Frame Stage Inspection Report

We received our frame stage inspection report from New Home Inspections by email today. Detailed, professional, easy to read and understand and overall very impressive. The report contained a 'Schedule of Building Defects' that lists the items that require further rectification works to our home before proceeding to the next stage. The report clearly lists each building defect identified, why the defect poses a problem and then recommends how the builder should rectify the defect.

Our report detailed 12 items that require further attention and I'll give you an example of one, arguably the most salient - the concrete floor slab defect. See photos below.

The steel reinforcement bars within the floor slab have not been covered with concrete and remain clearly exposed to the elements. These steel bars have started to rust and we're told will continue to do so over time, expanding as they do, which will lead to the possible future cracking of the slab and possible long term slab failure.

The report then clearly recommends what must be done to rectify the defect. The builder should temporarily move the soil/polyethylene vapour barrier off the remaining edge beams and then have the design engineer inspect and make recommendations on how to best treat this steel (including cleaning off rust), its lack of concrete coverage and its height within the slab to ensure the slabs quality and long term performance. The report goes on to recommend that the rectification works are carried out under the full supervision of the relevant building surveyor.

We sent the report to CG this morning and have been advised by our site supervisor that he's been aware of most of the items identified in the report, and is committed to getting to work this week to get the relevant workman and personnel back on-site to rectify defective works. We have a meeting with our site supervisor on-site tomorrow to discuss.

By the way, the floor slab under the steel post on the right side of the garage opening (which has been previously mentioned throughout this blog) remains an item listed in the report, which suggests that the original design engineer should be brought on-site to inspect this defect and design appropriate and effective rectification. We thought the cracking slab in this area appeared to still be defective. Appears our thoughts were correct.

We must note the very detailed nature of this report. It's obvious New Home Inspections know their stuff, and since we don't, this report and the two to follow, are in our minds simply a must.

If you are planning to build a home, no matter how professional or openly communicative your builder, we would certainly recommend investing in a private building inspector to do a frame stage building inspection. If the defects identified are satisfactorily rectified and signed off by the relevant building surveyor and original design engineer, it will certainly be money well spent.

We'll let you know how CG go working through the defects identified in the inspection report. But once again, their communication today was excellent, we have a meeting tomorrow and every reason to believe CG will meet their part of the bargain and fix up all the defects through the week. Then we can pay our frame stage progress payment and move on to the next stage of the build.