Builder Rant

I was thinking about why I am a little dissatisfied with my builder. After all I do like the house a lot. I am happy with they way the house looks and it seems to have turned out fine overall. But yet I could not give my builder a glowing reference. Why? Here are a few reasons you can be happy with the end result, but not happy with the process that got you here.

My expectations were that the builder would get the permits, schedule the sub-contractors, be at the house daily to ensure quality, help ensure the right decisions were made, and to provide quality components equivalent to the price we paid for the house. Some of this happened. The rest is a bit questionable.

The builder did schedule the subs, but it was a fire-drill. We received many last minute hurry up phone calls that with just a little attention to the project could have been avoided. Several of the subs told us they got a call the day of or the day before the builder wanted them onsite. Our garage doors were not installed until after we were in the house, even after they had assured us these were ordered ahead of time – turns out not. Basically the builder did the whole house with a by the seat of his pants scheduling methodology.

The builder was AWOL too often when it came to quality. Their attitude seemed to be that each sub was responsible for their own quality and as long as the task was finished then it was fine. This is a little overly harsh as the builder really did do some things related to quality, but we have a long list of the things WE caught. Here is a sample:

Framing – Open gaps in many of the studs, some gaps were a half inch or more.
Drywall – some areas wavy and many of the seams not straight
Stucco – windows not even
Cabinets - nicks chips scratches uneven doors and even missing doors
Electrical - plugs in the wrong locations and switches strangely installed
Cement - the basement floor was uneven
Plumbing - missing and incorrect components

While it is not a defect per se, the builder did make commitments to keep the house clean and to not suck dirt into the air vents. He didn’t and then he did!

All in all we gave the builder over 60 defects in the house that we found.

As for helping with decisions the builder was not a part of the process. There are a lot of decisions to be made when building a house. Many of which are foreign to the typically home buyer. You are expected to make instant decisions related to plumbing, electrical, yard grading, and the like without any real point of reference with which to make the decision. I finally asked the builder if all buyers struggle with these decisions and the answer was “yes”. If this is true then the process is obviously broken. The builder should be more involved in helping the home buyer understand the ramifications of their decisions. Instead our builder took a hands-off “I don’t have any thing to do with that” approach.

One small example is in the placement of light switches. This may seem inconsequential, but it is not. We now have a situation where we can turn on half the lights in the kitchen from one switch then have to walk to another switch to turn on the other half. The electrician says that we signed off on that. We did? Not on purpose. Why would anyone EVER want the switches this way? The electrician simply screwed up and we did not catch it. Which leads me to the final part of this rant.

The builder should be there to review the key decisions the home buyer makes. When working with electricians, plumbers, cabinets, exterior, or flooring you have to make a lot of decisions. What we found is that sub after sub (but mainly the electrician) put in specs that were different that we discussed.

Using the electrician again as an example, you walk through the framed house to identify the locations of switches and to specify the functionality of the switches. This is a lot more complex than you might think, and you get one shot at it. We discussed options, locations, usage and more. The electrician took down note after note. Then a couple of weeks later you get a plan that you have to sign at the last minute because they are already starting. Unless you are an expert in this area AND you were a part of the walk through conversation you will not see the errors and omissions in the plans. So now we can only turn on half our kitchen lights from the main switch, and this is MY fault. This is obviously the electrician’s error and the builder does not want to get involved. It is not expensive to fix, under $200, but it should never have happened.

Lastly, there are number of items that go into your house that are not specified as a part of the building contract. You need to expect that the builder will provide supplies equivalent to the type of house you are building. As an example, and seemingly a small item I admit, are the toilet seats. We chose a much upgraded toilet – spiffy extra cost handle on the side of the tank, elongated, one is even a “comfort” height. But now the toilet “seats” are a cheap thin plastic that you would expect at a Motel 6. No I did not think to ask. Call me unreasonable, but if you are going elongated comfort height with the handle of the side, shouldn’t you be able to assume you would get a nice seat?

Oh well, I will just go watch TV on our neat distributed sound system and relax. Wait. What? I can’t turn on the TV and the SOUND at the same time? Oh I see, I did not specify that I wanted to listen to as well as watch my TV – my bad….

Note: While we do think the builder should have done more as described above, to be clear we love the house and Wayne, Jenny, and Matt are honest decent people. Would we build we Wayne again? Yes, but we would have a lot more in writing about the builder role and responsibility. Of course they might turn us down as customers :)