@@forgedabouted I saw a house that someone i know bought recently and it is still being built. I was amazed at the terrible quality of the framing. I know next to nothing about carpentry and i could have done a better job. There were all kinds of gaps that should not have been there, things were not even square, nails horribly placed etc. It was done by mexicans of course too so...
The house is actually per minimum code, the wind bracing per chapter 6 of the IRC gives several ways to it, one of the ways is outside sheeting, or OSB(wood structural sheathing) another way is to cross brace with in laid diagonal 1x4,, another is metal strapping,, and 1 way to do it is with the interior sheetrock, as long as you do the proper(more stringent) nailing pattern ....the house wrap meats ESR 3729(its printed on the house wrap) look it up,, it meets code for water resistance,,, no builder and I mean no builder including this guy doing the video, uses water proof material under the exterior finish of the house,, unless it's a cement material, such as rock, stucco, or EFIS... Now with that being said ,,,I do not suggest anyone buying a house that is built to minimum code ,,that is the worst possible way you can build a house,,, but what he is showing you meets minimum code.
This may meet code. I've been out of the business for about a decade. Keep in mind code is the minimum standard. As for building inspectors they are just a revenue stream for their municipalities. They hold absolutely no liability for anything. The county I live in didn't have a building codes department until 1992. I'm not saying they are bad people, many are nice guys, but they can only uphold what the book says. I'll bet that the builder has their own mortgage company and that's where they are making the money. I watch the national builders here play this game everyday. I wouldn't buy it. Ever.
I purchased a house in 2016 in Temple, TX and being a former electrician I discovered that the electricians ran 12 awg from the panel(s) and then at the first box switched everything to 14 awg and everything is on a 20 amp breaker and I let the city inspectors know what I discovered and they blew me off why you may ask? Because they NEVER had done a final electrical inspection or a occupancy permit for my house and they put 1” foam on the exterior of the house then put hardy plank siding over the foam board and this was a Omega home. These houses are put up cheap but charge you for a premium home
In my neck of the woods homes built like this have actually blown over during construction. Metal strapped framing and everything complete except for the cladding. 45 mph wind toppled them.
@@richardwaldron222 thats hard to estimate. depends on how much water it has trapped in it. in the spring a foot or two of snow getting rained on can weigh alot. a good stiff breeze when this house is loaded and the roof will turn 90 degrees as it falls on top of the homeowners and crush everything beneath it.
Looks like the job the builder did when our subdivision was built 40 years ago. They nailed Masonite siding directly onto the studs, messed up the roof (no expansion joints), lots were not graded properly for drainage and the water ran under the houses, warping the floors and causing all the insulation to fall off. One house was so bad that they just moved it off the lot and let the two neighbors divide the property. Plumbing was poorly done (the house next door the plumber had just stuck the elbow for the bathtub drain on and it fell off so everytime they took a bath all that water ran under the house). Builder refused to do anything, in fact, when the homeowners started figuring out what he had done, he and his wife sold out and moved to Florida. A lot of the homes out here were financed thru FmHA, so we got together with our Senator and FmHA was forced to pay for repairs, because their inspector didn't inspect..in our case he just came by after we had been there a week and asked if we had noticed any problems. The people who hadn't used FmHA were on their own for repair costs. Scary thing was, when the new contractor was replacing the siding, they knocked on the door and said they wanted me to see something. They showed me that when the siding had been nailed on, the 220 line from the breaker panel to the baseboard heater in the utility room had been severed by a nail and the stud was charred from the live wire being against it. They said it was lucky we didn't have the whole house burn down. We didn't use that heater so we had no clue that there was anything wrong.
I see this all the time. I've been in the garage door business for 38 years and Trac home builders buy the cheapest garage door they can find. Most are engineered designs that in the real world will not stand up to the engineered design pressures (windload code) The garage door is your 1st defence against hurricanes. I don't sell to Trac home builders for this reason and never will. Be involved in your new home build, Ask allot of questions
Calvin Thomas Funny how they use a 3/4" board for bucks and all the installers use 1 5/8" lags and not 3" lags! Aker Doors in Ham Lake Minnesota couldn't figure out why we were using so many 3" lags! We check all the backhangs for lag length and replace them if they are short going through sheet rock and or thin bucks over sheetrock. People just don't care. My point being,what good is windload when the jamb brackets and flags are barely anchored?
@@manyhammers5944 I know what you mean. I've had some wanting to mount on top of sheetrock and I won't do it. They say, There's 2x6 under the rock. That's fine. No it's not. It's against code and over time the sheetrock crushes under the brackets. Shame on them.
I had to strip my house down to the studs. And I have to find several support missing off on the beam. And most supports either shrunk or cut short and the beam is supported only by the nails. Even the building inspector won’t find them, since these are behind the drywall.
I don’t even call the woven paper a Waterproofing. If you want a good air and water barrier 40 mill self adhering membrane all the way around, again install properly will get a good sealed home. Just in case you’re concern with permeability they make permeable and non permeable membranes.
Hey there! We are building a custom home near San Antonio. We took a while to find our builder. We break ground 2-3weeks. I saw below you recommended a few books to read, I’ll be doing that for sure. However now I feel we need to go back to square one with making sure our builder is legit, doesn’t plan on putting cheap material in our home..
Those codes would not fly at all where I’m from in south Louisiana. We have hurricanes! When we built in 2010 our entire house inside and outside has solid sheathing, even the ceilings! There are 4 foot footings in the slab and every inside and outside corner has metal straps from the footings to where the roof ties in. After watching this video I am so thankful my house isn’t built like these!
My 150 year old Gothic Revival is constructed like that. I had racoons in my eaves and a baby racoon was playing pawsies with my cat from between some loose clapboards. I'm out in the country. The house seems to be constructed more like a barn than a house.
Disgusting, upsetting, and concerning. Another beautiful chunk of green space destroyed so these fly by night builders can come in, slap together a vinyl box neighborhood, take the money and run. It's all done so that housing starts numbers look good, even when the economy isn't that great, while spending the bare minimum; after they're built, the company is dissolved and countless people are left with 30 years worth of mortgage payments on homes where the foundations fail and the whole structure starts taking on water within 5 years and they have no recourse. Meanwhile, entire cities countrywide are plagued with blighted neighborhoods full of existing abandoned homes, but no one cares to rehab those, or tear them down and rebuild to provide affordable, adequate housing in an existing footprint to the masses, because it doesn't look good on paper or in "someone's" bank account. This is an outrageous epidemic. When will people get wise that a brand new house is almost guaranteed to be junk, and stop buying them? Wake up people! Buy older existing homes, invest your money into rehab and updates. Stop feeding the pig, and fight back against these mass built neighborhoods before we are left with no grass, fields, or trees anywhere! The only way to fix this is to stop handing over money to these idiotic frauds on the speculation that it's brand new, so it should be fine!
Here in Texas it is easy to pay way to much. And if you just verify all parts of a build you can stop getting screwed over. Also shop around have your builder take you to a current job he is doing
I’m honestly shocked. I’m building a new house now and they sheath them. I honestly cannot imagine that not being the case. Wild. There’s some other issues I have with builders in the area. Generally low quality or quick work, but I’ve had enough experience to know what to call them out on. The code guys don’t do a good job here at catching stuff. They don’t seem to care, but unfortunately for my builder, I know the codes and I will make them hold to them.
Wow reading through all these comments and I did not realize how many building engineers and construction inspectors we had in this nation. And I am sure each and every one of you has had your current house re built to your extreme standard that go beyond code....
I am a master electrician and I can tell you that a lot of electrical codes are pushed by manufactures. I am not saying that the codes don't make things safer or more energy efficient but there is no way in hell a lot of codes have had a real cost benefit analysis done on them. In new office space we now have to automatically turn off 1/2 of the receptacles. It can be done with a time clock or an occupancy sensor. Most engineers are now making us switch 1 half of a duplex. All this is doing is teaching users to bring in plug strips and ignore the switched receptacle. Did that code save energy? Hell no it used more because now I have to use a receptacle that is marked specially and 2 times a normal receptacle, I have to run an extra conductor to each outlet in an office and our clients now use plug strips everywhere or they have their maintenance guy by pass the relay controlling the receptacle.
well some codes frankly are, others are not. things like afci/ GFCI but not making higher amp ones so you could just use one to feed a subpanel, and at the same time upping number of circuits required etc. some places requiring garages to meet air and insulation codes before they will let you put an occasional use heating system in etc.
Sheathing is a code requirement for wind load demand. I don't know of any area in the country where sheathing is allowed to be replaced with diagonal strapping. Lousy construction.
OMG - I've seen OSB dropped in favor of stuff like ThermoPly due to cost (I still don't like structural ThermoPly either - seems like overglorified cardboard), but I haven't seen a builder drop sheathing completely....
@@JordanSmithBuilds i know crazy! I lived in England for a few years and they referred to wood construction as "substandard" it was even hard to get a loan on a wood house. They build everything with block and brick.
WoW. Just WoW. I work for a company delivering Materials to jobsites just like this one. I often wonder what the build quality is on these homes. Now in the jobsites defense that I deliver to, I see way better quality materials installed from the get go. OSB wall panels with green zip board installed and taped. Things like that. But some jobsites look just like this one. I feel bad for the homebuyer in a place like the one on this video. Keep exposing the bad and maybe things will change.
An experienced carpenter would look at this and tell the developer they were lacking sufficient mental capacity to simply open a door on a building competently, let alone design and build them... though, most likely, using a mixture of sardonic euphemisms and crude slang that'd glide nicely over the heads of developers disguised as some kind of quaint construction flunky jargon. ... not that I have any first-hand experience to that effect. I'll never understand why certification of construction trades is reserved for absolutely every trade but for the the one responsible for actually building structures.
Jordan, watched a series of videos following the construction of a 800k home. Questioned them about using min code applications and if they tested any of their windows before installing... this was their reply, and I cannot wrap my head around it. IT IS SOOO BAD!! "Nothing above code is a good thing correct, These Pella windows are great Thanks for watching"
Thats wild. In Louisiana they charge an arm and leg and build stuff similar but not as flimsy. The mexicans who build it all laugh because thats what they're allowed to get away with. Never seen so many warped walls in my life.
You have to alert the code enforcement.....no way that meets code .I've never heard of that being legal in any state.there not enough lateral Bracing.....lateral bracing is bad enough.its very important....but if a stray bullet or a high powered break barrel bb gun comes their way,its going right through that vynle....and if that house wraps leaks and if they didn't use some weatherproofing tape around the windows and openings its gonna leak and mold all over.vynle siding was created as a method of going over existing painted and puttied and caulked remodeling jobs .the old dated exterior was meant to be left saving time ,money....vynle siding will leak.at every opening or but joint ...I see it put up in new construction everywhere.I use it myself....but I seem to be the only builder in town that waterproofs underneath.its more costly for a quality membrane and waterproofing tape.the joints should be taped or overlapped a large amount as well.also you never should put a joint in the siding above another joint anywhere close to below.its gonna leak in those joints.that's fine as long as it waterproofed under neath and water can drain out. In my local code area,and most states as well,they aloww you to put a wafer or cardboard,known as blackboard over the studs....i put plywood everywhere or durock,or lath and 2 or 3 masonary scratch coats over waterproofed house wrap if stuccoing or stoning or brick......if billy down the street with a pellet gun could send one Into my sleeping baby or child's temple through the walls and injure and possible kill them then I couldn't rest peacefully day or night in that house.people get killed by accidental stray small and large caliber bullets all the time.and they go through thicker stronger walls and doors than this set up.imagine how more likely it is to happen with 1 \16inch plastic vynyle siding and some paper...better hope it hits a 2by 4....
I was thinking of a new build (cookie cutter houses) but no development in my area that I could find would sheath the entire house. They just hope that just the ends of the house is all you need. This is a majority of the houses in my area. I'll buy a brick home and renovate it myself. At least the brick homes from the '50s were built proper.
I've been building since 2002, quality is about the same. The difference is back then you got a crappy house for a cheap price. Now they are selling the crappy houses for about the same price as an expensive home so builders are more likely to build a crappy home.
$450k cash on payment $680k for crappy houses using plastic water lines not copper and plastic electric extension not metal conduit cheap is possible to make a bunch profit
@@TeslaBoy123 I recently converted my entire plumbing system from copper to pex, it’s a better system, especially for the homeowner. Copper pipe can burst under colder climate temperatures, pex will not. It’s significantly easier to manage as a homeowner long term as well. Plastic conduit meets electrical code with todays standards and is definite a long term option, not sure why you’d NEED metal conduit of plastic does why is needed.
Velislide builders like this make all other builders look bad. They know what they can cut corners on and do just to make a dollar. Pretty sad that those greedy bastards don’t care about the product or the consumer.
Its not just in the USA, its the same here in the UK and probably most countries. You cant lay all the blame on the cowboy builders though, if the authorities let them get away with it they will. I wouldn't have a new house given. All the properties i have ever owned have all been over 200 years old and will be standing 200 years after this modern crap has fallen down.
contractor built houses are not secure and safe. When I started billing my home in 1966, I made the foundation reinforced with rebar and crankshaft and 3 feet thick. 2x8 walls solid braced with 3/4 pressure treat plywood sheathing screwed in with 2" intervals. Lag bolts hold framing together. 2x12 roof joists. Ends of roof have 3/16" steel plates sandwiched by 2x12s. It was a lot of work but it survived several hurricanes and a couple of tornadoes while neighborhood homes were demolished.
We need more videos like this to educate the public on what's really going on behind the walls. I built my own homes all my life because these corporate developers are the biggest cheap crooks out there, and I just plain like building quality houses. They take an expensive piece of real estate and build Trash on it. It's like this everywhere where there is a developer involved.Time and time again I witness shoddy workmanship that gets passed just because the inspector says "we only inspect to make sure the building is safe and to code" Most buyers who don't know any better only looks at cosmetics and not what's holding it together. Thanks Jordan for this video. Please keep it up. These greedy developers need to be exposed! Want to hear something ironic? The last quality home I built, the inspector told me that this was one of the best built homes he's ever seen but I am afraid that since you built your own home, it does not quality for the Ontario New Home Owners Insurance Program". But the crap like Jordan showed you in this video does. The construction industry is going nowhere fast!
As your fellow Canadian, a carpenter-contractor for 56 yrs, I'm astonished they can build a house for $150 square foot! Here in BC we estimate the average new house comes in at $350 a sq ft. I may build a carport for that, but not much else! Good night and good luck, from beautiful Esquimalt BC.
@@josephefasciani7343 I finished my last build in CO in 2010 at 60/ft2. Of course I did most of the work myself, but the numbers you are talking about are perplexing...
We had these public figures a long time ago during the dark ages, they were called investigative reporters that would do anything to get the real story, they have reached extinction, can they be saved?!?!?
Retired carpenter here. I live in a 100 year old farmhouse built out of solid oak. All rafters, framing, side sheathing, basement stairs - -- all old growth oak. Hard to drive a nail into it without pre-drilling. The lumber sold today in the big box stores is basically firewood.
Spackle, caulk and paint,,,,, make you what you aint. I have been in the construction industry for 41 years, just retired. I understand lots of folks not liking building codes, but they are there to protect the unknowing and clueless. Inspections, specifications and liscensing of of contractors will build a better product. Quality does not cost, quality pays.
Neil Lee That’s great that you install more than what’s required, and of course you are also familiar with the requirements by code and each siding manufacturer,Hardi etc. Nice to see guys going beyond for the sake of their customer.
That was commonly done for house clad in T1-11 siding decades ago. Its rated to be both sheathing and siding, but obviously sucks at being a water barrier and for air sealing.
@@bigpjohnson There was a house across the street that when the people moved out I walked over and was able to put my hand though the T 1 11 siding and right into the house. It has since been re roofed and double walled re constructed, the right way.
After 15 yrs working in the residential building industry for multiple companies building anywhere from one hundred-several hundred homes per year as builder as welll as a new home warranty Rep I can tell you i chose to leave the industry for reasons just as this episode states . the industry in itself is overwhelmed with the least sellable quality at the and sold at the highest possible price.The owners of the compaines ive worked would never live in the quality of homes they built. but made lots of money from those that did. We all understand buisness and profit but the amount of corners cut to increase profits never ends in this industry from what ive seen
In my 30 years in the business I've never before seen a house with no sheer wall installed anywhere. Even Hardi will tell you their siding is not approved for sheer wall! What a bunch of hacks!
my house built in 1987 siding nailed to stud walls, not even a vapor barrier. its T111 siding so its similar to sheathing but imagine no vapor barrier and just sheathing on studs than slap a coat of sears weatherbeater on it and call it good.
@@Mikej1592 T-111= approved for shear wall applications. Lap siding, not so much. A separate plastic vapor barrier is not required if craft faced insulation is used, which was common place in the 80's.
@@jeffscott3160 I see, interesting to know, thanks for that. I do wish there was more than a 2x4 wall for insulation because my neighbors are noisy assholes but at least it is within 1987 code. we've only lived here 2 years and already looking for a new house, this area sucks.
I recently worked on a house built in the sixties that had cedar siding nailed directly to the studs, no sheathing. They did have tar paper and insulation, but you could feel the cold air blowing in from outside anywhere we had to repair the sheetrock. Another recent project was a 1937 home with lap siding, no WRB, no sheathing, but shiplap on the inside of the walls for sheer. There was no insulation in that case and no mold at all in an 80-year old house.
That wrap is not designed to be water tight. It is classified as vapour-permeable-membrane, and here in Australia we use it instead of a waterproof membrane for a reason. It allows the building to dry out from the inside out. I saw a comment above about black mould being in the walls within a few years. Nine times out of ten mould will grow when moisture is trapped and has no where to go. But where is the biggest threat from moisture ingress into walls? It’s from the humans living inside. The moisture comes form all the cooking showering and most of all breathing, that we humans love to do all day long. This warm and humid air wants to get outside just as much as the cold air wants to get inside. This produces condensation on the colder outer layer of the wall system, in this case the Hardie siding. Having a waterproof layer will only cause this condensate to remain in the walls and grow mould.
@jifffy999 He's not criticizing you, just educating you, and he is 100% correct. The day to day activities that take place inside the home introduce a ton of moisture into the house. It has to be able to dry to the outside. Controlling moisture from the outside is about keeping bulk water out of the structure. That is the job of the roof, siding, and flashing first, then, as a backup, the housewrap. If it's getting to the housewarming, that's indicative of other issues with the aforementioned systems.
@@MichaelBarnes-ey7sjWalls, (sheathing), don't keep moisture or bulk water out. The absence of sheathing is more problematic from a structural perspective than a moisture barrier perspective. Even if it was sheathed, unless it's the Zip System, the housewrap is your back up bulk water barrier anyway. It is the job of the roof, flashing, and siding to keep bulk water out of the structure. The sheathing doesn't really do that. It's not supposed to. If sheathing is your only barrier to bulk water, you haven't done anything correctly.
It’s already happened here in Indianapolis this past winter. Literally knocked over a chimney like the only thing holding it on the house was the vinyl siding 🤦🏻♂️
Im here in SW corner of Iowa and that was my first thought too, plus rain and snow never come down, they fall SIDEWAYS, that stuff would be coming right through those walls o.o
That's why I just sheathed this house near Chicago when I did new siding, for the wind loads. The weather is getting crazier and we keep seeing more and more high wind advisories.
Back in the 90's I worked for a readymix company and we were selling concrete to a builder in Newtown Pa (Pricey area). I was visiting the jobsite and looking at the houses. There was no sheathing. I remember thinking that you could probably break into them through the wall using a steak knife
I've had the same kind of thought about low end houses around here that at times use Bilt-Rite, a fiberboard sheathing product. When you put vinyl siding on that all you'd need is a utility knife to go right through a wall between studs...
To make things worse, a drywall guy on the job told me all the other trades on the job give them a couple bucks to clean up all their trash and they throw it in the walls before they put up the last sheets of drywall. There was a big sign in front of the development that said starting at $249,900. At the time that was a lot of money. I think they were building about six houses per acre
I'm right next door in Yardley and I've watched newer developments go up like that. The easiest way to break into these houses is definitely just cutting through the siding.
I've been a "remodeling and repair" carpenter for many years. I get to see all the things that "didn't work". Thankfully I have never come across a house like this. No only were there no diagonal braces there was no "fire blocking" in any of the walls. I don't care about the code not calling for fire blocking it is a really important feature for many reasons.
@@bonez747 watch the video, the WRB was attached directly to the studs WITHOUT SHEATHING. Yes people who know what they're doing do OSB or plywood. They used diagonal metal straps on the garage ceiling which still doesn't address wind shear.
I didn’t see any fire blocking any where or fire caulking of any kind…. In Michigan we are required to have fire blocks on all electrical lines…. Also you need something like ply or osb against those studs the water damage is gonna be a problem after a few years ….. we used 1/2 osb with Tyvek wrap…..I hope like he said they will do the flashing well otherwise the water issue is gonna be a very serious one in no time
Dude, I'm not even in the home construction industry. But his is some good info for first time home buyers. If you stick to providing excellent information, for lay people. I swear your gonna be as big as Chris fix ( car automotive channel) . He has over 2.5 million subscribers
Joshua Hodge ...True but this house will stripped to the bone long before the storm becomes reasonably strong. A good fart will blow the clapboards off the side.
Joshua Hodge ...Once the sub floors are nailed in, and pray they use plywood over OSB (which I doubt), there will be rigidity to the structure but building a house without siding should be against building codes. It must be noisy af when you're in the house. My shed is built better.
I do ICF’s and the lot I’m building on is in a development where lots go for 150k+. I don’t see how those homes are 250 unless their cutting serious corners.
And guess what...when the sod is ready to be installed they'll just take a bobcat and bury everything half ass and place the sod on top. A few months later youll notice the lawn has never grown in properly. You try to claim warranty on it and they'll just say oh well living plant were not responsible after closing. Just went through that and had to dig up my entire lawn. Found all sorts of crap they tried to bury.
What a crazy waste of resources to build this trash. There are so many beautiful old homes around me built over 100 years ago that will probably stand for 100 more. Nothing special, just well-built homes. And then there is this crap that only has to last just long enough to where the developers don't get sued. It's sad. Thanks for making this video, it's great to know what's out there!
@@NexusCapital What I'm saying is that these homes will never last and see generations of families. They will just get bulldozed and more cheap trash will be built on the lot. If I can pull your siding off and reach my arm through the wall and into your home it's garbage.
@@NexusCapital They definitely had concrete foundations. They leak, but you could fix that if you ever replace the siding. Why should we be building homes in 2019 that leak more than a house from 1919? Plus the concrete from 1919 is legit and you don't have to worry about a builder pouring weak concrete to save money.
@@_PatrickO We build really solid houses here in western Wa State so I dont know what you are talking about. Ive flipped 12 homes in the last few years and remodeled all of them my self. By far the worst construction has been pre 1960 homes. They are all crooked, drafty and clearly did not have inspectors much less building codes. Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about. My experience with old houses has been so bad I won't even buy them anymore. 1980s+ are dreams to work on I love them.
@@NexusCapital I'm not knowledgeable at all but stuff build after WWII definitely went up fast and probably of much cheaper materials that what you see pre Great Depression. The stuff before the economy and war issues at least had great character, skill & craftmanship even if it was a starter home.
This is part of the reason I quit my last job with a home builder. I was a complete novice. But I was not comfortable with some of the shortcuts that we were taking. I’ve seen stuff like this before. The sloppy job site outside is telling as well.
@@SpringScapes nah. I just walked away one day. But I do wish I could’ve hung in there longer. He was a new builder, but I did learn a lot on that job. And he had even offered to help me get my license as well. It just wasn’t a good work environment. But no job is perfect.
Sara H --> Hey! That builder had to pay huge bribes to the inspectors for turning their backs on these mold pits. This is America, that's how things work, Damn it.
This video is for the people that thinks that" Jordan, Matt and Co. just bragging about the way they build things" , and "the expenses aren't really worth it" . This a clear example of developing companies cutting corners to make a quick buck at the expenses of an ignorant home buyer. Thank you for the video.
My husband showed me a brand new house today that had this product on it. I had no idea. It was raining and I touched it and it was swollen with moisture. I had no idea you could even do this. The houses were beautiful but they will never last. I got home and looked it up to find your video. You are absolutely spot on about this.
I brought my new construction home last year. My builder was a self employed mom and pop business.. got a inspection and was told the builder went above and beyond code... and my builder made himself available to me if anything came up he stood by the quality of his work.... when I first started looking at builders I noticed the large companies over charged and did substandard work
Buy older homes!!! It pays to upgrade electric and plumbing when you're getting a well built home in an established neighborhood!!! Common sense people!!!!
To me, another good sign that you didn't mention is the cleanliness of the job site. The places you visited looked like trash dumps. That translates to a slovenly approach to everything else and would turn me off.
I thought that as well. I did low voltage for a long time and most places I went to pull wire where very organized. High rises to housing developments. There where a few time the places where crappy but they where far apart.
Looks like a Chinese construction site. At least in China they have the excuse that every night, random people will be picking up the scrap wood for their charcoal business, taking the damaged bricks to make a sidewalk, selling the scrap steel & plastic to recyclers, etc. Mind you, I suppose this building site is remote enough that it doesn't really matter, as long as it's not dangerous to the crew.
@@jeffreyquinn3820 In America the poor pick new construction clean for copper and panels. These look nothing like any type of Asian construction. I kinda just think you wanted some reason to bash China.
I've been to hundreds of track home build sites in nor cal, they all looked like that. And the construction methods made me cringe, and I know very little about it. One thing that always bothered me was the use of the simpson style plate ties that require no nails(?), they just have little spikes on them. Those were used everywhere (on joins, sorry not sure what the technical name is), with no nails. Not sure how those hold together for 30 to 40 years. Btw, i delivered hvac materials, and every job sight was an absolute nightmare to get into, just piles of garbage everywhere (and no offense, but no one even spoke English). Flex duct was the only thing used, except for maybe some short runs of riser (for vent hoods or to go through narrow areas) or b-vent for gas exhaust.
I'm glad to hear good things about the a/c and electrical. I'm sure that will help when the freaking house collapses because of a 60 mph like what happened to northwest Texas about 2 weeks ago. My house built in 1943 with a steel roof didn't have any damage.
Why would having strips of osb be any less strong than sheets of it? This definitely isn't a new practice. Builders have been using a structural siding for decades. I wouldn't want that kind of work, but it meets code.
As a Firefighter this is concerning. The rack control or should I say lack of rack control is suprising. Note how they went good install on the AC, it's to pump all the air through the house as it leaks out of every crack. I'm sure the sheet rock is all the rack control a house needs hahahaha........
That's actually something Jordan missed, the siding isn't going to give it any appreciable racking strength but the drywall will. It's not like that's going to come close to the racking strength you get from sheathing a house with 1/2" plywood but I can see how they might be able to get the racking strength that it's engineered for with the drywall.
I was a mechanical inspector years ago. I inquired about buying a new home in the subdivision they were developing. The superintendent of the subdivision flat out told me, you don't want one of these homes. Same cheap practices.
I would never trust drywall for rack strength. For a properly secured build, it can add some strength, but it’s just icing on the cake, so to speak. Also, these thin straps with the few screws or nails, offer very little in strength for a house. They’ll snap off if the shear exceeds the strength of the fastener in, what I presume is wood. The strap itself can shear at the fastener holes. This looks like really thin stuff. In addition, they offer absolutely no resistance at all. The house will fall, but the ceilings, lying on the ground, might still be square.
Unfortunately I've been encountering the same thing with multi million dollar houses here in SoCal. One client has a brand new $2 mill Toll Brothers house with an improperly flashed door that leaked and they don't know how to fix properly, keep trying to caulk it. We also discovered the bathroom exhaust vents were never penetrated through the roof, just died into the sheathing. Another brand new $1 mill CalAtlantic home that I opened up a wall in and saw mold behind it forcing remediation, home owner hadn't even moved in yet. This is exactly where I get my passion to want to become a production builder, I am so upset by what the builders are getting away with at any price point. They skimp on the couple extra $ to make the home right, of which this market will gladly pay if they educate them on the difference. There is no reason tract homes have to be crap homes.
Toll brother's build million dollar track homes their superintendents don't know their ass from their elbow I've worked on these homes There is no excuse why they can't build a quality home that will last.just pay your subs better and make sure they understand the building codes
@@artnouveau4332 the superintendent on my parents home in NJ (toll brothers) had some mental deficits and a permanent twitch due to acid consumption in the 70s... this is the kind of quality people they have working there.
John Burger Maybe you are onto something, how many tradesman do you know have made learning the Building Codes as important as learning their trade. Any tradesman that takes the time to do so can be head and shoulders above the rest seems to me.
Great video. My question though, for someone that really has no building expertise, or is just the typical DIY-er, what are the main things to look for to find a quality-built house? Also, do you know any major builders that talk about (and follow through) quality work from their perspective?
That house will have black mold within a year. That is insanity that hardy board is the only thing between the outside and inside! Lol criminals could break into your home in between the studs just by smashing some hardy board! 😳
No insanity is the electric and gas bill for that house each month if it isn't properly insulated then that means you are going to have a $500 or more bill! How does paying a gas/electric bill of $1,000 sound to you!😱
My house in Swansea Massachusetts was built in 1912 and is still standing strong. It’s been through some major hurricanes with little to no damage. Southern yellow pine construction 😊 I’m in the construction industry and know what I bought 20yrs ago. I could never build anything like what you are showing and sleep at night. Feel badly for the young families strapped in a huge mortgage for those cardboard boxes.
Same here, but that's pretty universal for every major home builder, though. They all have a corporate cookie cutter process and use the same suppliers and subcontactors regardless of house. Go into a new D.R. Horton subdivision of $160k Express homes and go into a new D.R. Horton subdivision of $400k luxury homes, and the build quality is identical... They're using the same framers, same plumbers, same electricians, etc, all lowest bidders. Even some furnishings you'll find a lot of similarities, because they purchase in bulk...for instance interior bedroom doors and hardware may be identical, or appliances, vanities, etc. When you buy an expensive luxury home with a large corporate home builder, really you're just paying more for extra square footage, different architecture, and upgraded exterior material.
Several years ago I saw a custom home built like that in SE Wisconsin, just 12 miles North of the tornado belt. That home was a show home, had a full basketball court in the basement, some weird textured drywall finishes, and they were extremely proud of what they had built. I thought that it was a huge joke.
Everything built in Arizona post mid to late 80's has two strikes going against it. 1) Flimsy cheap construction like seen in this video. and 2) It's almost certainly going to be in an HOA.
😂 But such a bargain... I guess the buyer's next home will be mainly duct tape. If they can afford that after paying for a cardboard and plaster model of a house.
That's true. My dad built a house in 93, I remember the delays because the inspectors couldn't get there. One okayed th septic on the phone. The lateral were running uphill, I knew that was wrong, pooled water from the start. His permit for a driveway was never inspected, but our county officials are lazy.
Once outside of city limits, inspections become rarer and rarer. You might get a local fire dept to do a basic electrical inspection, but that's about it. Seeing as those houses are in a field, there might not be much in the way of permitting and inspections.
I pour alot of footings and slabs for these home. Our company delivers a quality product but the finishers wet the concrete up way to much. The footing calls for a 5" slump 3000psi and the finishers make me pour it at a 8" to 10" slump. The slabs are pretty much the same way 3500psi 5" slump but pour at 7" slump. Each gallon of water added to the concrete reduces the strength.
Keith B it will come back and fall on the builders structural warranty which is 10 years in most places. Problem is proving concrete was poured wrong. Concrete is going to crack, we can’t prevent that at all but we can tell it where to crack with saw cuts and expansion joints. As long as it’s not shifting, a crack poses no problems for a home and that is the reason we use rebar to hold everything together. And you must have a good waterproofing and drainage system away from the concrete as well. If all those key elements are in place then a cracked concrete wall or slab will be stable, and will not leak but if anything is left out of the equation then the homeowner will have problems starting in year 2
@@gn4720 No, higher slump is a wetter mix. 0 slump concrete doesn't flow at all. Highest slump I've ever seen was 10.5". It was grey water with 1.5" rocks in it...
Getting worse. First home, I had pre-construction. I went by regularly from the time the slab was laid until the house was finished and brought my video camera everytime. So they built my first home properly. For my second current home, I made sure it was not a new build because the quality of these so-called new homes are not only garbage but might as well have used paper clips and stick figures 😂
Crikey, those homes must be the one location in the US without hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. What's to hold that damn house together or to the foundation? Flimsy strapping in the ceiling doesn't do squat. That worthless wrap is probably a blessing in disguise as that home will likely rot before it gets destroyed by a big storm
In my former spec home Community neighborhood. One of the housing inspectors visited a job site leaned up on the outside of the house expecting sheathing and went right through like the Kool-Aid Man because it was foam board against the stud walls eventually vinyl siding over that. Until I met that house I didn't know houses could be built with anything other than wood sheathing .
As a general rule, you don't have to wrap the entirety of a house in plywood or OSB. It's not a bad idea, and there are benefits to it, but it is not necessary for a proper moisture barrier or for structural strength. That being said, the COMPLETE lack of wood sheeting is concerning.
teraxiel Isn’t it supposed to be sheathed with plywood on each corner to maintain lateral stability? Those ceiling straps in the garage won’t address this. Scary if lateral stability isn’t addressed and that the homeowner won’t be aware of it. 🤦♂️
Don't buy those pieces of 💩. They have some in Utah, too and they have major issues. Now... They are cheaper but u get what u pay for. Good luck my friends
@@Minecraftizawsom Absolutly, why would you think for a min that it is ANY of your business what someone else wants to live in. I live in a 20ft camper 1/3 of the year by choice, and you think you should have some right to deny me that? Get a life and mined your own.
Jordan, I’m a retired architect and fully agree with your review of the tract construction. Moisture control, whether at walls or windows, is truly crappy. In which state is this being built?
My farmhouse was built in the 1890's and has dimensional lumber, 1" tongue and groove exterior and interior sheeting. Also, cedar exterior siding. Plaster and lathe interior walls. Still as solid as the day it was built.
Yes. I build with only dimensional lumber and plywood. I don't use one piece of osb anywhere in the houses I build. I'll never understand why builders would use osb in a damp climate where I build. You're just asking for problems down the road.
@@jamie.777 that can easily be removed or painted over. The lead doesn't radiate into the air, (unless its flaking off) it has to be ingested to affect someone
Great expose. I’m an architect and have often alerted folks to questionable build quality that’s not always obvious to a casual visual inspection. There must have been building inspectors present during the construction of these homes. What did they sign off on? Thanks for this video. You’re doing a valuable public service.
Uh... is there not even any nogging in the walls? Woven plastic sheathing with hardiboard only, no racking? Are there not applicable engineering standards for a house that won't blow over in a stiff breeze or go up in flames like a roman candle? Someone had to sign off on the architectural plan...
How does this pass energy star? There is no way that the HVAC can qualify, not with that much air leakage! At least they used a proper header above the garage doors. I often see 2x4s stacked as a header.
Very few builders build to energy star standards. In Dallas Fort Worth it is only a handful of builders that are energy star certified on every home. Most do not build to any energy protocol.
@@urbanplanner7200 New houses should be as air tight as possible. It's a myth that a house has to breathe. It's a complete waste of energy (which means tons of money).
In central California, Visalia mainly there are tons on these match stick homes built on old farmland. Now it makes me think of all the chemicals these home owner's and their families are subjected to.
John Kugelfischer, mind blowing man. I know the cities water is tainted but completely over looked how flammable these properties could be. So much for a happy home.
Thanks for holding your phone in landscape mode it makes a huge difference.
SOLD as is, where is! Engineered to be recycled by a Tornado. Builder takes the money and RUNNNNNNN
You mean RUN$$$$$$$$$$$.
And thats why i pay so much to live in California
Dont have to worry about tornadoes here
I think this is the fault of the government, I don’t blame the builder one bit, it should be the government that regulates this
Fast 😂
Well, to be fair, any home would be recycled by a tornado regardless of it's engineering. But these homes suck for sure.
You are an ANGEL for bringing this to the public knowledge.!!!
The cost of putting plywood is not that much , and where is the building inspector for framing .
at the golf course enjoying his payoff
@@forgedabouted I saw a house that someone i know bought recently and it is still being built. I was amazed at the terrible quality of the framing. I know next to nothing about carpentry and i could have done a better job. There were all kinds of gaps that should not have been there, things were not even square, nails horribly placed etc. It was done by mexicans of course too so...
The house is actually per minimum code, the wind bracing per chapter 6 of the IRC gives several ways to it, one of the ways is outside sheeting, or OSB(wood structural sheathing) another way is to cross brace with in laid diagonal 1x4,, another is metal strapping,, and 1 way to do it is with the interior sheetrock, as long as you do the proper(more stringent) nailing pattern ....the house wrap meats ESR 3729(its printed on the house wrap) look it up,, it meets code for water resistance,,, no builder and I mean no builder including this guy doing the video, uses water proof material under the exterior finish of the house,, unless it's a cement material, such as rock, stucco, or EFIS... Now with that being said ,,,I do not suggest anyone buying a house that is built to minimum code ,,that is the worst possible way you can build a house,,, but what he is showing you meets minimum code.
I am a old builder and one thing I have learned in over 50 years in the trade is that "the cheap man pays the most".
This may meet code. I've been out of the business for about a decade. Keep in mind code is the minimum standard. As for building inspectors they are just a revenue stream for their municipalities. They hold absolutely no liability for anything. The county I live in didn't have a building codes department until 1992. I'm not saying they are bad people, many are nice guys, but they can only uphold what the book says. I'll bet that the builder has their own mortgage company and that's where they are making the money. I watch the national builders here play this game everyday. I wouldn't buy it. Ever.
I purchased a house in 2016 in Temple, TX and being a former electrician I discovered that the electricians ran 12 awg from the panel(s) and then at the first box switched everything to 14 awg and everything is on a 20 amp breaker and I let the city inspectors know what I discovered and they blew me off why you may ask? Because they NEVER had done a final electrical inspection or a occupancy permit for my house and they put 1” foam on the exterior of the house then put hardy plank siding over the foam board and this was a Omega home. These houses are put up cheap but charge you for a premium home
In my neck of the woods homes built like this have actually blown over during construction. Metal strapped framing and everything complete except for the cladding. 45 mph wind toppled them.
Lol in Florida we have better built trailers strapped to the ground that look safer to stay a storm in.
saw that happen here in kalispell mt. last summer.... stuff built like this iant gonna last in snow country!!
@@lukewarmwater6412 how heavy does snow weigh on a roof? I've always wondered.
@@richardwaldron222 thats hard to estimate. depends on how much water it has trapped in it. in the spring a foot or two of snow getting rained on can weigh alot. a good stiff breeze when this house is loaded and the roof will turn 90 degrees as it falls on top of the homeowners and crush everything beneath it.
In my neck of the woods (USA-MI) they'd freeze
Looks like the job the builder did when our subdivision was built 40 years ago. They nailed Masonite siding directly onto the studs, messed up the roof (no expansion joints), lots were not graded properly for drainage and the water ran under the houses, warping the floors and causing all the insulation to fall off. One house was so bad that they just moved it off the lot and let the two neighbors divide the property.
Plumbing was poorly done (the house next door the plumber had just stuck the elbow for the bathtub drain on and it fell off so everytime they took a bath all that water ran under the house).
Builder refused to do anything, in fact, when the homeowners started figuring out what he had done, he and his wife sold out and moved to Florida. A lot of the homes out here were financed thru FmHA, so we got together with our Senator and FmHA was forced to pay for repairs, because their inspector didn't inspect..in our case he just came by after we had been there a week and asked if we had noticed any problems. The people who hadn't used FmHA were on their own for repair costs.
Scary thing was, when the new contractor was replacing the siding, they knocked on the door and said they wanted me to see something. They showed me that when the siding had been nailed on, the 220 line from the breaker panel to the baseboard heater in the utility room had been severed by a nail and the stud was charred from the live wire being against it. They said it was lucky we didn't have the whole house burn down. We didn't use that heater so we had no clue that there was anything wrong.
I see this all the time.
I've been in the garage door business for 38 years and Trac home builders buy the cheapest garage door they can find.
Most are engineered designs that in the real world will not stand up to the engineered design pressures (windload code)
The garage door is your 1st defence against hurricanes.
I don't sell to Trac home builders for this reason and never will.
Be involved in your new home build, Ask allot of questions
Calvin Thomas Funny how they use a 3/4" board for bucks and all the installers use 1 5/8" lags and not 3" lags!
Aker Doors in Ham Lake Minnesota couldn't figure out why we were using so many 3" lags! We check all the backhangs for lag length and replace them if they are short going through sheet rock and or thin bucks over sheetrock. People just don't care.
My point being,what good is windload when the jamb brackets and flags are barely anchored?
@@manyhammers5944 I know what you mean.
I've had some wanting to mount on top of sheetrock and I won't do it.
They say, There's 2x6 under the rock.
That's fine.
No it's not.
It's against code and over time the sheetrock crushes under the brackets.
Shame on them.
Calvin Thomas We know the jambs are going to loosen up. I'm self employed and I hate my job some days.
19 years experience.
I had to strip my house down to the studs. And I have to find several support missing off on the beam. And most supports either shrunk or cut short and the beam is supported only by the nails. Even the building inspector won’t find them, since these are behind the drywall.
I don’t even call the woven paper a Waterproofing. If you want a good air and water barrier 40 mill self adhering membrane all the way around, again install properly will get a good sealed home.
Just in case you’re concern with permeability they make permeable and non permeable membranes.
That type of build doesn't happen in north Florida anymore thank God but I've seen it in the past.
We build garden sheds this way in the uk 🇬🇧
in the USA we build garden sheds with granite counter top . ( we call then house )
My garden shed is built better than that!
Does your garden shed have a tin roof to collect rain water?
in the uk 🇬🇧 they will have live in garden sheds after brexit....
N C plenty of room in your country for all of us , as you let anyone live there
Hey there! We are building a custom home near San Antonio. We took a while to find our builder. We break ground 2-3weeks. I saw below you recommended a few books to read, I’ll be doing that for sure. However now I feel we need to go back to square one with making sure our builder is legit, doesn’t plan on putting cheap material in our home..
I've seen houses built like this with vinyl siding. You could cut into the house from the outside with a hot butter knife.
Those codes would not fly at all where I’m from in south Louisiana. We have hurricanes! When we built in 2010 our entire house inside and outside has solid sheathing, even the ceilings! There are 4 foot footings in the slab and every inside and outside corner has metal straps from the footings to where the roof ties in. After watching this video I am so thankful my house isn’t built like these!
My 150 year old Gothic Revival is constructed like that. I had racoons in my eaves and a baby racoon was playing pawsies with my cat from between some loose clapboards. I'm out in the country. The house seems to be constructed more like a barn than a house.
Did you get a video of your cat and the baby racoon? I would love to see that!
@@chicagonorthcoast th-cam.com/video/9E0Dh4FEbgk/w-d-xo.html
Disgusting, upsetting, and concerning. Another beautiful chunk of green space destroyed so these fly by night builders can come in, slap together a vinyl box neighborhood, take the money and run. It's all done so that housing starts numbers look good, even when the economy isn't that great, while spending the bare minimum; after they're built, the company is dissolved and countless people are left with 30 years worth of mortgage payments on homes where the foundations fail and the whole structure starts taking on water within 5 years and they have no recourse.
Meanwhile, entire cities countrywide are plagued with blighted neighborhoods full of existing abandoned homes, but no one cares to rehab those, or tear them down and rebuild to provide affordable, adequate housing in an existing footprint to the masses, because it doesn't look good on paper or in "someone's" bank account.
This is an outrageous epidemic.
When will people get wise that a brand new house is almost guaranteed to be junk, and stop buying them? Wake up people! Buy older existing homes, invest your money into rehab and updates. Stop feeding the pig, and fight back against these mass built neighborhoods before we are left with no grass, fields, or trees anywhere! The only way to fix this is to stop handing over money to these idiotic frauds on the speculation that it's brand new, so it should be fine!
Here in Texas it is easy to pay way to much. And if you just verify all parts of a build you can stop getting screwed over. Also shop around have your builder take you to a current job he is doing
No wind bracing or sheathing on walls. Why hasn't the building inspector been fired?
I’m honestly shocked. I’m building a new house now and they sheath them. I honestly cannot imagine that not being the case. Wild. There’s some other issues I have with builders in the area. Generally low quality or quick work, but I’ve had enough experience to know what to call them out on. The code guys don’t do a good job here at catching stuff. They don’t seem to care, but unfortunately for my builder, I know the codes and I will make them hold to them.
Wow reading through all these comments and I did not realize how many building engineers and construction inspectors we had in this nation. And I am sure each and every one of you has had your current house re built to your extreme standard that go beyond code....
I get clients that think codes are invented by industry to drive up costs.
I'm not sure I'd want to sleep in that house if the wind was blowin.
I am a master electrician and I can tell you that a lot of electrical codes are pushed by manufactures. I am not saying that the codes don't make things safer or more energy efficient but there is no way in hell a lot of codes have had a real cost benefit analysis done on them.
In new office space we now have to automatically turn off 1/2 of the receptacles. It can be done with a time clock or an occupancy sensor. Most engineers are now making us switch 1 half of a duplex. All this is doing is teaching users to bring in plug strips and ignore the switched receptacle. Did that code save energy? Hell no it used more because now I have to use a receptacle that is marked specially and 2 times a normal receptacle, I have to run an extra conductor to each outlet in an office and our clients now use plug strips everywhere or they have their maintenance guy by pass the relay controlling the receptacle.
@@SillyPutty3700 I just did a garage, all gfi recepticles as per the inspector. No plumbing. That was a first.
well some codes frankly are, others are not. things like afci/ GFCI but not making higher amp ones so you could just use one to feed a subpanel, and at the same time upping number of circuits required etc. some places requiring garages to meet air and insulation codes before they will let you put an occasional use heating system in etc.
Housing has gotten crazy expensive in just 20 yrs 80 thousand to 250 in just 20 yrs. People just can't afford it.
2x4 exterior walls makes for a lousy insulated wall.
How can they even allow this , people need to educate themselves , this house would not stand up to prolonged winds
Sheathing is a code requirement for wind load demand. I don't know of any area in the country where sheathing is allowed to be replaced with diagonal strapping. Lousy construction.
OMG - I've seen OSB dropped in favor of stuff like ThermoPly due to cost (I still don't like structural ThermoPly either - seems like overglorified cardboard), but I haven't seen a builder drop sheathing completely....
Frickin exterior walls 4 inch and finger joint studs wtf so shitty and everything you found is unreal , I'm with you guys 100% I know good framing
no sheathing? I blame this on poor building codes. Builders will save where they can. This is absolutely appalling.
Poor code, definitely. But also, who the heck builds with no sheathing??
@@JordanSmithBuilds i know crazy! I lived in England for a few years and they referred to wood construction as "substandard" it was even hard to get a loan on a wood house. They build everything with block and brick.
WoW. Just WoW. I work for a company delivering Materials to jobsites just like this one. I often wonder what the build quality is on these homes. Now in the jobsites defense that I deliver to, I see way better quality materials installed from the get go. OSB wall panels with green zip board installed and taped. Things like that. But some jobsites look just like this one. I feel bad for the homebuyer in a place like the one on this video. Keep exposing the bad and maybe things will change.
An experienced carpenter would look at this and tell the developer they were lacking sufficient mental capacity to simply open a door on a building competently, let alone design and build them... though, most likely, using a mixture of sardonic euphemisms and crude slang that'd glide nicely over the heads of developers disguised as some kind of quaint construction flunky jargon.
... not that I have any first-hand experience to that effect.
I'll never understand why certification of construction trades is reserved for absolutely every trade but for the the one responsible for actually building structures.
Wow... that turned out sounding like more of a rant than I intended.
Expensive? No. Try up here In Seattle where homes are $400-$500 per sqft
Jordan, watched a series of videos following the construction of a 800k home. Questioned them about using min code applications and if they tested any of their windows before installing... this was their reply, and I cannot wrap my head around it. IT IS SOOO BAD!! "Nothing above code is a good thing correct, These Pella windows are great Thanks for watching"
This reminds me of 1970 trailer home construction.
Thats wild. In Louisiana they charge an arm and leg and build stuff similar but not as flimsy. The mexicans who build it all laugh because thats what they're allowed to get away with. Never seen so many warped walls in my life.
I do not see any blocking in the walls. Inspection ??
No wonder 100s of homes fall apart in a small tornado let alone an F5 this house he is showing would blow over in an F2 tornado.
You have to alert the code enforcement.....no way that meets code .I've never heard of that being legal in any state.there not enough lateral Bracing.....lateral bracing is bad enough.its very important....but if a stray bullet or a high powered break barrel bb gun comes their way,its going right through that vynle....and if that house wraps leaks and if they didn't use some weatherproofing tape around the windows and openings its gonna leak and mold all over.vynle siding was created as a method of going over existing painted and puttied and caulked remodeling jobs .the old dated exterior was meant to be left saving time ,money....vynle siding will leak.at every opening or but joint ...I see it put up in new construction everywhere.I use it myself....but I seem to be the only builder in town that waterproofs underneath.its more costly for a quality membrane and waterproofing tape.the joints should be taped or overlapped a large amount as well.also you never should put a joint in the siding above another joint anywhere close to below.its gonna leak in those joints.that's fine as long as it waterproofed under neath and water can drain out.
In my local code area,and most states as well,they aloww you to put a wafer or cardboard,known as blackboard over the studs....i put plywood everywhere or durock,or lath and 2 or 3 masonary scratch coats over waterproofed house wrap if stuccoing or stoning or brick......if billy down the street with a pellet gun could send one Into my sleeping baby or child's temple through the walls and injure and possible kill them then I couldn't rest peacefully day or night in that house.people get killed by accidental stray small and large caliber bullets all the time.and they go through thicker stronger walls and doors than this set up.imagine how more likely it is to happen with 1 \16inch plastic vynyle siding and some paper...better hope it hits a 2by 4....
Been a interior trim carpenter for 25 years. Houses have went to hell in a hand basket. No way i would buy a new home.
I was thinking of a new build (cookie cutter houses) but no development in my area that I could find would sheath the entire house. They just hope that just the ends of the house is all you need. This is a majority of the houses in my area. I'll buy a brick home and renovate it myself. At least the brick homes from the '50s were built proper.
Why? Like seriously? One could argue anything after the 30’s is built like trash.
I've been building since 2002, quality is about the same. The difference is back then you got a crappy house for a cheap price. Now they are selling the crappy houses for about the same price as an expensive home so builders are more likely to build a crappy home.
Even more true today.
$450k cash on payment $680k for crappy houses using plastic water lines not copper and plastic electric extension not metal conduit cheap is possible to make a bunch profit
Must be Dallas. Bought our new house in Feb. 2022. Yeah, these new tract homes suck, they always have.
I miss my grandpa he was a home builder back when they only had the basic tools
@@TeslaBoy123 I recently converted my entire plumbing system from copper to pex, it’s a better system, especially for the homeowner. Copper pipe can burst under colder climate temperatures, pex will not. It’s significantly easier to manage as a homeowner long term as well.
Plastic conduit meets electrical code with todays standards and is definite a long term option, not sure why you’d NEED metal conduit of plastic does why is needed.
Houses are becoming like everything else in America.
Not meant to last.
Velislide builders like this make all other builders look bad. They know what they can cut corners on and do just to make a dollar. Pretty sad that those greedy bastards don’t care about the product or the consumer.
Great information. There are people who care about others, and some that don't. A house is too big of an investment so find an honest contractor.
Its not just in the USA, its the same here in the UK and probably most countries. You cant lay all the blame on the cowboy builders though, if the authorities let them get away with it they will. I wouldn't have a new house given. All the properties i have ever owned have all been over 200 years old and will be standing 200 years after this modern crap has fallen down.
contractor built houses are not secure and safe.
When I started billing my home in 1966, I made the foundation reinforced with rebar and crankshaft and 3 feet thick. 2x8 walls solid braced with 3/4 pressure treat plywood sheathing screwed in with 2" intervals. Lag bolts hold framing together. 2x12 roof joists. Ends of roof have 3/16" steel plates sandwiched by 2x12s. It was a lot of work but it survived several hurricanes and a couple of tornadoes while neighborhood homes were demolished.
When people want cheap houses, they get cheap houses. Buy a quality home new or used and have a home that will last several lifetimes
We need more videos like this to educate the public on what's really going on behind the walls. I built my own homes all my life because these corporate developers are the biggest cheap crooks out there, and I just plain like building quality houses. They take an expensive piece of real estate and build Trash on it. It's like this everywhere where there is a developer involved.Time and time again I witness shoddy workmanship that gets passed just because the inspector says "we only inspect to make sure the building is safe and to code" Most buyers who don't know any better only looks at cosmetics and not what's holding it together. Thanks Jordan for this video. Please keep it up. These greedy developers need to be exposed!
Want to hear something ironic? The last quality home I built, the inspector told me that this was one of the best built homes he's ever seen but I am afraid that since you built your own home, it does not quality for the Ontario New Home Owners Insurance Program". But the crap like Jordan showed you in this video does. The construction industry is going nowhere fast!
As your fellow Canadian, a carpenter-contractor for 56 yrs, I'm astonished they can build a house for $150 square foot! Here in BC we estimate the average new house comes in at $350 a sq ft. I may build a carport for that, but not much else!
Good night and good luck, from beautiful Esquimalt BC.
@@josephefasciani7343 I finished my last build in CO in 2010 at 60/ft2. Of course I did most of the work myself, but the numbers you are talking about are perplexing...
We had these public figures a long time ago during the dark ages, they were called investigative reporters that would do anything to get the real story, they have reached extinction, can they be saved?!?!?
Most developers build as cheap as they can get away with, then they'll put lipstick on a pig.
Retired carpenter here. I live in a 100 year old farmhouse built out of solid oak. All rafters, framing, side sheathing, basement stairs - -- all old growth oak. Hard to drive a nail into it without pre-drilling. The lumber sold today in the big box stores is basically firewood.
Spackle, caulk and paint,,,,, make you what you aint. I have been in the construction industry for 41 years, just retired. I understand lots of folks not liking building codes, but they are there to protect the unknowing and clueless. Inspections, specifications and liscensing of of contractors will build a better product. Quality does not cost, quality pays.
what's the old saying... the bitterness of poor quality longs outlasts the sweetness of low price.
"Good" work is never cheap and "Cheap" work is never good...
It didn't help in this case.
I couldn't believe there was no sheathing. Honestly didn't believe it at first
@@phillhuddleston9445 Isn't this in Texas? Notorious for lax codes?
I'm a siding contractor and I see this all the time on houses that need new siding , we sheet it after removing the old siding
My crap vinyl siding is attached to structural foam... Cheapest builds ever.
Neil Lee That’s great that you install more than what’s required, and of course you are also familiar with the requirements by code and each siding manufacturer,Hardi etc. Nice to see guys going beyond for the sake of their customer.
Same I hate treating apart houses only to find shoddy materials held together with caulk and a wish.
That was commonly done for house clad in T1-11 siding decades ago. Its rated to be both sheathing and siding, but obviously sucks at being a water barrier and for air sealing.
@@bigpjohnson There was a house across the street that when the people moved out I walked over and was able to put my hand though the T 1 11 siding and right into the house. It has since been re roofed and double walled re constructed, the right way.
Good lawd! The Kool Aid man can just walk effortlessly through that drywall!!
Nice comment 😆
Oh YEAH!!
The Kool Aid man wouldn't bother, he would send his under study, why would he waste his time for that?
OH NO!!
I often hear people from 3rd world asking why American houses are made of cardboard
After 15 yrs working in the residential building industry for multiple companies building anywhere from one hundred-several hundred homes per year as builder as welll as a new home warranty Rep I can tell you i chose to leave the industry for reasons just as this episode states . the industry in itself is overwhelmed with the least sellable quality at the and sold at the highest possible price.The owners of the compaines ive worked would never live in the quality of homes they built. but made lots of money from those that did. We all understand buisness and profit but the amount of corners cut to increase profits never ends in this industry from what ive seen
In my 30 years in the business I've never before seen a house with no sheer wall installed anywhere. Even Hardi will tell you their siding is not approved for sheer wall! What a bunch of hacks!
my house built in 1987 siding nailed to stud walls, not even a vapor barrier. its T111 siding so its similar to sheathing but imagine no vapor barrier and just sheathing on studs than slap a coat of sears weatherbeater on it and call it good.
@@Mikej1592
Wowowowow.....
UNBELIEVABLE.....
@@Mikej1592 T-111= approved for shear wall applications. Lap siding, not so much. A separate plastic vapor barrier is not required if craft faced insulation is used, which was common place in the 80's.
@@jeffscott3160 I see, interesting to know, thanks for that. I do wish there was more than a 2x4 wall for insulation because my neighbors are noisy assholes but at least it is within 1987 code. we've only lived here 2 years and already looking for a new house, this area sucks.
I recently worked on a house built in the sixties that had cedar siding nailed directly to the studs, no sheathing. They did have tar paper and insulation, but you could feel the cold air blowing in from outside anywhere we had to repair the sheetrock. Another recent project was a 1937 home with lap siding, no WRB, no sheathing, but shiplap on the inside of the walls for sheer. There was no insulation in that case and no mold at all in an 80-year old house.
That wrap is not designed to be water tight. It is classified as vapour-permeable-membrane, and here in Australia we use it instead of a waterproof membrane for a reason.
It allows the building to dry out from the inside out. I saw a comment above about black mould being in the walls within a few years. Nine times out of ten mould will grow when moisture is trapped and has no where to go.
But where is the biggest threat from moisture ingress into walls? It’s from the humans living inside. The moisture comes form all the cooking showering and most of all breathing, that we humans love to do all day long. This warm and humid air wants to get outside just as much as the cold air wants to get inside. This produces condensation on the colder outer layer of the wall system, in this case the Hardie siding. Having a waterproof layer will only cause this condensate to remain in the walls and grow mould.
But there IS NO WALL
Cooking, showering and breathing is a human necessity. Not something we love to do all day. It's not an option.
@jifffy999 He's not criticizing you, just educating you, and he is 100% correct. The day to day activities that take place inside the home introduce a ton of moisture into the house. It has to be able to dry to the outside. Controlling moisture from the outside is about keeping bulk water out of the structure. That is the job of the roof, siding, and flashing first, then, as a backup, the housewrap. If it's getting to the housewarming, that's indicative of other issues with the aforementioned systems.
@@MichaelBarnes-ey7sjWalls, (sheathing), don't keep moisture or bulk water out. The absence of sheathing is more problematic from a structural perspective than a moisture barrier perspective. Even if it was sheathed, unless it's the Zip System, the housewrap is your back up bulk water barrier anyway. It is the job of the roof, flashing, and siding to keep bulk water out of the structure. The sheathing doesn't really do that. It's not supposed to. If sheathing is your only barrier to bulk water, you haven't done anything correctly.
that is terrifying.
here in the midwest, I could see a straight line wind coming through and taking out half that neighborhood
It’s already happened here in Indianapolis this past winter. Literally knocked over a chimney like the only thing holding it on the house was the vinyl siding 🤦🏻♂️
They are EVERYWHERE.
Im here in SW corner of Iowa and that was my first thought too, plus rain and snow never come down, they fall SIDEWAYS, that stuff would be coming right through those walls o.o
That's why I just sheathed this house near Chicago when I did new siding, for the wind loads. The weather is getting crazier and we keep seeing more and more high wind advisories.
@waterside do you have a better description for the possibility of suddenly being crushed in your house 🤔
My guess is that builder probably has some naked pictures of the building inspector 😉
What building inspector?
yeah. cutting corner scam is going on!
Matt Metcalf With animals !!
Now that's funny!
I think the building inspector got a big wad of dirty money!
Fancy, expensive mobile homes at this point🤦🏽♀️
Back in the 90's I worked for a readymix company and we were selling concrete to a builder in Newtown Pa (Pricey area). I was visiting the jobsite and looking at the houses. There was no sheathing. I remember thinking that you could probably break into them through the wall using a steak knife
Had a good laugh about the steak knife
Better hope the Cool-Aid man doesn't turn to a life of crime.
I've had the same kind of thought about low end houses around here that at times use Bilt-Rite, a fiberboard sheathing product. When you put vinyl siding on that all you'd need is a utility knife to go right through a wall between studs...
To make things worse, a drywall guy on the job told me all the other trades on the job give them a couple bucks to clean up all their trash and they throw it in the walls before they put up the last sheets of drywall. There was a big sign in front of the development that said starting at $249,900. At the time that was a lot of money. I think they were building about six houses per acre
I'm right next door in Yardley and I've watched newer developments go up like that. The easiest way to break into these houses is definitely just cutting through the siding.
This building is the stuff of nightmares. My heart breaks for the soon to be home owner of this mess.
That house will breathe well.
Hahaha too true! When the insulation gets soggy from the rain at least it will be able to dry out again... hopefully before it gets moldy!
I laughed out loud at that comment.
It will either breathe well, or become mold infested within a few months.
ROFL
Like an Olympic sprinter.
and collaps like a pneumothorax lung
I've been a "remodeling and repair" carpenter for many years. I get to see all the things that "didn't work". Thankfully I have never come across a house like this. No only were there no diagonal braces there was no "fire blocking" in any of the walls. I don't care about the code not calling for fire blocking it is a really important feature for many reasons.
The diagonal bracing in this house was 7/16 osb which they didn’t install. Nothing else needed
@@bonez747 watch the video, the WRB was attached directly to the studs WITHOUT SHEATHING. Yes people who know what they're doing do OSB or plywood. They used diagonal metal straps on the garage ceiling which still doesn't address wind shear.
I didn’t see any fire blocking any where or fire caulking of any kind…. In Michigan we are required to have fire blocks on all electrical lines…. Also you need something like ply or osb against those studs the water damage is gonna be a problem after a few years ….. we used 1/2 osb with Tyvek wrap…..I hope like he said they will do the flashing well otherwise the water issue is gonna be a very serious one in no time
And what builder company is responsible for allowing this?
Your Mom!!!
Must be the Juan Hernandez from the build them like shit house building company limited.
Too many to list!
Style Craft home BUILDERS, I KNOW ALL THERE CRAFTMANSHIP AND CONTRACTERS AND BUIDING SUPPLYERS, STRAIT JUNK HOMES .
Probably Market Place homes
Dude, I'm not even in the home construction industry. But his is some good info for first time home buyers. If you stick to providing excellent information, for lay people. I swear your gonna be as big as Chris fix ( car automotive channel) . He has over 2.5 million subscribers
Holy moly...these are the type of houses that disintegrate in a tornado.
Well to be fair most house will given a reasonablely strong storm
Joshua Hodge ...True but this house will stripped to the bone long before the storm becomes reasonably strong. A good fart will blow the clapboards off the side.
@@blipco5must be some good chilli to produce winds of that magnitude, but I do see your point the better built homes can withstand more
Joshua Hodge ...Once the sub floors are nailed in, and pray they use plywood over OSB (which I doubt), there will be rigidity to the structure but building a house without siding should be against building codes. It must be noisy af when you're in the house. My shed is built better.
The landscape around those houses during the building process, tells everything you need to know about the quality of the houses being built.
Yes it does.
I do ICF’s and the lot I’m building on is in a development where lots go for 150k+. I don’t see how those homes are 250 unless their cutting serious corners.
YEP!! You can tell a craftman's skill by how he keeps his work area!
You can come inspect all you want 😍
And guess what...when the sod is ready to be installed they'll just take a bobcat and bury everything half ass and place the sod on top. A few months later youll notice the lawn has never grown in properly.
You try to claim warranty on it and they'll just say oh well living plant were not responsible after closing.
Just went through that and had to dig up my entire lawn. Found all sorts of crap they tried to bury.
What a crazy waste of resources to build this trash. There are so many beautiful old homes around me built over 100 years ago that will probably stand for 100 more. Nothing special, just well-built homes. And then there is this crap that only has to last just long enough to where the developers don't get sued. It's sad. Thanks for making this video, it's great to know what's out there!
100 year old homes don't have the energy seal that he is screeching about, vapor barriers or concrete foundations.
@@NexusCapital What I'm saying is that these homes will never last and see generations of families. They will just get bulldozed and more cheap trash will be built on the lot. If I can pull your siding off and reach my arm through the wall and into your home it's garbage.
@@NexusCapital They definitely had concrete foundations. They leak, but you could fix that if you ever replace the siding. Why should we be building homes in 2019 that leak more than a house from 1919? Plus the concrete from 1919 is legit and you don't have to worry about a builder pouring weak concrete to save money.
@@_PatrickO We build really solid houses here in western Wa State so I dont know what you are talking about. Ive flipped 12 homes in the last few years and remodeled all of them my self. By far the worst construction has been pre 1960 homes. They are all crooked, drafty and clearly did not have inspectors much less building codes. Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about. My experience with old houses has been so bad I won't even buy them anymore. 1980s+ are dreams to work on I love them.
@@NexusCapital I'm not knowledgeable at all but stuff build after WWII definitely went up fast and probably of much cheaper materials that what you see pre Great Depression. The stuff before the economy and war issues at least had great character, skill & craftmanship even if it was a starter home.
This is part of the reason I quit my last job with a home builder. I was a complete novice. But I was not comfortable with some of the shortcuts that we were taking. I’ve seen stuff like this before. The sloppy job site outside is telling as well.
I agree! The condition of the job site tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about the builder and the build quality of the house.
Sounds like to me that you got fired and you’re bitter.
@@SpringScapes nah. I just walked away one day. But I do wish I could’ve hung in there longer. He was a new builder, but I did learn a lot on that job. And he had even offered to help me get my license as well. It just wasn’t a good work environment. But no job is perfect.
What the heck! I'm not a builder and even I know that work is shit
Sara H --> Hey! That builder had to pay huge bribes to the inspectors for turning their backs on these mold pits. This is America, that's how things work, Damn it.
They did that in the 80s with eris
This video is for the people that thinks that" Jordan, Matt and Co. just bragging about the way they build things" , and "the expenses aren't really worth it" . This a clear example of developing companies cutting corners to make a quick buck at the expenses of an ignorant home buyer. Thank you for the video.
My husband showed me a brand new house today that had this product on it. I had no idea. It was raining and I touched it and it was swollen with moisture. I had no idea you could even do this. The houses were beautiful but they will never last. I got home and looked it up to find your video. You are absolutely spot on about this.
I brought my new construction home last year. My builder was a self employed mom and pop business.. got a inspection and was told the builder went above and beyond code... and my builder made himself available to me if anything came up he stood by the quality of his work.... when I first started looking at builders I noticed the large companies over charged and did substandard work
Who's your builder ? Y'all should recommend
Who's your builder if I may ask? I want a builder who truly knows what hes talking about. Maybe he got a website? a phone number?
thanks!🇺🇸🇮🇱
Indeed. The big builders have little to lose by doing half-assed work (they leave the liability to the insurance companies).
TURN THE AC OFF THE HOUSE IS GONNA BLOW OVER!!!!😂😂
Its simple. The houses are built to sell and not built to last.
A realtor has said this shit to my face, about half a mill homes, I would have laughed but it was so insulting i was dumbfounded.
The money we paid to build a home to last, not few dollar, 15 or 30 year odf debt. if realtor with that attitude would cancel the commission
Seems like banks would want these places to be built to last since they make obscene amounts of money on them over the years.
Fk it. I’ll take one. I’ve never owned land.
Buy older homes!!! It pays to upgrade electric and plumbing when you're getting a well built home in an established neighborhood!!! Common sense people!!!!
This is SCARY! It's a cardboard house!!
Ave Crux hahahaha cardboard would be better than what they are doing !!
To me, another good sign that you didn't mention is the cleanliness of the job site. The places you visited looked like trash dumps. That translates to a slovenly approach to everything else and would turn me off.
I thought that as well. I did low voltage for a long time and most places I went to pull wire where very organized. High rises to housing developments. There where a few time the places where crappy but they where far apart.
Looks like a Chinese construction site. At least in China they have the excuse that every night, random people will be picking up the scrap wood for their charcoal business, taking the damaged bricks to make a sidewalk, selling the scrap steel & plastic to recyclers, etc. Mind you, I suppose this building site is remote enough that it doesn't really matter, as long as it's not dangerous to the crew.
@@jeffreyquinn3820 In America the poor pick new construction clean for copper and panels. These look nothing like any type of Asian construction. I kinda just think you wanted some reason to bash China.
@@richardwaldron222 Thieves mostly drug addicts are the ones ,not necessarily the Poor
I've been to hundreds of track home build sites in nor cal, they all looked like that. And the construction methods made me cringe, and I know very little about it. One thing that always bothered me was the use of the simpson style plate ties that require no nails(?), they just have little spikes on them. Those were used everywhere (on joins, sorry not sure what the technical name is), with no nails. Not sure how those hold together for 30 to 40 years. Btw, i delivered hvac materials, and every job sight was an absolute nightmare to get into, just piles of garbage everywhere (and no offense, but no one even spoke English). Flex duct was the only thing used, except for maybe some short runs of riser (for vent hoods or to go through narrow areas) or b-vent for gas exhaust.
I'm glad to hear good things about the a/c and electrical. I'm sure that will help when the freaking house collapses because of a 60 mph like what happened to northwest Texas about 2 weeks ago. My house built in 1943 with a steel roof didn't have any damage.
Why would having strips of osb be any less strong than sheets of it? This definitely isn't a new practice. Builders have been using a structural siding for decades. I wouldn't want that kind of work, but it meets code.
As a Firefighter this is concerning. The rack control or should I say lack of rack control is suprising. Note how they went good install on the AC, it's to pump all the air through the house as it leaks out of every crack. I'm sure the sheet rock is all the rack control a house needs hahahaha........
That's actually something Jordan missed, the siding isn't going to give it any appreciable racking strength but the drywall will. It's not like that's going to come close to the racking strength you get from sheathing a house with 1/2" plywood but I can see how they might be able to get the racking strength that it's engineered for with the drywall.
I was a mechanical inspector years ago. I inquired about buying a new home in the subdivision they were developing. The superintendent of the subdivision flat out told me, you don't want one of these homes. Same cheap practices.
I would never trust drywall for rack strength. For a properly secured build, it can add some strength, but it’s just icing on the cake, so to speak. Also, these thin straps with the few screws or nails, offer very little in strength for a house. They’ll snap off if the shear exceeds the strength of the fastener in, what I presume is wood. The strap itself can shear at the fastener holes. This looks like really thin stuff. In addition, they offer absolutely no resistance at all. The house will fall, but the ceilings, lying on the ground, might still be square.
Rack control... I was wondering what the proscribed nomenclature, for. Common Sense. Was in the context of this particular field.
@@christopheremery5910 rack control = sports bra
Unfortunately I've been encountering the same thing with multi million dollar houses here in SoCal. One client has a brand new $2 mill Toll Brothers house with an improperly flashed door that leaked and they don't know how to fix properly, keep trying to caulk it. We also discovered the bathroom exhaust vents were never penetrated through the roof, just died into the sheathing. Another brand new $1 mill CalAtlantic home that I opened up a wall in and saw mold behind it forcing remediation, home owner hadn't even moved in yet.
This is exactly where I get my passion to want to become a production builder, I am so upset by what the builders are getting away with at any price point. They skimp on the couple extra $ to make the home right, of which this market will gladly pay if they educate them on the difference. There is no reason tract homes have to be crap homes.
Toll brother's build million dollar track homes their superintendents don't know their ass from their elbow I've worked on these homes There is no excuse why they can't build a quality home that will last.just pay your subs better and make sure they understand the building codes
@@artnouveau4332 the superintendent on my parents home in NJ (toll brothers) had some mental deficits and a permanent twitch due to acid consumption in the 70s... this is the kind of quality people they have working there.
Toll brothers is a publicly traded company so we got to keep the stock price going up and pay the CEO millions every year
John Burger Maybe you are onto something, how many tradesman do you know have made learning the Building Codes as important as learning their trade. Any tradesman that takes the time to do so can be head and shoulders above the rest seems to me.
That is scary as hell. I am also from california and the price of housing is ridiculous
Great video. My question though, for someone that really has no building expertise, or is just the typical DIY-er, what are the main things to look for to find a quality-built house? Also, do you know any major builders that talk about (and follow through) quality work from their perspective?
This kind of building goes on in every state, our first house had Hardy board nailed to the studs with no rap.
You were better off building your log cabin sealed with mud lol
Thomas Collier at least it is hardie board and not cheap poly vinyl siding
Never thought it possible for a house to be built that way....
That house will have black mold within a year. That is insanity that hardy board is the only thing between the outside and inside! Lol criminals could break into your home in between the studs just by smashing some hardy board! 😳
or the police when they come to confiscate your guns, they can just come in right through the walls, you're fucked.
@@williammacroberts2305 hahaha
Hardy board is so easy to break. That's insane. It blows my mind how shoddy homes are today.
No insanity is the electric and gas bill for that house each month if it isn't properly insulated then that means you are going to have a $500 or more bill!
How does paying a gas/electric bill of $1,000 sound to you!😱
Brain of Brian --> Can't believe county or city codes are allowing those cost cutting measures.
My house in Swansea Massachusetts was built in 1912 and is still standing strong. It’s been through some major hurricanes with little to no damage. Southern yellow pine construction 😊 I’m in the construction industry and know what I bought 20yrs ago. I could never build anything like what you are showing and sleep at night. Feel badly for the young families strapped in a huge mortgage for those cardboard boxes.
This is just about spot on how homes are built in KC area. Even 500k homes.
Same here, but that's pretty universal for every major home builder, though. They all have a corporate cookie cutter process and use the same suppliers and subcontactors regardless of house. Go into a new D.R. Horton subdivision of $160k Express homes and go into a new D.R. Horton subdivision of $400k luxury homes, and the build quality is identical... They're using the same framers, same plumbers, same electricians, etc, all lowest bidders. Even some furnishings you'll find a lot of similarities, because they purchase in bulk...for instance interior bedroom doors and hardware may be identical, or appliances, vanities, etc. When you buy an expensive luxury home with a large corporate home builder, really you're just paying more for extra square footage, different architecture, and upgraded exterior material.
@Bo Hunter lol, you have way more crooked builders in kansas.
Several years ago I saw a custom home built like that in SE Wisconsin, just 12 miles North of the tornado belt. That home was a show home, had a full basketball court in the basement, some weird textured drywall finishes, and they were extremely proud of what they had built. I thought that it was a huge joke.
This is what you see in 90% of the homes in the Phoenix area. Except not that well built.
Everything built in Arizona post mid to late 80's has two strikes going against it. 1) Flimsy cheap construction like seen in this video. and 2) It's almost certainly going to be in an HOA.
The drywall and cabinets are now structural. Grk some picture frames that will help to. I would love to see some mud joints after a wind storm.
It's all in the new Caulking... It's amazing stuff!
😂 But such a bargain... I guess the buyer's next home will be mainly duct tape. If they can afford that after paying for a cardboard and plaster model of a house.
My God! I wouldn't even build a dog house like that. Where are the building inspectors?
murraystewartj --> Probably paid off by the builders.
looking the other way, or just non-existent due to cutbacks.
That's true. My dad built a house in 93, I remember the delays because the inspectors couldn't get there. One okayed th septic on the phone. The lateral were running uphill, I knew that was wrong, pooled water from the start. His permit for a driveway was never inspected, but our county officials are lazy.
First Name --> Hahahar, that's funny ... but you haven't seen my dogs!
Once outside of city limits, inspections become rarer and rarer. You might get a local fire dept to do a basic electrical inspection, but that's about it. Seeing as those houses are in a field, there might not be much in the way of permitting and inspections.
I pour alot of footings and slabs for these home. Our company delivers a quality product but the finishers wet the concrete up way to much. The footing calls for a 5" slump 3000psi and the finishers make me pour it at a 8" to 10" slump. The slabs are pretty much the same way 3500psi 5" slump but pour at 7" slump. Each gallon of water added to the concrete reduces the strength.
So if there is failures on any of your pours does it come back on you or the builder
Keith B it will come back and fall on the builders structural warranty which is 10 years in most places.
Problem is proving concrete was poured wrong. Concrete is going to crack, we can’t prevent that at all but we can tell it where to crack with saw cuts and expansion joints. As long as it’s not shifting, a crack poses no problems for a home and that is the reason we use rebar to hold everything together. And you must have a good waterproofing and drainage system away from the concrete as well. If all those key elements are in place then a cracked concrete wall or slab will be stable, and will not leak but if anything is left out of the equation then the homeowner will have problems starting in year 2
Isn't an 8 to 10 inch slump less water then a 5" slump ?
I was thinking measuring ground up instead of top of cone down , my mistake .
@@gn4720 No, higher slump is a wetter mix. 0 slump concrete doesn't flow at all. Highest slump I've ever seen was 10.5". It was grey water with 1.5" rocks in it...
Getting worse. First home, I had pre-construction. I went by regularly from the time the slab was laid until the house was finished and brought my video camera everytime. So they built my first home properly. For my second current home, I made sure it was not a new build because the quality of these so-called new homes are not only garbage but might as well have used paper clips and stick figures 😂
Crikey, those homes must be the one location in the US without hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes. What's to hold that damn house together or to the foundation? Flimsy strapping in the ceiling doesn't do squat. That worthless wrap is probably a blessing in disguise as that home will likely rot before it gets destroyed by a big storm
The lack of shear strength sure wouldn't meet Earthquake codes out here in the West.
Even up north where there isn't quakes. A wicked wind storm and down it goes.
@@lostwanderer8651 Not to mention the weight of snow.
Jordan Snowhook i live in Washington and just watched my neighbor build like this. It looks like it will blow over in the wind
Are you a structural engineer? Have you reviewed the house plans? Do know they what else was installed to prevent racking movement?
@@chagildoi fabric
In my former spec home Community neighborhood. One of the housing inspectors visited a job site leaned up on the outside of the house expecting sheathing and went right through like the Kool-Aid Man because it was foam board against the stud walls eventually vinyl siding over that. Until I met that house I didn't know houses could be built with anything other than wood sheathing .
needs plywood with tyvek before the hardy board ... this is quite a cheat
Or even OSB
My house was built in 1850. The frame is post and beam, the sheathing is 1” planks. They sure don’t build them like that anymore. 👍
The siding will outlast the house
As a general rule, you don't have to wrap the entirety of a house in plywood or OSB. It's not a bad idea, and there are benefits to it, but it is not necessary for a proper moisture barrier or for structural strength.
That being said, the COMPLETE lack of wood sheeting is concerning.
teraxiel
Isn’t it supposed to be sheathed with plywood on each corner to maintain lateral stability? Those ceiling straps in the garage won’t address this. Scary if lateral stability isn’t addressed and that the homeowner won’t be aware of it. 🤦♂️
Don't buy those pieces of 💩. They have some in Utah, too and they have major issues. Now... They are cheaper but u get what u pay for.
Good luck my friends
Yeah I'm gunna swing by those houses in Vineyard if I see the same thing then I'm out. I've seen a bunch of crap from contractors here lol
Looks like 100 houses I've inspected. Thanks for the video, and props for pushing quality over size. I couldn't agree more.
Quality over size got me married.
@@SinnerSince1962 lol
No one should "push" anything, to each his own, let people live in whatever they want to.
@@integr8er66 Even cardboard houses?
@@Minecraftizawsom Absolutly, why would you think for a min that it is ANY of your business what someone else wants to live in. I live in a 20ft camper 1/3 of the year by choice, and you think you should have some right to deny me that? Get a life and mined your own.
Your rigjt... that house should be illegal!!.I've built houses all my life. That build is...I'm speachless..
My 1954 manufactured home built with 2"x2"s and cardboard walls is built better than this carp!
that house should be illegal because it was built by illegals
@@katman77018 Don't be that person.
My parents house that is built in 1993 made by 2 bit contractors that cut corners in the interior finish is a lot better than that.
So this wrap has been used since the 1900’s
Jordan, I’m a retired architect and fully agree with your review of the tract construction. Moisture control, whether at walls or windows, is truly crappy. In which state is this being built?
Dude, the windows. The windows add racking strength. Naturally 👨🔧
lol
Haha imagine trying to open those windows in a few years.
That's pretty scary. Those exterior walls have no shear strength. Sheetrock is going to have a tough time keeping up with movement
@Leopold or when the police come to confiscate your guns
William MacRoberts aim for the face
My farmhouse was built in the 1890's and has dimensional lumber, 1" tongue and groove exterior and interior sheeting. Also, cedar exterior siding. Plaster and lathe interior walls. Still as solid as the day it was built.
Yes. I build with only dimensional lumber and plywood. I don't use one piece of osb anywhere in the houses I build. I'll never understand why builders would use osb in a damp climate where I build. You're just asking for problems down the road.
How's all that lead paint 😂 holding up?? 😂😂😂
@@jamie.777 that can easily be removed or painted over. The lead doesn't radiate into the air, (unless its flaking off) it has to be ingested to affect someone
Great expose. I’m an architect and have often alerted folks to questionable build quality that’s not always obvious to a casual visual inspection.
There must have been building inspectors present during the construction of these homes. What did they sign off on?
Thanks for this video. You’re doing a valuable public service.
Uh... is there not even any nogging in the walls? Woven plastic sheathing with hardiboard only, no racking?
Are there not applicable engineering standards for a house that won't blow over in a stiff breeze or go up in flames like a roman candle? Someone had to sign off on the architectural plan...
This has been going on for years and as a carpenter it pissed me off
How does this pass energy star? There is no way that the HVAC can qualify, not with that much air leakage! At least they used a proper header above the garage doors. I often see 2x4s stacked as a header.
Why would anyone want to be sealed up air tight with all the glue and fumes from those new building materials?
Very few builders build to energy star standards. In Dallas Fort Worth it is only a handful of builders that are energy star certified on every home. Most do not build to any energy protocol.
Where are these homes
@@urbanplanner7200 New houses should be as air tight as possible. It's a myth that a house has to breathe. It's a complete waste of energy (which means tons of money).
@@TheGuruStud that if for the kind of Americans that think fresh air comes from a device you plug in a outlet.
In central California, Visalia mainly there are tons on these match stick homes built on old farmland.
Now it makes me think of all the chemicals these home owner's and their families are subjected to.
John Kugelfischer, mind blowing man. I know the cities water is tainted but completely over looked how flammable these properties could be. So much for a happy home.