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First winter owning my home, Theres zero insulation below the cantilevered floor. Just subfloor to outside! None in various other exterior walls. No wonder why pipes are freezing after 5 hours of no use!
Just venting but very angry as this townhome is only 13 years old! How do people sleep at night after doing such poor work!
I've never seen such terrible craftsmanship / homebuilding in my LIFE until I moved to VA. It seems there little to no code when it comes to residential in this state. I'm from New England and used to houses being built like tanks. Even the newer homes which aren't built as tough as the old ones are 10 times better than the crap they build here. I bought a 1990 Colonial which is decent enough, but the fact my current plumbing and electrical passed ANYTHING is nothing short of amazing. Romex criss-crossing itself like a weaved rug under my house, copper pipes just hanging, plumbing on outside walls etc. I get that the Mid Atlantic isn't New England, But it's not Florida either!
Our Ashburn house is 20+ years old. We had a window guy out last year to give us an estimate for replacements and he told us our windows were such better quality than windows in new construction homes over the past several years. He actually talked us into keeping our old windows...
Our current home was built by Ryan in 1997. When we bought it, we were living in a Ryan built townhouse that was built in 1987. We are both convinced that Ryan did a better job on the single family house than they did on the townhouse.
Since we lived nearby, we visited the site of our current home on a daily basis and took photos. If we saw something that didn't look right to us, we would stop in at the sales office and let them know. The next day the problem would be fixed. The construction supervisor hired a guy to do the siding. This guy was so good that while doing the siding, if he saw something that didn't look right, he would tell the supervisor.
I'm glad that we were in a position to check the progress on a daily basis and that Ryan was proactive in fixing things. At the time, all the workers were either Americans or legal immigrants. Back then, construction workers would come from WV to work on houses in NoVA. In fact, they had campers and would stay in campgrounds in the area. Since the campgrounds had limits as to how long they could stay, they rotated between them every 3 weeks. These guys, on the whole, tended to do good work.
I hate to say this, but there is a reason for this. Simple put, more people are willing to buy a larger, poorly constructed house that a smaller, well constructed house. In the market, people vote with dollars and a majority of people are voting for the larger houses. If you don't like it, then buy the smaller better constructed homes. A good home inspector can tell you how well the home is built, so be sure to be present when the inspection is done.
While I won't necessarily disagree that houses built today aren't what they used to be many moons ago, but some of the technologies of today weren't present back then either. No argument that materials were better back in the day. Solid wood vs glued particle board joists. More insulation rolls, etc. However, one benefit that I've enjoyed of the latest home building trends is the ability to do things on my own to my home. Like running cables behind walls, or getting to a pipe, or stuff like that. My home is one of these tract homes from a large national builder. No doubt no costs were spent beyond the county code minimum. However, I personally like it more than our former home in Chicago that was completely renovated down to the studs with top-tier, no expense spared, in 2006. Full stucco, solid wood, plaster walls, Bosch appliances, etc. End result - stucco cracking, glitchy appliances, and you could blow a candle out at the front of the house and watch the smoke float towards the back of the house in seconds due to drafts. To repair or modify anything was a serious project. My house here, no drafts due to plastic wrapped at the studs, and easy access to anything through the drywall. Our house here is approximately 4,500sf and costs us about 70% in utilities as the one in Chicago that was 2,000sf. Additionally, no doubt the badge on our a/c units and furnace here is basic stuff. However, I've not had a single problem with any of it (I change all filters every 60 days). In Chicago we had some highend units for the house that were constantly blowing internal switches or ignators. Always something wrong with that house. The house before that was in NC, built in 98' by Drees. It was cheap all the way through and through. But, we loved it!
I'm finding that if you buy one of these new homes out in Loudoun today, it's best to buy it with the cheapest options possible, and to factor in another $50k to bring it up a notch or two in quality. Like having the interior cardboard doors all replaced with solid wood / glass. Upgrade the flooring materials, etc.
I think a good business idea for out there would be for a general contractor to advertise as someone who knows how to improve these tract homes with ease. Something like "we turn your house into your home". Somebody who knows where the key areas are where the original builder cut corners, and knows how to either fix it or modify it. Like a package deal type of thing.
Why pay the original builder to put in labor and materials in a new house, only to pay someone else to tear out those materials and pay again for labor/better materials? Even with some builder markup, that strikes me as more costly and a bigger hassle.
Unless you are buying someone else's house with wear and tear that needs to be updated, why not seek out a higher quality builder, become very familiar with cost cutting practices, and pay once for quality materials and a job well done?
It's been my experience the cost for the builder to do vs after the fact is pretty drastic. Or even better yet, do some of it yourself. I've already replaced several of our interior doors myself. One example: our builder was charging $15k for a 10x10 paver patio, nothing special. I've just signed up for a 15 x 20 custom job with seating walls for FAR less than that. Additionally, I had a 15 x 20 deck and nearly 400 feet of custom wood fence put on the house when we bought it for even less.
I'm not talking about building a custom home though, one where you're making your own plans and such. I'm talking about one of these tract builders out there, like the Toll Brothers, Ryan, Horton, Lennar, VanMeter, etc.. The ones were they offer 3 or 4 model designs for a 200 home development. These are the guy where the 18 wheelers are coming in with floor joists on the back made from the same supplier with each neighborhood identified on the bundle for delivery. It's like building cars out there, an assembly line of sorts.
As land prices continue to increase, the home prices need to increase as well to cover margins. If they can't, then the builders need to squeeze more out of the land (townhomes). I'm seeing WAY TOO MANY townhome plans/specs going into Loudoun planning board for zoning amendment approval these days. A sign that prices aren't moving as fast as the land prices are. That's pretty remarkable, considering our home alone has risen 20% in value in just 24 months out there. Granted, I'm in one of the better priced neighborhoods whereby the national builder's home office set the prices based upon matrix and not on local knowledge. They left money on the table, even if they bought the land off of a failed local in the downturn for cheap.
Why pay the original builder to put in labor and materials in a new house, only to pay someone else to tear out those materials and pay again for labor/better materials? Even with some builder markup, that strikes me as more costly and a bigger hassle.
Unless you are buying someone else's house with wear and tear that needs to be updated, why not seek out a higher quality builder, become very familiar with cost cutting practices, and pay once for quality materials and a job well done?
Generally builders charge upwards of 4x material for putting in upgrades, whereas generally if you get it done from a specialist you'll pay more like 2-2.5x the material cost.
I think a good business idea for out there would be for a general contractor to advertise as someone who knows how to improve these tract homes with ease. Something like "we turn your house into your home". Somebody who knows where the key areas are where the original builder cut corners, and knows how to either fix it or modify it. Like a package deal type of thing.
There's a good business idea. However I bet if somebody actually got successful at it the tract home builders would probably just dump their prices on upgrades or do some marketing scheme to show how they weren't cutting corners.
Just had a custom home built in McLean. Designed by an architect and we hired a first rate GC for construction. Below are some things we learned in the process so wanted to share it.
Please keep in mind that both myself and my GCs were at the job site EVERY day watching each step of the process and ensuring QC. Despite our efforts and specs that called for first rate materials, many, many things still got compromised primarily because of the trades (concrete, pluming, HVAC, flooring, roofing, etc, etc). Luckily we were able to catch most in time to correct.
We also used all licensed contractors, but more on that later.
1- The HVAC contractor oversized the furnaces - there are a total of four for the home. We did not find this out until after the fact and then had to correct it. Oversizing hvac is worse than undersizing it in some ways.
2- The insulation conractor sprayed so much insulation into the roof/attic that they blocked all of the soffits whch are critical to providing adequate ventnation. We had to clean this up after the fact.
3- The plumbing contractor did not vent the the pumbing system properly.....had to cut and fix later.
4- The concrete guy was not using the proper rebar in the foundation....caught it on time and fixed it, otherwise, this would just get covered up.
5- Perimeter drainage was compromised....caught in time and fixed. Otherwise, this gets covered up and you will potentially have a soggy basement.
6 - hardwood floors not properly acclimated to the home before installation. Again, caught it on time and made the flooing guy wait. Otherwise, you potentially get warped/wavy floors later on.
7. Roofing guys face nailed shingles and used incorrect caulk....fixed later.
8. Bathroom exhaust fans and dryer venging not done properly....fixed later.
9. Using the wrong mortar for masonry work....caught on time.
10. Septic system not installed properly (by expert licensed contractor)..fixed later by digging up the yard.
11. Homewarp not taped and insatlled per guidelines.
12. Pouring concrete and/or masonry work in sub freezing temsp.....they would have done it if they could but we stopped it.
13. Not installaing gutters with proper slope.....caught in time.
14. Exterior doors not installed properly...fixed later.
15. Many, Many site grading issues...correctd later. NOTE: This was not a difficult site to build on.
15. Etc, etc. etc
The point I want to make is that even if you hire the best subs, GC, for a true custom home, often times the people on the job are always in a hurry to finish up and move on. If you catch them on the spot, it can be fixed however some "critical" items such as perimeter drainage, missing insulation, concrete, etc covered up and you will never see it until there is a problem and then it will be a major inconvience and $$. Unless you have two or three QC guys on the job 7 days a week, you are not going to catch everything.
Our foucs was not to sweat the small stuff. You want to catch the things that get covered up.
Having said this, imagine what the so called production builders are doing (or not doing). With custom, you can significantly improve build quality with upgrade in the core building materials (2x6 framing, insulation, windows, hvac, copper plumbing, etc) but still need to make sure things get installed the right way even with hand selected subs. I don't think it is the intention of the builders to build a bad product per se but it is nearly impossible for them to provide the necesary QC to make sure things get "installed" correctly - even the semi-custom builders who build less than 10 homes per year. Most of them will just cover up mistakes made by their subs that cannot be seen by the homeowner, rather than correct them. To do it right, it would certainly cut into the profit. My builder only builds about 5 homes per year and he admitted that sometimes they just can't catch everything so hope the subs do it correctly.
When we were selecting a GC, I walked into homes under construction by some of the "high end" builders and was appaled at the QC - or a lack thereof for homes retailing for close to $2.5M. I did not see a measurable difference in quality of these high end homes vs. the mass production homes you typically see nowadays in Loudon County. They all just cover everything up and focus on the "skin" of the home that the homeowner sees and is impressed by - all the "shine stuff". They know most homeowners are clueless and are somewhat intimidate by the building contractors so use it to their advantage. If you purchase a new home, they also prohibit you from visiting the site for "liability" reasons. The real reason for restricting your access is to prevent you from seeing all the mistakes there that will eventually get covered up by drywall and paint.
It's all the same....poor work ethic and always in a hurry to move on to the next job, not paying attention to the small details that make a bid difference. The poorly constructed you purchase, you can just pass on to the next unsuspecting buyer. This is the way it goes in NOVA.
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