I have taken a close looked at several new houses built in Washington County and can not believe they passed inspections. One example –glued sub flooring that is not nailed down every six to eight inches to the floor joists. Somebody had to get paid to look the other way.

I've got to wonder about that myself. I've recently had to replace a couple wall light fixtures. When I took the old ones down there was no box behind it.... just the wires running up the wall and out a hole. And the ground wire wasn't even attached to the fixture... just hanging there. And my home is less than 10 years old.

I think a lot of times the trades inspectors just sign off based on a trademan's prior work and reputation. Plus there aren't that many inspectors, I don't know how they can get around to each and every home that is being built in the county.

I would love to see a true investigative report done by the so called news sources here in Washington County. Something 60 Minutes’ish would be nice.

So how many inspectors are there?? With the ground wire not attached, go thing you didn't get a shock.

With a train eye, I wouldn't think it wouldn't take much, to know something isn't up to code.

I thought their suppose to look at the houses on each stage they complete. Like when their done doing the eletrical work, inspector comes out and looks. When the pipes are put in, inspector comes out and looks.

They are supposed to but the point is they are not. Maybe it IS just a matter of a shortage of inspectors but the bottom line is housing is not being built to code in this county.

I know what you mean, How can the residents of these newer homes protect themselves?

There has to be someone higher up to handle this. Someone needs to be acounted for, when the inspectors aren't doing their job. That only leads the home owners, to alot problems down the road.

I know when I build a shed, the inspector was out here. Everytime I finish doing something, they came back to check on it. To make sure it was done right.

When you call for a framing inspection the inspector comes out and inspects the framing, there is no way he is going to have the time to count the number of nails in each sheet of plywood.

I would say the same thing for the electrical inspection he is not going to remove every fixture and check the wires.

So are things going to be missed sure they are but I don't believe that inspectors are getting paid off.

The builder is ultimately the one that is responsible not the inspectors.

So its just buyer beware? What is the answer to this problem?

Apparently there are a total of 10 inspectors... but not all inspectors are certified to inspect everything.

This from the County government's web site for Permits and Inspections:

http://www.washco-md.net/washco_2/pdf_file...20Directory.pdf

and the Permits and Inspections Dept for the county is here:

http://www.washco-md.net/permits/permits.shtm

Isn't everything buyer beware?

Are there houses falling down around the county due to fixed inspections?

I would guess that there is not a single house in the county that was built 100% to code, ever read the code book there are things in it that I have never seen done around here.

As to the answer to this problem, I'm not so sure there is a problem.

I know several home owners that can defintley say there is a problem. I agree that the builder is the prime suspect but the inspector is supposed to at least enforce some sort of minimum standard. Why bother with inspectors at all. The county can just save money on payroll and health care costs if these peopel were not needed.

I for one am having to redo my flooring because it was so badly built. I am not a construction expert but I bet putting nails in the subfloor every 3rd floor joist and relying on glue to do the rest of the job should have been any easy thing to catch by an inspector. I can safely say there IS a problem based on experience and other houses I know about. But I guess the sloppy building practices are my fault.

At which inspection point would they even see the subfloor? Sorry, it's been 6 yrs since we built and since we didn't do it ourselves, I don't recall a subfloor inspection. I do know that I went round and round with an inspector recently as we finished out our basement. One inspector approved out rough electrical, then we did all the drywall and put paneling (nailed and glued) over that. A different inspector came for the final and said one of the outlets wasn't close enough to the door and we needed to add another one. It would be a night mare to tear out the walling and put in a new outlet, and why should we? If it wasn't caught during rough, that's not my problem. (It was only about a foot too far away from the door, but you would have thought that it was going to cause the house to explode.) Finally the guy conceded, and passed us. Now I thought the inspectors were being severely nitpicking. JHMO

This might be silly but what about snakes? Aren't they considered pests and part of the inspection? I had an inspector come from Hagerstown to my place and he scooted his butt down into my beloved "snake dungeon" before I purchased this house. He reported nothing of it but a week later I went down in there myself and subsequently fled for my life when I immediately saw a snake skin in plain view in the dungeon window. My dad's inspection 20 minutes later produced two snake skins and one tangle of two live black snakes dangling down from the ceiling.

Conversation with my neighbor later informed me that the house used to be infested with copperheads.

I kinna felt like that would have been a determining factor in my buying the house.

I thought the inspectors was there to make sure everything was being done up to code. If that's not so, then why have inspectors? What's this buyer beware? Is a buyer going to go though and check all the electrical work and plumbing. Not likely. They relied on the inspectors to make sure things are done up to code. I'm sure they might not be able to check every single thing.

If your building something on your property, the inspectors sure want to be there, telling you what's being done right and what is not.

So why should building a house be any different. Then I resident building a shed on their property. That's bull.

nbdynbdy, what would you suggest, should we hire more inspectors to count the nails in a house?

moms, they would see the subfloor during the framing inspection

Heather, The inspector probably thought the snakes were your pets.

sweetliberty2u, Caveat emptor

Yoss--
I found the same thing. I took down a light fixture in a bathroom only to find it had no junction box & they had put the wires onto the duct work for the a/c. I put in a junction box and mounted the light fixture on the outside of the wall...and then built the wall out..

And yes, when I put in a hot tub, the first guy said it was all fine, then the 2nd one comes out & makes the company move the electrical outlet from one side of the a/c box to the other, so now I have a stupid looking "U" on the outside of my house...when I asked the inspector why he did not catch it the first time he came out, he said, well, they still had to dig the ditch farther, so I stopped after that did not pass...

Alot of it seems to be who the inspector is who comes out. There are a few who are good, and some who appear to be just downright 'nasty' ...

Wonder if the builder would be respondible if there was a fired, because of the house wasn't wired right?