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We post a new home inspection photo on the Structure Tech Facebook Page five days a week.  After pouring over all of our photos from the last year, we've come up with our favorite home inspection pics from 2012.  Click on any of the photos for a larger view, and feel free to share.

Bent Outlet Cover - Problem: I want an outlet right where the wall is angled, but I can't get the cover plate to fit. Solution: Cut the cover plate and then caulk it in place.

Worst Common Vent Ever - How can you get four water heaters to backdraft at the same time?  Just do something like this.

Outlet in duct - Moving the outlet would have been too much work, so someone just cut a hole in the exhaust duct for the kitchen hood fan.  Nice touch with the masking tape on the sharp sheet metal edges too.

Furnace covers reversed - furnace manufacturers intentionally make it impossible extremely difficult to get the upper and lower covers reversed.  With enough tenacity, one can make it happen though.  This allows most of the air to get sucked from the furnace room, completely bypassing the furnace filter.  No wonder the furnace filter was so clean.

Deteriorated Chimney - Flue gases from combustion appliances like furnaces and water heaters are corrosive; that's why you see a metal liner sticking out of most chimneys in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.  When the appliance vents in to the chimney without a liner, the flue gases often condense near the top and then drip down and destroy the inside of the chimney. This is also just one more reason why it's important for the home inspector to get on the roof whenever possible.

Optional Combustion Air - Have you ever had one of those days where you felt... y'know... a little too fresh?  Thanks to this person's nifty invention, the combustion air being pumped in to the furnace return plenum can be manually turned off.

Leaking Drain - Awww, isn't that cute?  We noticed a bunch of water on the floor in the basement after testing all of the first floor plumbing fixtures.  To confirm the source of the leak, we filled up the kitchen sink with water, pulled the drain stopper, then ran downstairs to catch the leak in action.

TwoFur - Early attempts at one-piece kitchen faucet / sprayer combos failed miserably.

Leaning Porch - no photo editing performed here.

Leaves in Attic - this huge piles of leaves in the attic was a mystery.

Not-so-frost-free faucet - Frost free faucets have a long stem that allows the water to be turned off inside the home, preventing them from freezing.  It doesn't work so well when they're installed like this.

Missing Roof Vent - Nice solution.

This deck puts the can't in Cantilever - The word of the day is 'fulcrum'.  Now, everyone over to the right for a demonstration. 

Medusa's House - we think we know where she lives.

Obstructed Vacuum Breaker - Over/under on how long it will be before that vacuum breaker is removed after the Bloomington inspector leaves: 9.5 seconds.

Scorched 'Safer Cooking' Manual - Alanis Morissette would love this photo.   Dontcha think?

Strategic Bath Fan Placement - this gives new meaning to the term 'point source ventilation'.

Worst.  Roof.  Ever.

Exploding Range - what happens when you take a range designed for natural gas and install it in a home with LP gas?  You create an explosion hazard.   DO NOT test the oven if you ever come across this defect - a huge fireball will shoot out when you open the door, which will singe your hair and give you half a heart attack.  Don't ask us how we know.

My crawl space has a flat tire - we couldn't believe our eyes when we found this trailer frame partially buried in concrete in a crawl space, supporting the addition at the front of a house in Hopkins.

Men make things fit - We've seen plenty of doors notched out to get around toilets, but this might be the worst one yet.

That last photo was a 'bonus' photo sent in by Rick Norling, past owner of Structure Tech.   If you enjoy these kinds of photos, remember to like our Facebook page.  Thanks!

Related Post:  Top 20 Home Inspection Photos from 2011

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections

If you're buying an old house in the Twin Cities with pipes sticking out of the ground in your yard, heads up.  You might have an oil tank somewhere at the property.   While the vast majority of homes in the Twin Cities are heated with natural gas, there is still a small percentage of homes in the metro area that are heated with fuel oil, and far more houses with abandoned oil tanks.

When a home gets converted from fuel oil to natural gas, the fuel oil tank becomes abandoned.  Once the tank is abandoned, it needs to be dealt with.

When tanks are abandoned

If the tank is buried, it needs to be removed or filled in place  If a fuel oil tank is left buried, it could eventually leak.  A leaking underground storage tank (LUST) can contaminate the soil as well as the home, creating an environmental hazard that can cost a ridiculous amount of money to clean up.  You can visit the EPA's web site on LUSTs for more info.

When a tank is located inside the house but not buried, it needs to be properly disconnected, and sometimes removed.  A fuel oil tank takes up a large amount of room, so most people choose to have them removed, but requirements vary from city to city.  For example, once a fuel oil tank is abandoned in Minneapolis, it needs to be removed from the property.  This is written in to their Truth-In-Sale of Housing Evaluator Guidelines under item #25.  The guidelines state:

"The evaluator shall determine if there are any abandoned fuel oil tanks. If found, mark as RRP or RRE. A licensed contractor must properly remove them. (A permit is not needed if the tank is less than 200 gallons.). (Per Uniform Fire Code Sec. 79 and Mpls. Code 48.145)"

Another option for an abandoned fuel oil tank is to stick it out in your front yard and paint it like a cow.  You might think I'm kidding, but I've seen it done several times.

Clues to a buried fuel oil tank

The easiest way to identify a potential buried fuel oil tank is to look for a fill pipe and vent pipe at the exterior of the home.  Sometimes the pipes will go through the foundation wall of the home.

Sometimes they just go down in to the ground.

When fuel oil tanks are removed, the fill and vent pipes need to be removed or cut off and filled with concrete.  If you find pipes sticking out of the ground or foundation wall like the ones shown above, it probably means one of two things: either the tank is still there, or it was removed by a hack.  No professional oil tank removal contractor is going to leave the vent and fill pipes looking like that.

According to Dean Nething of Dean's Tanks, there were many 'erroneous deliveries' that happened during the 60's and 70's, where one house address got confused with another.  About once a year, a basement would get contaminated with hundreds of gallons of fuel oil.  In every one of these cases, the contamination was so bad that the fuel oil company, Standard Oil, had to buy the property so they could tear it down and dig out the basement.  This is why the fill pipes always need to be removed when the tank is removed.

When the pipes are right next to each other like in the photos above, there's a good chance that the fuel oil tank is (or was) located inside the house or under the house.  When the pipes are separated from each other, there's a very good possibility that there's a buried fuel oil tank in the yard.  The photo below came from a house in Minneapolis - these pipes led to a 1,000 gallon tank buried in the yard.

Here's another example - the fill and vent pipes were located in the front yard behind some bushes at a home in Edina. These innocuous, nearly hidden pipes led to an enormous buried tank in the front yard.

There are a few diagrams floating around online that show an indoor style of tank buried in the ground, like the big green one that I showed at the beginning of this post.   Those indoor style of tanks are extremely unusual to find buried - or according to Dean's Tank, "once in a blue moon".  The vast majority of buried tanks look a lot more like big drums, like the ones shown below.  The photos below are courtesy of Dean's Tank.

Here's another example of pipes sticking out of the ground leading to a buried oil tank in the yard.  In this particular case, the fill pipe had a cap that could be opened.  I stuck my tape measure down the pipe, and it came out soaked in fuel oil.  It smelled like fuel oil for the next two weeks, despite my half-hearted efforts to clean it off.  Fuel oil has a strong odor, and takes a long time to go away.  It's easy to understand how a leaking tank can create such a nasty problem.

The person buying this home had the sellers remove the tank; here's what the site looked like after the tank was removed.

What to do if you suspect a buried oil tank

If you suspect a buried oil tank, call Dean's Tank, Inc.  They've been specializing in fuel oil tank removal / abandonment in the Twin Cities for over 25 years.  If a fuel oil tank has been professionally removed from a property, there's a good chance that this was the company that did it.  To determine if a fuel oil tank is present, they'll come out and do a site inspection for $200.

Dean estimates his company has removed between ten and twenty thousand tanks.  The cost of removing a buried fuel oil tank varies greatly from property to property, but costs will typically range from $2,000 to $3,000.  Having a tank filled in place typically costs just a little bit less.

According to Dean and Minnesota Real Estate Attorney John Braun, some homeowners may qualify for financial assistance through the Abandoned Underground Storage Tank Removal Program, which is run by the Petrofund program at the Minnesota Department of Commerce. You can read more about this program in the first link included at the end of this post under 'Useful Links'.

Buried Fuel Oil Tanks and Home Inspection Standards

Home Inspection Standards of Practice specifically state that buried fuel oil tanks are not something that home inspectors are required to inspect.  Here's some SOP language from different home inspection organizations:

• ASHI:  Inspectors are NOT required to inspect: underground items including, but not limited to underground storage tanks or other underground indications of their presence, whether abandoned or active.
• NAHI: The inspector is not required to record location of any on-site visible fuel tanks within or directly adjacent to the structure.
• InterNACHI: The inspector is not required to inspect fuel tanks or underground or concealed fuel supply systems.

• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency - Tank Compliance and Assistance Program
• Minnesota State Department of Public Safety - Removal or Abandonment Information Sheet
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency - Heating Oil Underground Storage Tanks
• EPA  - LUST

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections

        

Home inspectors might find more hack repairs when it comes to plumbing projects than anything else - mostly because it's easy to  do a plumbing project wrong, but still have the drains work.   Sort of.

I have about a million photos of hack plumbing repairs, but that's not the point of this post.  Today I'm going to give a list of some common plumbing products sold at home improvement stores and hardware stores in Minnesota that probably shouldn't be purchased.  Whatever you plan to do with these products is most likely going to be a violation of the Minnesota State Plumbing Code.

S-Traps

First and foremost comes my favorite; the drain tube meant for an S-trap or washing machine drain.  I love the photo below because the packaging encourages you to be your own plumber... which is exactly what the ambitious-looking square on the cover has decided to be, unfortunately.  He's installing an S-trap, which is illegal in Minnesota (4715.0960), and as far as I know, everywhere else in the country.  While the packaging also says that this 1-1/2" drain tube can be used for a washing machine drain, the minimum size allowed for a washing machine drain, also known as a standpipe, is 2" (4715.2300).

bottom note: what's with the suggestion to be your own plumber? Has this clever marketing piece ever actually encouraged someone to 'be their own plumber' ? By the time you've wandered in to the plumbing repair aisle at the home improvement store, there's a good chance that you've already made the decision to be your own plumber.

S-traps are usually found at sinks, and are often accompanied by several other plumbing defects.

There is no simple solution to an "S" trap, but they're usually not a major problem.

Bottle Traps

Another illegal plumbing trap is any type that relies on concealed partitions to create a trap - such as a bottle trap (4715.0960).  They come in several varieties.

The proper and prudent product to purchase in these particular cases is a P-trap.

Corrugated / flexible traps

Corrugated drains have to be one of the most common 'handyman' plumbing repairs that home inspectors find.

These things violate a basic plumbing principal of the Minnesota State Plumbing Code - section F, which states

"F. The drainage system shall be designed, constructed, and maintained to conduct the waste water with velocities which will prevent fouling, deposition of solids, and clogging."  (4715.0200)

All of those little corrugations allow for fouling, deposition of solids, and clogging.  When changes in direction need to happen, it should be done with proper fittings that have smooth interiors.

Needle valves / saddle valves

Saddle valves are usually used for whole house humidifiers, which I'm not a fan of to start with, and ice-makers.  They work by piercing a hole in your water pipe, and they're prone to leaking.  They're also not allowed in Minnesota.

Instead of using a saddle valve, have a proper valve installed.

Clamshell toilet fill valves

Toilet fill valves are supposed to be installed with the critical level line at least 1" above the top of the overflow tube in the toilet tank.  One of the more common types of fill valves are the ones made by Fluidmaster.  The diagram below comes from their installation instructions, and it shows what a fill valve should look like.

The toilet fill valves that sit in the bottom of your toilet tank are often referred to as 'clamshell' fill valves, and they're not allowed in Minnesota, because they create a potential cross-connection between the water in the toilet tank and the potable water supply. Don't put these in.  See 4715.2150 - flush tanks.

Instead of buying a 'clamshell' style fill valve, get the adjustable 400A valve made by Fluidmaster.  These are sold everywhere.

Rubber fittings

Rubber fittings used on drains or vents like the one shown below can sag or collapse.  They're always a no-no.

If you can't figure out how to make your drains work without the use of rubber fittings, call a plumber. The one exception to this for above-ground drain and vent piping is a rubber coupler with a stainless steel metal band or sleave surrounding it.  The stainless steel band gives it rigidity, which prevents what's happening to the un-banded connector in the photo below.

These un-banded couplers are sometimes allowed or even required on high-efficiency furnace vents, and they're allowed to be installed on their side when buried in dirt, but the other 99% of the ones you'll see are wrong.  The photo below shows a proper steel-banded connector.  Check out the fine print that says "2" CI, PL, or ST to 2" CI, PL, or ST".  This tells you the different materials that this connector is designed for.  These types of connectors are usually the right ones to buy.

Slang terms: Note the brand on the coupler shown above - "Fernco".  When you hear people refer to "Fernco" couplings, they're usually referring to couplings without metal bands, but Fernco obviously makes both.  When you hear people mention "Mission" couplings, they're usually referring to banded couplings... but Mission makes both as well.  For quick proof of this, do a google image search for "mission coupling", and do another for "fernco coupling".

Flexible connectors

Flexible connectors aren't allowed at water heaters or water softeners in Minnesota.  I've heard that these are actually a good thing to use in parts of the country that are subject to earthquakes, but not here.  The state plumbing code doesn't allow these flexible connectors, because they reduce the water pipe diameter - the minimum allowable pipe diameter is 3/4".  I know of one manufacturer that offers a connector with a .72" inside diameter, but they're still not allowed in Minnesota.

I have these connectors installed at my own water heater because that's what was there when I bought my house.  I could personally care less if they're there or not, because I've never noticed any difference in water flow at homes that have these... but they're still a plumbing code violation in Minnesota.

If you have a Truth-In-Sale of Housing Evaluation performed at your home in Minneapolis and the water heater is less than three years old, these flexible connectors would be a required repair item.

Mechanical vents

Mechanical vents are not allowed in Minnesota.  These are often referred to as cheater vents, and they come in two varieties - an air admittance valve and a check vent.  A discussion of the different types is a moot point for Minnesota, because neither is allowed.  If you're curious though, check out this post by Seattle Home Inspector Charles Buell on check vents vs. air admittance valves.

The photo below shows a check valve installed on a lav vent inside a cabinet.  On a proper installation, the vent would have been run inside the wall, connected to other vents for the bathroom, and eventually terminated above the roof.

The purpose of a mechanical vent is to allow drains to suck air without admitting sewer gas in to the home.  I've heard that air admittance valves actually work quite well, but they're still a code violation here in Minnesota.

Conclusion

Just because they sell it doesn't mean it's legal.  I often hear homeowners say "If these things aren't allowed in Minnesota, why'd the guy at the store sell it to me?"  The answer is usually that they didn't know any better.  You shouldn't expect the person working in the plumbing department at a home improvement store to be up-to-date on the latest plumbing codes.  Plumbers need a lot of training and experience - that's why they charge what they do.

Now go hug your plumber.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections

While the hazards associated with aluminum branch circuit conductors in homes have been known about for the last 40 years, there still seems to be a lot of disagreement about what should be done when aluminum branch circuit conductors are found during a home inspection.  I'm writing this post to give advice to anyone in Minnesota planning to buy a home with aluminum branch circuit conductors.

For the record, "Aluminum branch circuit conductors" refers to wires that provide power to 15 and 20 amp circuits in houses.  It's the wire that connects to outlets, switches, lights, and the like.  For the rest of this blog, I'm going to call it aluminum wiring, but I'm not referring to the aluminum wiring that is commonly used on 240 volt circuits or service drops on today's homes.  That stuff is fine.

Just in case you're unfamiliar with aluminum wiring, here are a few key points:

• Aluminum wiring starting being used in single family homes as a replacement for copper wiring around 1965.
• Between 1965 and 1972, over two million homes were wired with aluminum.
• Many homes caught fire and people died as a result of the aluminum wiring causing fires.
• The Franklin Research Institute determined that pre-1972 homes wired with aluminum were more likely to reach "fire hazard conditions" than homes wired with copper.  Not twice as likely, not ten times more likely, but 55 times more likely.
• Aluminum wiring failed at the connection points, such as splices between wires, connections at outlets, circuit breakers, switches, lights, etc.
• In 1972, the formula for aluminum wiring changed, making it a much safer product.  Aluminum wiring was used in single family homes for a few years after that, but was completely phased out by the mid-70's.

I've never inspected a home that was actually on fire because of poor connections at the aluminum wiring, but I've seen a few that looked like they were close.

There's a persistent myth that if a home was wired with aluminum over 40 years ago and it hasn't burned down yet, it's never going to.  Of course, that's just plain silly.

While there are plenty of houses with aluminum wiring that haven't started on fire, this doesn't mean they're safe.   The current occupants haven't burned the house down, but when the new owners move in, will they put different demands on the system?  Of course.  With a change in occupancy comes a change in use, and that's when problems often show up.

If you're buying a home with aluminum wiring, my advice is to have a thorough inspection of the wiring performed by an electrician and repairs made if needed.  This inspection would require the inspection of at least a representative number of connections.   This means pulling outlets out of the wall, pulling switches out of the wall, taking lights down to inspect the connections, pulling wires out of junction boxes, etc.  If any connections aren't proper, repairs should be made.

Repair Methods

The CPSC lists three potential repairs for homes with aluminum wiring: individual repairs with COPALUM connectors, individual repairs with AlumiConn connectors, or complete replacement of the aluminum wire.  You can read about how the individual repairs would be made here - Aluminum Wiring Repairs.

COPALUM?  Not in Minnesota.

Individual repairs with COPALUM connectors is not a viable option for Minnesotans.  This requires the use of a specialized product that needs to be installed with a specialized tool, by a certified COPALUM Retermination Contractor.  I contacted the company that provides this product, and was informed that there is not a single certified contractor in Minnesota.  So that's out.

AlumiConn?  Maybe.

It's possible to make individual repairs with AlumiConn connectors, but those connectors are ridiculously expensive.  Amazon currently sells them for $3.26 each, plus shipping & handling.  That's $3.26 for a single wire nut.  Yikes.  If you buy in bulk, you can buy a 1,000 pack for $2.59 each.

Besides the fact that this repair method would be very expensive, there's a chance that the repairs would be incomplete.  Would every single junction box be found?  Maybe, maybe not.  Seattle home inspector Charles Buell shared a story about a year ago where he was called back to verify repairs were made at a home that he had previously inspected, and he found at least one junction box that had been missed.  You can read about about it here - incomplete aluminum wiring repairs.

Replacement of aluminum wiring is best.

The surest and most complete repair is to have the aluminum wiring replaced.  This leaves very little to chance, and doesn't leave the home with a bunch of repair methods that the next semi-qualified homeowner might accidentally mess up.  The obvious drawback to this is the expense involved.  Of course, the expense depends on how much aluminum wiring is present and will vary greatly from house to house.  This is where the electrician comes in.

If you're buying a home with aluminum wiring and you hire an electrician to inspect and/or repair the wiring, make sure they have experience with aluminum wiring repairs.  We had a young electrician recently ask us how he was supposed to repair the aluminum wiring in a house.  Our advice was to partner up with an electrician who had experience doing this work.

For a more detailed discussion regarding the specific hazards with aluminum wiring, here are some excellent related documents:

• Aluminum Wiring Repair - from CPSC
• Aluminum Wiring - by Douglas Hansen
• Reducing the Fire Hazard in Aluminum Wired Homes - by J. Aronstein

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections

"New construction homes get inspected dozens of times by municipal inspectors as part of the permit process, so there is no need to hire a private home inspector if you're buying a new home."

I hear that a lot.  I do my best to convince home buyers otherwise, but when I'm on the phone with a potential client, I have a financial interest in talking them in to hiring me.  Just like the orthodontist will tell you your kid needs braces, the home inspector is going to say you need a home inspection.

I get it.

That's why I try to direct people on the phone to my blog; if these photos don't convince you that a private home inspection is a worthwhile investment on a new construction home, I don't know what will.  Most of the photos below were taken at new construction homes that have already been through the permit inspection process; in a couple cases, the homes were a year or two old, but the photos show defects that were original to construction.

Roofs

New construction roofs are not impervious to installation defects - the most common issue we find with new roof installations is improper shingle nailing.  When nails are overdriven, driven at an angle, or located too high on the shingles, it's a defective installation.  The photos below show a few examples of defective roof installations on new construction homes.

Short nails on a new roof isn't a common defect, but I've found them.  In the photo below, the ridge shingles were fastened with 1-1/4" nails, which barely even touched the roof sheathing.  I could pull 'em right out by hand.

Why didn't the municipal inspectors catch these defects?  Most municipal inspectors don't walk on roofs.

What happens when these defects are identified?  In extreme cases, the roofers need to start over.  Full tear-off and replacement.  The photo below shows new shingles delivered on top of the existing roof that was only a week or two old.  The home buyer sent me this photo to show that the builder was making good with their defective installation... that had already been approved by the municipal inspector.

Exterior

This deck beam should have been attached to the 6x6 post with a metal bracket; not bumped out over the side of the post and attached to the sliver that was left.

The diagram below shows what this would look like if done properly.

I've blogged about improper joist hanger nails before, and it's still a defect that I find on new construction.

The problem with these short nails is that they don't even begin to penetrate the ledgerboard, as you can clearly see in the photo below.

Sometimes the nails in joist hangers get completely missed, especially when it's the inside corner on a skewed hanger.

Other times, joist hangers are forgotten about entirely.

Masonry veneer (aka stone siding) installation defects are rampant.  I recently blogged about stone siding installation defects, and all of the photos in that blog post came from new construction homes or new installations that were approved with permits. For example, masonry veneer needs to be kept 2" above the roof covering.  In the photo below, the mortar was actually touching the shingles, and this was located near the bottom of a valley.  This part of the roof wasn't visible from the ground, and the municipal inspector had just recently approved the installation.

Other siding manufacturers have similar requirements for clearance to the shingles.  For example, James Hardie requires a 2" gap between the bottom of the siding and the roof covering.  When these clearance requirements aren't met, the siding can soak up moisture and flake apart.

Sometimes, a private home inspector might point out an area of concern.  When roof lines are designed to direct water against the house, this is a concern.  It's not necessarily a 'building code defect', but it sure isn't good planning.  I took the photo below at a home that was just two years old, but was already experiencing major water intrusion problems at the area circled in yellow.  The dotted blue line shows the path water was taking inside the wall.

The photo below shows the water staining that had made its way to the first floor subfloor, and was visible in the basement.

Auto-reverse sensors on garage door openers need to be installed within 6" of the floor to help reduce the risk of injuries.

Since 2007, the minimum tread depth on a stairway has been 10" in Minnesota.  So how did these steps leading up to the front door pass inspection?

As you can see below, the front porch / deck was over 30" above the surrounding grade, so guardrails are required.  Of course, this inspection was done in the middle of the winter and the grading wasn't finished yet, so I let the buyer know that this is something that needs to be followed up on as a safety issue in the spring.  If the finished grade ends up being 29 1/2" high... is it safe?

HVAC

High-efficiency furnaces and water heaters need to have the venting pitched so water drains out; there should never be any dips in the piping that allow water to pool.  The two photos below show improperly pitched furnace venting.  I added the blue to show where water will pool.

This next one was downright scary; the water heater installer forgot to glue one of the joints at the vent, and it worked itself loose.  That would allow for a lot of exhaust gas in to the home.

Allow me to digress for a second.  If this disconnected water heater vent hadn't been discovered before the buyers moved in, how long would this have gone on for?  It probably wouldn't generate enough carbon monoxide to kill anyone, but long-term exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide isn't good, and the excess moisture being dumped in to the home would surely cause moisture problems.  When I find stuff like this, it's usually a very quick and easy fix for the builder.  If this had been leaking exhaust gases in to the home for years, it could turn in to a nasty lawsuit.

This makes me wonder why so many builders try to talk home buyers out of having private inspections.  This is the home builder's chance for someone else to look over their work to identify safety issues and building performance issues that might turn in to big problems further on down the road... and the builder doesn't even pay for the home inspection, the buyer does!  Builders ought to be encouraging buyers to get home inspections.

I find a lot of loose and sloppy HVAC ductwork on new construction inspections.  I removed the register cover to show this loose ductwork.

Toekick register covers are sometimes forgotten about, because you can't see 'em unless you bend down.  As you can see, this one was skipped.

So was this one.

Sometimes the register covers get missed because the carpet installers hide the registers.  The image below, right, shows an infrared image overlay.  Oops.

Gaps like this in the ductwork means unwanted air leakage.

When ducts are crushed, air flow is seriously reduced.  I found this crushed duct at a recent pre-drywall inspection.

The ground always settles around new houses.  Sometimes, it settles very quickly.  When this happens, air conditioners can tip.

When they tip too much, this places stress on the refrigerant lines.  The air conditioner shown below was only two years old, and it was already hanging from the refrigerant lines.

The photo below shows an anti-tip bracket for a gas range sitting on the floor behind the range.  When I pulled the range forward to make sure the anti-tip bracket was properly installed, I felt it give way.  Someone had simply screwed the bracket in to the drywall.  That doesn't do much good.

This was a brand new gas fireplace that was leaking exhaust gas.  This needs to be fixed before the fireplace gets used.

Plumbing

As with the photos of the furnace and water heater vents shown above, plumbing vents and drains need to be pitched so water drains out.  I added the blue in the photo below to show where water will end up sitting.

When CSST gas lines are used, they need to be properly bonded to reduce the risk of fire from a nearby lightening strike.  This doesn't always happen.

When dishwashers are installed below granite countertops, they're often not attached because nobody wants to drill holes in the granite.  I've probably seen half a dozen ways of attaching the dishwasher without drilling holes in the granite top; I'll have to start taking pictures of those methods and follow up with a blog post on this topic alone.

Brand new dishwasher installations usually work fine, but not always.  This dishwasher leaked like crazy.  I was inspecting the basement when the leaking started, so I was able to run upstairs and turn it off immediately, but a lot of water had already leaked underneath the cabinets and in to the subfloor in the kitchen. Of course, this is one of those things that the builder would unquestionably fix, but far better I find it than the homeowner.  Can you imagine what a mess this would have been if the new homeowner had already moved in and the dishwasher leaked in to the basement all over their stuff for a full cycle?

When there is an access panel present for the bath tub drain, I usually inspect the bath tub by filling up the tub to the overflow, and then observe the overflow from the access panel to make sure it isn't leaking. Unless, of course, the access panel doesn't really give access.  I have dozens of photos just like this one.

Every gas appliance needs to have a union, or some method of disconnecting the gas piping after shut shutoff valve.  It obviously doesn't do much good to have the union installed before the shutoff valve.  This is a detail that occasionally gets forgotten about on water heaters.  Even on new construction.

After the drain, waste, and vent system has been tested, the test caps on the vents at the roof need to be removed.  About 10% of the time, they get forgotten about.  This effectively disables the vents.

Electrical

I don't find a lot of electrical defects on new construction homes.  This is the one trade where the installations are almost always very clean... almost.    In the photo below, there are two neutral conductors connected to a single terminal.  Each neutral conductor needs to be connected to its own terminal.

Smoke alarm manufacturers require smoke alarms to be installed at least 4" down from the ceiling, measured from the top edge of the smoke alarm.

Structure

This is a new construction home.  It looks like the plumber decided to cut a big chunk of the floor joist out so the toilet could go where he or she wanted it.  The top chords of these floor joists aren't supposed to be cut out or notched.

Attics

It's very rare that we don't 'break the seal' at the attic access panel in order the inspect the attic.  This is an important part of every home inspection, even in new construction.  I broke the attic access seal on a new construction home about two weeks ago and found the light was left on in the attic.

Just because the insulation installer left a placard in the attic stating the insulation depth, it doesn't mean they followed through.  It should, but it doesn't.  Some areas of the attic pictured below had nearly less than half of the minimum required amount of insulation.

Fiberglass batts do a terrible job of insulating attics because they're impossible to install properly - they end up leaving gaps all over the place.  In the middle of the photo below, the insulation was compressed down to 3-1/2" thick, which is completely inadequate.  This is new construction!

When data tubes end in the attic, the ends need to be sealed off to help prevent them from pumping conditioned air in to the attic like a chimney.

Conclusion

I could go on and on with these photos, but hopefully I've made my point.  If you're buying a new construction home, hire a private home inspector.  If you recently purchased a new construction home and you're still within your one-year warranty period, get a home inspection.

Related Posts:

• Photos From New Construction Homes (part I)
• "You're wasting your money on a home inspection and we're not going to fix anything."

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections