Warranty Issues

[rharse]

I just moved in the Southern Walk area. The house is new but we are not the original owner (the original owner bought it and flipped within weeks). Before I go into the diatribe below, let me say that the house is a beautiful house. It's the general construction that seems lacking.

I've read the home "Owner's Manual" and see that I may not be covered for items such as carpeting and lighting. What recourse do I have for:

1) The outside post light does not work. It looks to be set to come on with the fall of night (every other post light is on but our's is dark).:(

2) Carpet - the carpet was not takced down properly and is coming up on the stairs (around just about every balluster and along the borders with the wood trim).:(

3) The racks in the closet were hung but the installer appears to have not use a stud finder. In at least two closets, there are a series of nail holes where it looks like the installer tried to find a stud by driving a nail in every inch or so (one rack has over 12 nails holes). None of the holes were patched! This is just plain old shoddy workmanship.:(

4) A few of the stairs to the basement are not secured properly. Each time I step on some of the stairs, the stair gives and you can hear the tread impact on the stringer.

5) Light switches - it looks like the electrician was playing a joke. You'd think the light switches would follow a logical path (i.e. the light switch closest to a light should turn it on rather than the light switch at the opposite end in the same junction box. It's easy for me to switch these but does anone else have light switches that just don't make sense?

I'm sure I'll find more examples of quality that is unbecoming of a house one spends a lot of money on. I will be reasonable but come on. These issues are basics of house building 101.[V]

Per the Owner's Manual, I'll contact Van Metre homes. Has anyone had success/issues with the resolution of similar items?

[Neighbor]

Try the GFI in the basement for the lamp post. That is where my mine is located.

[MJD]

Hi rharse,

For the outside light, check the GFI as Neighbor suggests. Ours did the same thing when we first moved in. The GFI tripped several times. We haven't had a problem with it since.

The other issues depend on if your house is past the 11-month warranty period or not. If your house has not had the 11-month warranty work, then:

For your issue #2 - They should re-tack the carpet. We had it coming up in a few spots and they fixed it with no problem.

For your issue #4 - We had the same problem in our townhouse with the stairs from the middle level to the ground floor. Almost every single one made a "pop" when stepped on. It turned out the stringer was not properly secured on the sides. The guy doing the warranty work said it was a plain and simple case of a sloppy installtion of the staircase. They had to get under the stairs and re-secure every single one. A real PITA, but now our stairs are nice and quiet.

Not too sure about the other 3 issues

- MJD

[hberg]

It is after our 11 month and we found ugh bad stair job.

We are in a Irving and when you go into the basement (unfinished) the bottom stair to the landing moves and then you continue down more stairs. WE looked underneath and to our horror you can see where someone shoved a piece of wood to leve the stair and you can even see the space through to the landing. It perturbs me that this was obviously a builder issue/fault but since the stair did not move until after our last inspection too bad for us. I am still not sure how to fix it but when we have the basement finished we will have a stairway issue. Lovely.

[rharse]

Folks,
Thanks for the feedback. I was able to find the GFI in the basement and, volia, the post light works!

I've requested a service request form from Van Metre for the inspection. A few more issues to clear up and I'll feel better.

Rich

[Neighbor]

no problem, glad I could help!