Pre Drywall Meeting and Inspection

We had our pre-drywall meeting with our PM on Friday May 29th. We had also decided to bring in an outside inspector to perform a pre-drywall inspection. This was initially recommended by our realtor, and after doing some research and speaking with an inspector we felt it was a good idea. Basically he was looking for issues with the framing, plumbing, exterior, and wiring. Things that will all be covered up as soon as the drywall is in place and we'd never know if a problem was lurking behind the walls just waiting to give us a headache.

We were all supposed to meet at 8am, but our inspector was caught in tunnel traffic (if you know Hampton Roads at all you're familiar with the phenomenon), and he ended up being about 35 mins late. That being said, we went through the house with our PM first. My husband had to be back out in CA to checkout with his unit but was able to FaceTime for the meeting, so he was able to see most of what was happening and ask questions. Basically our PM took us around the outside of the house, showed us where drainage piping was, talked about the wrapping on the house, window sealings, fireplace venting, access to the crawl etc. Many of these things will be discussed further in the future when he explains how to maintain the home. We then went into the home and he reviewed electrical outlets, wiring placements, lighting, the plumbing, kitchen layout etc.

There was one thing which we were disappointed in. We chose to have the attic storage option and our PM has been telling us all along that he would floorboard as much of the attic as possible and we'd have tons of storage space. He continually alluded to the fact that the whole attic would be floor boarded. This being said we asked if we could move the attic access out of the hallway and either into the laundry room or possibly the guest room (since it won't be used daily). We both just feel that the attic access right in the hallway is a bit of an eyesore. Over and over we were told this should be no problem and they'd take care of it. Well last week when I was at the house meeting with the wiring co we noticed the attic access is in the hallway. When I called the PM about this he said they framers put it there initially, but it can be moved and he just hasn't been out to the house yet to look at everything. Ok, sounded like we were still on track to have it moved from the hallway. I brought this up again during the pre-drywall meeting and we received a different answer. First off the amount of floorboard space is much much less than we had anticipated. It's basically a large strip down the center of the house. Our PM stated that they can't go out to the edges of the house because it isn't supportive enough. To give you a frame of reference, we had initially talked about possibly putting attic access in the guest room, well the entire square footage of the guest room doesn't have any floorboards over it for attic storage. So that is obviously a wash. It's also not possible to place in the laundry room due to HVAC components and plumbing. That was a little disappointing, though I understand if there is something they just cannot do for safety or code reasons, however, I don't like to feel as though I'm being yes'd to death if something can't happen. We have noted a few instances were we are being told 'oh yes we can work on that' when it seems as though what we asked for isn't even a possibility.

Anyway, off of my rant, we did a quick review of the paperwork to make sure nothing was missing and we were all on the same page moving forward. The only thing we caught was that they failed to rough in the two pendant lights we requested  above the kitchen island. My husband caught this during the walk through (not bad via FaceTime!) and it was on our paperwork, just overlooked. The PM said this would be taken care of.

Just as we were finishing up our private inspector arrived. The PM couldn't stay because he had other meeting, but they were able to meet and exchange info. We decided to use Quality Home Inspections based out of Newport News VA for this and our subsequent inspections. Floyd, the owner of the company, performs the pre-drywall inspections himself and we were very satisfied with him. He is also a Class A contractor which I liked because I felt like he could really look at things from a builder's perspective as well as an inspectors. He went through the house with a fine tooth comb, snapping pics and putting blue tape in quite a few places. He explained some things to me (my phone died so my husband couldn't be present for this one) along the way, and I was able to see what he was talking about in most instances though sometimes the builders jargon got in my way. The plan is for him to email the report and pictures to me as well as the PM.

I spoke with the PM briefly following the inspection and he told us that the items in the inspection would be addressed and pictures sent of the changes. I'll post the report when we get it so you can see some of the things that they found and what they look for in a pre-drywall inspection.