How do feel about Imperial Homes? (The Woodlands, Spring: sales, house, neighborhood)

[dtimm28]

Do you consider the builder Imperial Homes to be decent? They are building quite a bit in Spring, Tomball, and The Woodlands.

[BearBranch]

Imperial is building here in Kingwood. I waled through the model and it looks solid.

[ikonos]

Make sure you check for any complaints against them at bbb.com and hadd.com. Good luck.

[Aerovette]

check the ripoff report. That'll tell you what you need to know.

[Aerovette]

Here are a list of issues which I have had with Imperial homes. They are all documented with pictures should there be any doubt about the validity.

Wiring sheetrocked over and connected to NOTHING inside/behind the walls
Crooked /bowed walls
Scraps building materials used to cover over mistakes made during construction
Leaking plumbing
Leaking roof
Leaking chimney
Crooked windows
Missing insulation
Outside light visible through inside of house
Ill fitting doors
crooked cabinets
Lights not working
sloping foundation
improperly installed tub surround (3 attempts to follow print all failed)
Nails sticking out of Hardi-plank
beer bottles in the walls
missing options (paid for)
uneven steps
baseboards half gloss half semi gloss
poorly laid carpet
Excessive caulk throughout the house used to hide errors in building
Garage doors that don't close properly

The construction Supervisor can never be found and worker go forward unsupervised and lack the skill sets required to do a good job
Very poor customer Service
Emails unanswered
Phone calls not returned

I could go on, but I think this will make the point. These are my experiences, your may vary.

[wereinhouston]

Our home was built right, and on time. I had to lean on them a little for the on time part, but 2 years later the home is still nearly perfect, and our neighbors have similar experiences.
Maybe it's because I was at the homesite 2-3 times a week taking pictures of the progress, but we would absolutely buy Imperial again.

[Aerovette]

I was at the homesite DAILY. They flat out REFUSED to repair the things I would find. The biggest culprits were a builder named Dave (I don't recall his last name, Sales Manager [FONT='Arial','sans-serif']Marc Giarratano, and above all the VP of sales Lance Abel. They told me that until the time of closing, the house still belonged to THEM and they would tell ME what I needed to be worried about. Without any other option that would not cost a fortune, we went ahead with the sale, and are now living in the home. I can see daylight around all the exterior doors, the master bedroom has NO temperature control and is typically 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house no matter what adjustments are made to the vents etc. The shower leaks on to the bathroom floor, the toilets don't flush properly, the yard is not graded for water run off, windows no longer open or close properly, the garage doors have a gap above the door that lets air and light through. The house is a mess. You were fortunate and I believe an exception to the way Imperial operates. I appreciate the reply and I envy your experience with Imperial.[/font]

[Aerovette]

Oh, and I left out the most IMPORTANT detail. At the first cold snap, I turned on both heaters and one would not operate. I went up in to the attic to see why and the gas was turned off. I turned it on, went downstairs and adjusted the thermostat and immediately went back up in to the attic check it all out and found it filling with natural gas. The connection at the valve was left loose and could have blown the whole house up had I simply turned it on and went to bed. So at 1:00 AM I was up there checking every connection and was afraid to go to sleep. I want to WalMart out of fear and bought two CO/Explosive gas detector and put them in the occupied bedrooms. We could have been KILLED by these clowns. If I could, I would sue them for that alone!!

[tstone]

Aerovette what price range is this neighborhood?

[Beto]

What are you looking for in a builder ?