jbinnall24 July 21, 2014
Insulation Deficiencies in a new home
Some deficiencies were discovered using thermal imaging during a home inspection on a new North Liberty home. New homes can have problems too. As you can see by the picture we have some missing insulation in the ceilings of the home. This was discovered in the kitchen and master bedroom. While this is not the end of the world and is easily rectified, it would have cost the owners of the home additional money in utility bills over time. Also, it may have created cold spots causing discomfort during the winter months. Thank goodness this wasn’t found in the exterior walls! At 285,000 dollars this is unacceptable.
Saturated Carpet Pad
It seems that insulation deficiencies were not the only thing wrong with this North Liberty home. While I had the thermal imaging camera out I spotted some anomalies in the basement as well. Sorry for the blurry picture. This is a moisture meter showing near 100% saturation of the carpet pad in the basement. The carpet was the typical contractor grade frieze and this may not have been spotted without the aid of thermal imaging. The carpet and pad were saturated roughly six feet from the exterior wall. Could this be an issue with the brand new foundation? I could only speculate, but based on the lack of craftsmanship we had encountered so far it certainly was possible.
Foundation forming error
Here we have a picture of the basement egress window well. Notice that it has been capped on the top portion? This indicates that there was an error when forming the walls and the cap had to be added later. This will forever be an eyesore to the owners of this North Liberty Home. If we have forming errors on the top of the wall what’s going on down near the footing that we can’t see? Is there unconsolidated concrete that is allowing exterior water to infiltrate the basement? The home had a fairly low elevation in relation to other homes on the street and poor drainage characteristics at the time of the inspection so the probability of water infiltration is definitely increased.
The moral of the story is, if you are building a new North Liberty Home, or a new home in any other city in Eastern Iowa you should have it inspected by a competent home inspector that has a lengthy and diverse construction background so that you don’t get ripped off. Visit our home page or contact us to schedule your home inspection now.