As the leading home inspection company in India and having conducted hundreds of home inspections across India, we have built a database of quality issues with Indian homes. The advantage of having this information is that we can splice and dice this information the way we want it – across locations, builders or projects. We are able to derive actionable insights that we can pass on to the relevant stakeholders and thus help improve the quality of Indian homes. We will share these insights in blog posts starting with this one. Here are the top 5 quality issues that we have encountered during our inspections:
Exterior paint peeling or faded
The #1 issue is with the exterior paint of the home. Most often the paint is either poorly finished or already peeling off or even fading away. Surprising indeed, considering that invariably these are freshly painted houses. The primary causes could either be poor paint quality or inferior workmanship. See inline image for examples from one of our inspections.
Internal Doors not operational or obstructed
The next common issue is with internal doors. The common problems with internal doors are faulty stoppers or bolts, paint blemishes on the surface, door getting obstructed. Again, it is surprising, since these are typically brand new houses. The primary causes here could be poor material or workmanship. See inline image for examples from one of our inspections.
Main entrance door not operational or obstructed
The next common issue is with the main entrance door. Usually the problems and causes are very similar to those of the interior doors. An important point to note is that since this is the main entrance door, poor quality or workmanship also poses a security hazard. See inline image for examples from one of our inspections.
Poor Interior paint quality
Not surprisingly, interior paint related issues feature next in our list. They are identical to the issues encountered with the exteriors – peeling, fading and other finishing issues. A major issue is dampness and this really affects the aesthetics of the home. Causes are similar too – poor paint quality or shoddy workmanship of either the paint job or internal plumbing. See inline image for examples from one of our inspections.
Windows with missing hardware or other damages
Last but not the least in our list are the issues around defective windows. Usually the window itself or the attachments are defective, resulting in either the windows not closing properly or the attachments not functioning the way they are supposed to. If there aren’t any additional grills, then defective windows obviously pose a safety risk too. Causes include poor material quality or shoddy workmanship.
So there you go – those were the top issues that we have encountered in Indian homes during their inspections. Almost all of them are not that hard to fix if either the right material is used or if the workmanship standards are improved. The very fact that we keep encountering issues such as these, house after house, proves that the devil lies in the details and a service such as ours – the home inspection service, is essential in the Indian context till the construction/finishing standards of this industry improves as a whole.
