A standard one-year construction warranty in Florida is the builder's written promise that, for the first year after closing, the home meets the building code and the agreed plans, and that the builder will repair the workmanship and materials that fall short. It is the first and shortest tier of what the trade calls the 1-2-10 setup: one year on workmanship, two years on the systems, ten years on the structure. The one-year piece is the busy one, and it carries the meanest clock.
I knew a man out past Yulee who bought a brand-new house, signed everything they slid across the table, and decided the place was finished the day the movers left. He balanced his checkbook to the penny. But he treated that one-year warranty the way most of us treat the instructions in a flat-pack bookshelf box. He set it somewhere safe and never looked at it again. About fourteen months in, a door upstairs stopped latching and a hairline crack walked its way across the dining room ceiling. He called the builder, sure they would come right out. They were polite. They were also done.
Here is how the three tiers sort out, so you know which clock is running on which problem:
| Tier | Length | What it covers | Typical examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workmanship | 1 year | Cosmetic and fitted work | Drywall cracks, binding doors and windows, loose tile, split grout, crooked fixtures |
| Systems | 2 years | Mechanical guts of the house | HVAC and ductwork, electrical wiring, plumbing lines |
| Structure | 10 years | Load-bearing bones | Foundation, load-bearing frame |
What does a one-year builder warranty cover?
The one-year warranty covers the cosmetic and the fitted: drywall cracks beyond a normal settling line, doors and windows that bind or will not seal, paint and trim and caulk that give up early, tile that comes loose, grout that splits, cabinets that drift out of square, fixtures installed crooked or leaking at the joint. The standard most builders write to is that the work meets accepted industry tolerances. A door is supposed to hang and close. A counter is supposed to sit level.
Think of the first year as the punch list nobody handed you. When a door will not close or a counter sits crooked, that is workmanship, and that is the builder's to fix inside the year.
What does the one-year warranty not cover?
The one-year warranty does not cover normal wear, owner or mover damage, or settling that stays within tolerance. The nail pop that is cosmetic and the grout that needs the homeowner's caulk gun are yours now. The mechanical guts of the house, the air handler and the ductwork and the wiring and the plumbing lines, ride on the two-year systems coverage. The bones, foundation and load-bearing frame, answer to the ten-year structural warranty.
That last tier is a different animal with different law behind it. If you want the long view on it, read the piece on the 10-year structural warranty; it earns its own page. For the whole 1-2-10 map and how to walk it as a buyer, the new home construction warranty overview is the hub.
Why does the first year matter more on a barrier island?
The first year matters more here because the weather runs a stress test you never signed up for. A new house on or near Amelia Island gets its real inspection the first time a summer afternoon throws a wall of rain sideways at it, the first nor'easter that drives water at the seams, the first stretch of August where the humidity sits like a wet towel over everything. That is when the honest defects show themselves.
A window sealed in a hurry weeps at the corner. A flashing detail that looked fine in the spring lets a stain bloom on the ceiling after the first real blow. The slab that took on the salt-heavy air shows where the caulk was not ready for the movement. None of this turns up during a calm walkthrough in nice weather. It turns up in the season, and the season here does not fully arrive until you are months into living there. That is the cruel joke of the one-year clock: the weather that proves whether your house was built right rolls through about the time the warranty is winding down.
So you do not wait. You keep a running list from day one. Every stuck door, every hairline crack, every stain, every drip gets a date and a photo. After the first hard summer storm, you walk the house on purpose, attic to slab, and you look at the corners and the ceilings and the spots under the windows. You are not being a pest. You paid for a year of someone standing behind their work, and a list with photos and dates is how you collect on it.
How do you make a one-year warranty claim before the clock runs out?
You make the claim in writing, inside the year, with dates and photos, not by a phone call the builder may or may not remember. Most builder warranties require a written claim before the year closes. The cheerful "oh, we will take care of that, do not worry about it" is worth exactly what it is written on, which is nothing. Send the list by email so there is a date on it. If something keeps coming back, keep documenting it, because the friendly verbal promise has a way of evaporating the day the year is up.
That is where the man out past Yulee went wrong, and where plenty of decent people go wrong, because builders are mostly pleasant and nobody wants to be the difficult one. The one-year window is firm.
Can you sue your contractor after the one-year warranty is over?
Sometimes, yes. Florida's statute of repose keeps the door open on certain construction defect claims for up to seven years after the work is completed, so the builder is not automatically off the hook when the one year closes. The longer warranty tiers and the law behind them do not vanish because the first year did.
But the easy fix, the no-argument fix, the one where the builder just sends someone out because it is still their warranty, lives in the first year. After that you are usually trading a phone call for a fight, and a fight costs more than a stamp and a little vigilance ever would. The folks I work with on the resale side at Salt Harbor Real Estate can usually tell, walking a four- or five-year-old home, which owners used their first year and which ones set the warranty on a shelf and forgot it. The houses tell on people. If you are buying new on or near the island, the smartest thing you will do all year costs nothing: read the warranty the week you close, mark the date it ends on the calendar, and treat that year like the one chance it is.
Frequently asked questions
What is the construction warranty statute in Florida?
Florida does not require a specific written builder warranty, but it sets a statute of repose that limits how long you have to bring a construction defect claim. That window runs up to seven years from completion of the construction. The 1-2-10 warranty tiers (one year workmanship, two years systems, ten years structural) are the builder's contractual promises that sit on top of that statute.
What does a 1 year builder warranty cover?
A one-year builder warranty covers workmanship and materials: drywall cracks beyond normal settling, doors and windows that bind or will not seal, loose tile, split grout, cabinets out of square, and fixtures installed crooked or leaking. The standard is that the work meets accepted industry tolerances. It does not cover normal wear, owner or mover damage, or settling that stays within tolerance.
Can you sue your contractor after the one year warranty is over?
Yes, in some cases. Florida's statute of repose keeps certain construction defect claims open for up to seven years after the work is completed, so the builder is not automatically off the hook when the one year ends. The catch is that after year one you usually trade an easy in-warranty repair for a dispute, which costs far more than documenting the claim in time.
What is a typical construction warranty?
A typical new-home construction warranty in Florida follows the 1-2-10 structure: one year on workmanship and materials, two years on mechanical systems such as HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, and ten years on major structural elements like the foundation and load-bearing frame. The one-year tier is the most active and has the firmest deadline for filing a claim.
How do you file a one-year warranty claim in Florida?
File the claim in writing before the one-year window closes, with dates and photos for each defect. Most builder warranties require written notice rather than a phone call, so email the list so there is a record. If a problem keeps recurring, keep documenting it, because verbal promises tend to disappear once the year is up.