What Issues Give Experienced Home Builders Pause, When Constructing Your Home?

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What Issues Give Experienced Home Builders Pause, When Constructing Your Home? 

 

A new Builder doesn’t know enough to be concerned. An experienced Builder knows when the little hairs on the back of his neck are telling him something really important and that he better be listening.

 

Below are a few examples of items that give experienced Builders pause, when constructing your home:

 

• Not having full water pressure on the hot and cold water lines during the entire construction process.

 

• Installing a new refrigerator with an ice maker the day before closing.

 

• Plumbing work that’s finished late Friday afternoon when the house is almost complete.

 

• Fireplace chimneys.

 

• Flat balcony decks without a roof covering, exposed to the weather.

 

• Window and door seals.

 

• Not having a good hard rain during the construction of your home.

 

• Establishing the finished floor elevation of the slab.

 

• A disagreement with their Homeowner.

 

 

Having full water pressure on the hot and cold water lines during the entire construction process.

One of the worst issues a Builder can have after a homeowner moves into their brand, new, custom built home, is a plumbing leak. Usually it’s because a drywall nail or screw has penetrated one of the water lines. The lines are suppose to be protected from this by “steel nail plates” that are placed between the drywall and the plumbing pipe during rough-in. Sometimes a nail plate is missing or the penetration is from another cause.

 

Smart Builders keep the water lines under full pressure during the entire building process so they have every opportunity to observe a potential water leak before the owners move in. Unfortunately, building a home isn’t an exact science. The water main gets shut off or the well pump that supplies the home is unplugged. Well pumps normally don’t provide as much pressure as Municipal water supplies so Builders have to be extra careful.

Full water pressure can be lower than normal for any number of reasons. The worst mistake, drilling the well and connecting the pressure pump, just prior to occupancy. A recipe for disaster. I can see the new hardwood floors warping from here.

 

Installing the new refrigerator with an ice maker the day before closing.

Even though the plumber, appliance installer or Builder’s handyman is a professional, ice maker connections that were perfectly dry when the refrigerator was installed, decide to leak the night before closing.

 

Plumbing work that’s finished late Friday afternoon when the house is almost complete.

Many of the same issues as #1 & 2 above. Experienced Builders avoid plumbing work on Friday’s if possible. Believe me it’s a hard learned lesson. A water leak can do a lot of damage over a weekend.

Fireplace chimneys- I’m willing to bet, 80 % of the fireplace chimneys in Central Florida leak. Why would that be? Simple, there are many trades involved in the construction of a chimney and it’s located way up on the roof. The construction of the chimney involves the Architect, Builder, framer, roofer, stucco subcontractor, fireplace cap fabricator and painter.

 

That’s a large number of specialists involved in a relatively small item. Unfortunately, that’s what it takes to execute the fireplace chimney properly. It has to be designed properly, supervised carefully by the Builder and executed by the framer, roofer, stucco, metal manufacturer and painting subcontractors. It only takes one mistake for a failure.

 

The roof area is one of the most important parts of a home, especially in Central Florida where we receive so much rain. I’ve seen a tiny pin hole create a very large water leak. It’s an item that requires special attention on the part of the Builder.

 

I can tell you by the looks and the comments I receive when the trades see my up on the roof inspecting the details, they are not use to seeing other Builders up there and that’s not a good thing.

Flat balcony decks without a roof covering exposed to the weather. You can get away with a lot of poor weather proofing techniques in dry parts of the Country that won’t pass muster in Central Florida. We get a lot of wind driven rain and that’s not counting Hurricanes and Tropical Storms.

 

Experienced Builders can look at a set of plans even before the first nail is driven and tell you what design issues will creat a problem. I Can tell you from experience, exterior balcony decks are one of those areas.

 

The exterior deck execution has to be almost perfect. Areas of particular concern are railings, deck membrane, finish flooring material, door pans, exterior wall moisture barrier, deck flashings, gutters, downspouts, painting and caulking.

 

In my opinion, exterior decks in Central Florida should only be designed with roof coverings.

Window and door seals. It’s just windows an doors, what can go wrong? A trained monkey can install a window or door. Yeah, right! It’s all fun and games just before something goes wrong. This may sound like overkill but I’ve learned to be careful the hard way. Every window and door gets field tested with a “Rain Bird” irrigation sprinkler before the homeowner moves in.

 

Bay windows, mitered glass panels, Lanai sliding glass doors, French doors, vertical mullions that join two windows together and single hung windows, they all can leak. Sometimes it’s a manufacturing defect, other times it’s an installation issue. The last thing a Builder wants is for the homeowner to discover a water leak issue, after they move in their new Custom Built Home. The only way to eliminate that possibility is to water test.

 

Careful, sure I am but after my trades get done being annoyed they say, “that’s the kind of Builder I want constructing my home”.

Not having a good hard rain during the construction of your home. An experienced Builder looks forward to days with a hard rain when constructing your Orlando, Custom Built Home. It gives the Builder an opportunity to water test the roof, observe how rain sheds off the structure and make sure the site drainage is functioning properly. What can go wrong, plenty.

 

It’s important to remember, a Custom Built Home is a prototype. Something that has never been built before. Even if it’s a floor plan that has been constructed in the past, many of the variable are being assembled together for the very first time. It’s vital for a home to have a shake down prior to the Owners moving in. 30+ year of home building teaches me this lesson.

Establishing the finished floor elevation of the slab. This is an issue that come up early in the building process but one of the most important. It is often said, if the foundation of a home is wrong, everything after that is a waisted effort.

 

The worst mistake is setting the elevation or the height of the finished floor too low. Then why don’t Builders just error on setting the elevation too high? Well, it’s a balance between the cost involved of raising the elevation vs. setting it too low. It has to be calculated carefully.

 

Other times, in Planned Communities the finished floor elevation is set by the developer, passed to the County Building Department and finally to the Builder constructing your home. Sometimes, that elevation is incorrect and it’s up to an experienced Builder to figure that out. Often, the elevation provided is the pad elevation or the dirt level before the foundation is constructed, rather than the finished floor of the slab. It’s up to the Home Builder to catch this.

 

On parcels outside Planned Communities, it’s up to the Builder to hire a “Site Engineer” to design a “grading plan” that sets the finished floor elevation. Setting the slab elevation is an art, a balance between many variables.

A disagreement with their Homeowners. After all, the main purpose of any company is customer satisfaction. From the very first meeting until after the home is completed, all the Builders efforts are focused upon constructing a home that meets or exceeds their homeowners expectations. Is the misunderstanding due to a a different interpretation of the plans, contract, scopes of work or perhaps a material installed was different from what was expected? In any case, it’s an upsetting reality when somehow the relationship has hit a bump in the road.

 

At our first homeowner meeting, before a single shovel full of dirt has been turned, we ask one of the most important questions of our relationship. If we were chatting two years from now, sitting on your newly created Lanai, having  a glass of iced tea, what would we have to do from this day forward to have met or exceeded your expectations?

 

I listen very carefully to what the owners say and follow that conversation up with an email confirming that I understood them correctly. That conversation becomes the foundation of our path to that homeowners satisfaction. Then we listen some more, develop a complete scope of work and building plans that include all the features desired. Our Interior Designer with the owners help selects all the homes appointments from flooring to roof tile. All before a single shovel full of dirt is turned.

 

Emails, text messages, phone calls, site meetings followed up with emails confirming our understanding and weekly status reports all focused upon clear communications. The last thing we want is a dissatisfied Homeowner.