These are two of the worst words that a homeowner can hear. When your home has any kind of serious construction defect, you can be sure that the overall value will fall. Add to this, the fact that quite often the appearance of the home will be negatively altered and you’ve got a real problem on your hands that can’t be ignored. Some of these defects are as obvious as water seeping in from the outside, while other kinds of defects don’t become noticeable until years after the home is built.
Although most people assume that the fault of these construction defects lies solely with the builders or even the engineers, more often than not there are a variety of things that can influence them including an improper soil analysis and poor site selection. After a home has been built on an unsuitable site, it’s next to impossible to change some of the features that affect the construction unless the owners can considerably change the grading by landscaping.
Most of the common types of construction defects are ones that the average homeowner would have heard of at one time or another. These often include a variety of water issues and that old demon that’s closely associated with moisture buildup called mold. There are even instances where the presence of mold has led to serious health issues. There are also construction defects that tend to crop up around other issues as well.
One of these is the electrical system. If the builder hired a substandard electrical contractor, there’s every reason to think that the work done in the home will not be up to the building codes in your area at the best and might even be dangerous at the worst. It almost goes without saying that the electrical system is one of the most important elements in your home and if you have a fire and this important element isn’t regulated properly, the chances of your insurance company covering the loss is negligible.
One of the other common construction defects has to do with landscaping and soil. A home placed in a spot where the soil or slope of the land is unsuitable in some way will cause untold hardship for the homeowner. Faulty drainage is one of the defects that can be rectified with the proper measures. More often than not, this defect can be alleviated by simply changing the grade of the land so that the slope moves away form the home and carries any run off with it. At the far end of the scale is one of the more serious ailments that is classified as a construction defect and that’s structural failure itself.
When many of these defects cannot be fixed, there is usually a legal avenue that can be pursued.
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