are the houses well built?
 

My husband and I are looking to buy a home in TV, and I wondered if anyone feels that the builder cut corners anywhere and what we should look out for. Any input would be appreciated.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Buy a block house rather than siding so you won't have to deal with the possible problems with vinyl siding. If we have another strong storm your siding may go away!

Re: are the houses well built?
 

I bought a concrete block designer in 2005, and was very impressed with the quality. Little things, like the caulking they did around every piece of molding, the bath fixtures (Kohler), the fit & finish of the kitchen, the marble windowsills, were all outstanding. The overall structure seemed just about flawless. I saw no problems with any of the different aspects of construction at all. I came there from an old house, so anything new might have awed me, but I had visitors who also commented on how well made it was.
I was (and still am) very happy with it.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

The building part seems excellent. We close on Monday and I haven't lived in it. I am a little disappointed in the light fixtures and the lack of stainless steel appliances.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

I just had my house resided but I never knew anything was wrong. It looked fine. It was the Villages who inspected and said that not enough nails were used and finishing work was poor etc. Talking to them..it seems like some builders do a better job than others. Sorry, I don't know the names of the good builders. :dontknow:

Re: are the houses well built?
 

The siding issues as debated here and elsewhere and the cause célèbre of the POA were and are grossly overstated. Yes, it is accepted that much of the vinyl siding was not installed to industry standards. A few homes had problems with siding blowing off, but it was easily repaired or replaced. %-wise, few had performance problems. Houses didn't collapse or residents killed due to faulty workmanship. The developer now has an ongoing program to look and and repair siding (at least in part thanx to the POA effort, I'm sure), I think for any homes built in the last 10 years. They were here yesterday, told me that the installer had nailed and/or stapled too far apart, so they basically reinstalled my siding --- no charge. If you have a home with siding, call the home warranty department and ask about it. Do it now. Don't know how long the program will last.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

We bought a courtyard villa built in 1993. It really is in great shape although I do want to upgrade the kitchen.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

we purchased a new home in 2005 and we are very pleased with the quality!

Re: are the houses well built?
 

We purchased new construction in Nov of 2007 and had it inspected by an independent inspector, of course he found a few minor things, like with all new construction. But, we are very very happy with it. TV does it right. :bigthumbsup:

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Thanks everyone!

Re: are the houses well built?
 

You can't judge Florida construction by northern standards, it's different. All new homes are being build to high wind standards etc. and yet, each home can be a victim of a careless subcontractor or worker. Thus you have a year, or more on some items, to get things corrected by the contractor. We have had no problem getting a few things corrected in Duval, and now are building in Hemmingway. When you get in your house, take advantage of the free state inspection for wind etc., it will save on most insurance. Just expect to pay a little more for your home, or a lot more for a view, and chalk it up to buying into a way of life in a safe, active and beautiful community. Also, before doing anything with the house after market, check with locals and talk with previous customers.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

ATT: graciegirl -- All stainless steel is not equal, even in The Villages -- If you like that current look of stainless (that may have already reached its peak in style), go to a good appliance dealer and get the good stuff with higher nickel content that doesn't fingerprint -- it will cost a couple of hundred $$ more, but "you will never be sorry you bought quality" -- Welcome to The Villages --

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Bought a new ranch in 07. Construction in general is very good, only minor items had to be done on our 1 yr warranty - all taken care of by The Villages quickly. So far after 9 months we are pleased. Praying it will continue to be good.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

It's perspective, expectations, attitude. At dinner last evening, construction quality was another topic of conversation --- as well as bird :edit: in the pools. We discovered that all 5 homeowners had had the same builder back on '05. No idea about which subs were used. On the various warranty walk-thrus, 4 of the 5 of us said that we each had about 3 to 5 minor items, nothing serious -- missed paint spots, caulking, maybe a loose board or tight door. The final couple said they had more than 2 legal pad sheets of items to be fixed. Is it feasible that the builders did such a miserable job on one house while building the 4 around it so well? Doubtful.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

One way to test it is to see if magnets stick. The thin stuff used on most appliances isn't even magnetic. The heavier stuff used in our Kenmore Elite stove is. Seems to be a much higher quality.
However, it's not easy to clean, and we are opting away from it and going back to basic white and almond in each of our homes.

Way Better Than I Ever Expected
 

Our house was near perfect. We had only a few warranty claims and we were continually impressed with the speed with which the sub-contractors responded--always within a day or two--and their skill and willingness to fix the problems we had. In a couple of cases, the subs that came noticed other things that needed to be fixed and went ahead and fixed them, even though we had not reported them.

Our "builder" (the superintendent of the construction general contractor who was responsible for building our house) was absolutely terrific. I had four pages of questions regarding the house which he calmly answered during our pre-closing walk-thru inspection.

Having said all this, remember that the building codes in Florida may be different from what you're used to. As an example, in Chicago the electrical wiring is all wire pulled thru metal conduit. That's not the code in Florida (or most other places in the country). Of course, the houses are not built with custom woodwork, fine imported porcelain tile, special order electrical fixtures, imported German plumbing fixtures, etc. But you're not paying for those things either.

All in all, we couldn't be happier with our house in The Villages.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Personally I prefer black appliances over stainless steel. But, that's here up North.

Down south we have white. It's not my favorite because it shows the dirt quicker but don't think black is fitting for the region. I don't want stainless because having to wipe off fingerprints daily is not my idea of living in Paradise and retirement leisure.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Bright I think black appliances would look good depending on your cabinets. I am in the south only ARK but my cabinets are a cherry with black appliances and they look great. If you want black go for it.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

I learned that last year some of the contractors let workers go because TV wasn't selling as many new homes as they were during the peak a couple of years ago. Things picked up a little in new home sales and the contractors added new workers to meet the increased work load. The new workers weren't as skilled as the ones that were let go and some construction problems resulted. Beyond the well documented siding problems I don't know specifically what other problems there were. I understand that the builders were quick to make corrections once the problems were pointed out and hopefully, the crews are now back up to par.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

The one other suggestion I would add is to buy all the laminate flooring and tile you can afford. The carpeting installed, even upgraded versions, doesn't wear well. We've been here eight years and in the process of removing all the carpets. We had them stretched many times and the guys said the problem is in the environmentally friendly sizing and glues they now use. Another thing to look at is the sprinkler head locations. Seems that once you landscape the sprinkler heads are next to the house and need to be moved out from behind the bushes! We designed our own home years ago when it was possible and cheaped out on some things which we are now upgrading. You may also have GE appliances which may not be available much longer. According to the financial news GE is dumping the home appliance business. We just bought some LG appliances and they are first class. All the homes, with the exception of the vinyl siding problems, are great!

The 2007 Tornado Answered A Lot Of Construction Questions
 

Sure, like any other new house there may be some missed paint here, a loose faucet there, an electrical wire nut not tightened, etc. But if anyone ever doubted the construction quality of houses in The Villages, the tornado in the spring of 2007 sure answered many of them.

The hurricane-proof garage doors were amazing. If a house wasn't completely destroyed, the garage doors stayed intact. The same with the effectiveness of the tie-downs holding the roof structure to the walls. There were a number of houses "blown down", many with holes in their roofs, but none that I saw where the roof structure came off the underlying house. There's been lot of loud squawking about vinyl siding issues. As best I can determine, they're mostly cosmetic complaints. Sure, there were a few houses close to the track of the tornado that had siding come off and walls blown down. But except for the houses in or near the "line of fire", I didn't see many that had a lot of siding missing. Dented, torn, bent...yes. But attached so poorly that it came off? No way. Same with the roofing. Holes in roofs and lots of shingle damage, but no widespread "stripping away" of asphalt shingles.

Overall, the tornado seemed to validate both the Florida building code as well as the quality of the consruction of Villages houses. Frankly, while our house up north had the oak woodwork, porcelain tile floors, granite counters, etc., I doubt that it would have survived the type of storm that we experienced here last spring.

Even more importantly, if one ever had a doubt about whether they had moved to the right place, the outpouring of help within minutes after the storm by the developer's employees, the contractors who built the houses, the entertainers who create joy for us on the town squares, and the residents of The Villages themselves made it very certain in only a few hours that The Villages is "our" home and we're awfully glad that it is. By the time the first FEMA truck pulled in about 36 hours after the storm passed, there was little for them to do other than write reports and shuffle papers. By then, we had taken care of our own.

"Home" it is and home it will be for us.

Re: are the houses well built?
 

Our three year old CYV is very well built. We love it and have not had any problems at all.

Reviving a thread from the past
 

We have finally spent several nights in our 2000 home in TV and find that it is VERY well built. It has dual pane windows that I think helps a lot and is stucco and block, and at 9 years old, still looks great. We were there for a few afternoon storms, and the house is solid. You don't really know the storm is around. Plenty of outlets, lots of storage. I would give it an A.

superbly built

Totally agree!

Same here. This is our 3rd new home - there is no comparison to the prior 2.

Building was our business and my husband has not found one problem with our vinyl Juniper. Believe me he looked..........

Same here....
 

We also found the house to be very well built. We have a Gardenia, and I was surprised at some of the finer points in the construction. For instance, all of the mouldings are caulked top and bottom, so there are no spaces between the moulding and the walls or the floor. A small thing maybe, but I was in my brother-in-law's new house and there are spaces between the moulding and the walls, and spaces in the corners where the miter cuts are. Looks shoddy compared to my house.
Also the Kohler fixtures throughout were a surprise.
I was at the house a week or so before closing and there were little red stickers around. There were supposed to be repair points. Some of the "problems" were so minor that I couln't find them. By closing all of the red stickers were gone, and everything was flawless.

I give them a big :thumbup:

Agree totally, we think our newly bought CYV is well built. Also had the red stickers!
We think homes at TV are very well priced for the quality.

Army Guy

It's a no brainer: First, there are limited models with limited specs--these crews could probably do this in their sleep they have done it so many times (over 40 thousand), second, the builders are likely hand picked by the developer and I suspect they have become quite wealthy as a result. They know they have to repeatedly put out a quality product and what's at risk if they don't. Finally, The end of the first year inspection process can be extremely intense depending on the inspector you chose. The builders would be constantly repairing shoddy work at the end of the year if the product wasn't top quality from the start. I have been very impressed with how incredibly responsive the builders have been to my friends and neighbors (and mine) end of the year punch lists. Two thumbs up on quality.

Quality very good except grass
 

Moved into a new Ranch in Dec 07 and it had a few very minor problems all of which the Villages fixed immediately. I was very pleased with the the quality and how well the Villages responded to the minor issues.

Now the grass is another story. Had more people look at it and all giving an opinions then you can imagine (not enough water, too much water, more fertilizer, too muchfertilizer, cutting it too short, let it grow longer, fungus, let it mature etc). They sprayed and sprayed, I drove the grass cutting guy nuts telling him how to cut it and they finally replaced part of it. It's still marginal ! Empire Zoysa isn't all its supposed to be for sure!

I found that after I fired the lawn fertilizer company and started doing it myself the lawn looks much better and costs less. It does take a while for the Zoysia to mature. But when you consider that the sod is placed on a lot composed of sand with no nurtrition....we are lucky it is even green.

We bought a CYV in Duval in 2007 and have had a lot of problem with water leaks around the windows. The home is block and stucco. Home warranty kept telling us that ANY cracks in the stucco will cause water to leak in. Our carpet was soaked after TS Fay and after numerous other sever storms. After having the builder come out and tell us the same thing numerous times and having all the cracks filled in and still having the carpets wet, they finally sent the window company out. Now this took two years to get to this point. After the guy from the window company resealed all the joints in the window frames I think it is finally corrected. But they would not listen to us. We have a stucco home in AZ and have never had water leaks onto our carpet there and some of the cracks in our stucco here is at least a dime wide.

Ok SS. I followed your plight to sell your home. You went through hell. I was even stressed out for you. Now all seems to be well.

BUT!

You are just getting around to asking if the houses are well built? Did you not put the cart berofe the horse?

Is it me?

Yoda:shrug:

OK, now normally I don't butt myself into other's issues. However, Yoda, I believe you failed to notice the original date of SS's post. For some unknown reason Starflyte1 decided to revive a thread which was more than a year old rather than start a new thread about how the houses in TV are built. Just my .02, which by the way, isn't worth very much.;)

Interior wall studs are metal in our home. Found that out hanging pictures. A-1 Home Inspection Service informed us of that earlier. However I used a coin to push a nail into the wall instead of pounding it in with a hammer.

F16

oooops

My bad.

:oops:

My sincere apologies to you SS. I had never seen this thread before and thought it was new.

Me Stupid dumb azz :oops:

:bowdown:

:duck::duck::throwtomatoes::cryin2::censored:

I deserve it all.


Yoda