it sounds. Pick a quality builder with good customer service, be there a lot and watch things yourself, have appropriate third party inspections by professionals that work for you, have a solid Realtor and give yourself the best chance for success. But realize that owning a house, even a new house, means you will have repairs and issues. It goes with the territory.