Some examples: I Inspected the home of a contractor (who had built the home and lived there for two years)-not one ounce of insulation was in the attic. Home was total electric. Once the attic hatch was dropped, no one looked in attic. Someone had forgotten to call insulation subs after drywalling.

Inspected home of elderly lady and found the main sewer line discharging directly under home in crawlspace. She had paid to have her clogged sewer line repaired 5 months earlier. They got the line flowing--right under the home.

Or the young couple buying their first home which had just been re-habbed. With new floors and paint, the place looked nice. (See first picture) However in the crawlspace, under the front door, an eight by four foot section of framing and sub-floor had severe decay, deterioration and mold. During re-hab they patched some boards in, propped it up with a couple of 2x4s and covered with new carpeting. See pictures. 

One final story. I Inspected a home with a very wide chimney. Chimney's over 30" wide should have a cricket (small roof perpendicular to main roof-see drawing) to divert water to sides of chimney. Else water will dam up and go under shingles or over top of flashing. This had been ongoing for over 10 years and owners had paid to have roof repaired several times. I observed a curtain wall in basement on this side of home. Behind the curtain wall was the main foundation wall, which had caved in and no-longer was supporting floor framing. The water from the roof leak was running down the inside of walls by chimney but did not show any water signs in the living room around chimney. The water from the roof leak saturated the ground in this area and caused the foundation walls to collapse. Additionally the floor framing had significant decay and I would suspect mold growth inside the interior walls. Most likely $50,000 to $60,000 worth of damage. If only this would have been discovered earlier. If only the contractors had looked for the cause and not just fixed the visible damage.  A home inspection could have saved this home owner many times the cost of the inspection.

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