Framing inspection
What is the Purpose of a Framing Home Inspection?
The frame home inspection (pre-cover) is a vital 3rd party assessment that helps you ensure that there are no major red flags with some of the soon to be “covered” systems & components that were installed during the construction of your home.
There are multiple vital systems, including the wood-frame structure, window installation, & water-resistive barrier (exterior house-wrap or paneling installed to provide the critical water-shedding layer).
Each of these core systems plays a significant role in the long-term performance of your home, and when improperly configured, can lead to substantial mid to long-term failure, costing new homeowners thousands of dollars in repairs.
What is Included in a Framing Home Inspection?
As an inspector, my primary concern when performing a foundation inspection for my clients is to ensure that the work conducted to build the foundation was conducted in accordance with typical installation protocols.
The Primary Systems I Inspect During a Framing Inspection Include:
- The wood frame construction installation methods from the peak of the roof down to the foundation.
- The roofline to water-resistive barrier interface
- The window installation and flashing methods
- The configuration of the thermal envelope and interior air-barrier
- Fireblocking protection
- Mechanical electrical, & plumbing rough-in installation
3 Common Framing Installation Problems
Improper Notching
The most common issue found during the framing home inspection by every builder is improper notching and boring of the interior load bearing stud walls. After the framers have completed their installation, the electrical and plumbing are installed through the home’s interior walls. During this process, over-zealous cutting of load bearing studs is conducted in order to make way for the utilities. There are requirements that must be met in order to maintain the integrity of load-bearing walls after they have been damaged. This, of course, goes unseen very often.
Window & Exterior Penetrations
Another common problem is with the installation and flashing of the home’s windows and exterior penetrations. Poor flashing installation will in most cases lead to water damage to the home.
Unfortunately, this can take quite some time to finally manifest itself within the home once it has been covered. This is one of the primary reasons for an inspection at this stage.
water & air resistive barrier
Installation defects in regards to the home’s water-resistive barrier and air barrier are also quite common. The water-resistive barrier and air barrier are installed in order to prevent the infiltration of water and moisture laden air into the home.
When not installed properly, which is often the case, an unnecessary amount of unconditioned air can enter the home’s thermal envelope.
When to Schedule a Frame Home Inspection
The best time to schedule the framing inspection will typically coincide with your builder’s framing walk-through. This is the portion of the building cycle where builders try and ensure that all of the agreed upon design criteria has been properly built into the home and that your questions and concerns have been met.
This also happens to be in-line with the building officials required inspection, and when your builder, if applicable, will have their own inspector review the home.
Once the builder’s inspector has finished their inspection, and the defects that were identified have been corrected, the best window of opportunity for the framing inspection presents itself. When we are the last to inspect the property it ensures that all of the typical defects that tend to congest our report have previously been identified and corrected. This makes it much easier for you to perform your re-inspection, as their will be, in theory, fewer items to keep track of. It also allows the inspection of the recently repaired defects.
CE SCHULTZ DELIVERS DETAILED REPORTS