Home Inspector Who Usually Finds 15 to 20 Problems in New Builds Says This Pulte Home Left Him Struggling to Find Anything Wrong

Home inspector @mizellhomeinspections walks into new construction houses expecting to find trouble, and he usually does. On an average new build, he says, he turns up about 15 to 20 deficiencies. But during an inspection of a Pulte home in Mount Dora, Florida, he ran into something he rarely sees: a house where he struggled to find much wrong at all.

He explains that he had never inspected a Pulte home before and does not get out to Mount Dora very often, so he decided to film what stood out. “This was a very interesting new construction inspection,” he says, “because I do tons of new construction, but this one stood out to me.”

Red Notes All Over the House

The first thing he noticed was the paper trail written right on the structure. The builder’s project manager had been through the home leaving notes everywhere, more than he says he has ever seen. Items marked in red appeared to be correction notes, and phases of the job were tracked with dates.

Framing is where he almost always finds problems: twisted studs, loose studs, broken studs or studs that were repaired poorly. In this house he found spots where someone had flagged a stud for repair, followed by what he calls “a really good repair.” One mark called out a bowing stud, and next to it was a check mark showing the framers had fixed it. “They’re on it, man,” he says.

The slab impressed him too. As concrete cures, he says, he nearly always finds small cracks the builder needs to come back and seal. “I could not find one crack in this entire home,” he says.

He also liked a small detail that made his job easier: every room was labeled on the floor, so he could tell instantly where he was while the house was still bare framing.

In the attic, he checked the roof-to-wall connections and found them properly installed and flush, with single and double strap wraps in place. He looked over the gusset plates and framing and called it tight. He says he usually spots areas where workers drove a cluster of nails trying to force something to fit, but not here. He also could not find anywhere a protective plate was missing over electrical or plumbing lines.

The One Area That Still Needed Work

The house was not perfect. His main finding was in the ductwork, which he notes is typically installed by a separate air conditioning contractor. He found several areas that were not properly sealed and where the mastic, the sealing compound used on duct joints, had not been properly applied.

He contrasts this home with another one he inspected the day before, a roughly $1.5 million house where he saw the kind of problems that make him swear off new construction. After this Mount Dora job, he says, if he ever did buy new, this builder would be high on his list. “So good job, Pulte Homes.”

@mizellhomeinspections

What Buyers Can Learn From a Good Inspection

A glowing report is rare in the world of home inspection videos, and it carries useful lessons for anyone buying a newly built home.

Quality varies by crew, not just by brand. Even within one builder, homes in different communities are often managed by different superintendents and built by different subcontractors. One great inspection does not guarantee every home will be the same, and one bad one does not condemn every house a company builds. Ask about the specific team building your home.

Still hire an inspector. This house was impressive, and the inspector still found duct sealing issues. Leaky ductwork can waste energy, push conditioned air into the attic and make some rooms harder to cool. That is exactly the kind of problem a buyer would never see on their own.

Inspect before the walls close. This inspection happened while framing, wiring and plumbing were still visible. A pre-drywall inspection is the only chance to look at those parts of a house without cutting into finished walls. Ask your builder early whether they allow it and when.

Watch for signs of a well-run job. Clear notes, tracked corrections and labeled rooms are signs a builder’s own quality control is active. When you visit your home under construction, notice whether the site is organized, whether problems are being flagged and whether your questions get specific answers.

Plan a warranty inspection. Many builders offer a one year warranty on workmanship. Scheduling an inspection a month or two before it expires can catch settling cracks, sealing issues or other items that showed up after you moved in, while the builder is still responsible.

Ask about the attic and ducts specifically. Since ductwork is often handled by an outside contractor, it can be overlooked during the builder’s own walkthrough. Ask your inspector to pay extra attention to duct connections, insulation and sealing.

New construction gets a lot of criticism, and much of it is earned. But this video is a reminder that when a builder’s team pays close attention and fixes problems as they go, the results show up in the inspection report, right down to a slab without a single crack.

Willow and Hearth