experiences with Lennar builders? (Aurora: custom home, neighborhood, buy)

[almost heaven]

They are having a tough time and that may effect the service you will recieve after you by the home. I manage construction and the quality of your home will depend on the quality of the construction manager. Centex, Pulte and john Lanf homes are a few of the better builders. I like DR Hortons homes but I have heard that their after purchace service is bad. Good luck.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

get your new house inspected by a ASHI certified inspetor or call in the big guns...a licensed (by the state) building engineer.

second this. With production builders you should definatly get inspections of all kinds to make sure the thing is the way it should. Ask your builder for a copy of the soils report for your specific lot. They will show the type of foundation that should be installed. If your foundation does not match what is listed in the soils report, it is a BIG red flag.

Originally Posted by New England Yankee

I just was reading how much money Lennar has lost,the article said he is telling his contractors to lower their fees or he won't work with them.
Also a couple wrote a non flattering piece in Ripoff about their Texas Lennar home,with a cracked slab,which they said Lennar knew about when they sold them the house.
The had an awful time resolving the issue.

I have always thought Lennar was an excellent company,been in business since 1956.
Yet in these times of the Building slump who knows what goes.

We have just bought a new home in Florida,not Lennar,though he was on our list.

Anyway fingers croseed

also remember that each builder might have a different rep in a different state. They dont use the same contractors for all the jobs, they will have different contractors in texas, and different contractors in colorado. They might even have different contractors in the same state. Using one for say colorado springs, and different ones up here in westminster.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by froggin4colorado

I am finding that A LOT of new home builders are not building quality homes these days, despite the price of your home. One of my friends' home didn't have the roof sealed to the home. When the first snow storm hit, they had clumps of snow sliding down the walls of their home- seriously. Another friend- their backyard started looking like teletubbie land because of the poor compaction of the dirt. Another friend- her basement cracked, the whole foundation! Another friend- her foundation cracked under part of her house. They had to dig under the house, prop it up, and redo the foundation. Another friend- the builder failed to hook up the laundry vent (dryer) properly and for a long time, it vented into the attic. At this moment, they are having to vacate their home so the roof can be torn off, have some wood scrubbed for mold issues, and then a new roof/attic will be laid. Another friend- 2 of her windows fell out (not broke) when we had some high winds.
Good luck!! With all prayers, GOOD LUCK!!

this is pretty funny. teletubbie land! i have heard that some builders in a suburb or two in the area, for example, have been less than careful with quality. things like settling foundations cracking walls and that kind of thing in people's homes and businesses (businesses fleeing a particular mall due to this kind of thing that also seems to be somewhat common in the same newer burb, e.g.). it's hard for me to imagine clumps of snow making into someone's living room from the roof without having noticed a gaping hole, but i guess things can happen! i;ve also been to some suburbs in the area where it seems like someone threw down the road on whatever was there without subgrading or whatever - a lot of that teletubbie land undulation and cracking (of a newer road), while some older roads over the same terrain intersecting these roads didn't have those undulations (so, seemingly the way one was built versus the other).

that said, i don't know anything about lennar in particular. anyhow, good luck. probably plenty of decent places out there if you're careful...like you're being by posting here.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by hello-world

this is pretty funny. teletubbie land! i have heard that some builders in a suburb or two in the area, for example, have been less than careful with quality. things like settling foundations cracking walls and that kind of thing in people's homes and businesses (businesses fleeing a particular mall due to this kind of thing that also seems to be somewhat common in the same newer burb, e.g.). it's hard for me to imagine clumps of snow making into someone's living room from the roof without having noticed a gaping hole, but i guess things can happen! i;ve also been to some suburbs in the area where it seems like someone threw down the road on whatever was there without subgrading or whatever - a lot of that teletubbie land undulation and cracking (of a newer road), while some older roads over the same terrain intersecting these roads didn't have those undulations (so, seemingly the way one was built versus the other).

that said, i don't know anything about lennar in particular. anyhow, good luck. probably plenty of decent places out there if you're careful...like you're being by posting here.

lol, I know of that mall you speak of, they built alot of this stuff on the side of a hill that is high in clay content. Thus the movement.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Noahma

lol, I know of that mall you speak of, they built alot of this stuff on the side of a hill that is high in clay content. Thus the movement.

i wouldn't doubt if there's more than one. some of the breakneck development (and profiteering, eh?) without regard, it might seem, around here (to be fair, a few other places around the world, too) is truly astonishing to a cartoonified degree.

[New England Yankee]

On the mall? Wouldn't it have had to have a permit to build and how did this get thru,with soil so unsuitable for a Mall.
I am not clear about what other type of foundation they could have built it on.
Just trying to educate myself.
So many knowledgable people here.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by New England Yankee

On the mall? Wouldn't it have had to have a permit to build and how did this get thru,with soil so unsuitable for a Mall.
I am not clear about what other type of foundation they could have built it on.
Just trying to educate myself.
So many knowledgable people here.

lol (so many knowledgeable people here) are you being...coy?

the connectivity between developers, politics, inspectors, etc. CAN be a pretty tight web, sometimes. SOMEtimes, some of those can be some of the same people in a sense. then, some are more careful than others (and sometimes maybe a bit dependent on how the profit factor might factor into it for them...or theirs). and some have more "skill" than others... sometimes, these factors can conspire to sloppiness (e.g., the risk of lawsuit or other consequence seems low relative to the PROFIT that can be gained with a quick job "and then i'll be 5 states away with my new boat!" says developer, whom unwittingly/carelessly hired some subcontractors that weren't so up to snuff; "i might be able to get a shoe in to that state if i run for a bigger office one day with the support of the developer, and hey, i went to college with 'im" says the politician considering zoning, etc...) - thorough appraisal of soil properties and geotechnical suitability for building, for example, isn't necessarily easy, especially when some of those other factors come into play, i'd say. sometimes there's a price to pay for cutting corners. but enough times there's not.

don't know that this is what came into play in these particular circumstances, but, i know people in the business that know people that operate a bit like this.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by New England Yankee

On the mall? Wouldn't it have had to have a permit to build and how did this get thru,with soil so unsuitable for a Mall.
I am not clear about what other type of foundation they could have built it on.
Just trying to educate myself.
So many knowledgable people here.

it could be when they did the initial soils tests for the mall, the soils showed that it was not as stable, but a building could be placed on it. they started putting in buildings above and around the mall which are uphill from it, causing the soils tests for the individual buildings to be ok to build, but forcing the soils and clay downhill into the mall, which then caused problems that are starting to show.

I know they have repaved several roads along there for settling which produced roller coaster feeling drives along them.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Noahma

it could be when they did the initial soils tests for the mall, the soils showed that it was not as stable, but a building could be placed on it. they started putting in buildings above and around the mall which are uphill from it, causing the soils tests for the individual buildings to be ok to build, but forcing the soils and clay downhill into the mall, which then caused problems that are starting to show.

I know they have repaved several roads along there for settling which produced roller coaster feeling drives along them.

noahma-

sounds like you are pretty close to some of this these days. any idea what some of the relationships might be that were involved? or whether there might have been some "motivation" to rush things or tsomething? people build things uphill from other things all the time these days without issue...and enough to know how best to assess soil properties for various conditions and FUTURES (likely zoning changes that might result in more building, etc.). not to mention that in some of these cases, the roads, the shopping centers, AND the residences all within the same community that was built at about the same time are having issues, so, seems like something about the bigger picture there might be a little odd, especially considering that, for example, other roads in the area that were built earlier are fine.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by hello-world

noahma-

sounds like you are pretty close to some of this these days. any idea what some of the relationships might be that were involved? or whether there might have been some "motivation" to rush things or tsomething? people build things uphill from other things all the time these days without issue...and enough to know how best to assess soil properties for various conditions and FUTURES (likely zoning changes that might result in more building, etc.). not to mention that in some of these cases, the roads, the shopping centers, AND the residences all within the same community that was built at about the same time are having issues, so, seems like something about the bigger picture there might be a little odd, especially considering that, for example, other roads in the area that were built earlier are fine.

I had nothing to do with the mall, except watching it get built. lol I design custom homes in the northern areas of Colorado. My father owns a home that is in the same area as the mall. And back in 1976 the builder that built his home was sued by the homeowners and went out of business due to the wrong foundation types being used in the soils that are there.