After coming inside from the very interesting outdoors of my favorite new construction, was was greeted at the doorway between laundry room off of the garage and the kitchen with this.
At first glance it looks like a stain.
But it is not.
Remember, when a builder calls to schedule the final inspection, the house is "finished" and he, supposedly, is presenting his proud, "finished" product to the buyers!
In my opinion, the house should really be FINISHED!
Also, in my opinion, the buyers deserve a completed house in the condition they want. It is a NEW house! During our final walk throughs a lot of blue tape is put on the walls and wood work where areas need to be repainted or touched up.
I think they are entitled to that.
For most of those things, if the house is five years old for example, my opinion is that those things are normal "wear and tear" and not deserving of scrutiny.
Sometimes the buyer is told that something is just a "spot" or "stain."
As in this case.
But the closer you look, the clearer it becomes, that this is no mere spot.
It is clearly a chip out of the ceramic tile floor.
It is clearly a chip off the old block!
Is this too small a thing to bring up to the supervisor?
Again, in my opinion, these buyers deserve to have a pristine tile, without blemish.
It needs to be replaced.
My question: How many times has this supervisor walked over this tile, looked at that little ding, and let it go? Did he think it to be acceptable? Would he think it acceptable if he was buying the house? I am betting not! Again, why not employ the Golden Rule?
My recommendation: During a final walk through, just before settlement, look for the little things. Be scrutinizing! It is, after all, your only opportunity to do so. And hire a home inspector! He has eyes for this stuff!
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia.
Office (703) 330-6388 Cell (703) 585-7560
You and your scrutiny and I like it
What an eye. You are greaaaaaaaat!
Good Morning Jay, great post and excellent point!
A little chip here, a little ding there, they all add up to a home that doesn't guite work for Goldylocks. I just had a discussion with the contractor who has been working on my Parkfairfax condo. He couldn't understand why I was upset about all the dirty handprints the workman left on walls and ceilings. Sure I can scrub them off by why should I have to?
Do you use night vision glasses to scrutinize this stuff, Jay? :) Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
So, James, I am not mean after all?
Ken - the first view is what it looked like to me upon entering the house. No stain there!
Thanks Dan. Have a great holiday. Merry Thanksgiving.
You are right, Cindy. You shouldn't have to. Sure, hands get dirty during work, but be careful with them! And clean up your mess! I'm not sure what is so hard to understand there...
Don't need'em Toni! This stuff sticks out to me. You know that eye over the pyramid on the dollar bill? Think about that in regard to a home inspector!
Good catch. Looks like red body bisque ceramic. Hard to fix..to pull up that tile will prob. result in bigger issue and cracks in surrounding tile. Probably "easies" solution is to find wider tmolding or reducer for matching wood to try to cover it. Hard to find as they are normally wider. I suppose if they had to, they could do wider unfinished piece or saddle and stain to proper color. Looks like it could still work in doorway and look normal...at least I think it could from what I'm seeing in the picture.
Debbie - the supervisor will say they can break that one tile by drilling a hole and hitting it with a hammer. They can also Dremel out the grout and then break the tile. But it still needs replacement as you say, it can't be fixed. I think the supervisor thought it would not be seen! It's less than 1/4" wide. And it's a cheap tile anyway...
Builders will take shortcuts whever they can get away with it... and its up to the buyer to scrutinize with a sharp eye... As you said, the buyer is buying a new home and should expect it to be in pristine condition! I'm sure the builder's supervisor walked over that tile numerous times hoping no one would notice.
Gloria - that is probably true. Why not fix it? It's going to have to be fixed sooner or later...
Great advice - I agree it should be pristine. Happy Thanksgiving.
Mel
Thank you Mel. Merry Thanksgiving to you and yours!
If there's ever a time for a house be 'perfect', it's new construction. Of course, both you and I know that that has never happened!
Well, no, Reuben, it hasn't but wouldn't it be cool? With someone on site every day, walking around seeing things, you would think that now and then something new would pop up to fix.