New Owner Problems

lucky760

lucky760

New member
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's had horror stories after the close of escrow and I've hinted in the past that I've had some troubles, but I thought I'd go ahead and whine about share them all here in case you're interested or have your own tales of woe you'd like to share. I can't believe it, but we've really had issues with pretty much *everything* we've done.

Flooring

We went with Tompkins in Irvine to rip out the standard carpet and vinyl to replace it with porcelain tiles and carpet. We had problems with both.

The tile installation was scheduled for a 3-day job (but they unexpectedly needed a fourth day and the carpet guys had to work around them). The installers were friendly and all, but they just were not very considerate of our home. For example, all their filthy buckets of water they used for grout and mortar we just dumped into our backyard drains (still surrounded by dirt), leaving ugly white stuff all over the place. Worse, though, is that they used our brand-new toilets that we've never used and got urine all over them. Also they used our sinks to clean their dirty, caulk-covered fingers and sponges leaving a gross residue all over.

As far as the tile work goes, though, they did a pretty good job except for some problems. First, there were several areas where the grout was fouled up. There were knicks and gouges into the grout which they had to come back out to cover up. Second, they laid out the tile in our laundry room very poorly, so there are tiny 1-inch-deep corners of tiles at the threshold which are really ugly. Those should have been laid out to occur at the rear of the room behind the washer/dryer. There's nothing that can be done to fix that. Also, some edges of tile (where it meets the carpet) are crooked so the carpet can't lay in a straight line.

Now for the carpet, they took 3.5 hours to do a single seam 3 different times because they couldn't get the threads to line up. When they finally got it "good enough" there is a soft bump in the carpet at the seam (and there's about a foot where the two sides still don't line up). Our sales guy from Tompkins came out for about 30 seconds to look at it and said to just wait a month and they'll come out and try to stretch it out again. Right- maybe a month after their satisfaction guarantee expires (?) and after our carpet is covered with furniture.

The carpet people also permanently damaged my kitchen island because the morons put the long 20-foot carpet stretcher up against the middle of the island where there is no support and it pushed the wood in a couple of inches. I told the Tompkins guy about that and he had no response. I don't know what else I can do about that.

Fridge

Our new fridge was delivered and looked fine but there was heavy condensation building up and dripping between the French doors and it seemed to be because the right door wouldn't close properly after the left door was shut. Home Depot had them replace it several days later because they'll just replace if you have a problem in the first 48 hours. The replacement delivery guys had no respect for our home and refused to cover our brand-new carpet with anything to protect from their filthy shoes.

Garage

I've told about our garage epoxy problems with Garage Experts, so I'll spare you the details here, but that was another long, problematic ordeal that left us unimpressed with their horrible customer service.

Landscaping

I've mentioned before all our issues trying to find a good landscaper. We finally landed on a solid contractor and submitted our plans the day we closed escrow, which was 20 days ago. My wife has been checking the mail every day looking for a response. She finally called and spoke with the approval lady who says she just returned from vacation, so we should stop checking our mail and shouldn't expect a response for another 3-4 weeks. I thought they had some kind of deadline by which they *had* to reply or else let us proceed with our plans. I guess it seems that is not the case.

Build Problems

We had several issues with our actual build before we closed escrow and they were all fixed, but now we are lucky enough to have more. There is a little pipe that sticks out of the side of our house above a first-floor window and any time the AC is on, there's water dripping. I just spoke with our Irvine Pacific guy and he informed it's not supposed to be dripping except in exceptional circumstances so the AC repair people need to come out.

A much more serious problem is that we added the "whole-house insulation" upgrade, but from what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any insulation in the floor between the upstairs and downstairs. When I'm in the master bedroom or closet, I can easily hear people below in the great room talking. Not surprisingly, we repeatedly told IP about their lack of oversight and our disappointment and zero confidence in their ability to build a quality home, and we kept citing the possibility that they didn't install our insulation because they wouldn't let us see the open walls after our "dusty shoe" tour. Sure enough, it seems they screwed us in our sardine can yet again.

What they're going to do is verify the paperwork that shows the city inspector did in fact check off on the fact that all the insulation was installed. I don't care what the paperwork says, I think it's not there. If we continue to escalate, they'll have to cut some holes into our ceiling to physically look for the insulation. If it's not there they'll have to put lots of holes in and fill the ceiling with an expanding foam insulation.

Conclusion

This new home purchase has been very far from the dream we hoped it would be. It's more of a nightmare we're continuing to live through. I'm just afraid of what problems we'll have next.

Anyhow, sorry for the long rant. I guess it's just a little cathartic, but I also want to get this out there for anyone else who is suffering like we. Maybe we can start a support group. [sigh]
 
I am very sorry to hear about the issues. 

1)  We thought about having Tompkin do our carpet on the stairs but were not impressed with their "showroom" or salespeople.  The showroom was a mess and the people didn't seem to have time to explain things to us. 

2)  The fridge is a concern as we are probably going to buy from HD as well.  I wonder if I should just slip the delivery guys a $20 when the get there.

3)  Not getting epoxy right now but future reference

4)  This is actually my biggest concern...TIC did not let my inspector on site during the dusty shoe.  Definitely having my inspector come out for the final.

May I ask what community you are moved into?
 
We actually talked to about a dozen flooring contractors. No one else could come close to the price we got from Tompkins and most others were horrible people.

Home Depot is good because of that 48 hour replacement and free delivery. (Side note: our fridge just went on sale for lower than we bought and we got the $300 refund with no questions asked.) Don't bother giving the delivery guys $20; they'll probably super friendly and cover your floor. Our initial delivery guys were great and we got a survey phone call later to ask about them. The replacement delivery guys are the ones who couldn't care less how much you like them.

We are in the fine sardine cans of Saratoga. Where are you?
 
lucky said:
We actually talked to about a dozen flooring contractors. No one else could come close to the price we got from Tompkins and most others were horrible people.

Home Depot is good because of that 48 hour replacement and free delivery. (Side note: our fridge just went on sale for lower than we bought and we got the $300 refund with no questions asked.) Don't bother giving the delivery guys $20; they'll probably super friendly and cover your floor. Our initial delivery guys were great and we got a survey phone call later to ask about them. The replacement delivery guys are the ones who couldn't care less how much you like them.

We are in the fine sardine cans of Saratoga. Where are you?
Click to expand...

We are doing our floors with Venetian.  We got a much better sense of responsibility and customer service from the owner (?).  They got great reviews on Yelp and here.  Hopefully, it will transition well.

Thanks for the clarification.  Hopefully nothing goes wrong with the fridge the first time.  Problem with the timing issue is that we don't want to charge up our CC or apply for extra financing until the underwriting goes through.  We will have some time when we get the keys and move in due to floors....I know the HD has a price match guarantee even post sale so we may be able in on the labor day sale prices.

We are also in Saratoga...now concern  :-\  Hey, at least you got a good interest rate!
 
lucky said:
Flooring
[...]
Second, they laid out the tile in our laundry room very poorly, so there are tiny 1-inch-deep corners of tiles at the threshold which are really ugly. Those should have been laid out to occur at the rear of the room behind the washer/dryer. There's nothing that can be done to fix that. Also, some edges of tile (where it meets the carpet) are crooked so the carpet can't lay in a straight line.
[...]
Click to expand...
In regards to this, it is normal procedure to start from the back wall of any room or enclosed area and tile towards the door because you don't want to step on the tiles after you lay them.

Usually I measure myself to check if the pattern/lay will leave smaller tiles near the entrance and if so, I ask them to cut the back wall tiles first so that it ends up with a better look.

But there's no excuse not to have an uneven cut to the carpet edge... in all of my installations, that is always a straight line. It might be a bit unsightly, but you may want to look into getting a transition strip to cover the uneven edge between the tile and the carpet (plus if the edge is sharp, it will protect the toesies).
http://www.tiletrims.biz/carpet-cover-strip.html
 
@irvinehomeowner - The actual tile-laying starts at the back, but that's not how the tiling process begins. They start by determining how the overall pattern will be laid and where each tile will be set. Then they do a "dry run" to layout all the tiles side-by-side where they will actually go later, cutting to fit as needed along the way. Then once they're all cut for the entire area, they start mortaring and laying the tiles down where they planned them. (And actually, they didn't start at the back much of the time.)

It's that initial planning step where they missed the mark. For most tile areas they planned very well so full (or full half) tiles would be in the most ideal places, in the most visible areas. It seems that in the laundry room they just blindly laid the first tile down somewhere randomly in the center and went with it.

Thanks for the link, though methinks we'll probably be happier with the uneven tile edge than a metal transition strip.
 
@lucky:

I don't know many tile contractors who do a "dry run"... it takes up time and they just want to finish as soon as they can.

That's why I'll usually measure myself, taking into account the tile size, pattern, grout thickness and then inform them that they need to cut the tiles (which they might argue against).

I remember in one bathroom, they couldn't cut a strip of tile thin enough against the wall so they just put this huge grout line next to the wall which I was okay with since it wasn't in a noticeable area.

I have a metal strip from my laundry room to hall carpet... it's not noticeable because most of the time the laundry room door is closed so you don't see it.
 
Hmm. That doesn't sound like a good way to go, I mean just laying a full piece at the back wall and progressing forward. That means the back wall would always have the best [full] tiles, wouldn't it? I think it's a good use of time to plan out the pattern so the full tiles are in the most ideal location first.

Maybe that's just me, but I'm quite glad they did take the time to plan everything out for us in advance (except the laundry room, of course) instead of just finishing up as soon as they could.

Do you mean that you measure the cuts and draw them out on tiles for them? And do they put one square of mortar and one tile down then wait to go cut a tile so that it fits perfectly with the wall then lay down that tile's worth of mortar? So, in other words, the mortar's already down while they are working on cutting the next tile to fit? Are you a contractor by trade or is this just how you have tiles done for yourself? I'm quite curious how the process actually works for you. Thanks for explaining.
 
lucky said:
Flooring

We went with Tompkins in Irvine to rip out the standard carpet and vinyl to replace it with porcelain tiles and carpet. We had problems with both.

The tile installation was scheduled for a 3-day job (but they unexpectedly needed a fourth day and the carpet guys had to work around them). The installers were friendly and all, but they just were not very considerate of our home. For example, all their filthy buckets of water they used for grout and mortar we just dumped into our backyard drains (still surrounded by dirt), leaving ugly white stuff all over the place. Worse, though, is that they used our brand-new toilets that we've never used and got urine all over them. Also they used our sinks to clean their dirty, caulk-covered fingers and sponges leaving a gross residue all over.

As far as the tile work goes, though, they did a pretty good job except for some problems. First, there were several areas where the grout was fouled up. There were knicks and gouges into the grout which they had to come back out to cover up. Second, they laid out the tile in our laundry room very poorly, so there are tiny 1-inch-deep corners of tiles at the threshold which are really ugly. Those should have been laid out to occur at the rear of the room behind the washer/dryer. There's nothing that can be done to fix that. Also, some edges of tile (where it meets the carpet) are crooked so the carpet can't lay in a straight line.

Now for the carpet, they took 3.5 hours to do a single seam 3 different times because they couldn't get the threads to line up. When they finally got it "good enough" there is a soft bump in the carpet at the seam (and there's about a foot where the two sides still don't line up). Our sales guy from Tompkins came out for about 30 seconds to look at it and said to just wait a month and they'll come out and try to stretch it out again. Right- maybe a month after their satisfaction guarantee expires (?) and after our carpet is covered with furniture.

The carpet people also permanently damaged my kitchen island because the morons put the long 20-foot carpet stretcher up against the middle of the island where there is no support and it pushed the wood in a couple of inches. I told the Tompkins guy about that and he had no response. I don't know what else I can do about that.
Click to expand...

this is why we paid an extra 3K to have our flooring done through the builder.  if we would not have been happy we would have just pushed back the close. we had our grout sealed by Groutzilla after closing and they said the tilework was great.
 
Thanks for the info on Tompkins, I had a quote from Paul and I was about to use them.  Not anymore.  The pissing all over your toilets is a deal breaker for me.  Although, most of the dudes who do this type of work aren't the most sanitary of people.
 
qwerty said:
lucky said:
Flooring

We went with Tompkins in Irvine to rip out the standard carpet and vinyl to replace it with porcelain tiles and carpet. We had problems with both.

The tile installation was scheduled for a 3-day job (but they unexpectedly needed a fourth day and the carpet guys had to work around them). The installers were friendly and all, but they just were not very considerate of our home. For example, all their filthy buckets of water they used for grout and mortar we just dumped into our backyard drains (still surrounded by dirt), leaving ugly white stuff all over the place. Worse, though, is that they used our brand-new toilets that we've never used and got urine all over them. Also they used our sinks to clean their dirty, caulk-covered fingers and sponges leaving a gross residue all over.

As far as the tile work goes, though, they did a pretty good job except for some problems. First, there were several areas where the grout was fouled up. There were knicks and gouges into the grout which they had to come back out to cover up. Second, they laid out the tile in our laundry room very poorly, so there are tiny 1-inch-deep corners of tiles at the threshold which are really ugly. Those should have been laid out to occur at the rear of the room behind the washer/dryer. There's nothing that can be done to fix that. Also, some edges of tile (where it meets the carpet) are crooked so the carpet can't lay in a straight line.

Now for the carpet, they took 3.5 hours to do a single seam 3 different times because they couldn't get the threads to line up. When they finally got it "good enough" there is a soft bump in the carpet at the seam (and there's about a foot where the two sides still don't line up). Our sales guy from Tompkins came out for about 30 seconds to look at it and said to just wait a month and they'll come out and try to stretch it out again. Right- maybe a month after their satisfaction guarantee expires (?) and after our carpet is covered with furniture.

The carpet people also permanently damaged my kitchen island because the morons put the long 20-foot carpet stretcher up against the middle of the island where there is no support and it pushed the wood in a couple of inches. I told the Tompkins guy about that and he had no response. I don't know what else I can do about that.
Click to expand...

this is why we paid an extra 3K to have our flooring done through the builder.  if we would not have been happy we would have just pushed back the close. we had our grout sealed by Groutzilla after closing and they said the tilework was great.
Click to expand...

How was Groutzilla?  We need to find a contractor to seal our grout.  Price?
 
We used LA Carpet for our tile floor project in the bathrooms and they did a nice job. We had to haggle a bunch on the price but eventually they agreed and all was well. Scheduling was also a bit of a headache but the work was good.
 
I did the whole house insulation too... It didn't help that much with sound insulation as much as I had hoped either (only slightly better then the apt I moved out from that didn't have insulation)... I think the insulation is there... its just that The R levels for the walls I think is different from the between floors, i forgot it says on the IP itemized upgrade sheet, I wish the R level was more...

Fridge wise I got mine from lowes... They did a pretty good job

So far I've only had minor problems and I have yet to submit to IP to fix... Small things like shower vent thing on top has a plastic piece that covers the light that is cracked,  exterior window frame is loose and needs reattaching, a few drawer/shelf soft close devices fell off lol (poorly installed)... So seems ok... It'll only become an issue if once I submit for IP to fix and they don't do it... But so far seems ok
 
Irvinecommuter said:
How was Groutzilla?  We need to find a contractor to seal our grout.  Price?
Click to expand...

groutzilla did a very good job.  it was 1,200 for about 1,500-1600 sq ft of porcelain floor tile throughout the house plus sealing the tile in 3 showers (floor in shower and tile on the walls). the builder was asking about 1800-2000 for the same work. 
 
It does show some reasons why it's better to have the builder install the flooring. Our builder was very careful to clean the home meticulously before we got the keys. It doesn't mean no one ever used our toilets, but at least they cleaned them again after the flooring was installed.

Plus the builder is more liable for the home in general if they do the work. I almost wish I had gotten the builder to do the landscaping so that I could have gotten it done earlier and financed as part of the mortgage.
 
Also I'll be doing the garage epoxy thing too... Haven't figured out quite what I want yet... But ur garage thread has definitely been really helpful
 
paperboyNC said:
It does show some reasons why it's better to have the builder install the flooring. Our builder was very careful to clean the home meticulously before we got the keys. It doesn't mean no one ever used our toilets, but at least they cleaned them again after the flooring was installed.

Plus the builder is more liable for the home in general if they do the work. I almost wish I had gotten the builder to do the landscaping so that I could have gotten it done earlier and financed as part of the mortgage.
Click to expand...

Except you'll be paying for the that flooring for 30 years.
 
lucky said:
Hmm. That doesn't sound like a good way to go, I mean just laying a full piece at the back wall and progressing forward. That means the back wall would always have the best [full] tiles, wouldn't it? I think it's a good use of time to plan out the pattern so the full tiles are in the most ideal location first.

Maybe that's just me, but I'm quite glad they did take the time to plan everything out for us in advance (except the laundry room, of course) instead of just finishing up as soon as they could.

Do you mean that you measure the cuts and draw them out on tiles for them? And do they put one square of mortar and one tile down then wait to go cut a tile so that it fits perfectly with the wall then lay down that tile's worth of mortar? So, in other words, the mortar's already down while they are working on cutting the next tile to fit? Are you a contractor by trade or is this just how you have tiles done for yourself? I'm quite curious how the process actually works for you. Thanks for explaining.
Click to expand...
No, I'm not a contractor but I've seen enough tile jobs to notice the same things (almost every home we moved into, even a new one, we've replaced the flooring).

Maybe it's just my luck, but every contractor I've dealt with does not pre-plan like you describe. They pick a corner, and start laying from there, making adjustments/cuts as they come up. It's the most efficient way to do so but could be problematic if walls are not perfectly straight or they come up on areas that make the cuts hard to manage. And they don't always pick the back wall, it depends, on larger spaces, they will pick the wall from the front entrance and do one side and come back to do the other side so that you will have full tiles from the entry way... but small enclosed spaces like laundry room and bathrooms are usually done from the back wall.

I'm picky about how my tile is set so that's why I will measure rooms where I think they will be a problem but most times it works out. The tricky ones are when they are doing offset (like diagonal) patterns or a running pattern (like a brick wall) which we usually do (I'm not a fan of the square grid pattern) so there are more cuts. The hardest is stuff like travertine with zero grout lines, because there is no room for error that grout lines give you, sometimes an installation can look bad.
 
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