Your New Construction Walkthrough: What to Check Before You Sign

Most home inspection checklists are written for resale homes. They tell you to look for water stains, check the age of the furnace, and watch for deferred maintenance. On a house finished six weeks ago, none of that applies. Nothing has had time to leak, everything is new, and there is no maintenance to defer.

What you are looking for on a new build is different: work that was done wrong, work that was not done at all, and things that are cosmetically fine today but will fail in the first wet season.

Three appointments, not one

Buyers think of the walkthrough as a single event before closing. Treat it as three.

1. A pre-drywall inspection, if your timeline allows it. Once the wallboard is up, nobody can see the framing, the plumbing runs, the electrical or the insulation again.
2. The pre-closing walkthrough, where you build the punch list.
3. The eleven-month inspection, before the workmanship warranty expires. This is the one that pays for itself.

Most buyers do only the middle one. That is the one that catches the least.

Hire your own inspector

The builder’s representative who walks you through the house is a good person doing a real job, and they work for the builder. The municipal inspector who signed off checked code compliance, which is a floor and not a standard of quality.

An independent inspection on a new build runs a few hundred dollars in this market. People skip it because the house is new and it feels redundant. It is not. A good inspector on a brand new home routinely finds a dozen items, and every one of them is the builder’s problem right up until you close and start living there.

Bring them to the pre-closing walkthrough, and bring them back at month eleven.

What to actually check

Water, because this is Oregon

More new-home problems here trace back to water than to anything else.

• Grading. Does the ground slope away from the foundation on every side? Look at the low corner of the lot in particular. Freshly placed soil settles, and a yard that drains today may pond by February.
• Downspouts. Where does the water actually go? Discharging next to the foundation is a slow-motion problem.
• Gutters. Look for correct slope and secure attachment.
• Flashing at roof-to-wall junctions, around chimneys and above windows and doors.
• Caulk and seals around every exterior penetration: hose bibs, dryer vent, electrical, gas line.
• Crawl space or basement, if there is one. Dry, with a proper vapour barrier, no standing water.

Systems, tested rather than looked at

• Run every tap, hot and cold. Check pressure and how long the hot water takes to arrive at the furthest fixture.
• Flush every toilet. Fill and drain every sink and tub, watching for slow drains.
• Run the dishwasher and the disposal.
• Run the heat and, if fitted, the cooling. Then walk to every room and confirm air is actually coming out of each register. A disconnected duct in the crawl space is common and invisible.
• Test every switch and every outlet, including the outdoor ones and the ones in the garage.
• Press the test button on every smoke and carbon monoxide detector.
• Open and close the garage door and check that the safety reverse works.

Fit and finish, which is what warranty year one is for

• Open and close every door and window. Look for binding, gaps and locks that do not engage cleanly.
• Open every cabinet and drawer. Check alignment and that nothing collides.
• Look along walls with a light held at a shallow angle. Drywall imperfections that disappear under flat light show up immediately when raked.
• Check paint coverage at edges, inside closets and behind doors, which is where it gets thin.
• Look at flooring transitions, grout lines and the caulk around tubs and counters.
• Check countertop seams and the reveal around the sink.

How to document it so it counts

Photograph everything, with something in frame for scale. Number each item. Note the room and the specific location.

Then submit the list in writing, through whatever formal warranty channel the builder specifies. Verbal notes to a site superintendent evaporate. Get written confirmation of what will be fixed and by when, and keep it. Blue painter’s tape next to each item is standard practice and genuinely helps the trades find them.

If something significant is unresolved at closing, ask for a written agreement covering it rather than a promise. That is a normal request and a reasonable builder will accommodate it.

What not to fight about

Being fair here is what makes the rest of your list credible.

Nail pops, hairline drywall cracks at door and window corners, minor floor squeaks and small settling cracks in a concrete slab or driveway are normal in the first year as a house dries and settles. They fall inside industry tolerances and a warranty administrator will decline them. Note them, submit them at month eleven when the builder often addresses them in a single drywall visit, and do not spend your credibility on them at closing.

Spend it instead on water, on systems that do not work, and on anything structural.

Put month ten in your calendar today

I will keep repeating this because it is the single highest-value thing in this post. The workmanship warranty, which covers most of what you will actually notice, expires at twelve months. Almost everything that shows up after a full winter is a workmanship item.

Book the inspection at month ten. Submit the list at month eleven. After month twelve, most of it is yours to fix. The warranty post explains exactly what falls off and when.

I sell new construction and I still tell every buyer to hire their own inspector and to hold the builder to the punch list. A house that gets fixed properly in year one is a house I do not get an unhappy call about in year four.

If you want to talk through what to look for at a specific home before your walkthrough, reach out. You can see what is standing and ready on the inventory board.