Longer, practical guides for people building a new home in the Central Florida region. Eight guides, written from the questions we answer most often, in the order a build raises them.
A new build runs through a fixed sequence, and each phase has a short window where things are still easy to see and easy to correct. From the outside that sequence is hard to read. You get a call about a pour date, a text about a walkthrough, and a folder of warranty documents at closing, and it is not always obvious which of those moments needs your attention.
These guides are the longer explanations we end up giving on the phone. They are written for two groups in particular. First-time builders, who have no baseline for what is normal on a job site and no way to tell a routine item from one worth raising. And out-of-state buyers, who may see the house twice before they own it and are making decisions from photographs and phone calls.
Each guide is meant to be used rather than admired. What happens during this phase, what is worth looking at, what to ask, and when to ask it. None of them replace an inspection, and none of them are written to put you at odds with your builder. The opposite, really: understanding the sequence makes you easier to work with, and it means items get raised at a point where your builder can still address them without tearing anything out.
We would rather publish nothing than publish filler. Each guide had to match how builds actually run here, with Central Florida soils and weather and the way local production builders sequence their trades, so they were written from the questions we answer on the phone and on site rather than from a template. Where an inspection connects to the subject, the guide says so and links to it. Where it does not, it does not.
If you have a question these do not answer, call or text and ask. We would rather answer it directly than have you go looking.
A walk through the whole sequence, from lot prep and pour to rough-in, drywall, finishes and closing. What typically happens at each step, roughly how long it lasts, which parts move with weather, and where each inspection fits.
The things that are much easier to clarify before contract than after: warranty terms, allowances, structural options, site access for your own inspector, and how change orders are handled.
What the labels mean, why a long report is not automatically a bad sign, and how to sort a list of items into what needs attention now, what to settle before closing, and what is worth simply monitoring.
What to bring, what to operate yourself, how to document what you find, and how to hand the list over so you and your builder can work through it together in the days before closing.
Why month eleven matters, what a year of settling and Florida weather tends to reveal, and how to submit a documented list while your builder's warranty period is still open.
Running a build you cannot drive to. Setting expectations with your sales contact, what to ask for in photographs, which visits are worth flying in for, and what to delegate.
The difference between the one-year workmanship period, the systems coverage and the structural term, plus where the tolerances and exclusions are usually written down.
Hairline drywall cracks, nail pops, doors that stop latching and floor separations. Which of these are expected in a Florida home's first year, and which are worth a closer look.
Plain answers to the questions we are asked most often about timing, access, reports and what we do and do not inspect.
Read more › The sequenceWhere each of the four inspections falls in a typical Central Florida build, and how much notice each one needs.
Read more › Real findingsExamples of what gets found at each stage, with the photograph and the plain-language note that would appear in your report.
Read more ›Tell us your builder, your community and where the build is right now, and we will tell you what comes next.