Home Owners should have a PDI performed by an Home Inspector

I am seeing too many cases of homes in the 30-day and 1-year warranty periods of the TARION warranty where a simple PDI performed by a qualified Home Inspector could have saved the buyers from a lot of aggravation in dealing with the Builder/TARION Warranty corporation after the home has closed.

For example this, to the untrained looks OK.

After closer inspection, it appears the Builder has used sleight of hand to avoid doing the job properly.

This was systematic on every wooden column in the home, and the same in at least 5 other homes in the sub-division. All homes were completed since November 2016.

Now the owners have to sit on a TARION claim to wait to get things fixed.

And there’s more…

5 Bedroom house, 5 more defects, all safety concerns…





Len… bad links in first post.

Please be specific. Is this a Canadian thing?

For some reason the image uploader din’t save the files even though it included the link.
( Unless I cocked it up :smiley: )

Corrected now.

Thanks Jeff.

If might be. I don’t know about other jurisdictions in Canada, but in Ontario, since 2012 there has been a requirement to have hard-wired smoke alarms/detectors in every bedroom.

And wood columns (first post) need to have a membrane between the wood and the cement.

The builder had installed a “sock” around the foot of the columns, which when slid up exposed the missing membrane. At least one column was already showing signs of water wick. House is 7 months old!

And coincidentally enough following on from the discussion in the emergency forum about condensate drains in furnaces, this was the bottom of the 7 month old Payne Furnace.

Courtesy or a poor installation of the main condensate drain coming from the internal cartridge trap.

And I’m pretty certain ABS is not compliant to the IPEX 081216, IPEX 081218, and IPEX 081219 standards (PVC/CPVC) required for Canadian fitting in the Payne Installation Instructions, but I’m double checking.

Thanks, and to be perfectly honest, without the additional supplied information, I had no idea what your photo’s were showing in relation to what was in your mind. The bedroom ceiling pic’s could have been the light fixtures, of which some AHJ’s do not allow in my area for safety reasons. (I remember breaking many as a child, especially when shot with a water gun)!

Then there’s the unprofessional connection of the fresh air intake and stale air exhausts to the HRV.

and the crushing of the air exhaust with a support strap that was pinned too short.

and the fact that none of the gas shut-offs were not labelled (another peculiarly Ontario requirement I believe)




and with the missing Electrical Safety Authority Inspection sticker on the panel, one wonders if the Home actually had it’s occupancy permit issued.

Anyone who wants to use these photos to help them promote PDI inspections are welcome to.

Oh yes, nearly forgot. Here’s what happens when the HVAC guys can’t get their duct work around the structure.

or where the framer forgets that there’s supposed to be a firebreak between the fruit store (exterior of the home) and the interior of the basement (interior of the home)

or what happens when the cement truck runs out of cement halfway through the pour and the next load doesn’t arrive until after the first pour starts to cure.

Typically/unfortunately many home inspectors do not get to see could pour joints.
Even with a PDI inspection, cold pour joints can be explained away as normal unless you have the training required to assess the concrete seam.

A cold pour joint is where successive pours or placements of concrete abut during building construction, are normal, but on occasion are leak points that may need sealing or lastly repairs.

If the home is protected with delta ms, blue skin or anti damp product, it will take many years, if not decades, for water mitigation below the soil through cold pour joints.

There is a difference between a cold-joint and a cold-pour joint.

Cold-joints are quite common where extensions to existing cement structures are added to.

A cold-pour-joint is just as common, although proper planning should minimise the risk of it happening, where the cement truck runs out of cement and the existing pour starts to cure before the next load is ready to be poured so it fails to get a good interlock, or the two loads are at different slumps so they cure inconsistently.

One would NEVER, nor should not EVER, put a membrane between the two pours.

A method of joining two separate pours is to scabble the existing concrete so you get a good aggregate interlock with the new pour to the old.

ANY cold joint that has not been properly interlocked is susceptible to leaking, with the lower areas of the joint likely to leak first (because of the physics behind hydro-static pressures)

As for water proofing, Blue-skin would certainly provide protection against water intrusion, but Delta-MS is not a waterproofing membrane. It’s a protective drainage membrane that manages water but is not waterproof because of the joints. It is designed to allow water to migrate out of the poured foundation wall to the outside of the property and down into the perimeter drain.

If it was water proof they’d offer more than a 7 year warranty on it.

You see Len, that’s what happens when someone who doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about, goes looking for info to “Clip & Paste” to make themselves appear knowledgable to those that don’t know any better!

Informative post OP.
What is Jeffry referring to?

Concrete society.
Generally, cold joints are not a problem structurally if the joint is in compression. However, the location of the joint within the structure, the structural function of the element and aesthetics need to be considered when assessing a cold joint.

Engineers know this.

Mr. Jonas. Why do you cause so much trouble at InteNACHI?

I built and poured foundations, I repaired foundations, repaired slabs and work with masonry for decades.

In 2010 when I joined InterNACHI YOU did not even know what a chimney crown was.
You disparaged my masonry comments continually. Tuck pointing for one.

Why do you make InterNACHI look bad?