FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Quality Built® Data Shows Builder Top Risk Issues Are Preventable

Orlando, Fla., Jan. 11, 2006 — (International Builders’ Show) -Quality Built, the industry leader in risk management and quality assurance services, today released its 2005 quality assurance data, the largest survey of quality assurance data ever tabulated for the new construction industry. The leading construction defects identified by Quality Built show that a builder’s risk losses—which largely result from failure to follow building code requirements or follow installation instructions—are preventable.

The new findings come from data captured during the construction data collection process by Quality Built field inspectors on 31,995 completed homes and condominiums across 27 U.S. states for the 12-month period ending October 1, 2005.

What Issues Give Builders the Most Trouble?
Quality Built’s findings show single-family homes averaged $5,398 in corrected defects per home in 2005 while multi-family homes and mixed commercial use construction averaged $4,556 in corrected defects. The survey also identifies the leading risk items for each housing type. These include:

1. Unprotected penetrations in life-safety assemblies
2. Missing fire-rated materials at electrical device boxes
3. Building paper and housewrap installation flaws

1. Building paper and housewrap (i.e., building envelope) installation flaws
2. Improper framing around windows and doors
3. Missing structural straps and connectors (e.g., hold-downs)

“None of these defects for either category would be visible to a homeowner or building owner upon completion, but the defects can be easily corrected during construction if identified early through a quality assurance program, such as ours,” said Stan Luhr, Quality Built CEO and survey author. “A quality assurance program will consistently result in improvements with a host of issues that impact a builder’s bottom line, including customer service, water intrusion issues and EIFS-related issues.”

About the Survey Data
The survey data included more than 3.1 million quality Checkpoints identified in single-family homes and 1.67 million quality Checkpoints in multi-family homes. A Checkpoint is a qualitative measurement of a construction process, installation or building component that is verified as being installed in accordance with applicable codes, standards or manufacturer’s instructions. Positively worded Checkpoints with risk values assigned to them are a patent-pending process of Quality Built and are accepted as the industry standard by the nation’s largest insurers for new construction projects.

In calendar year 2005, $1.01 billion in total construction risk was eliminated on Quality Built projects. This amount factors in direct construction cost of repairs, cost of investigation, customer service costs and insurance adjusting costs. This amount constitutes 4.3 percent of all construction losses suffered by insurance providers in the U.S. in 2003¹.

The Average Corrected Risk value of $4,977 per Quality Built-inspected home constitutes a 13:1 payback on Quality Built services. The Total Construction Risk value of $1.01 billion on 80,100 homes in 2005 represents a 33:1 payback on Quality Built services² . The new 2005 data shows that the Quality Built system saves builders and their insurers many times over the contract value in direct risk savings and improved housing quality. Quality Built is the only risk management program for builders to quantify actual risk savings so it can be carefully tracked daily, weekly or even across multiple builder divisions.

Quality Built plans to release its trend data on builder quality for all U.S. regions this spring.

###

About Quality Built
Quality Built is the largest builder risk management consultancy in the country, providing services for single-family homes, condominiums, mid- and luxury high-rise projects. Quality Built clients include some of the country’s largest builders, and Quality Built is the only risk consultancy recognized by many of the major insurance companies across America. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Quality Built proprietary software is based on the litigation data collected by its sister company, Pacific Property Consultants (PPC), a nationally recognized construction consultancy specializing in construction defect litigation. PPC has provided forensic investigations and consulting in nearly 3,000 construction defect litigation cases. In all, more than 225,000 buildings and billions of dollars of construction anomalies have been eliminated using the Quality Built system. For more information, visit the Quality Built home page at http://www.qualitybuilt.com.

For further information, please contact:
Marketing Department…….......Tel:  800-547-5125.......................Email:   marketing@qualitybuilt.com