So What's A Pre-Drywall Meeting All About, Anyways?

Whew, this post is long overdue but here we go! We finished our Pre-Drywall Meeting two weeks ago and are moving on in our home building process! If you’re reading along to prepare for your own home building process, be sure to check out my posts on the Preparing For The Design Center and What To Expect At Your Pre-Construction Meeting—or catch up on all of my posts about the home building process!

Your pre-drywall meeting is just what you think—the meeting before all of your drywall goes in. You’ll be walking through the house at its framed stage—complete with wall studs, roof, electrical, and plumbing. You’ll have plenty to do and look during this stage, so here’s what you can do to prepare!

what you should do before the pre-drywall meeting

FINALIZE DESIGN PLANS WITH YOUR BUILDER

Just like I mentioned in my pre-construction meeting post, now is not really the time to be making design changes. The homebuilding process moves in phases/stages and certain changes can only be made in the early phases because materials have to be ordered, installers scheduled, etc. By the time you get to your pre-drywall meeting, it’s very likely that you won’t be able to make any changes to your home’s design—even if you are willing to pay a change order fee. Be extra specially positively sure that you’ve made all the upgrades and selections you want before this point.

SCHEDULE A THIRD PARTY INSPECTOR

Your builder will have their own inspectors check out your home to make sure everything was done properly and to code, but I think it’s really important to have another set of eyes on it—a set of eyes that YOU hire, not the builder. Having a third party inspector come out and look at your home isn’t required, but I highly recommend it! As you walk through the house in its framed state, chances are you won’t know exactly what you’re looking at 100% of the time. You probably don’t know which order the flashing tape is supposed to be applied or which areas require fireblocking—I didn’t know either until our inspector explained it to me!—so it’s great to have someone there that actually knows what to look for.

Luckily during our walkthrough, our inspector only found very minor, nit-picky issues and was super impressed with the quality of work and materials in our house—way to go, Ashton Woods! Now we can sleep peacefully knowing that the house is absolutely structurally sound, built correctly, and the proper steps were taken to ensure its longevity. Having your own inspector there to double-check your builder’s work can really save you from major (or minor) problems later down the line, so it’s totally worth it in my book to spend the money on an inspection. I like to look at it as an investment in our home’s future and a way to prevent more costly repairs.

If you can, try to schedule your third party inspection to happen before your pre-drywall meeting. Make sure you clear the inspection with your property manager first so that they’re aware of the inspection and know not to schedule any work to take place during that same time. By having the inspection done before your pre-drywall meeting, your project manager will be able to fix and address any issues the inspector finds and show you that it’s been corrected during your meeting. If you can’t get an inspector out ahead of time though, no biggie! We did our pre-drywall meeting in the morning and our inspection in the afternoon on the same day and all was fine. Your builder is required to fix any issues the inspector finds, so as long as you’re using a reputable builder, you shouldn’t have to worry about the changes being made.

HAVE YOUR HOME PLANS READY

Print out or download a copy of your home’s plans to your tablet. You’ll want to reference these as you go through the house to make sure everything is where it should be.