Iron ochre (iron bacteria) slowly filling up the drain tile and sump pit rendering the system useless and making the basement succeptable to water problems.

I’d like to start out by stating the obvious. I am biased. As a home inspector I am going to always recommend a home inspection. That being said every time I perform a home inspection on a new home i’m reminded that they are not exempt from problems and issues.

A common reason for skipping inspections is that the home “passed code inspections.” Most code inspectors have a large territory and are often understaffed. Although they hopefully will catch the obvious code violations there are a lot of things that can get missed.

In approximately the last year I have found the following issues in newly constructed homes that passed code:

Presence of iron ochre in sump pump.
Severely damaged shingles that were installed anyways instead of discarded.
Range hood that was never vented to the exterior.
Significant structural settling of footers/foundation.
Gas leak at exterior meter.
High radon levels.
Damaged breakers from a previous arc flash in the electrical panel.
Severe condensation on the interior of the furnace.
Structural damage to about 1/3 of the structural joists done by a careless sub-contractor.

Interior of furnace with sever condensation. If issues is not repaired it will damage the electronics and corrode the interior of the furnace.

And the list goes on… A lot of these issues were promptly fixed by the builder avoiding headaches down the road for my clients however a few of them caused the potential buyers to back out of the deal.

If you are going to spend $300,000.00 on your brand new home it is cheap insurance (less than half of your first months mortgage!) to hire a Certified Master Inspector to come in and make sure there are no long term nightmares hidden in the closet (or sump pit) of your dream home.

Danny Geurink, Certified Master Inspector

Your Grand Rapids Home Inspector