Something doesn't sound right here, how does a toxic gas in the drywall blacken and scorch electrical wiring? Don't get me wrong here, with the reported health symptoms it could be a serious deal, but I'd want to see more evidence before jumping on the alarmist bandwagon. The US is known for rampant lawsuits and protectionist senators looking after their interests. With today's economic situation it's easy to burden the Chinese with another problem and raise additional barriers to the import of Asian products. Great stimulus for the economy to bulldoze a bunch of newer homes and rebuild with home grown drywall products.

Good to know though, if it turns out to have merit.

Sulpher Dioxide

http://homeownersconsumercenter.com/PressRelease.html

The builder should have a pretty comprehensive checklist. We use National Home Warranty as our warranty provider where I work and we have to fill out a huge checklist during the final walkthrough. This has to be submitted to the warranty company within 15 days of the homeowner taking occupancy. I also bring a package of sticky notes and place them anywhere there is a deficiency noted by myself, our foreman, the customer, or their realtor. This ensures the deficiency is noticed by the trade who comes in to remedy the issue. HTH

National Home Warranty, hahahahahahahahahah!

I gotta side with Mark on that one! lol

I agree with the finding a tradesman to inspect. SMART. Most home inspectors are a waste of money IMO. There is no provincial standard for inspectors. Anyone can be one with a SHORT course. As for city inspections on new houses, you would be amazed at what gets missed. How long is the course to be a city inspector? About 6 weeks. City inspectors should have to be a trade person for min. 10 years. Buy a house that was designed and built with an architect and an engineer, most are not. Engineers go to school for quite a few years to learn what they are talking about. I've been building for 16 years and some of the stupidest things I have ever heard have come out of city inpectors mouths. City inspectors inspect the rules written in a book. They have no room for flexibility. There are much better ways to do things besides the BCBC (British Columbia Building Code). A city inspector can only inspect the BCBC, they can't see better ways, An Architect or Engineer can.
Sorry if anyone is a city inpector, but on a project with architects and engineers, all they do is collect paper work and cause problems.
Anyways that is the most I have ever typed in my life and it took me a long time. If anyone wants to yell at me. pm me and you can have my #

Lol

ah, but like anything else it is up to you to do you homework when hiring a inspector. I have seen bad ones and I have seen a few good ones.

what trade should he be? if he is plumbing and heating great... to bad he would be able to tell you about the electrical or structure.. its a tough call for this one... I think General contractor is the only thing that should be a pre requisit..

you can traly regulate it any harder althought I would like to but realy what is the home inspector... he is only some one who is giving you a non bias opinion on what you could do your self.

I interviewed 7 befor I decided on one.. was he perfect.. nope but I knew the areas he didn't.. and he was a contractor for over 20 years then a city inpsector for 10.. Hiring a tradesman isn't any better either. it is a crap game that ways also as there are so many tradesmen that realy shouldn't be in the trade as they don't care or don't know.. when it comes down to it bad tradesmen are the reason we need home inspectors..

Steve

Main thing to remember is to be thorough. Look carefully at everything focusing on the expensive stuff like fixtures and flooring. Move the appliances out and look behind them, check for nicks and scratches on the tubs, counters and flooring. Painted stuff is easy to fix later if you miss a spot, a gouge in the floor or countertop - not so easy. Having an independent inspector check over the heating, plumbing and electrical and general construction is good advice if you are not certain what your looking for.

Very well said and with respect to my own experience, I do not regret using a home inspector either. Every situation is unique and there are good, better and best individuals & companies in all aspects of our daily lives. If you're buying a newer home still under warranty, I don't really see the point of getting tradesmen, architects or even engineers involved in looking at your prospective dwelling, a little overkill IMO, besides, who has that kind of money to spend?

I bought an older home (1959-60 ish) and used the Home Inspection company recommended by my real estate agent. I didn't have a lot of time to pick and choose since I was on a tight timeline on a house hunting trip from back east. I had a week to view homes, make a decision, get an inspection, make an offer, etc etc etc. This was 2004 in the middle of the building boom here in the North Okanagan and finding tradesmen for each aspect would have been a nightmare & taken forever. Again, I was very satisfied with the job the home inspector did, he provided more than enough information for me to be comfortable in making an offer and ultimately purchasing the home. Did he miss things, sure he did but the only way to find every possible problem would be to literally tear the home apart which makes no sense. You can only do so much in one day. Being somewhat knowledgeable with regard to electrical stuff, I was able to pretty much case that part on my own, and believe me, there were some scary things the previous homeowners had going on. The inspector checked all the outlets and pointed out a number of them that were not grounded. I know, you can buy the little plug in testers and do this yourself, but the point is, he was sufficiently knowledgeable and had the tools to check out the critical systems in the home.

This is my second time around purchasing real estate, the first time in Ottawa, I was fortunate to have rented the condo for a year before buying it. That's probably one of the best home inspections you can have. After living in a place for a year you know what's good and bad without needing any external assistance.

Whew... anyhow, best of luck to anyone buying a home, your situation will differ, as Steve said, do your homework & research, to do this, plan ahead for extra time, which I did not have the luxury of.