10 months ago some construction company started building a house in my neighborhood. They got about halfway finished and I presume went bankrupt. They had made it as far as putting up the plywood walls, roof, and some window frames before disappearing off the face of the Earth. It has been about 9 months since I saw anyone there. Since then the house has been sitting there exposed to the weather and in general being a eyesore.
Last month I saw some people out there looking at the house. I presume they bought it because after a few weeks a crew came out and began working to finish construction. I had thought they would tear down all the walls and put up new plywood or something but nope, they are currently covering it behind a stone facade.
Should I say something about this? You would think the buyer would have a inspector come out and look at the exposed walls before resuming construction but I’m doubtful. Those walls still look like shit with these black splotches covering parts of it. I would hate it if the walls fall out after they sell the house to some unsuspecting people. Is there a government agency that regulates this kind of stuff that I can contact?
Oh yeah I forgot to mention. I live in Georgia which has had some heavy rain and flooding lately. Thankfully there was no flooding in my neighborhood. I believe they are currently waiting for everything to dry completely before resuming construction. So I probably only have a brief amount of time before the walls are covered over. The incomplete house was listed for $200,000 so it’s not like they are building some 1 bedroom shack here. I just hate to see someone tricked into spending a lot of money on a piece of shit house.
Unless where you live is horribly different from where I live, an inspector will have to sign off on the building before a certificate of occupancy – a license to allow people to live in the building – is issued. Unless years of watching This Old House and Hometime have let me down, inspections are done all along the way in construction: The framing has to be inspected before the mechanicals can go in, the mechanicals have to be inspected before the sheetrock can go in, etc.
Reminds me of a sad stunt I was talked into in junior high school. A friend led me to a house under construction and pointed out all the phone wire in balls behind where each extension would come. He talked me into helping him remove all the balls to use in his electrical projects.
Later I learned that the house was being built by the family of another friend of ours and the stunt had delayed things a week. Plus, we couldn’t think of what to do with the wire and tossed it.
My guess is that exterior grade plywood is going to hold up well enough for 10 months of exposure. Won’t look good, but it probably won’t have rotted away. And it’ll have kept the rain away from the actual structural members. The caveat is that Georgia weather is hotter and probably wetter than I’m used to, so who knows?
If you’re worried, you should take pictures tomorrow, before it’s all covered up (if you haven’t already). Then you could contact whoever’s in charge of inspecting, and ask if the house is still OK.
In some areas building inspectors are honest and thorough. In other areas, not.
It’s entirely possible the exterior sheathing was inspected before the first builder stopped work. Since that inspection is complete, there’s nothing in the bureacracy to trigger a re-inspection.
If a place sat half built for more than a month-ush, someone could make a good case that a reinspection of everything should be required to detect vandalism & theft as described earlier. Whether the OP’s local regs require that is another matter.
Finally, as noted above, weathered looking plywood is not necessarily unsafe or unsound plywood.
My advice: If the OP wants to be a Samaritan, contact the buyers, not the building inspector.
The building inspector is usually from the city or town. You could give them a call and mention your concern. I fthe building inspector takes it up, it would lead to a more permanent solution than warning individual buyers.
As LSLguy says, some inspectors are honest and thorough, others not. Couldn’t hurt to call, though.