Shoddy workmanship/inspection/certification

What good is it to have new construction energy certified if the inspector/certifier doesn't bother to check things?

New Construction today. Energy certification sticker says all is good - R38 level insulation In the attic.

Unfortunately, they forgot to actually install insulation in the attic......

I don't know if I should laugh or cry..

That builders on site rep should be fired.

I do both!

Sad part is that the builder will say they knew it needed to be done and install it and the energy cert guy will skate on not really doing his job. Would be shocked it he actually did a blower door test that passed, since the exterior doors did not have weatherstrip installed and the range hood vent pipe to the vent outside had not been installed yet. They should at least have to fill out the certification sticker by hand onsite.

What a freaking joke things have become around here.

This week we started demo on the house to repair damage from Beryl. Pulled the Sheetrock off the ceiling, which one of these is not like the others?

Aggietaco said:

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Those are foam vent baffles

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Yup. Inlet vent baffles so that the none existent insulation doesn't block airflow. Not holes, just dimples.

Weird thing on this house was they installed the baffles, but were using the newer roof inlet vents, not soffit vents. I thought the whole point of the roof inlets was to not have to use baffles. But who knows. Given all I found on this house they may have installed the baffles to hide the fact that they didn't actually put holes for the inlet vents

Customer had flood lights installed post build. Electrician decided the best place to make that run was under the shingles.

Customer said "they work and I can't afford to have an electrician move it, just put it back and don't hit it with the nails."

Its location is where starter traps get nailed. It's a great example of how one trades quality affects another.

Jason_Roofer said:

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Customer had flood lights installed post build. Electrician decided the best place to make that run was under the shingles.

Customer said "they work and I can't afford to have an electrician move it, just put it back and don't hit it with the nails."

Its location is where starter traps get nailed. It's a great example of how one trades quality affects another.

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Something new today in new construction that I hadn't seen/noticed before. Example of declining quality despite rising costs

Interior door frames made of particle board. Still using the small one inch screws on the hinge. This homeowner, active adult community, had multiple doors where the hinges were loose or completely off because the screws have stripped out the particular board. Insane to me.

Absolute said:

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Interior door frames made of particle board.

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Damn - that is terrible.

And the half-ass painted hinges...

My company rents a home for some of my coworkers when they aren't at sea and the handyman replacing the handrails did this bang up job.

Sorry for the story, but this is a good one at my house over the cold snap.

So for the longest at my house, by the AC's outside, it smelled like gas. Mine and my neighbor's units are back to back, with a fence, and we have both our meters in that area.

He installed a generator a while ago and had to have the gas company out a couple times to fix things; including one time where they cut gas off until it was fixed. So any smell we attributed to him and their house.

The cold snap in Houston recently made our bathroom (meter on the outside of bath) smell more like gas. Finally spouse wakes me up around 3am and says we have a gas leak and need to call NOW. I talk them off the ledge and say I'll call in the morning, after we've eaten and dressed and such.

Get CNP out there to test and the hand meter shows nothing on my meter, a small leak on the pressure tap point on my neighbor's meter (tightened and it's not leaking anymore). But as I stand between the two condensers in my yard, it starts smelling REALLY bad.

So the tech starts probing and only finds one hole that the meter goes 'off' on. All the other holes are duds. But on the plus side, he hits my sprinkler supply line to that zone and now I have water going EVERYWHERE. So I go find the leak and then find out, this IS a blessing. All the holes are full of water and now you can see 3 holes bubbling. So this makes the repair "emergency" and CNP comes out (eventually).

They start digging. I had saved photos of 811 before so I knew the general location of the line. They dig and then one digger says "Hey, the gas line is here right? Why is there red?". So they all stop, pour soap and see bubbles. Keep digging and find...a sewer line. Oh and the new fiber internet is laid on top (green). So in an 8" space I have a 4" sewer line, a gas line next to it and the internet on top. They eventually dig enough to find the leak and repair it. What was leaking you say?

A frigging shark bite fitting and splice in the ground. A while back, previous owners redid the bathroom and, I assume, they moved the sewer line (demo'ed a tub and made the shower bigger) to go outside then tie into the main line. In the process the plumber or whomever nicked the line. Rather than call it in, they 'patched' it themselves. Fast forward to now and it finally leaks enough due to age/cold/reasons and it is FINALLY patched correctly.











Now I just get to fix the sprinkler supply line..... Or get CNP to pay me back for that (HA!).

~egon