A question for former builders/contractors

[Harry Gilbert]

A question for those of you who in a former life were home builders or in the construction field.

What is the actual build quality of the homes built in the villages?

I've read enough about cheap appliances and cabinetry plus 1 unconfirmed report of possibly using a interior product for a exterior application. And the fact that they are building a vast # of house per month makes me wonder.

Also who is inspecting this construction? Sumter county has 309 total employees, cant be but a handful of inspectors county wide.

[sailor47]

This is my opinion for what it's worth. They are building 250 housed per month in a down turned economy. Before that in "08" 450 houses a month. People buy here all the time. People of all walks from contractors to doctors. They wouldn't be so successful if there were quality issues that were not addressed.

I believe the problems are always over blown. When building as many houses as TV does there will be issues but they are few.
They did have vinyl siding install issues which are all corrected.
They do use lower priced appliances for lower priced houses. Not poor quality just lower cost, big difference. I think that is to our advantage because a builder might pick an expensive appliance that the buyer doesn't like. For instance I don't like a fridge with water and ice in the door. They alway or almost always drip or the user spills water and ice and messes up the flooring. JMO.
There were some roofing issues.
And More issues I am sure.
But and this is a big But the home warranty department, at least in our case, really came to bat and fixed everything we mentioned including replacing an oak tree that we thought had a bad shape. We were wrong about that but they still did it.
All this is just my opinion.

[drdodge]

I was a former builder and I think the houses built by the villages are good quality for the money There are some people you could not satisfy if you gave them the house for nothing

drd

[Irishmen]

Well said sailor. It seems contractors and builders working for The Villages are all good businesses. Not perfect but rectify bad real quick.

[graciegirl]

I/we are NOT in construction...but...

We built our first house in the first year of our marriage. We had 20 or 25 percent down and it cost about 15K. It was a three bedroom house with basement and garage and had hardwood floors. We were transferred and built our second house about 18 months later and built three houses in that city and were transferred again where we built three more houses and bought a new house that we had not contracted to build. It was about nine months old. We watched our children build two houses.

The last homes in Ohio were custom homes and were high quality.

The two we had here, one we bought new and one we built were the best experience we had ever had with the process of building and of warranty. The minor problems were many fewer than had ever happened before and they were remedied within 24 hours of reporting them to warranty.

We bought and paid for each home by the sweat of our brows and by sacrifice and saving.

I think these homes are well built Florida homes, they are not constructed like Ohio homes at all. They coated the wood against termites, but not in Ohio. We had wood windows in Ohio that were prone to dry rot. Woodpeckers can't peck on block and stucco and power washing it here only costs 35 dollars.

You have a choice what price appliances you want. Ours are fine. I didn't like the dishwasher in our house in Hadley. It was middle grade GE and didn't completely get the dishes dry.

I would build again here and still may. Gotta lot of years left.

[rubicon]

I have to agree with the majority I believe for the most part the building here is fine. I have seen $5 million dollar homes up north with major water intrusion problems. What I mean essentially is that price and location are no guarantee.

[skip0358]

We've been here 4 years in our home that we had built. All and all they did a darn good job. When I had the home inspected at the end of the 1st year only cosmetic issues were found. I've watched the houses be built and they're doing just fine. At anyone time there are an army of people working in the developments and the put in more then and 8 hour day. I even see work being done on Sundays. I do work with Habitat and I can tell you the inspectors give the houses a good going over.I frequent the construction site here and I know the inspectors sign off before the next trade starts. I wouldn't be to concerned at all.

[Harry Gilbert]

thanks guys for the replies. With so many being built I need to be sure no corners are being cut.

[jimbo2012]

The county doesn't do the inspections, they only have 4 inspectors.

A private firm has about 20 that do the work, now I know you may think well they must let let slip by.

Not at all I've seen them in one new build giving one of the subs some isssues he needed to change.

On my pool & pergola they pulled the plans went over a lot of questions, in fact they made recommendations.

2nd inspection was quicker but they were nit pickers about the elec grounds around the pool being tied into the rebar, it all passed.

In general on a scale of 1-10 I rate the builds here I rate the construction a 8.5 to 9.

THe best part is U have a year to get anything fixed, and that dept is excellent, I gave them over 30 items, very satisfied.

I still have 6 months to find & report anything.

[tommy steam]

I worked in the construction industry for 43 years. From what I have see here they look to do a good job. I have taken walks thru some of the homes being built here. The workmanship look fine. For issues with the roofing shingles, it does happen. I had a roof in my former home in Li Ny that had to have the roof replaced after 10 years. It was a bad run of shingles. Things do happen , we do not live in a perfect world. The one thing I don't care for is the plastic plumming pipes and the cheesy shut off valves.