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February 23, 2023
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So … why are new houses covered in “blue tape”?

If you’re building a new house in the Denver metro, most large builders will tour your new home with you before closing.

The goal is to show you around the home, help you understand the systems the builder has installed, and basically make sure there’s nothing major left to complete before you close.

Blue tape in our clients’ new home

These meetings have many different names. We’ve done these meetings with Infinity, Lennar, Parkwood, Shea, KB, Thrive, David Weekley, and other builders.

I’ve heard builders call these a new home orientation walk, a pre-closing meeting, and a blue tape walk, among other names. Also, some builders break these out into two meetings – a blue tape walk and then a final walk-through.

But wait … what does “blue tape” mean?

Parkwood Home built by our clients in Central Park

Well, it’s common during these meetings for both the construction managers, myself or one of our teammates at Focus Real Estate, and the buyers to grab a roll of tape (often blue). The goal is to apply pieces of tape to note issues that need to be fixed before closing.

Paint chipped? Apply the blue tape.

Door handle missing? Blue tape.

Tile chipped? Blue tape.

You get the picture!

Mariel at a blue tape walk

In an ideal world, before closing your builder will fix everything you flagged with tape. In the non-ideal world we live in, your builder will likely fix many items … but sometimes things can’t be fixed that quickly.

Perhaps the door handle your builder needs is on back order. Or tile is being shipped so it might take a few weeks.

So don’t automatically assume everything you flag during your blue tape walk will get fixed before closing.

Another limitation you should be aware of?

It’s hard to flag everything during a blue tape walk.

You can’t see behind your walls, for example, so what if there’s a leak? What about systems issues? You’re no HVAC expert, so how would you know if there’s a problem? What about up on ceilings, or higher on the exterior of your home? And so on.

Here at Focus we’ve have helped clients build homes all around Denver. So how do we handle blue tape walk limitations?

Picture we snapped during a clients’ predrywall walk

Instead of relying solely on your blue tape walk, we recommend several different inspections and take other steps to help supplement your blue tape walk.

First, we recommend that you hire a professional inspector to inspect your home before your drywall goes up. Check out this post for predrywall walk tips!

Tips for your new home predrywall walk (plus one “watch out!” tip)

Our team also creates 3D models of your home before your walls go up. We’ve created many of these models over the years, and our clients appreciate having a permanent digital record of what’s behind their walls.

Here’s a 3D model we created of a clients’ home:

Parkwood – Charleston 3D Model

In addition to the predrywall inspection, we also recommend that you have an inspector visit right before closing.

Your inspector should be your “second set of eyes” and can help you understand mechanical, structural, and other issues you might not see – and give you a report that you can take to your builder.

There are other recommendation we make to our clients during the new build process to help protect them – from foundation inspections after your foundation is poured to a 1 year warranty inspection and more. Shoot me a note if you’d like to learn more!

-Mariel

Mariel@Focus-Realtors.com

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