Need to vent!! Bad home builder experiences, help

My wife and I built a home a little over two years ago with Brandl Anderson Homes of Burnsville, MN. This is the first home we have ever built. The sales process was great, very attentive to our needs/wants. Unfortunately since we closed on the property in March of 2003 things have went to heck in a hand basket.

I’m to blame for not documenting everything that went wrong and when I requested a copy of all the service orders on the house, the system has magically made them disappear.

Here is the deal, we feel the builder should fix two issues that have been ongoing for two years. 1)All ceiling rafters are bleeding through the paint/texture in the vaulted areas of the house. 2)The AC line from the outside of the house has so much condensation it leaks all over the side of the furnace in the basement. It has caused the furnace housing to rust terribly.

I’ve been on the phone with the service department several times over the last 24 months, kindly asking to have these and other items fixed. My favorites were the 3 natural gas leaks we had to call Minnegasco for. On many occasions, I’ve had to call 2-4 times to get a status of the issue and find out when they would be there to fix the problem.

I finally lost it today when they told me to repaint my ceiling out of my own pocket. I let them know how I really felt, not only the service department but the owner, Chris Brandl. Of course my anger was greeted with snide remarks and how I was lucky they listened to me.

Should have I blown up, probably not, but I did. So what I need help with is this. I have two issues in my house that I feel need resolved simply to protect the long term value of my home.

Suggestions on how to go about this next??

Tired, angry, fed up!!

John

Kooty,

If you have a lawyer write them a letter, they may be more willing to take care of an issue or two. Another option would be to contact your state department of consumer protection and have them crawl up their posterior. It is amazing how different people will react when they hear from an attorney or state agency. It is SOP for come contractors to brush people off. Half the time they go away and the contractor has to do nothing but spend unearned jack on a new boat.

Sorry to hear that. I can help with the A/C line. That is the suction line and it naturally creates condensation. The contractor should have insulated that line with a black foam wrap. If it is wrapped, there could be a restriction in the a-coil drain pain. Check to see if you have a light stream of water or dripping coming from the drain line on hot, humid days. The contractor should have also installed the A-coil at an angle so the water goes down the drain without it building up and spilling over the pan..
Hope this helps..

Write a letter to them with all of the information that you have requesting that they take care of problems that have stemmed from their shoddy workmanship. CC a copy to:
Mike Hatch
Minnesota Attorney General
Room 102
State Capitol
St. Paul, MN, 55155

That will get their attention, and I wouldn’t be suprised if you got those issues taken care of promptly.

The Better Bussiness Burue get them on the poo-poo list of bad Builders . They hate to have that A sign on front lawn helps both don’t cost much

GET A LAWYER! Plain and simple. This is a warranty issue, and if they won’t stand by there work any better than this, let the people that deal with these sort of places handle it. I had a similar experience about 12 years ago.

1-800-STICK-BOY
&
1-800-FISH-ON!

John, I’ve had good luck in the past with the BBB…if they are a reputable company. Car dealers and home builders want to keep the BBB record clean. Some people actually do check with them before buying a car or house from a builder…and they know that.

The other piece would be small claims court…but, before I actually did those two things……after you’ve settled down a bit, call them and tell them what you plan on doing. It gives them one last chance. Hey, court is a hassle for them too.
Make sure your contract does in fact cover the items above.

Contact the MN dept of commerce with the builders contractor license number, you should be able to recieve a payment to repair the damage from the contractors recovery fund. MN Satatutory warranties for plumbing, HVAC, and electrical are two years, ten years for major construction defects. If your rafters are bleeding through you may be missing a vapor barrior. Thats a big no no in MN. Good Luck

First off, thanks for all the suggestions. I will start the ball rolling tonight when I get a beer in my hand and can relax. I’m so frustrated with companies that refuse to stand behind their work. The wife and I are going to sit down and make a list of all the items/issues we have had resolved or not. We will do our best to document them enough to give our attorney.

Derek,

I’ve taped that black insuluation all up, It had cuts all through it. Of course exposing it causing more condensation. I’ve got to look at the drain do-hicky-thingamabob you mentioned.

As far as getting another builder in there will just stir things up, i would find out who sheet rocked it, and who did the hvac and go from there..

Too bad you can’t email him this site URL so he can see that if you know one person you know many. And there are many people here that are not signed on that are visitors who would see this. The word gets around faster these days. I’d be scared if I were him….

I think you had better check the building codes for your area. I know in the Rochester area the builder is responible for 10 years. I might be wrong but I think that is state law. Good luck

minnesota statutory warraties:
during one-year period from after the warranty date, the dwelling should be free of defects caused by faulty workmanship and defective materials due to noncompliance with building standards..

during two year period of warrnty date , th dwelling should be free from defects caused by faulty installation of plumbing ,elect,heating,and cooling systems..

during a ten year period from warranty dat shoul be free from major contsruction defects…
kind long but strait out of the book..

As far as the vaulted cielings; check the roof ventilation. This area should have some sort of ridge vent. If its there then pull up the ridge vent and see if the roofers felted over the opening that should be cut 2″ on both sides. They may not have even cut the opening. Seen it many times; this area must be ventilated properly or the condensation will do damage in short order. Hope that helps—–H

I would have it inspected for mold too..

Check to see that your roof is vented at the eaves, and the top of the roof. If it is not, this can lead to moisture. Did they spray foam insulation in your vaulted area, or use batt-insulation? What does the bleed through look like, is it “shadowing the rafters? (looking at it, you can see lines where the rafters are.) That sucks, sorry to hear about your problems. If it were me, I would be at there office at 7:00 and talking to the job superintendant, and Brandl himself. I would go to the city and get a copy of the building permit. It usually lists all the trade names. I would also want to see the inspectors copy, the one that he has inspected and signed for your house. Oh yeah, take lots of pictures!

Good luck with your efforts.

Talking with the city inspector might be a good place to go also. Of course this depends on if the inspector knows anything about construction or not. Us him for anouther source of info on the issues but keep in mind that he might just be guessing at the problem also. There are a fair number of inspectors out there that I am suprised can figured out the door knob let alone anything else in the house.

Make sure and photo the issues and make a list of what has been going on. Get yourself a folder or something to put everything in that pertains to these issues. Documentation is every thing.

If all else fails, call one of the news stations. They love to dig into evil do’ers. Man, I feel for you. We went through this garbage not too long ago. I still wish that fool would get the devils pass if you know what I mean. It puts stress on everyone in the household and is completly unneccesary. Don’t lose sight of protecting your investment.

Hey John sorry to hear about your problems
all the guys here gave you some great advice but I just wanted to mention DO NOT pay for this out of your own pocket. this could get rather spendy now I don’t know what it looks like but if it is bad enough you may not be able to just paint over that ceiling you will probably have to spray a stain killer and then re paint.
but I would keep getting on there [censored] and make sure they back there work.
if that don’t work then I would take them to court and make sure that this is taken care of. There is no reason that they should be jerking you around like this they need to realize that one of there subs messed up and now its time to make it right.
but as far as the problem goes I would have to agree with the above you probably have a ventilation problem in the roof somewhere. and as derek mentioned make sure to get it tested for mold you do not want to have that problem.
Good luck and make sure to keep us posted on how this all works out.

Brandl Anderson builders class act NOT, I live next to one of there developments, I still remember when there workers where swearing at my kids 4 and 8 for being on the back MY yard in the woods telling them to get out here, TOUGH GUYS. Needless to say Chris did hear from me

Ps one good thing about posting this in IDA is that when someone looking to check up on Anderson Builders does a google search…this thread shows up.

I had many problems 2 years back when I built a home in Rochester with a local builder. He wanted to blame it all on the subs and wanted me to deal with them. Two trips to small claims court and it was settled. They do not want that on the public record for all to see. I would not even mess with calling them again. File the paperwork and have your evidence in hand the day of (pictures, estimates from contractors to repair, etc..) and more then likely they will settle out of court. Good Luck.

I had similar problems with a builder about 10 years ago, several issues that he wouldnt fix. After a while i got pissed and got a 4×8 sheet of plywood out of the garage that he was nice enough to leave me and proceeded to try my art skills. I painted a nice big lemon with a roof on it that looked like my house and put it in the front yard and took a picture of it and emailed it to him. Problems were fixed within a week. I agreed to take the sign down when work was started and let him keep it when it was finished

CA

John;

I have a great attorney who you can trust. He is the only attorney I will do any business with.

Call me and I will give you his info.

He is 65 years old and has been doing this since the 60s. He does it good!!!!

if you have any questions on the repainting of the ceiling, shoot me a pm, I will tell you what to look for and the proper way to get it done. like nate said, they should prime it with some stain blocker, but it the sheetrock is stained, i would personally request new rock put on the ceiling, sometimes water stains are hard to get rid of.

shane

Mud,

The bleed through spots are most noticeable at the bottom of the truss and at the peak in the vaulted area. But I can see it in a few spots all the way up the rafter. It is only where a rafter is though. I now have noticed it on the exterior north wall in my bedroom also, just towards the top(ceiling).

I’ve started the research into finding out how to file all the proper complaints with anyone and everyone I can. Thanks for all the suggestion guys. It plain sucks that I’ll have to spend many hours reading and typing everything just to get a business to honor/stand up and do what’s right. I’ve also started a document that details the amount of my time I’ve spent on this issue.

I’m also going to give Brandl one more shot at doing what is right. I expect a mold test to be completed, replacement of the sheetrock or a sealant then paint so the “bleeding” stops.

Kooty I just bought a new house from a dealer in Onalaska a year ago. Was promised by the sales person I wouldn’t have a problem and if I did it would be fixed.
Had some things that were not right and they would send a guy here to have it fixed. He would come and it still was not taken care of. Then I was getting a garage attached to my house and the contractor for that said my house was not level. 2″ lower in one corner than the rest of the house. Should he pour the concrete to match the house or did I want to have them level it to be right. I wanted it level. They gave me a big run around that it was level and that he was wrong. Well I blew up and they did get here and got it leveled. But then I ended up with cracked walls and you name it. Have been almost a year trying to get everything repaired by them. Finally a week ago I did blow when I was talking to them and they hung up. When you get this red heads hair on fire you have a battle. I immediately contacted my attorney. They started to get things done the next day. Everything fixed except My cupboards that don’t match up. Have red and white oak all mixed in. Looks awful. So will stay on them till thats taken care of also. Can’t let these people make excuses and get by with it.
Good luck buddy.

FM, sorry to hear about your problems with your home. I hope you can get it all worked out. You deserve it!!

Here is an update on my situation that may help someone in the future. As suggested, I called the MN dept of commerce. I told them about my situation and that I needed educated on how to file a complaint against the builder. I spent a good 20 minutes on the phone with a very nice guy. He asked lots of questions about the situation. He said there are 3 things I must do in order for this to come out favorable for me:

1. Inform the builder of the problem(done).
2. Give the builder a chance to fix the problem(it’s good to have a quote from a 3rd party to fix problem, offer to let them pay this bill or let their own crew fix the issue).
3. Take them to small claims court if under $7500.00, which most likely my complaint is. It would be highly unlikely the judge would side against us if I have done steps 1 & 2 properly.

So, I’m in the process of finding someone to give me a quote to mold test(assuming there is no problem) and to paint.

Thanks for all the great info!!

John,
Saw your posting about bad home builders. Contact HOBB.org
(Homeowners for Better Building). President will call you if you would like. Also another website HADD.com (Homeowners against Deficient Dwellings) This problem is epidemic. Read the postings on the websites, stories are unbelievable. I know, I am a victim of new home building!

Thank You. Welcome to IDA!!! Stick around and share some fishing info too!!