Performing an Eleven-Month Builder Warranty Inspection

Why this matters

An eleven-month inspection is worth exactly as much as the builder's response to it. A list that says "drywall cracks, some outlets, check the AC" gets a polite form letter. A list where each item has a location, an observation, a measurement against the builder's own tolerance and a photo gets a superintendent scheduling repairs. The difference is not how much you found, it is how you walked and how you wrote it. This is a route through a new house in the order that finds the most and wastes the least time, the things builder-grade construction most often gets wrong at each stop, and the report format that gets acted on. The warranty mechanics, deadlines and the reasons you do not repair what you find are in the companion card. See related: The Builder Warranty and the Eleven-Month Inspection.

Before you arrive

Get the booklet and the dates. Ask the owner for the warranty booklet, the closing date, and any claims they have already filed. The booklet tells you the tiers, the start date and the tolerances. Already-filed items go on your list as "previously reported", so the builder cannot treat them as new.

Get the owner's own list. Owners know which bedroom is always cold and which door sticks in summer. Their list is your first set of leads.

Bring: a moisture meter, a receptacle tester, a digital thermometer, a tape and a 4-foot level, a crack gauge or a feeler set, binoculars, a flashlight, and a camera that stamps the date. Plan on 2.5 to 3.5 hours for a typical single-family house.

Agree the boundary with the owner before you start. You are there to find and document, not to repair, and you will not open energized equipment unless you are qualified for it. Say both out loud; it saves an awkward moment at the panel.

The route, outside in, top to bottom

Walk it in this order. Exterior first, because water problems outside explain stains inside. Attic before the rooms below it. Mechanical and electrical while the house is quiet. Finishes last, when you know where the water and air problems are.

Stop 1: grade, drainage and the envelope

• Grade. Soil should fall away from the foundation. The IRC sets a minimum of 6 inches of fall within the first 10 feet (R401.3, in the edition the jurisdiction adopted), with alternatives where lot lines do not allow it. Settled backfill against the foundation is the most common exterior finding on a new house and the one most likely to explain a damp basement corner.
• Downspouts discharging onto splash blocks or extensions, not at the foundation.
• Sealant at every penetration: hose bibs, dryer vent, light fixtures, meter, siding joints, window perimeters. First-year sealant shrinkage is common, and whether it is the builder's item or maintenance is a booklet question.
• Foundation cracks. Measure width with the gauge and note any offset between the two faces. A hairline shrinkage crack is usually inside tolerance; a crack with displacement may not be.
• Condenser level on its pad, with the pad itself not tilted toward the house.

Stop 2: the roof, from the ground, and the attic

Do not walk the roof. Read it with binoculars from the ground and from windows: lifted shingles, exposed nails, flashing at walls and chimneys, debris in valleys.

In the attic, walk only on framing members, never on the drywall between them, and keep clear of the wiring. Fiberglass insulation shed when you move through it irritates eyes, skin and airways, so wear eye protection and long sleeves, and if you choose to wear a filtering facepiece it is voluntary use under 29 CFR 1910.134, Appendix D. In summer, attics can be dangerously hot: go up in the morning and keep the visit short.

• Bath and kitchen exhaust ducts terminate outdoors, not into the attic. A duct dumping moist air under the roof deck is a classic builder miss and shows as frost or staining on the sheathing.
• Insulation depth against the certificate posted in the attic or the closing papers, measured in at least three places.
• Ductwork connected, supported and not crushed. A disconnected run is the usual reason one room never gets air.
• Daylight or staining at roof penetrations.

Stop 3: heating and cooling

Run the system in whichever mode the season allows and leave it running while you work through the rest of the house.

• Room-to-room temperature. Read each room at the center, about chest height, after the system has run steadily. Compare against the room-to-room limit the booklet's guidelines state. A warm room plus a disconnected duct from stop 2 is a finding with a cause attached.
• Temperature split across the indoor coil in cooling, compared with what the equipment manufacturer expects for the conditions. Record the reading; do not diagnose charge on a warranty walk.
• Condensate line trapped as the manufacturer requires, secondary pan or float switch present where the air handler sits above finished space, and the line terminating where it can be seen.
• Filter present, the right size, and accessible.
• Refrigerant suction line insulated along its run.
• Return air for bedrooms: close a bedroom door with the blower running. A door that pulls hard shut or whistles under suggests no return path.

Do not open blower or burner compartments to look. If something has to be opened, switch off the unit's disconnect and prove it dead with a tester checked on a known live source before and after, per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5, and only if you are qualified for that equipment.

Stop 4: plumbing

• Static water pressure with a gauge on a hose bib. Over 80 psi requires a pressure-reducing valve under IRC P2903.3.1 in the edition adopted, and a new house reading above that with no PRV is a code item as well as a warranty one.
• Expansion tank where the system is closed by a PRV or a check valve.
• Water heater relief-valve discharge line fitted and terminating within code distance of the floor.
• Under every sink: dry, traps tight, supply connections not weeping. Use the moisture meter on cabinet floors.
• Toilets firm at the floor, no rock.
• Showers and tubs: caulk intact, grout complete, no soft spots at the base.

Stop 5: electrical

• GFCI and AFCI devices: press each device's own test button, confirm it trips, and reset it. Tell the owner first, because anything plugged into the circuit will go off.
• Receptacles: the tester on each one you can reach, noting open grounds or reversed polarity by room.
• Smoke and CO alarms tested with their own test buttons.
• Exterior receptacles with weather-resistant covers in place.
• The panel: read the directory with the door open and note blank or vague labels. Do not remove the dead front. That is energized work behind it, and on a warranty walk there is nothing you need from inside it.

Stop 6: finishes and openings

• Drywall cracks and nail pops, measured against the booklet's tolerance and listed by room.
• Doors latch without lifting, swing without binding, and the garage-to-house door closes and latches on its own where the adopted code requires it.
• Windows open, close and lock; the seals between panes are not fogged.
• Floors: squeaks noted by location, level checked with the 4-foot level where the owner reports a dip.

Stop 7: the garage door

Run the opener's safety-reversal test the way the opener manufacturer's manual describes, and break the photo-eye beam during a close. Keep everyone, including the owner and any pets, out of the door's path while it runs. A door that does not reverse is a safety finding, so unplug the opener with the door closed, leave the emergency release alone (pulling it on a door whose spring has a problem lets the door drop), and tell the owner not to use it until it is corrected.

The report format a builder responds to

Write one item per finding, numbered, grouped by area, in the same order you walked. Every item carries the same five fields:

ITEM 07   Area: Attic, above hall bath
Observed: Bath exhaust duct ends 2 ft short of
          roof vent, open into attic. Frost
          staining on sheathing about 3 ft
          around duct end.
Standard: Booklet sec 4.12, exhaust to exterior.
Photos:   07a duct end, 07b staining, 07c vent
Requested: Connect duct to exterior termination,
          assess sheathing.

Five fields, every time. Area so the superintendent finds it without calling. Observed in measurable words, not adjectives. Standard naming the booklet section or tolerance, which is what turns a complaint into a claim. Photos keyed by item number. Requested stating what the owner is asking for, in one line.

Then two short sections after the numbered items: previously reported items, with the dates they were first reported, and owner maintenance notes, the things you found that are the owner's job (a filter due, a hose left on a frost-free bib). The second section is not filler. It shows the builder you separated the two, which makes the numbered list more credible.

A worked case

A two-story, four-bedroom house, ten months after closing, workmanship term running from closing. The shop spends 3 hours on the walk and records 22 observations.

Sorting them took another 40 minutes:

• 3 within tolerance. Two hairline drywall cracks under the booklet's stated width and a floor squeak the booklet excludes by name. Left off the claim, noted for the owner in conversation.
• 5 owner maintenance. A filter due, a hose on a bib, two caulk joints at a tub the booklet assigns to the owner after 90 days, and a gutter full of leaves.
• 14 claim items, numbered 01 to 14.

Three plus five plus fourteen is the 22 recorded.

Two of the 14 show why the route order matters. Item 07 is the bath duct above. Item 11 is a 7 F difference between the master bedroom and the hall, against a 4 F room-to-room limit in this builder's booklet; it is written with a pointer to item 06, a disconnected supply duct found in the attic over that same bedroom. Written separately, the builder could have sent an HVAC tech to rebalance dampers and closed item 11. Written together, the duct gets reconnected.

The report goes to the owner within 3 business days, the owner submits it 31 days before the term expires, and the builder schedules 12 of the 14 items, disputing item 03 (a foundation crack it measured at the tolerance) and item 13 (window seal fog it attributes to the manufacturer's separate warranty). The owner now has both disputes in writing, which is what they would need to take either further.

References

• International Residential Code R401.3 (drainage) and P2903.3.1 (maximum water pressure), in the edition your jurisdiction has adopted
• 29 CFR 1910.134, Appendix D, voluntary use of filtering facepieces
• NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5, verifying absence of voltage
• The builder's warranty booklet and any performance guidelines it adopts
• See related: The Builder Warranty and the Eleven-Month Inspection