Quality Built: Perfecting the Art & Science of Quality in Home Building

What is the history of Quality Built
What is different about Quality Built versus the competition?
Can I receive Technical support?
Who is responsible for obtaining ‘closure’ after an anomaly is discovered?
Will you come back and verify that the item was corrected?
What types of services do you provide?
Do you do ADA, OSHA, or Draw Inspections?
How many inspections do you conduct on an average home/unit?
What are the requirements for your inspectors? Are they subcontractors or employees?
How am I billed?
What kind of liability do you have?

What is the history of Quality Built?

In the early 80’s we existed only as Pacific Property Consultants and we did inspections for residential and commercial property involved in real estate transactions. Then in 1984 Stan Luhr, the owner of PPC, was asked to serve as a construction expert witness in the first really big construction defect case in San Diego. We found out that Stan had a natural talent for the work. As a result our business changed almost over night to the defense of builders and developers involved in construction defect litigation. From 1984 to 1994 we were involved in over 1,200 of these cases and it was then that we decided to use our knowledge about construction defects and risk exposure to create proactive services designed to help reduce risk. We began offering these services as Quality Built by Pacific Property Consultants in 1994. Today Quality Built is a separate corporation headed by Beth Michaelis.

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What is different about Quality Built versus the competition?

Quality Built is a systems approach to quality. We are the only company in the United States that can quantify quality! QB is the only company that can provide information and statistical data on what is right with your project, as well as what is wrong. We inspect all systems from pre-pour through final construction wrap. Our competition does not inspect structural or rough trades. We are the largest company in our industry and we provide consistent information and services across the United States. This means that builders can compare divisions on consistent information from site to site.

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Can I receive Technical support?

YES - We have a technical support department that can provide you with ICBO reports, code research, and manufacturer’s installation instructions. This information allows you to challenge checkpoints and understand the reasoning behind it. Also, our Technical Support department has had some published opinions: Examples are "Use of Greenboard in Showers" and "Mold Response Protocol for Customer Service".

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Who is responsible for obtaining ‘closure’ after an anomaly is discovered?

‘Closure’ is defined as the correction to at least the ‘minimum standard’ (stated in the Field Report) at the identified location and all like locations in the project and finally by signing the Field Report as completed. The builder is ultimately responsible for obtaining closure. Your company will have to establish a protocol on who in your company will have the site responsibility, typically it is the superintendant. In addition, depending on the type of insurance you have you will need to adjust your trade contracts so that their responsibilities are defined and acknowledged.

For example: if you have traditional liability you want your trade contractors to provide you with the name of an authorized representative to bring closure to all open items that fall within their scope of work. This shifts all liability to the trade contractor.

If you have a wrap policy then still have the trade contractor be contractually bound and have them sign it off but for your protection have your superintendent or someone else in your company (maybe even an internal QA person) check at least a statistical sampling of the items to verify that the trades are correcting them and not just signing them off.

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Will you come back and verify that the item was corrected?

Yes, if you want us to but not for a set per unit price, it is subject to our hourly rate. The reason for this is that all of the items noted are never repaired at once so superintendents want us to come over and over to inspect. Also, since they can’t move on until we get there they call and want a same day inspection, which becomes very time consuming.

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What types of services do you provide?

Technical Peer Plan Review
QB Inspections
HOA Turnovers
Maintenance Manuals
Diagnostic Testing

We also offer a choice of 100% inspections and a 25% statistical sampling. Why 25%? This is based upon a statistical study we did years ago that shows that a builder who builds 100 or more homes per year can benefit from a statistical sampling. Smaller builders should consider 100% inspection. We will only do 100% inspection on attached housing due to the fact that they are more complex and more prone to litigation.

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Do you do ADA, OSHA, or Draw Inspections?

It is not included in our standard scope of work but some checkpoints can be added. There will be an additional fee though, depending on the length of time you want us to commit to these activities while on site.

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How many inspections do you conduct on an average home/unit?

We do not come at set times like a municipal inspector. We schedule ourselves according to your construction schedule, which we would receive weekly. We commit to seeing all systems that we are contracted for throughout the process of construction. We average about 5 hours contact time per home on an average single family home, and about 4 hours per unit on an attached. The ultimate goal is to gather data to track trends and provide training in order to stop the defects from being built into future homes.

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What are the requirements for your inspectors? Are they subcontractors or employees?

At this time, all of our inspectors are direct employees. Inspectors are required to be ICBO certified. They must have a diversified background in construction and go through the Quality Built training program. To advance in the company the inspector must continue to advance through our training programs and acquire additional certifications.

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How am I billed?

You are billed on the percentage of completion of the inspections on a monthly basis.

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What kind of liability do you have?

Our contract has a mutual indemnity clause based on comparative fault. This means that we go to court together with you to substantiate and challenge any claims presented, but are only responsible for what the courts designate as our responsibility of fault percentage.

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