The main purpose of a 1-Year Builder’s Warranty Inspection is this: To protect the Homeowner. On this home, my client simply wanted me to conduct the Home Inspection, find out if there were any issues, and document them. He would then pass my report along to his Builder before his time-line ran out to have the issues corrected. The home had very few mistakes, was in a great location close to new schools, and will make him a wise investment.
The Problem
The 1 issue that surfaced was 3 damaged Engineered floor trusses in the basement. When there are gusset plates that are loose or have been pulled a majority of the way out or damaged web members or top or bottom wood cords, that Engineered floor truss is breached. Being breached means that Engineered floor truss no longer can perform as designed. Any weight that breached truss is supposed to carry is now potentially putting extra weight on nearby trusses. This could lead to structural movement and in cases like this the floor to sag. On this Home Inspection, there was 1 truss with a damaged web member and 3 gusset plates pulled almost all the way out of the wood. My educated guess was this was damaged when the delivery truck slammed them onto the ground, but that’s just my guess. This truss never should have been installed.
The Repair
Almost 1 year after the fact, the repair to this structural concern is rather simple. The Truss Manufacturer can return, remove the 3 loose gusset plates, replace the 1 damaged 2×4 web member, and install larger gusset plates where the original ones used to be so the teeth of the larger plate sink into fresh wood giving them plenty of grip. There were 2 other Engineered floor trusses with a loose gusset plates that could easily be repaired by replacing with larger plates also.
For more examples of problems we find on New Construction Inspections and 1-Year Builder’s Warranty Inspections, check out our New Construction Photo Gallery.