Pre-Drywall Inspection in Metro Detroit
The only week in the life of your new house when every stud, pipe, wire, and duct is visible. After insulation goes in, it never will be again.
15% off for active and retired military, first responders, nurses, and teachers. Any inspection — just mention it when you book.
Home › Pre-Drywall Inspection
What It Is
What a pre-drywall inspection covers.
A pre-drywall inspection happens after the framing, rough plumbing, rough electrical, and HVAC rough-in have passed their municipal inspections and before the insulation and drywall crews arrive. I walk every room, the attic framing, the basement or crawlspace, and the exterior with a camera and a checklist, and I document what the finished house will hide forever.
The municipal inspector is checking code minimums in a few minutes per stop. That is a different job from mine. I am checking whether the work was done completely and correctly: studs over-bored or notched where they carry load, missing fire blocking at soffits and chases, hangers with half the nails, beams bearing on nothing, ducts crushed or unsupported, drain lines with no fall, wiring stapled too tight or unprotected where it passes framing, window and door flashing installed backwards, house wrap lapped the wrong way, and anchor bolts that never got a nut.
You get a photo-documented Spectora report the same day, written as a punch list the builder's superintendent can work from directly. Most builders fix pre-drywall items without argument, because the items are visible, the crews are still on site, and the fix is cheap now and expensive after the drywall is hung.
The visit runs one to two hours and costs $249. Pair it with a final walkthrough inspection before closing and an 11-month warranty inspection before the builder's one-year warranty expires, and you have covered the three points where a new-construction buyer has leverage.
Scope
What I check before the walls close
What I Find
What shows up before drywall in Metro Detroit subdivisions.
Production builders in Macomb Township, Shelby Township, Washington Township, Chesterfield, Oakland Township, and Lyon Township move fast with rotating framing, mechanical, and electrical crews. The defects are rarely dramatic. They are the things that got skipped between one crew leaving and the next arriving:
- Framing: studs notched or bored past code limits for plumbing and ducts, headers with missing jack studs, joist hangers short on nails, beams and girders bearing on a stack of shims, truss webs cut for a duct run, and missing blocking under point loads.
- Fire blocking: open chases from basement to attic, unblocked soffits over cabinets, and gaps around plumbing penetrations that turn a wall cavity into a chimney.
- Plumbing: drain lines laid flat or back-pitched, vents that dead-end in the attic, unprotected pipe where it passes through plates, and tub traps with no access.
- Electrical: cable run through metal framing with no grommet, staples driven through the jacket, boxes overfilled, missing nail plates where cable passes within an inch and a quarter of the stud face, and bath fan wiring that never reached the fan.
- HVAC: flex duct crushed in the truss space, runs with no support sagging into bellies, return chases that are just open stud bays, and bath fan ducts terminating in the attic instead of outside.
- Exterior and foundation: house wrap lapped so water runs behind it, window flashing tape applied bottom-over-top, sill seal missing under the plate, anchor bolts without washers or nuts, and foundation dampproofing that stops short of grade.
Every one of these is a fifteen-minute fix while the wall is open and a wall-tearing repair after it is closed. That is the entire argument for this inspection.
Process & Pricing
How it works and what it costs.
1. Tell me the builder's schedule
Ask your superintendent when insulation is scheduled. The pre-drywall window is often only two or three days. Book for the day before insulation.
2. Give the builder notice
Most purchase agreements allow third-party inspections; many require notice and a signed-in visit. Tell your sales rep. I work inside whatever rules they set.
3. The inspection
One to two hours on site. I photograph every room, the attic, and the exterior. You're welcome to walk it with me.
4. Same-day report
A photo punch list, organized room by room, that the superintendent can hand to each trade.
5. Verify
Ask the builder to confirm corrections in writing before insulation. If it matters to you, I'll come back and photograph the fixes.
$249 for a pre-drywall inspection of a typical single-family home; large custom homes scale up modestly and you get a firm price before anything is scheduled. Book it with the final walkthrough inspection ($349) and the 11-month warranty inspection ($349) and you have the whole build covered. Active and retired military, first responders, nurses, and teachers get a permanent 15% Heroes Discount.
One honest note: the InterNACHI® Buy-Back Guarantee and Inspection Warranty apply to buyer inspections of existing homes, not to new-construction phase inspections.
Questions
Pre-drywall inspection questions.
When exactly should the pre-drywall inspection happen?
After framing, rough plumbing, rough electrical, and HVAC rough-in have all passed their municipal inspections, and before insulation is installed. Insulation hides the exterior walls first and drywall hides the rest, so the day before the insulation crew is the target. Ask your builder for the insulation date as soon as framing starts and book then.
Will the builder let you in?
Almost always. Most Michigan production builders allow third-party inspections and many purchase agreements spell out the process: advance notice, a signed liability form, hard hat and boots, sometimes a superintendent present. I follow their rules. A builder who refuses any independent inspection at any stage is telling you something worth knowing before you close.
Do you test the systems at pre-drywall?
No, and nobody should. The electrical is not energized, the plumbing may or may not be under a pressure test, and the HVAC has no equipment connected yet. A pre-drywall inspection is a visual inspection of installation quality and completeness. System testing happens at the final walkthrough inspection when everything is live.
How is this different from the city inspection?
The municipal inspector confirms the work meets code minimums at a few checkpoints, in a few minutes each, and works for the city. I check completeness and workmanship room by room, photograph everything, and work for you. Both matter. Only one of them produces a punch list you can hand the builder.
What if the builder says I don't need it because they have their own quality control?
Good builders do have quality control, and they still miss things because the framing crew that left on Tuesday is not the crew that comes back to fix it. A second set of eyes that reports to the buyer costs a few hundred dollars. The alternative is finding the problem after drywall, when it costs the builder more to fix and they have less reason to.
Do you inspect custom builds at other stages?
Yes. On custom homes a foundation visit before backfill and a framing visit before mechanical rough-in are both worth doing, and I can set up a schedule that matches your builder's. Call and tell me where the build is.
Service Area
Available across Southeast Michigan
Schedule your inspection.
Most requests answered same day.
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