Home inspection in a new apartment from a contractor: plaster defects

Buying an apartment or a house calls for a comprehensive inspection before the purchase, even when the apartment is brand new from the contractor. If anything, a new-build apartment deserves an even more rigorous check of everything relating to the home and its surroundings, for two main reasons.

First, our natural instinct is to assume that a completely new building will be flawless, which tempts us to think we can skip the inspection (home inspection, or bedek bayit) altogether. In reality, plenty of buildings are not built properly: the infrastructure is shaky, the foundations are unstable, the plaster falls short of even minimal standards, and negligence is common.

A construction-defects inspection by a home inspection engineer is what surfaces these problems before it's too late, and lets you, the resident, get them fixed under warranty.

Second, it is important to have the new apartment inspected before you complete the purchase. Apartments sold by a contractor carry a warranty for a limited period, during which any needed repair is at the contractor's expense. Inspecting the apartment and catching construction defects in time can save you a great deal of money, provided it happens while the contractor's warranty is still in force.

Checking plaster as part of a home inspection

Plaster is one of the things a home inspection pays close attention to. The inspection is a comprehensive process that scans every relevant parameter at both the micro and macro level of the structure, and plaster gets checked thoroughly as part of that.

The engineer examines everything relevant to the soundness of the structure and its infrastructure, then submits findings that stand as a legitimate, legal record. That summary document is a legal document in every sense, and on its basis the new owner can demand every necessary repair and improvement.

Plaster is one of the most common problem areas in any house, and surprisingly, even brand-new houses are not exempt. The cuts between different trades must be perfectly even. The joints where walls meet the ceiling must be straight. Wavy plaster is not up to standard, whether around outlets, switches, or the electrical panel cover, and where it appears, the contractor is obligated to make the correction.

While checking for plaster problems, the engineer also looks for cracks in the inner plaster layers, even in a fully new apartment. How a crack is repaired matters as much as whether it is repaired: it has to be opened up, deepened, and properly filled so it does not come back, all while keeping the finish uniform.

As an illustration, here is an exterior plaster defect found in a house in Zichron Yaakov:

In more serious cases, the problem lies in the scratch coat, the first layer applied directly to the exposed block or concrete wall, whose job is to bond the wall to the main plaster layer (the black leveling coat).

When the scratch coat is not applied properly, the plaster detaches from the wall. The tell-tale signs are a hollow sound when you tap the plaster, certain kinds of cracks, and in severe cases, pieces of plaster coming loose altogether.