We do NOT have stringent inspectors. The SD County building inspector missed that my roofer did not put in the attic vents; the realty home inspector caught that at time of sale. They replied in a letter that they don’t catch everything…
My friend hired his own crew to build his house, and I was stunned at the low quality of the wood used in framing. The boards were warped, split, and not going all the way down to the floor. Some cuts were uneven, which probably doesn’t matter for structural stability, but it goes to the quality of the work. He used a teen crew to lay marble flooring, and the new marble guy ripped some out and redid it. His house is in Ramona.
I do *not* believe the construction is decent from someone who is only paid $8/hour, and is not trained. I respect the skilled tradesmen too much, to think that someone can just come along and just pick this stuff up. It takes many years to become a real craftsman. I interacted enough with my subs to have respect for them, and to know the difference between some who were just workers and those who were real craftsmen. A professional builder can command a living wage. Those building for $8/hour are most likely amateurs. I would *not* hire them to build my house. Anybody thinking that you can just pick up a crew and have them build while you supervise, I saw the bad outcome in my Ramona friend’s house. You pay cheap, you get low quality.
Check out the Lennar problems in FL. If you’ve followed the Bubble Blogger links, you’ve already read this from globaleconomicanalysis.com. Lennar hired their own inspectors, and the result: hundreds of building code violations and a class action lawsuit in the works. Also read this about Lennar’s shoddy construction.
Lennar probably hired these $8/hour guys, and I bet we will see more lawsuits like this. They cut corners, didn’t train and apprentice these guys as they should have.
