I don't see why not. And if the site has problems, you can E-mail me. I am a builder. Sometimes it's helps to see things from the other side as well. By all means, ask away.
Well, it's long. I live in KY. I bought a "cookie cutter" type house that I could adjust the plans which I did.
The builder was supposed to start Spring of 2003 but did not start until Fall. The contract stated with some loopholes, 120 days to build house. Well, 16 months later, they finally finished. This is a supposed, self-labeled "premier" builder that built "Off site" homes.
It has been a disaster from the word go. They cut a door in the basement where it wasn't supposed to be, then sawed out the header and pumped concrete in to fill it. Which of course, left a + or - 1/4" from top to bottom which let muddy water run thru my basement. They then put a large steel plate at the basement ceiling line on inside and out and bolted my house together and pressure silicone (sp?) sealed the crack. (OH Yea)
Then they poured the porch 18" too low so instead of having 1 step out the door to the porch, I have 3 very large ones. I could go on and on. I have lived in the house for a year, w/o a Occupency Permit.
They have just this week returned to fix all the dry wall mistakes (when building, the painters showed before the drywallers mudded final time or sanded so they were told to paint anyway). Needlesstosay, my drywall was a mess.
I'll stop here. Don't want to write a book, but I have horrible basement floor, cracks and footprints. Garage floor, large cracks as they delivered and dropped the house on this floor 2-4 days after they poured it. (Yea)
Also they forgot to put a brick ledge on one side of my garage so they bolted a metal bar so they had something to hold the bricks on.
We ended up getting our own septic permit AFTER the house was "finished." (I use that term loosely)
The front porch top and bottom leaks as the flashing was not installed properly.
I need to stop. My bp just shot past 200 looking back.
Posts: 8 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 13 February 2005
First, I'm so sorry for what you are going through. Unfortunately, you are not alone. We had to completely demo our brand new $500,000. house, slab and all, after living there for 2 years. There are things you can do, but none of it is fun. There are several homeowner websites set up to help you learn the process. One is HADD, Homeowners Against Defective Dwellings, where they have numerous links to information that may help you. Do not delay, and make sure you document everything. Whatever problems you know you have now are just the beginning, as more will come as the house settles, or you just start to see more things. Hiring a good professional engineering inspector would be the best money you could spend right now to get a documented list of the deficiencies. Then, at least here in Texas, you are required to give written notice, to the builder of the problems, and they are given a limited amount of time to correct these. You would need to talk to an atty. in your area to know what the laws are where you live. Our law is the RCLA, Residential Construction Liability Act, and this must be followed in order to get any relief from the builder. Your builder must have liability and builders risk insurance to build. You may need to insist a claim be filed with them to repair damage. I wish you luck and hope you are able to get some help.
Thanks, we'll check out those websites to see if they apply in KY. As far as documentation, we have three 4" binders with email correspondence to/from the builder (Zaring, owned by Drees). One problem, per our legal advisor, is that in our county (Campbell), Drees financially backed (campaign donations)all the judges that were elected last term so we don't have a snowball chance in H.... Also, in our county, we were told that you won't find a sympathic jury to anyone who owns a $500,000 house since this isn't a real wealthy county. Our work is cut out for us.
Posts: 8 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 13 February 2005
Originally posted by Lunicy: I don't see why not. And if the site has problems, you can E-mail me. I am a builder. Sometimes it's helps to see things from the other side as well. By all means, ask away.
We were hit by the hurricanes in Florida. Since Sept I have had only 1 contractor come out to get an estimate of the damage. Everyone is so busy. The contractor said will cost more to repair than to rebuild. Can any one advise as to what to do now. I hope to get 2 more estimates before going to Insurance co. Not sure what to do next. We are not able to live in our home. Thank you, Dinni Hope this is the right spot to ask for help.
You folks who are buying homes need to do your part by weeding out bad builders. Talk to friends and avoid slick marketing gimmicks. A good builder might be a few $'s more expensive and may not be able to start your house when you want it started but in the long run you will have a quality product you love!
Check with the BBB and your local Home Builders Association. Do you homework!
Building mod-homes is my passion!
Posts: 62 | Location: NWLa | Registered: 08 February 2005
Just so you know, my husband & I looked at home shows for 2 years prior to selecting Zaring. They are known as a premier builder. They are owned by Drees also a huge home builder with a good rep in this area. We did do our homework. This seems to have been a long line of stupid mistakes and bad job foremens.
Posts: 8 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 13 February 2005
Originally posted by CHFBeck: Just so you know, my husband & I looked at home shows for 2 years prior to selecting Zaring. They are known as a premier builder. They are owned by Drees also a huge home builder with a good rep in this area. We did do our homework. This seems to have been a long line of stupid mistakes and bad job foremens.
I hate to be the devil's advocate but WHY did you allow such mistakes to be made during construction? Anyone who contracts to build a home MUST be involved and conduct site visits 2-3 times a week at a minimum. Yes, a lot of builders hate to see their clients at the site on a regular basis, but the good ones will welcome your input and comments. It is a chance to catch errors/ommissions/changes before it is too late.
Don't be timid about site visits and calling your builder. Sure you will ask some 'dumb' questions but you will will likey catch some things that the builder missed too.
Bottom line is that YOU are the one who has to live with the house when it is done... not the contractor.
Building mod-homes is my passion!
Posts: 62 | Location: NWLa | Registered: 08 February 2005
Went to the site, asked questions, like why is the porch so low. Was told it would be built up before the house went up. Also, contacted several folks during building and had site inspections, was assured it would be corrected. One problem is that they were building the home on a parcel of land that belong to us already. Also, it is surrounded by lots I purchased for my children. It is not as cut as dried as it should have been. However, they still screwed up and the guy that owns the company is a judge in the next county. Not much hope here. I know you probably build nice homes, but things do go on with other builders and they are real problems. It probably sounds cut and dried to you 'cause you build homes ... not everyone is as "in the loop" as you are.
Posts: 8 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 13 February 2005
Originally posted by CHFBeck: Went to the site, asked questions, like why is the porch so low. Was told it would be built up before the house went up. Also, contacted several folks during building and had site inspections, was assured it would be corrected. One problem is that they were building the home on a parcel of land that belong to us already. Also, it is surrounded by lots I purchased for my children. It is not as cut as dried as it should have been. However, they still screwed up and the guy that owns the company is a judge in the next county. Not much hope here. I know you probably build nice homes, but things do go on with other builders and they are real problems. It probably sounds cut and dried to you 'cause you build homes ... not everyone is as "in the loop" as you are.
Well, that may be somewhat true... however, you can always fire your contractor and get someone else OR you can hold back your last construction Draw (20%) etc until you and your builder can come to some sort of agreement to get items on your final punch-list taken care of.
Nothing gets a contractor's attention like money being held back until this or that is done.
Building mod-homes is my passion!
Posts: 62 | Location: NWLa | Registered: 08 February 2005
Not that kind of a builder. Signed contract. Paid for house upon completion. Tried to hold money in escrow for them to finish, bank wouldn't let us because it was not in the contract. No draws. They build, you buy.
Posts: 8 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 13 February 2005
The problem here is that honest people believe their builder when he tells them a defect or problem will be taken care of. You can be on the jobsite all day every day, but with the trades only taking direction from the builder, and the builder only interested in his money, and not the customer, its like trying to stop a runaway train flying down a mountain. And if the job started badly, beginning with the foundation, there can be problems that NO ONE can fix. You can do your homework, you can be proactive, research the builder, but that still doesn't mean that your house is going to be built correctly. Let's not blame this on the victim. The blame lies with a few sorry builders that don't care about their customers and want to make as much money as they can, quality is irrelevant to them. They just continue trying to cover up the problems by allowing the constuction to continue before repairing defects. I realize most builders take pride in their work and want to have happy, satisfied customers, but there are a few that are destroying the reputations of many. If you withhold money, the builder will file a lien, you are unable to get occupancy permits, you cannot close on your permanent mortgage with a builder's lien in place, and your construction loan is frozen leaving you with an unfinished house, high interest payments on what was supposed to be a short term loan, and horrendous legal fees to try to prove your case against him. The deck is so unfairly stacked against the homebuyer because of legislation diminishing their rights and recourse, that I would never sign a contract with ANY builder again. These, unfortunately, are not isolated cases. Try going to www.hadd.com and read about hundreds of people that are stuck with sometimes uninhabitable homes that they owe huge mortgages on and have no way to repair or get out of them because of their builder's negligience during constuction. My heart goes out to anyone dealing with this nightmare. You can't go home to get away from it, there is no escape, and you end up looking at it getting worse every day. As she stated in her post, this was her property being built on, so she couldn't just walk away. My husband is a civil engineer, our builders other clients included a vice president from HP and a vice president of a major oil company. We all did our research and due diligience on the builder, but that didn't stop my house from leaking like a sieve and growing toxic mold making my children sick, or my slab from failing after less than 2 years. We demo-ed the entire house. All 4200sq.ft. of it, slab and all. I built the new one myself, on the same site, making sure to have the foundation and framing engineered properly, with engineering inspections done at the appropriate times to insure everything was right. We've been back home for a year and are so happy to be home. His other customers chose to not investigate the defects and sold their properties to unsuspecting buyers before the defects became evident. The "builder" moved out of state, where I hope he is not trying to destoy more lives by his shoddy practices. In Texas, you don't even have to be licensed to call yourself a builder. Things are starting to change slowly, as the good builders are trying to weed these guys out that are hurting their business. I hope it works. Consumers have more rights and recourse when they buy a $20,000. car than a 1 million dollar house. The lemon law gives car buyers specific rights that are easily proven. It is a crime that we don't do at least as much for people that are victims of this kind of fraud and negligience that can easily bankrupt a family because of the economic toll. Let's put the blame where the blame belongs. I think in light of the inadequate court system in her immediate area, she should contact her state representative for advice.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: L. Fitzgerald,
Originally posted by dinni: We were hit by the hurricanes in Florida. Since Sept I have had only 1 contractor come out to get an estimate of the damage. Everyone is so busy. The contractor said will cost more to repair than to rebuild. Can any one advise as to what to do now. I hope to get 2 more estimates before going to Insurance co. Not sure what to do next. We are not able to live in our home. Thank you, Dinni Hope this is the right spot to ask for help.
If you can't get other bids, I would contact the insurance company now anyway. They would have a lot more clout with contractors than an individual and could possibly help you get bids. An adjuster may be able to look at it and tell if it can be saved or not, thereby eliminating the need for you to keep trying to find contractors. Good luck to you.
You will probably need a whole truckload of good luck, many people are still in bad shape here in Fl., due to hurricanes of '04. You should absolutely contact your Insurance company asap if you have not previously done so. Also be aware of building codes, 50-50 rule. You can go to www.fema.gov for listings of approved contractors in Fl. Living here at Ground Zero during Hurricane Andrew, and being an Inspector, I feel for you. 12 years later my home is still not complete from Andrew damages.
Originally posted by CHFBeck: Not that kind of a builder. Signed contract. Paid for house upon completion. Tried to hold money in escrow for them to finish, bank wouldn't let us because it was not in the contract. No draws. They build, you buy.
Just read the whole nightmare {your abridged version}. Bottom line, you're not a builder. You HIRED what you believed was a professional outfit who would build the house the way it's supposed to be built. Although not involved in this part of the construction industry, I've found the industry as a whole to be pathetic. There's a massive shortage of skilled tradesmen/craftsmen in construction. I suppose it might follow that there's a shortage of skilled supervisors and builders as well. Maybe they just don't care anymore. Anyway, although it's meaningless, you have my sympathies.
I am currently going through a one year walk thru with Drees in Campbell County, Kentucky. I am hearing from Drees that alot of the things I'm requesting to be "fixed" is not covered under warranty. I listed stuff like white stain on brick (we paid extra for dark mortar) but there is this white stain in a couple of places, also I listed nail pops, drywall cracks, kitchen cabinet drawers not straight, caulking needs to be redone, trim is no smooth running up steps. I don't know how this is not covered under warranty. I saw this posting about someone else having problems with Drees/Zaring and thought I'd see if they had any luck. My home was $260,000 and its our first new home. I sometimes look around and think "I paided that much for this? I hope you've gotten some help CHFBeck
quote:
Originally posted by CHFBeck: Well, it's long. I live in KY. I bought a "cookie cutter" type house that I could adjust the plans which I did.
The builder was supposed to start Spring of 2003 but did not start until Fall. The contract stated with some loopholes, 120 days to build house. Well, 16 months later, they finally finished. This is a supposed, self-labeled "premier" builder that built "Off site" homes.
It has been a disaster from the word go. They cut a door in the basement where it wasn't supposed to be, then sawed out the header and pumped concrete in to fill it. Which of course, left a + or - 1/4" from top to bottom which let muddy water run thru my basement. They then put a large steel plate at the basement ceiling line on inside and out and bolted my house together and pressure silicone (sp?) sealed the crack. (OH Yea)
Then they poured the porch 18" too low so instead of having 1 step out the door to the porch, I have 3 very large ones. I could go on and on. I have lived in the house for a year, w/o a Occupency Permit.
They have just this week returned to fix all the dry wall mistakes (when building, the painters showed before the drywallers mudded final time or sanded so they were told to paint anyway). Needlesstosay, my drywall was a mess.
I'll stop here. Don't want to write a book, but I have horrible basement floor, cracks and footprints. Garage floor, large cracks as they delivered and dropped the house on this floor 2-4 days after they poured it. (Yea)
Also they forgot to put a brick ledge on one side of my garage so they bolted a metal bar so they had something to hold the bricks on.
We ended up getting our own septic permit AFTER the house was "finished." (I use that term loosely)
The front porch top and bottom leaks as the flashing was not installed properly.
I need to stop. My bp just shot past 200 looking back.
