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]
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]