It all starts with cardboard sheathing. Any developer that builds with that junk is not going to be paying attention to detail on anything, except closing on time and maximizing profit. I feel sorry for the families who buy those money-pit houses.
How many buyers of one of these houses is going to stay in it long enough for the shoddiness to manifest itself? They're most likely going to 1-get transferred and put it on the market, 2- move up and put this one on the market, 3- default when they get laid off and the bank forecloses. It's the poor schmuck who is second owner (or maybe third owner) who starts seeing issues with the poor construction.
I didn't see any wind bracing either, might have missed it though, but, ya, 100% plywood, or, OSB is the only way to go. Sheetrock nail pops galore in about one full change of seasons. 😏 If they gave me one of these houses to live in, sure, but, I would just turn around & sell it in order to 100% stick frame my own. (42 years in the biz & a 21 year licensed contractor in my state)
Worked new home construction in Austin area many years ago as a finish carpenter. Saw inspectors pull up, job boss goes out, inspector signs off on paperwork and leaves without ever getting out of the pick up. Common occurrence.
That’s the way it was in the Detroit suburbs when I started framing in 1990. Put the permit board out by the road and they’d drive by give you a green sticker and be on their way.
The thing that I can take comfort in is that he's not making more videos. If instead of weekly vids of a few problem houses, we had daily ones, I'd be much more concerned.
This is typically the quality in Texas from the production builders. The last time I was in Texas, 4 years ago, I saw a sign posted "Real Carpenters Wanted". The structural engineering on the plans was not followed on any home I walked in the rough in stage, yet they were installing siding. The interior of finished homes I walked were unbelievably bad in quality. Doors hung out of plumb and level, cabinets hung out of level, big bows in backsplash areas, slabs not flat and the list goes on and on. I saw one house where they miscut the carpet 1" away from the wall and left it. All of the jobsites looked like a bomb had gone off there and cleanup was an afterthought. I can tell you the quality is much better in the rest of the Country. These guys do not understand that they will make more money by doing it right the first time.
I had a custom house built several years ago (Design Tech) and my entire lumber load sat out in the rain for more than a month. I told the construction supervisor that his pile of twisted pretzels were not going to be in my house. During framing, I showed up on site every day with a can of red spray paint, so I could mark every defective board. That supervisor was eventually fired and his replacement was much better. Even custom builders can be problematic. Both of our water heaters turned out to be used, not new. The furnace control board was obsolete. And yada yada yada. We eventually sold the house as it wasn’t our retirement dream home after all.
@@merdith6 I suppose you think he should have got on his knees to accept a shitty house so the builder could make some extra money skimming off the top lol. What a way to think.
@@A-ii5dp that's not what anyone is saying, but maybe go through after the frame check and mark studs instead of every single day? As soon as I read that I laughed out loud and thought yeah, I've met ones like this lol. There's a frame check and repair stage during / after back framing where the super comes through and spends a few hours on the house. They don't do that every single day over 15-20 homes. They do it when framing is done. It's the equivalent to standing over someone who is currently painting and saying MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. there's no doubt that the builder could have been scummy, but every single thing he brought up is also easily explained away. Water heaters used? They hired a plumber and the plumber brought units from some other home. No way of the builder to even know that. Control board obsolete? Sounds like a salesman trying to upgrade the guy to the newest thing or just replace his control board for maximum cost that will just be billed to warranty. Also lumber can stay outside in the elements. When have you ever seen a lumber yard have 100% of everything covered? It's covered just for transport. It otherwise is spending months outside. Or even worse, inside a dry home Depot...
I'm down in Austin visiting family for the holidays, I knew the pace of development was high compared to my neck of the woods (Pennsylvania) but seeing it with my own eyes is something else. We took my niece to a park in the city and must have passed by 20 brand new developments plastered with "now leasing" signs, which all looked exactly like the ones in this video. Seeing that gave me flashbacks to 2008... hope I'm just paranoid. Anyway, I always appreciate the videos, Merry Christmas & thanks for the entertainment!
I provide tech support for machinery used in truss plants. On a recent visit to a plant near Austin, they were running lumber that was BLACK with mold, before it was even assembled into trusses. Entire units of lumber had mold on every board.
ALl JUNK, and spaced so close to each other- one has a fire and it spreads one to the next on both sides like throwing a lit match into a box of matches. You couldnt pay me enough to live in a house 10 feet away from those on both sides! you'd hear them flush toilets, their TV/stereo, arguments, NO THANKS!
It is sad but you can't blame the industry. You blame the culture that buys them. People buy them as fast as a builder can throw them together. Should a builder put another $50K into them for quality when the buying market doesn't care about quality they can't see? Buyers today see nice bathrooms, nice kitchens and fake wood floors and they are happy.
lot of regulation means nothing when people just simply don't do their jobs or try to cheat every corner. Doesn't matter if the codes are strict or loose, Bad Work is Bad Work and it happens everywhere. Inspectors are just as likely to not do a job right just like builders.
@@fringestream990 Exactly. The strict codes cost builders so much money that they have to cut corners elsewhere to be profitable -- hence the low quality homes. And most of these regulations, fees and assesments have nothing to do with quality or safety.
It all starts with an approval of the building plans allowing the cheapest and least structurally sound building methodology. Then it is followed with the lowest bidder contractors, most of which can't even read the English plans, and who aren't paid even remotely enough to even consider incorporating PRIDE into anything they do! These houses are literally made of cards. Don't even get me started on looking out your bedroom window and getting personal with your new neighbors having fun in their bedroom. Privacy = luxury! Postage stamp lot with junk house, no privacy, no luxury is poor investment. These are built like depreciating assets. As PT Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute.
Yup. I’ll take an older house on several acres over a newer house on a postage stamp. I used to live in a city but now I’m on 6 acres, I wouldn’t trade the privacy for anything.
When I watch these videos I'm so glad that I have been able to build my own houses. Construction has not even been finished and these units are already tear downs. Now I'm retired and just design. The most recent home that I designed is currently under construction and I regularly walk the owner through the house to show her everything that is wrong. This is a simple house that took two weeks to draw with lots of detailing and the builder says it is too complicated. The home is out of level in areas, studs, joists and trusses do not line up. Measurements are out by half an inch. Stair well is out of line. Missing load bearing points. One mechanical run took the long way by thirty feet. A change every day so that it is not the house I drew. Where I live we use 1/2'' sheathing on our exterior framing. Cardboard would not be allowed
This is in Texas and the cardboard is legal to use here as a backer for finish product BUT even though it has structural in the name it is NOT structural in any way and certainly not fire shear wall constructions use.
I live in Michigan and was a framer for 14 years. We used cardboard sheathing ( thermo ply) on many homes. Completely junk. A rock could easily go through it. For most builders it's about profit. Celatex. A board made of glue and ground fined mulch is impossible to put out if caught on fire. We tried to put out a pile. We set it on fire and tried several times put water, snow, and smother it. It just kept catching fire. Now imagine if that was on a house that caught fire. Lol
These houses are disgusting. Terrible layouts, cheap/trash materials, filthy jobsites, mistakes galore... Who ever buys these houses is getting absolutely screwed.
I know someone who is having a custom home built. The slab has settled on the majority of the inside the house, obviously causing all kinds of problems. The contractor obviously didn't compact the soil, which is hard clay, not some soft sandy type of soil. The customer pointed it out and the builder said he would look into correcting it. Later came back and said it was not a problem and that he wasn't going to do anything to correct it. Now the customer has had to get an attorney. You pretty much have to be one of those nightmare customers (for the contractor) on just about anything you have done, much less having an entire house built.
It's worse. They build their homes out of concrete CMU blocks where shoddy workmanship will still last a lifetime. When you bring that same mentality to these fragile stick built homes, the whole thing will fail in 20 years.
Early in my life I was a telephone installer in central Florida, loved those new stucco houses since I never needed a drill to put a hole in the wall for the wire. Push my long screwdriver, twist a couple of times and straight through to the drywall, two more twists and it was ready. I had several of those long screwdrivers, even drilled tiny holes in the blades to hook the phone wire. Sometimes it was necessary to put in a ground rod when the underground service wasn't near the power ground. Since Florida is sand this normally wouldn't be a problem but in one fun instance the neighbor (old NY or Ohio retiree) was laughing as I carried that 10 foot ground rod thinking it was going to be fun watching me work. That was right up till I stabbed the rod in the ground and it kept going, all ten feet disappeared as it slipped out of my hand. Crap, I only had the one so made a trip to our ware house and got five more and a box of couplers. This time I put two together for a 20 footer and pushed 15 feet into the ground. Holding on I gently hammered the last five feet and it was still loose so I added another 10 food ground rod. With 28 feet in the ground it got tight so I had to work getting the last two feet down. The neighbor was no longer smiling, instead he was looking at that little crack on the back wall of his new house.
Lol. You're triggering me. My house has some old stucco on atm. I'm going to be adding external insulation and I'm terrified at my entire wall crumbling away while trying to fix them in.
@@TheTacticalHaggis I know what stucco is and I know what an atm is but no idea what stucco on atm is. Let's just say in my experience I'd see a lot of stucco used to cover up crappy construction, hey it looked good. Best of luck to you,
Shocking. With the way everything has been pre engineered, including clear instructions. They still cannot get with the program. The 90's were a mess also.
I love your videos. Keep on fighting the good fight for good construction methods! I was a framer for a large part of my life and I HATE bad framing. You have inspired me to create a 3D model of a portal framed opening per IRC. Maybe 3D pictures will help some of these wall tippers do things right. Great video!
New homes in America for the “average” homeowner are JUNK!!!! My first house was an 85 year old brick house, 2bdrm with 1 bath….lived there for 10 years and NEVER had any problems, just routine maintenance more or less. Made the huge mistake of having one of these cookie cutters built and 19 years later I’ve probably spent 40k in fixing things….. friend of mine worked midnights so he could sit in a lawn chair all day and watch the people who built his house, he’s never had any problems, so I guess him babysitting a bunch of professional idiots paid off for him.
Brick homes can be a real nightmare, the bricks need to be re-pointed every few decades to keep them sealed but by age 100 or whatever few ever do that so you get humidity and water behind the bricks that grows mold and eventually will penetrate the interior of the homes, next thing you know the bathroom ceiling is covered in black mold becasue of the humidity in the house. What a mess.
@@notastone4832 It depends on the type of home, if it is real brick where there are 2 layers of brick with an air gap in the middle, the real brick homes, then the bricks must be re-pointed every few decades but it all depends. If it is fake brick and it is just a design on the outside of the house then it's not an issue as it is just a design element.
Yeah it does, DR Horton is trying to get a foot hold in my area in Eastern Iowa, they make the soddy big local home builder look good. which is saying something as I wouldn't buy a home built by them that was built in last 20 years.
Curious to what happens to these issues in your final report? Does the contractor come back and repair them? How are they able to repair some things like the strong ties that are imbedded in the concreate slab?
@@stevebabiak6997 lol what? So even if he found sufficiencies in the work it’ll just get left in place? That’s crazy…no wonder my dad always told me they don’t build them like that use to.
@@thangcacdi - the report won’t get to the builder for like a day, maybe two. The drywall sub is scheduled for the day after the inspection - games builders play.
When the STHD14s are installed incorrectly or at the wrong location, you can post install HDU5s w/ epoxy. You’ll need to check the uplift, because the capacity is slightly less, but it usually works. You’ll need an engineer letter to do that.
Like the fact that you wear boot covers in the house. "Thank you for protecting the floor." "Oh not at all, I don't want to get my shoes dirty in your mess."
Yeah, the trusses to our new house sat on the ground for more than a month.. but the foundation was actually DONE at that point.. getting the framers in there in a timely manner was/is the biggest problem with construction in general these days.. Sub's in general are SO busy that they pretty much write their own schedule.. and their own rates. Feel for a developer that is trying to get stuff done in a timely manner.. great video, keep them up!
I live in Florida and I built my home 6 years ago but I was living right next door the whole time but I was lucky and had a good builder and had very few issues I think because they knew I was there everyday
No, they are more concerned about following the onerous codes, assessments, ordinances, taxation, and zoning that they make their profits by cutting corners on quality and labor.
This is why quality control is vital for every industry ever. Im an engineer and have done manufacturing, quality, and process engineering and I tell you quality control not only ensures things are up to standard it ensures people are taking shortcuts and people, naturally, take a lot of shortcuts.
My dad owned his own company and held a class A contractors license he had 50+ years experience in construction Dad never worked or even bid track jobs because of the low quality of track homes even back in the 70s and 80s Pop ran a tight site trusses weren't left in the dirt or drywall and the site was kept neat and picked up I watch a few channels and it's crazy to see how job sites are left a total mess as I watched this video I could just here my pops voice in my head if this was his job site it would of been in the fan 💩💩
I rather live where there’s a backyard not back alley. I don’t feel safe to live in this neighborhood. Glad you took the time to make them do right. I had my home custom built back in 2000 and had dealt with shady GC where I had to place stop payment twice in order for them to correct w/ the code. I am working on plans to built my retirement home in Atlantic inter coastal area and just hope I can find good builders in this crazy time. Great videos, I’ve learned few tips even though doesn’t apply to our building code here in Florida.
"There May Be Biting Critters and Stinging Insects" actually LOL'ed at that one. Not a workplace injury threat I have in an office. And I do workers' comp statistics for a living.
Crazy part is how many of those hurricane tie downs were done wrong. No one tells them they are incorrect so they just repeated the same incorrect work on every house. On the house he inspected was probably a different builder because they didn't even remember to put the ties in. 😂
When I bought my home the inspector didn't even know what sheathing was. I found a wall that hadn't been sheathed. He tried to gaslight me because I'm a woman. Said he'd never heard that term before. Basically, threw his report out.
Structural sheathing is basically just water resistant cardboard, new homes are costing more than ever and made similar to a homeless person house! I'd rather take an 80 year old house with all it's problems than a newly built house today!
those trusses laying out in the rain is not much of an issue as long as its not more than a couple months. until the finished roof is on the house they are going to get wet every time it rains anyways. those sheets of drywall laying in the mud is what happens when they dont want to pay for site delivery so its just dropped right behind the curb. the lost sheets wont really be much of an issue if the drywall guy is worth a dam they always order about 5-10 extra sheets for wastage
Installed in place and rained on won't change the shape and it will dry quickly, plus in place they will be inspired to get sheathing on it asap so the house is weathered in. On the ground for months? Lol. Every one will be damaged and crooked sitting directly on the ground absorbing moisture unsupported. You are clueless.
After all my years and code changes. I'll take a house from the 70's first and the 90's last. In the Midwest. If it's built in the 90's just move along
@@dans4900 They did some janky shortcuts in the 70s but at least the materials are generally solid. Around here it's all older doug fir and plywood, no bs 'engineered' materials. I can't believe they allow that thermoply for sheathing. Insane.
So Casey, I have to ask ( maybe it's been asked already) Are your item's listed on your Inspection actually fixed by the Builder/Contractor/ Sub's? If not what is the next logical step? Thank's for the video. Great channel. Liked and Subbed.
I guess you need something in your contract that if at a certain portion of mistakes is reached, corrections are to be done by another contractor at the choice of the client. If they make too many mistakes, they can't be trusted to make the fixes.
@@constructivainspections depends on the concrete really I have put facade on quite a few buildings and it was all held in by horizontal bars ramset into the concrete. its all about getting it after a few months of curing then you can get a good strong hold if the concrete is too green it just makes a crater with no holding power and if its been cured for years and years the nail might just glance off without even penetrating the concrete. though this is very area dependent too in hurricane areas they call for much more securement
Messy site is an unsafe site, we tend to stand our trusses up, over here in the UK, they take up less room that way. Mostly its covered to protect it from rain ect but first fix timber is treated anyway so it doesn't matter too much in terms of rotting away, the trusses and floor joists are open to the elements while the roof is being felt and battened anyway, I would say 99% of our roofs in this country are tiled or slated on domestic builds, so we don't really have issues with osb being exposed to the weather because its not used much in roof construction over here, only as a deck for flat roofs .
@@fishmonger7020 we don't sheath the roof, we use breathable membrane tacked to the rafters/ trusses, then tile battens nailed to the rafters/ trusses, , if its a warm roof it will have a layer of insulation under the membrane and battens, but we don't steath pitched roofs.
All these foundation to structure anchors require precision from foundation forms and house framers. Clearly either they are lacking in skill, or under pressure to move too fast.
This just goes to show that you should not trust anyone to do work on your house, whether it’s a new structure or not. I kind of got burnt on a roof job in CT by a “white” American “contractor” who subcontracted the work to Hispanics. The pos actually only showed up the first day and the last day to pick up the payment. It turns out that the pos never took out a work permit with the city nor were inspections done as materials were applied. I had to hound him over a few weeks period in order to get the job checked off by the city inspector. It was so frustrating, being that the pos painted a rosy picture of him being a small business owner and such. Never again!
@@parthenocarpySA Outside the U.S, in places like Thailand or the Philippines, they can make massive concrete villas for like $150,000. And these houses don't have big maintenance issues. Meanwhile our American stick-built homes cost $400,000 to build. $700,000 with concrete, and start falling apart instantly.
They royally screwed up on the portal frame at garage front. Looks like some epoxy all thread anchors with a couple HDU Holdowns will need to be installed
If it wasn't for the Simpson truss/framing screws you showed, I was going to ask what decade this video was taken???? Thermoply and staples...Are you serious??? I thought they quit making Thermoply more than 20 years ago, I haven't even seen any of that here in northeast Florida in decades, and staples, we haven't used staples of any kind for any kind of framing since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And who is the Brainiac that designed a brick ledge the same height as the slab?? Of course water is going to pond up and get in, even with the moist stop. And at the kitchen hood vent, I have never heard of drywall screw protection plates referred to as plate reinforcement. With all of the above in mind, what is the BIG importance about taping the straps at the garage doors????? Does that make them stronger, I don't think so. And I don't even know what to say about the dryer vent concern, the window may not be fixed, but people rarely open windows anymore, and if they do, what is a little dryer heat going to hurt. Glad I don't live in Austin. I'll stop now.
That indead is a reinforcement plate not a drywall screw guard. The double top plate of the wall was cut to make room for the hood vent, so the 2 plates suroundung the vent are adding strenght back to the top plate, and there is a specified fastener that goes in the plate in a specific way. Who cares what you think about taping the simpson straps, if its in the code or required buy the manufacturer you do the work. All these home are poorly thrown together for top dollar while cutting every corner to maximize profit instead of doing a quality job.
Fine Homebuilding did a story on the impact of Andrew in FL (as well as government and code agencies). There was a trend at the time to have more northeast style homes that were creeping into the area. That style has more overhang that acts as a parachute in the wind. They saw house after house (any style) with OSB sheathing completely gone, but with chunks of it left behind with a staple holding the chunk to the truss. Total loss. I would never fasten OSB sheathing with staples to roof or wall, but I would never construct a house with OSB period. CARDBOARD wall sheathing. LOL. Why not just construct the house with spit and toilet tissue?
Trusses can get wet but only if they're on a PERFECTLY FLAT surface otherwise the plates pop and then they're all WORTHLESS, you can't roll/hammer/clamp them back on it's like pulling a nail and hammering it back in the same hole big strength loss. With bullshit cardboard sheathing, should have a proper portal frame for the garage.
@@dans4900 You probably need some experience on lifting the final reports so you don't hurt your back with the many pages of flaws you found even without any experience.
@Taladar2003 I got 34 years in commercial and residential. Been running jobs for over 25 years. Owned the business for 5 at the same one I started at. Is that enough experience? Licensed through the state and on the vocational advisory board for carpentry trade school. Work with the instructors on what should be taught and whats needed. Will that make it?
That looks like California; the houses are so close together! And mass produced with sloppy construction. I purchased a home built in 1902 of redwood. Yes, it needs work, but it’s on a huge lot and was solidly built in its time.
It all starts with cardboard sheathing. Any developer that builds with that junk is not going to be paying attention to detail on anything, except closing on time and maximizing profit. I feel sorry for the families who buy those money-pit houses.
Don’t feel sorry for the family. They prioritize looks over function
How many buyers of one of these houses is going to stay in it long enough for the shoddiness to manifest itself? They're most likely going to 1-get transferred and put it on the market, 2- move up and put this one on the market, 3- default when they get laid off and the bank forecloses. It's the poor schmuck who is second owner (or maybe third owner) who starts seeing issues with the poor construction.
They have been using celotex for years worked on plenty of homes from the 70s that had this this isnt new 😅😅😅 goofs
@@Shonuff42080 And people have been beating their families since there were families. Doesn't make any of it right.
I didn't see any wind bracing either, might have missed it though, but, ya, 100% plywood, or, OSB is the only way to go. Sheetrock nail pops galore in about one full change of seasons. 😏 If they gave me one of these houses to live in, sure, but, I would just turn around & sell it in order to 100% stick frame my own. (42 years in the biz & a 21 year licensed contractor in my state)
Worked new home construction in Austin area many years ago as a finish carpenter. Saw inspectors pull up, job boss goes out, inspector signs off on paperwork and leaves without ever getting out of the pick up. Common occurrence.
mi mano lava tu mano
That’s the way it was in the Detroit suburbs when I started framing in 1990. Put the permit board out by the road and they’d drive by give you a green sticker and be on their way.
Gotta love those curbside walkthrough inspections.
Cha ching! 💰💰💰
Thanks yall for watching!
Great video, damn scary to see the poor workmanship on brand new houses. I would say you have job security with all the violations you found.
The thing that I can take comfort in is that he's not making more videos. If instead of weekly vids of a few problem houses, we had daily ones, I'd be much more concerned.
@@gordo5238 - with many of those houses not getting an independent inspection by someone like the one in this video has.
@@gordo5238 How many crews work on your current jobsite? How many homes?
@@gordo5238 Sounds like you don't have any experience in the field. I hope your day is as pleasant as you are.
This is typically the quality in Texas from the production builders. The last time I was in Texas, 4 years ago, I saw a sign posted "Real Carpenters Wanted". The structural engineering on the plans was not followed on any home I walked in the rough in stage, yet they were installing siding. The interior of finished homes I walked were unbelievably bad in quality. Doors hung out of plumb and level, cabinets hung out of level, big bows in backsplash areas, slabs not flat and the list goes on and on. I saw one house where they miscut the carpet 1" away from the wall and left it. All of the jobsites looked like a bomb had gone off there and cleanup was an afterthought. I can tell you the quality is much better in the rest of the Country. These guys do not understand that they will make more money by doing it right the first time.
As soon as they start paying " real carpenters " real money, I will put my tool belt back on.
I had a custom house built several years ago (Design Tech) and my entire lumber load sat out in the rain for more than a month. I told the construction supervisor that his pile of twisted pretzels were not going to be in my house. During framing, I showed up on site every day with a can of red spray paint, so I could mark every defective board. That supervisor was eventually fired and his replacement was much better. Even custom builders can be problematic. Both of our water heaters turned out to be used, not new. The furnace control board was obsolete. And yada yada yada. We eventually sold the house as it wasn’t our retirement dream home after all.
So you harassed the Builder every step of the way and then sold the house. Haha
@@merdith6Did the builder not have it coming?
@@merdith6 I suppose you think he should have got on his knees to accept a shitty house so the builder could make some extra money skimming off the top lol. What a way to think.
@@A-ii5dp that's not what anyone is saying, but maybe go through after the frame check and mark studs instead of every single day? As soon as I read that I laughed out loud and thought yeah, I've met ones like this lol.
There's a frame check and repair stage during / after back framing where the super comes through and spends a few hours on the house. They don't do that every single day over 15-20 homes. They do it when framing is done. It's the equivalent to standing over someone who is currently painting and saying MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT. MISSED A SPOT.
there's no doubt that the builder could have been scummy, but every single thing he brought up is also easily explained away. Water heaters used? They hired a plumber and the plumber brought units from some other home. No way of the builder to even know that. Control board obsolete? Sounds like a salesman trying to upgrade the guy to the newest thing or just replace his control board for maximum cost that will just be billed to warranty.
Also lumber can stay outside in the elements. When have you ever seen a lumber yard have 100% of everything covered? It's covered just for transport. It otherwise is spending months outside. Or even worse, inside a dry home Depot...
@@fornhunkledepends if it's pressure treated or not. 😂😂😂
It's always interesting to drive through a few years later and see the pattern failures.
I'm down in Austin visiting family for the holidays, I knew the pace of development was high compared to my neck of the woods (Pennsylvania) but seeing it with my own eyes is something else. We took my niece to a park in the city and must have passed by 20 brand new developments plastered with "now leasing" signs, which all looked exactly like the ones in this video. Seeing that gave me flashbacks to 2008... hope I'm just paranoid. Anyway, I always appreciate the videos, Merry Christmas & thanks for the entertainment!
Believe it or not we still have a housing deficit.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 Nationally, housing will probably never crash again. But Austin Texas will.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 Not due to birth rates though
I provide tech support for machinery used in truss plants. On a recent visit to a plant near Austin, they were running lumber that was BLACK with mold, before it was even assembled into trusses. Entire units of lumber had mold on every board.
Lumberyard mold is common. Not all mold is dangerous. If questionable get it tested. Looks like hell but still structurally sound. Relax.
Tract home hacks with little to no supervision.....the new standard for homes on America...very sad indeed.
What supervision that there is is only there to speed the progress along, not to make sure things are constructed properly.
@@stevebabiak6997 To pass inspection*
ALl JUNK, and spaced so close to each other- one has a fire and it spreads one to the next on both sides like throwing a lit match into a box of matches. You couldnt pay me enough to live in a house 10 feet away from those on both sides! you'd hear them flush toilets, their TV/stereo, arguments, NO THANKS!
It is sad but you can't blame the industry. You blame the culture that buys them. People buy them as fast as a builder can throw them together. Should a builder put another $50K into them for quality when the buying market doesn't care about quality they can't see? Buyers today see nice bathrooms, nice kitchens and fake wood floors and they are happy.
The sheer mess on the sites points to some problems with leadership and attention to detail.
People talk crap about the strict building codes of some states but guess what? We don't build houses with cardboard anymore!
But before strict codes houses in every city were made of better materials on literally every single level, aside from maybe electrical.
lot of regulation means nothing when people just simply don't do their jobs or try to cheat every corner.
Doesn't matter if the codes are strict or loose, Bad Work is Bad Work and it happens everywhere. Inspectors are just as likely to not do a job right just like builders.
@@fringestream990 Exactly. The strict codes cost builders so much money that they have to cut corners elsewhere to be profitable -- hence the low quality homes. And most of these regulations, fees and assesments have nothing to do with quality or safety.
It all starts with an approval of the building plans allowing the cheapest and least structurally sound building methodology. Then it is followed with the lowest bidder contractors, most of which can't even read the English plans, and who aren't paid even remotely enough to even consider incorporating PRIDE into anything they do! These houses are literally made of cards. Don't even get me started on looking out your bedroom window and getting personal with your new neighbors having fun in their bedroom. Privacy = luxury! Postage stamp lot with junk house, no privacy, no luxury is poor investment. These are built like depreciating assets. As PT Barnum said, there is a sucker born every minute.
Yup. I’ll take an older house on several acres over a newer house on a postage stamp. I used to live in a city but now I’m on 6 acres, I wouldn’t trade the privacy for anything.
When I watch these videos I'm so glad that I have been able to build my own houses. Construction has not even been finished and these units are already tear downs.
Now I'm retired and just design. The most recent home that I designed is currently under construction and I regularly walk the owner through the house to show her everything that is wrong. This is a simple house that took two weeks to draw with lots of detailing and the builder says it is too complicated.
The home is out of level in areas, studs, joists and trusses do not line up. Measurements are out by half an inch. Stair well is out of line. Missing load bearing points. One mechanical run took the long way by thirty feet. A change every day so that it is not the house I drew.
Where I live we use 1/2'' sheathing on our exterior framing. Cardboard would not be allowed
That cardboard sheathing. So wonderful.
Is he ignoring the obvious? I am still watching.
He mentions it. It is Illegal to use in a lot of states.
This is in Texas and the cardboard is legal to use here as a backer for finish product BUT even though it has structural in the name it is NOT structural in any way and certainly not fire shear wall constructions use.
I live in Michigan and was a framer for 14 years. We used cardboard sheathing ( thermo ply) on many homes. Completely junk. A rock could easily go through it. For most builders it's about profit. Celatex. A board made of glue and ground fined mulch is impossible to put out if caught on fire. We tried to put out a pile. We set it on fire and tried several times put water, snow, and smother it. It just kept catching fire. Now imagine if that was on a house that caught fire. Lol
My house from 1950 has under roofing felt as sheathing, then t1-11 on top.
Cardboard houses sold for a premium markup 🙈
These houses are disgusting. Terrible layouts, cheap/trash materials, filthy jobsites, mistakes galore... Who ever buys these houses is getting absolutely screwed.
This is what happens when you let your country get overrun with foreigners. Large parts of America are no longer America.
that sheathing is 1/8" no structural qualities whatsoever.
I love the attention to detail. Making our homes better every day!
Jajajaja 😂
I like the cardboard structural sheating
They tore the whole thing down and started over from bare earth - right? Right?
I know someone who is having a custom home built. The slab has settled on the majority of the inside the house, obviously causing all kinds of problems. The contractor obviously didn't compact the soil, which is hard clay, not some soft sandy type of soil. The customer pointed it out and the builder said he would look into correcting it. Later came back and said it was not a problem and that he wasn't going to do anything to correct it. Now the customer has had to get an attorney. You pretty much have to be one of those nightmare customers (for the contractor) on just about anything you have done, much less having an entire house built.
I've watched roof trusses sit in muddy water and get super moldy before they're finally installed into new builds all over my neighborhood. 🥵
We’re on the Mexico Building codes now !
It's worse. They build their homes out of concrete CMU blocks where shoddy workmanship will still last a lifetime. When you bring that same mentality to these fragile stick built homes, the whole thing will fail in 20 years.
@@WillieFungo everything is built with an expiration date otherwise the market would dry up
Early in my life I was a telephone installer in central Florida, loved those new stucco houses since I never needed a drill to put a hole in the wall for the wire. Push my long screwdriver, twist a couple of times and straight through to the drywall, two more twists and it was ready. I had several of those long screwdrivers, even drilled tiny holes in the blades to hook the phone wire. Sometimes it was necessary to put in a ground rod when the underground service wasn't near the power ground. Since Florida is sand this normally wouldn't be a problem but in one fun instance the neighbor (old NY or Ohio retiree) was laughing as I carried that 10 foot ground rod thinking it was going to be fun watching me work. That was right up till I stabbed the rod in the ground and it kept going, all ten feet disappeared as it slipped out of my hand. Crap, I only had the one so made a trip to our ware house and got five more and a box of couplers. This time I put two together for a 20 footer and pushed 15 feet into the ground. Holding on I gently hammered the last five feet and it was still loose so I added another 10 food ground rod. With 28 feet in the ground it got tight so I had to work getting the last two feet down. The neighbor was no longer smiling, instead he was looking at that little crack on the back wall of his new house.
Lol. You're triggering me.
My house has some old stucco on atm. I'm going to be adding external insulation and I'm terrified at my entire wall crumbling away while trying to fix them in.
@@TheTacticalHaggis I know what stucco is and I know what an atm is but no idea what stucco on atm is. Let's just say in my experience I'd see a lot of stucco used to cover up crappy construction, hey it looked good. Best of luck to you,
Shocking. With the way everything has been pre engineered, including clear instructions. They still cannot get with the program.
The 90's were a mess also.
They hire migrants who are still learning on the job.
Looking like a normal production site....😢 big $ for 💩
I love your videos.
Keep on fighting the good fight for good construction methods!
I was a framer for a large part of my life and I HATE bad framing.
You have inspired me to create a 3D model of a portal framed opening per IRC.
Maybe 3D pictures will help some of these wall tippers do things right.
Great video!
Thermo Ply is just thicker cardboard. Cheap cheap cheap. How do they get away without using real plywood, zip or even OSB? No Shear strength?
that cardboard with fancy name should not be allowed. is nuts!
Good channel. Keep it up. People need to know / see the "quality" of some houses.
New homes in America for the “average” homeowner are JUNK!!!!
My first house was an 85 year old brick house, 2bdrm with 1 bath….lived there for 10 years and NEVER had any problems, just routine maintenance more or less. Made the huge mistake of having one of these cookie cutters built and 19 years later I’ve probably spent 40k in fixing things…..
friend of mine worked midnights so he could sit in a lawn chair all day and watch the people who built his house, he’s never had any problems, so I guess him babysitting a bunch of professional idiots paid off for him.
It's really f'ed up when you have to be the on-site GC for the GC you are paying to build the house.
Brick homes can be a real nightmare, the bricks need to be re-pointed every few decades to keep them sealed but by age 100 or whatever few ever do that so you get humidity and water behind the bricks that grows mold and eventually will penetrate the interior of the homes, next thing you know the bathroom ceiling is covered in black mold becasue of the humidity in the house. What a mess.
@@drscopeify lol ive lived in tons of old brick houses.. never seen that issue. clearly not as common as you think.
@@notastone4832 It depends on the type of home, if it is real brick where there are 2 layers of brick with an air gap in the middle, the real brick homes, then the bricks must be re-pointed every few decades but it all depends. If it is fake brick and it is just a design on the outside of the house then it's not an issue as it is just a design element.
@@drscopeify Okay, not true.
The word you're looking for is cavity walls by the way.
Looks like a DR Horton subdivision with all of that cardboard sheathing!
Yeah it does, DR Horton is trying to get a foot hold in my area in Eastern Iowa, they make the soddy big local home builder look good. which is saying something as I wouldn't buy a home built by them that was built in last 20 years.
And staples! Stapling "structural" elements is insane.
Curious to what happens to these issues in your final report? Does the contractor come back and repair them? How are they able to repair some things like the strong ties that are imbedded in the concreate slab?
That drywall that you saw on-site is going to be installed the next day, to cover over what he found. Standard practice in new construction
@@stevebabiak6997 lol what? So even if he found sufficiencies in the work it’ll just get left in place? That’s crazy…no wonder my dad always told me they don’t build them like that use to.
@@thangcacdi - the report won’t get to the builder for like a day, maybe two. The drywall sub is scheduled for the day after the inspection - games builders play.
Real estate inspectors don’t inspect for code, the rest is between the seller/ builder And the buyer. This buyer doesn’t take it somebody else will.
When the STHD14s are installed incorrectly or at the wrong location, you can post install HDU5s w/ epoxy. You’ll need to check the uplift, because the capacity is slightly less, but it usually works. You’ll need an engineer letter to do that.
Like the fact that you wear boot covers in the house.
"Thank you for protecting the floor."
"Oh not at all, I don't want to get my shoes dirty in your mess."
You cannot expect quality work from a guy that just crossed the boeder three days ago and was a fry cook.
Maybe not. But many of the austin workers are Mexican. And many of them are good. Our roof was just redone, all Mexican labor. They did a stellar job.
in the 90's we would spray stucco on the oxboard sheathing here in north texas and last time I went by the tract houses still looked pretty good.
So strange to see houses being built without full basements. We just don't have pad foundations due to freezing.
Yeah, the trusses to our new house sat on the ground for more than a month.. but the foundation was actually DONE at that point.. getting the framers in there in a timely manner was/is the biggest problem with construction in general these days.. Sub's in general are SO busy that they pretty much write their own schedule.. and their own rates. Feel for a developer that is trying to get stuff done in a timely manner.. great video, keep them up!
Maybe we don’t need “developers”. Maybe we should just go back to guys building one house at a time. Not 50-100 at a time
What a mess. If I ever Left a JOB site like that I'd get a phone call at 10pm and get told to go clean it up. WTAF>
That's what got me. What a mess. Our jobs are clean.
I live in Florida and I built my home 6 years ago but I was living right next door the whole time but I was lucky and had a good builder and had very few issues I think because they knew I was there everyday
Planned obsolescence, cheap, insurance knows this. It goes way up after the first few years. Haha😂🎉
Good job security for you with the build quality these days.
The builder more concerned about profits.
No, they are more concerned about following the onerous codes, assessments, ordinances, taxation, and zoning that they make their profits by cutting corners on quality and labor.
Feels like my kind of day. Great job catching those violations.
This is why quality control is vital for every industry ever. Im an engineer and have done manufacturing, quality, and process engineering and I tell you quality control not only ensures things are up to standard it ensures people are taking shortcuts and people, naturally, take a lot of shortcuts.
My dad owned his own company and held a class A contractors license
he had 50+ years experience in construction
Dad never worked or even bid track jobs because of the low quality of track homes even back in the 70s and 80s
Pop ran a tight site trusses weren't left in the dirt or drywall and the site was kept neat and picked up I watch a few channels and it's crazy to see how job sites are left a total mess as I watched this video I could just here my pops voice in my head if this was his job site it would of been in the fan
💩💩
Class A contractors license?????
Yeah get the vinyl stretcher
Out of the van also.
@@paulradice3534 and your reply means what?
www.cslb.ca.gov/about_us/library/licensing_classifications/a_-_general_engineering_contractor.aspx
Use punctuation to make that unstructured wall of text a little more readable.
Thanks for the education !!
I rather live where there’s a backyard not back alley. I don’t feel safe to live in this neighborhood. Glad you took the time to make them do right. I had my home custom built back in 2000 and had dealt with shady GC where I had to place stop payment twice in order for them to correct w/ the code. I am working on plans to built my retirement home in Atlantic inter coastal area and just hope I can find good builders in this crazy time. Great videos, I’ve learned few tips even though doesn’t apply to our building code here in Florida.
"There May Be Biting Critters and Stinging Insects" actually LOL'ed at that one. Not a workplace injury threat I have in an office. And I do workers' comp statistics for a living.
The "structural" cardboard always makes me laugh
What's the green treatment on some of the wood on the bottom, And what is the thing that you're holding at 5 minutes?
Crazy part is how many of those hurricane tie downs were done wrong. No one tells them they are incorrect so they just repeated the same incorrect work on every house. On the house he inspected was probably a different builder because they didn't even remember to put the ties in. 😂
If you're sitting down in a port-a-potty your day has already gone very wrong!
When I bought my home the inspector didn't even know what sheathing was. I found a wall that hadn't been sheathed. He tried to gaslight me because I'm a woman. Said he'd never heard that term before. Basically, threw his report out.
Structural sheathing is basically just water resistant cardboard, new homes are costing more than ever and made similar to a homeless person house! I'd rather take an 80 year old house with all it's problems than a newly built house today!
It's funny how quality was better before strict building codes.
had a place in fl. trusses sat out for months where black when they installed them
those trusses laying out in the rain is not much of an issue as long as its not more than a couple months. until the finished roof is on the house they are going to get wet every time it rains anyways. those sheets of drywall laying in the mud is what happens when they dont want to pay for site delivery so its just dropped right behind the curb. the lost sheets wont really be much of an issue if the drywall guy is worth a dam they always order about 5-10 extra sheets for wastage
Installed in place and rained on won't change the shape and it will dry quickly, plus in place they will be inspired to get sheathing on it asap so the house is weathered in. On the ground for months? Lol. Every one will be damaged and crooked sitting directly on the ground absorbing moisture unsupported. You are clueless.
Well done! Great video!
Nothing beats being about to look out your side window and see your neighbor taking a dump. Not enough space for me
I would never buy new construction and especially in a subdivision where houses are only 10ft apart. Might as well be an apartment IMO.
After all my years and code changes. I'll take a house from the 70's first and the 90's last. In the Midwest. If it's built in the 90's just move along
@@dans4900 They did some janky shortcuts in the 70s but at least the materials are generally solid. Around here it's all older doug fir and plywood, no bs 'engineered' materials. I can't believe they allow that thermoply for sheathing. Insane.
All HUGE, all GARAGE, no WINDOWS? NO thanks! SO glad my home has no lip on the foundation. Glad it has no OSB or Tyvek.
Unbelievable back-pitch in that condensate line. That was not installed by the HVAC installer I hope. 😮
Looked like sparky ran a wire over it and there weren’t enough hangers on it to keep it up. They can both hold hands while it’s fixed.
Cardboard sheathing with staples?...ya that house will preform well in a seismic zone. Those garage end walls should be simpson strong wall units
So Casey, I have to ask ( maybe it's been asked already) Are your item's listed on your Inspection actually fixed by the Builder/Contractor/ Sub's? If not what is the next logical step? Thank's for the video. Great channel. Liked and Subbed.
At least you have your booties on. 😂😂don’t wanna get the place dirty.
I guess you need something in your contract that if at a certain portion of mistakes is reached, corrections are to be done by another contractor at the choice of the client. If they make too many mistakes, they can't be trusted to make the fixes.
Wet trusses results in truss lift and settle for many decades. Total mess!! RUN!
You should make videos of the "red tag" process & the follow-up reinspections.
some places the bolts on the garage door would pass because they have ramset nails also shot into the concrete not just the single bolt holding down
Ramsets at the garage door don't do anything for hold-down strength though, just shear I believe.
@@constructivainspections depends on the concrete really I have put facade on quite a few buildings and it was all held in by horizontal bars ramset into the concrete. its all about getting it after a few months of curing then you can get a good strong hold if the concrete is too green it just makes a crater with no holding power and if its been cured for years and years the nail might just glance off without even penetrating the concrete. though this is very area dependent too in hurricane areas they call for much more securement
Messy site is an unsafe site, we tend to stand our trusses up, over here in the UK, they take up less room that way. Mostly its covered to protect it from rain ect but first fix timber is treated anyway so it doesn't matter too much in terms of rotting away, the trusses and floor joists are open to the elements while the roof is being felt and battened anyway, I would say 99% of our roofs in this country are tiled or slated on domestic builds, so we don't really have issues with osb being exposed to the weather because its not used much in roof construction over here, only as a deck for flat roofs .
What do you use as sheathing on the roof if you don’t use OSB?
@@fishmonger7020 we don't sheath the roof, we use breathable membrane tacked to the rafters/ trusses, then tile battens nailed to the rafters/ trusses, , if its a warm roof it will have a layer of insulation under the membrane and battens, but we don't steath pitched roofs.
You are brave! I wouldn’t put my name on that house anywhere 😂
What's with all the green studs, don't see that around here.
Deja vu on this video. Think this is a re-upload. Understandable given the holidays, though.
What was that rock you picked up?
All these foundation to structure anchors require precision from foundation forms and house framers. Clearly either they are lacking in skill, or under pressure to move too fast.
All of the above?
"We all get what we pay for". "We all get a house per our choice of Builder"
that house has straps, "even though they look like sh1t". lol
4/23? Get that car inspected!
My experience is the trusses are almost the first thing on the job a lot of times. Sitting in the weather.
I don't get why crews leave jobsites messy every day. Its so much nicer and safer to work at a clean jobsite.
No habla Ingles senor🥹
Houses made by the hundreds out of paper mache and tape. It’s such a good metaphor for our modern society.
This is interesting. Subbed.
I'd take one of those houses for free. Then sell it the next day. JUNK
We need more sticky tape 😂
This just goes to show that you should not trust anyone to do work on your house, whether it’s a new structure or not. I kind of got burnt on a roof job in CT by a “white” American “contractor” who subcontracted the work to Hispanics. The pos actually only showed up the first day and the last day to pick up the payment. It turns out that the pos never took out a work permit with the city nor were inspections done as materials were applied. I had to hound him over a few weeks period in order to get the job checked off by the city inspector. It was so frustrating, being that the pos painted a rosy picture of him being a small business owner and such. Never again!
Literal beer at 3:47. That would have a contractor bounced so fast.
That means every other home wasn't done right either!
Please read up on concrete and strengths. I don't know much, but I do know concrete
Bottom of windows are not supposed to be taped
With all the regs we have in this country, we arent properly regulating what actually matters!
Regs are the problem. They cost builders so much money that they have to cut corners on quality and labor to remain profitable.
@@WillieFungonow imagine the cost cutting with no legal regulations! You can make a house for ten grand that will last a week of bad weather!
@@parthenocarpySA Outside the U.S, in places like Thailand or the Philippines, they can make massive concrete villas for like $150,000. And these houses don't have big maintenance issues. Meanwhile our American stick-built homes cost $400,000 to build. $700,000 with concrete, and start falling apart instantly.
@@WillieFungo it's cheaper to build if you don't use American labor???? Oh no way
@@parthenocarpySA And regulations. Some of our regs are good. But most just add needless cost to construction.
They royally screwed up on the portal frame at garage front. Looks like some epoxy all thread anchors with a couple HDU Holdowns will need to be installed
….looks at my paperclips that break after ten bends….the inspector said these should be rated for 100 bends minimum!😂😂
Why is there always a crap ton of staples on the sheathing? Not sure that you need a staple every square inch.
Depressing. Lord, I miss old America😊
If it wasn't for the Simpson truss/framing screws you showed, I was going to ask what decade this video was taken????
Thermoply and staples...Are you serious??? I thought they quit making Thermoply more than 20 years ago, I haven't even seen any of that here in northeast Florida in decades, and staples, we haven't used staples of any kind for any kind of framing since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And who is the Brainiac that designed a brick ledge the same height as the slab?? Of course water is going to pond up and get in, even with the moist stop. And at the kitchen hood vent, I have never heard of drywall screw protection plates referred to as plate reinforcement. With all of the above in mind, what is the BIG importance about taping the straps at the garage doors????? Does that make them stronger, I don't think so. And I don't even know what to say about the dryer vent concern, the window may not be fixed, but people rarely open windows anymore, and if they do, what is a little dryer heat going to hurt. Glad I don't live in Austin. I'll stop now.
That indead is a reinforcement plate not a drywall screw guard. The double top plate of the wall was cut to make room for the hood vent, so the 2 plates suroundung the vent are adding strenght back to the top plate, and there is a specified fastener that goes in the plate in a specific way. Who cares what you think about taping the simpson straps, if its in the code or required buy the manufacturer you do the work. All these home are poorly thrown together for top dollar while cutting every corner to maximize profit instead of doing a quality job.
Fine Homebuilding did a story on the impact of Andrew in FL (as well as government and code agencies). There was a trend at the time to have more northeast style homes that were creeping into the area. That style has more overhang that acts as a parachute in the wind. They saw house after house (any style) with OSB sheathing completely gone, but with chunks of it left behind with a staple holding the chunk to the truss. Total loss. I would never fasten OSB sheathing with staples to roof or wall, but I would never construct a house with OSB period. CARDBOARD wall sheathing. LOL. Why not just construct the house with spit and toilet tissue?
Trusses can get wet but only if they're on a PERFECTLY FLAT surface otherwise the plates pop and then they're all WORTHLESS, you can't roll/hammer/clamp them back on it's like pulling a nail and hammering it back in the same hole big strength loss. With bullshit cardboard sheathing, should have a proper portal frame for the garage.
After watching so many YouTub inspectors, I would love to know what experience is required to become a home inspector.
Absolutely nothing. Just pass an easy test. No experience required
@@dans4900 You probably need some experience on lifting the final reports so you don't hurt your back with the many pages of flaws you found even without any experience.
@Taladar2003 I got 34 years in commercial and residential. Been running jobs for over 25 years. Owned the business for 5 at the same one I started at. Is that enough experience? Licensed through the state and on the vocational advisory board for carpentry trade school. Work with the instructors on what should be taught and whats needed. Will that make it?
That looks like California; the houses are so close together! And mass produced with sloppy construction. I purchased a home built in 1902 of redwood. Yes, it needs work, but it’s on a huge lot and was solidly built in its time.
Some states don't license home inspectors so plenty of people still buy homes like this.
Speaking of inspections, looks like you’re 8 months overdue for one!
The trouble with cookie cutter houses.
Another one without a hurricane tie in sight.... Twister ever goes through there and the roof will be gone in a flash.
What are the sales prices of these cardboard tinker toy houses?
800 000 dolla