Why month eleven
Most new homes in Florida come with a builder warranty covering workmanship and materials for one year from closing. That deadline is real and it is enforced. Once it passes, items that would have been repaired free become your expense.
Month eleven is the sweet spot for two reasons. The house has now been through a full Florida cycle — a summer of heat, humidity and afternoon storms, and a winter of cooler dry air. Materials have expanded and contracted, the foundation and framing have done most of their initial settling, and the mechanical systems have been loaded in both directions. Problems that did not exist at your final walkthrough exist now.
And there is enough runway left. You need time to receive the report, compile the list, submit it in writing, and give the builder a reasonable window to schedule and complete the work. If you inspect on day 360, you have a documented list and no leverage. Book the inspection at around month ten and submit the list in month eleven.
What has changed since closing
Settlement is the visible category. Hairline cracking at drywall corners and above door and window openings, nail pops, separation at trim joints, and hairline cracking in the slab or in exterior stucco. Most of this is normal and most builders repair it once as part of the one-year service. Do not skip listing it because it looks minor — it is exactly what the warranty exists to cover, and after month twelve you are painting it yourself.
Doors and windows fall out of adjustment. Doors that rub or will not latch, windows that bind, sliding doors off their track, and locks that no longer align. Test every single one.
Grout and caulk fail early where they were applied poorly. Shower grout cracking at corners, tub surrounds separating, and caulk shrinking away from countertops and tile. Check the base of every shower and tub for movement in the pan or flexing in the floor.
And the mechanical systems have now run under load. Air conditioning that struggles in one room, condensate lines that have clogged for the first time, water heaters with an improper relief line that nobody noticed at closing, and exhaust fans that were never actually connected to their roof termination.
The high-value items we concentrate on
Attic first. This is where the money is. We check insulation depth and coverage, look for areas disturbed by trades, verify that bathroom and kitchen exhaust ducts terminate outside the building rather than in the attic, and inspect duct runs for kinks, crushing, disconnection and torn insulation. We look for staining on the deck and on truss members, and we check every roof penetration from below.
Roof and flashing second. Eleven months of Florida sun and rain reveal installation defects that looked fine when new. Sealant that has already cracked, exposed fasteners, ridge vent installed poorly, and missing kick-out flashing at roof-to-wall junctions. That last one is the highest-consequence defect on this list because it drives water into the wall assembly.
Water intrusion evidence third. We look at the ceiling around every penetration, at the top plate line in the garage, at the base of walls beneath windows, at the interior of exterior wall corners, and at the slab perimeter. Staining that appeared in the first year points at an installation defect, not at wear.
Grading and drainage fourth. New landscaping frequently reverses the pad grading. We check the slope within ten feet of the foundation, where downspouts discharge, where the condensate line terminates, and whether the pad has settled anywhere against the slab.
How to submit a list that gets acted on
Put it in writing, always. Email your warranty representative and keep the sent copy. Verbal requests are not a record and they do not preserve a deadline.
Organise by room and by trade rather than by severity. Builders dispatch subcontractors, so a list grouped as plumbing, electrical, drywall, HVAC, roofing is a list that can be scheduled. A list of 30 items in random order gets triaged by someone else.
Attach the report and reference finding numbers. Include photographs. Be specific about location — hall bath, not upstairs. Precision is the difference between one visit and three.
State the warranty deadline in the email. Something as simple as noting that your one-year workmanship coverage expires on a given date is not aggressive, and it establishes in writing that the request was made inside the window. Keep every reply.
Then follow up. If nothing has been scheduled within two weeks, send a polite second email referencing the first. Persistence and a paper trail are the entire technique.
What the builder will and will not cover
Expect coverage on workmanship and material defects: drywall finishing, paint, trim, grout and caulk failures, door and window adjustment, plumbing leaks, electrical faults, HVAC performance issues, and roof installation defects.
Expect resistance on maintenance items and on damage caused by the homeowner. Filters not changed, landscaping that reversed the grading, and anything installed after closing are yours. Some builders also set thresholds for cosmetic items, such as a maximum crack width in concrete, which they will quote to you.
Understand the tiers. Workmanship at one year is what expires now. Major systems coverage, typically around two years, covers the distribution systems for plumbing, electrical and HVAC. Structural coverage runs much longer, often ten years, and covers designated load-bearing elements. Knowing which tier a finding sits in tells you whether it is urgent this month or whether you have years.
One last thing worth saying plainly: we do not perform repairs, and we have no relationship with your builder. The list we give you is a condition report, and what it contains is not influenced by how convenient it is for anyone. That independence is the reason to have your own inspector rather than relying only on the builder's walkthrough.