Tamlin Homes Inc

Tamlin Homes at their own expense redid the entire shower floor and 2 layers up with matching tile (including all parts, labor, resetting the glass, everything?). Just to be clear, Tamlin Homes came back to my home 5 years after the initial build; found 1 place that may have caused a problem and replaced the entire shower flooring at no cost to me! In my business you don?t completely rate a company by if they?re perfect every time ? you rate them by how they deal with problems if they occur. That is standing by the quality of your work. (reference request welcome)

Update as of 05/2013 - As expected, Tamlin Homes has failed to honor its warranty on the build quality of our home. They refuse to return calls and have abandoned any responsibility for the remaining items still unaddressed. Neil Robinson specifically asked that we wait until March 2013 (just under 1 year) for all the drywall nail pops and cracks that needed fixing. His logic was to have them all done at once, in case more surfaced within the first year (the warranty period). After leaving several messages to schedule repairs, Tamlin homes has informed us that no repair work is covered, and has since ignored calls and emails. We continue to have plumbing, electrical, and structural issues with this home and have spent an additional $20,000 to fix or replace poor materials and other issues that Tamlin improperly installed, since taking ownership. This is the true character of these people. They have never owned up to any responsibility or accountability for their contractual obligations or promises. Do yourself a favor and do not let them practice building homes at your expense. Member Comments: If you are looking to hire a custom builder for your new home, please do your homework and thoroughly check references. We hired Tamlin Homes to build our custom plan on a lot we owned. We had met with several builders, visited homes currently under construction, and knew exactly what we wanted in our home. Despite all our efforts and beliefs that we made a sound decision, this has been one of the worst nightmares of our lives. I could write a novel about the experience and problems we have had with this project. I know that your time is valuable so I will try to highlight what I consider the major issues we have and what could have done better to prevent them all together. Tamlin Homes is a small custom homebuilder with very personable owners. Bryan Thomas handles sales and Neil Robinson manages construction. We were courted like royalty and promised the world. All the problems began for us after the contract was signed. For one, we never saw Bryan Thomas again. He would not respond to our emails or return our phone calls. We only heard from him when we were copied on the email badgering our bank for his next draws. The only other time was when we happened to come across him parading another client through our home on a sales call. Aside from a courtesy ?hello?, he ignored us. This was a terrible letdown that left us feeling like we had been taken. The biggest single issue with this project was the lack of supervision and management of the subcontractors by the builder. Neil Robinson was responsible for the construction. He scheduled his trades but was seldom at the job site to see what was happening. Neil promised many things, including a no-smoking policy on site, keeping the property clean, and above all, the promise of quality workmanship. He constantly made statements that they have the best trades and use the best materials in the industry. Unfortunately, since he was never around to observe what was happening and to manage the construction workers, none of these promises were fulfilled. We constantly found food, trash, and cigarette butts throughout the house. He did put up no smoking signs but was never there to enforce it. We observed all sorts of issues with the home, materials, and work quality that needed to be brought to his attention. There were several contractors used the newly installed toilets in our home, which my wife had to tape shut, only to find the tape ripped off the next day and find waste left behind. We were promised that would not happen and Neil was 100% reactive to every problem. He only became involved after we brought our complaints to his attention and told him this was unacceptable and would not be tolerated any more. The other major issue with Neil?s lack of involvement was that he did not know the contract details and had no understanding of our expectations. He would become defensive and argumentative with both my wife and I as we pointed out mistakes. He constantly told us that he was delivering what was on our contract until we finally got sick of it and brought our copy with us. We had to point out everything for him to correct. The constant excuses and blaming of others for the errors became ridiculous. The biggest reason to eliminate Tamlin Homes from your short list is that they have no sense of accountability for anything. Neil will blame everyone else for the problem but does nothing to accept responsibility beyond scheduling the repair and telling his contractors that we are being too picky. If you are expecting a company who stands behind the promises and genuinely cares about their product, look elsewhere. It has been 3 months since we took occupancy and he has been back in our home only once. Apparently once Tamlin Homes collects their final payment, they have no reason to follow up on anything personally. There are days when we have had more then 14 contractors running through our home and Neil expects us to manage them. We have not been able to fully move in or enjoy anything about this home. Below are just a few of the specific issues we have experienced as a result of hiring Tamlin Homes: We selected cherry cabinets for our kitchen and specified them in our contract. Neil had ordered Maple and when we told him it was wrong, he yelled at my wife insisting that we selected maple. Builder damaged our Wolf stainless steel range and blamed cleaners. Plumbers installed our dishwasher incorrectly and shorted the circuit board. Septic system was never tested after the hook up. 3 weeks after moving in we had a backup in 2 downstairs bathrooms. Doors and trim are riddled with nicks and dents from careless workers. Some doors will not close properly after being in place for less than 5 months. Garage doors need replacing already. After specifying in our contract and paying upcharges for insulation of the garage, Tamlin homes installed the cheapest version of the door style we chose. We were not given options and now the garage is constantly 120 degrees during the day. We needed to most have gas lines upgraded and relocated due to improper sizing of the initial system. This involved digging up our new lawn and opening up drywall to access the lines. Paint and Drywall ? I lost count of how many times we needed drywall and paint repairs due to incorrect positioning of lights and needing to open up walls for electrical and gas repairs. Touch ups are very noticeable and this is not what we expected in a new home. Staircase ? the focal point of the foyer, handrail is crooked and the finish is terrible. They have made 4 repair attempts to remove brush hairs and stain drips, etc., and each one results in my family having to relocate to the downstairs rooms for the night while the finish cures. There are now more than 7 coats of finish on the rails and they are loaded with drips and filled with excess finish. Neil refuses to come to the home himself to see the damage. Cannot Recommend this Builder: There are so many other examples of this builder?s failure to deliver on their promise, and my point would not be to focus on what happened in my particular case, but rather to understand what led to all of these problems. I feel it is necessary to include specifics in order to substantiate the review that Tamlin Homes does not provide the value they promise in a custom home. They clearly oversold their capabilities and their subcontractor base does not have the skill or experience to deliver the quality we expected and were promised in a high-end home. They build a nice looking home that falls far short on performance and function. Considering that you might be making the single biggest investment and purchase in your life, this is a very important decision and you need to do your homework thoroughly. We liked Neil and Bryan and that definitely impacted our ability to keep this purely a business transaction. We should never have made the concessions we did to accept some of the incompetence that occurred on our project. In hindsight we would have been better off working with a larger company that would have contributed the needed experience to build our home correctly the first time. The relationship seemed important at first but now it is obvious that it hurt our objectivity. We did understand going into this project that Tamlin Homes had not previously built a home of this size, yet we bought into the promise of the sales pitch hook line and sinker. We checked them out and saw their previous work. It looked good, but we now know looks can be deceiving. I sincerely regret that we did not look beyond the lipstick and mascara and had asked the homeowners more specific questions about how their home functions. At this point, we would not recommend hiring Tamlin Homes for one primary reason: They have shown no accountability for the mistakes they made or the problems we have had. They have consistently made excuses and placed blame elsewhere. They have mislead us and have been less then truthful responding to our inquiries. Had there been a full time construction supervisor engaged on our project and who knew something about construction, who knew the contract specifications, and who took the time to understand our expectations, most of this would have been avoided and we would have been thrilled beyond words. Unfortunately I consider our decision to hire Tamlin Homes a complete failure on my part that will result in my wife and I having to spend additional money on completing and repairing problems that the builder had chosen to walk away from. Please be careful and watch everything if you choose to hire them.

If you are looking to hire a custom builder for your new home, please do your homework and thoroughly check references. We hired Tamlin Homes to build our custom plan on a lot we owned. We had met with several builders, visited homes currently under construction, and knew exactly what we wanted in our home. Despite all our efforts and beliefs that we made a sound decision, this has been one of the worst nightmares of our lives. I could write a novel about the experience and problems we have had with this project. I know that your time is valuable so I will try to highlight what I consider the major issues we have and what could have done better to prevent them all together. Problem #1 - We Fell for the Sales Pitch: Tamlin Homes is a small custom homebuilder with very personable owners. Bryan Thomas handles sales and Neil Robinson manages construction. We were courted like royalty and promised the world. We had thought through every detail, material and finish prior to the contract being executed. The contract was presented with all our specifications. The price was fair and we did not see any red flags. In all, we felt very comfortable proceeding with these guys. All the problems began for us after the contract was signed. For one, we never saw Bryan Thomas again. He would not respond to our emails or return our phone calls. We only heard from him when we were copied on the email badgering our bank for his next draws. The only other time was when we happened to come across him parading another client through our home on a sales call. Aside from a courtesy ?hello?, he ignored us. This was a terrible letdown that left us feeling like we had been taken. He is a salesman like all the rest. He makes his living on the ability to over-promise and under-deliver. Problem #2 - Lack of Construction Supervision: The biggest single issue with this project was the lack of supervision and management of the subcontractors by the builder. Neil Robinson was responsible for the construction. He scheduled his trades but was seldom at the job site to see what was happening. Neil promised many things, including a no-smoking policy on site, keeping the property clean, and above all, the promise of quality workmanship. He constantly made statements that they have the best trades and use the best materials in the industry. Unfortunately, since he was never around to observe what was happening and to manage the construction workers, none of these promises were fulfilled. We constantly found food, trash, and cigarette butts throughout the house. He did put up no smoking signs but was never there to enforce it. We observed all sorts of issues with the home, materials, and work quality that needed to be brought to his attention. There were several contractors used the newly installed toilets in our home, which my wife had to tape shut, only to find the tape ripped off the next day and find waste left behind. We were promised that would not happen and Neil was 100% reactive to every problem. He only became involved after we brought our complaints to his attention and told him this was unacceptable and would not be tolerated any more. The other major issue with Neil?s lack of involvement was that he did not know the contract details and had no understanding of our expectations. He would become defensive and argumentative with both my wife and I as we pointed out mistakes. He constantly told us that he was delivering what was on our contract until we finally got sick of it and brought our copy with us. We had to point out everything for him to correct. The constant excuses and blaming of others for the errors became ridiculous. The biggest reason to eliminate Tamlin Homes from your short list is that they have no sense of accountability for anything. Neil will blame everyone else for the problem but does nothing to accept responsibility beyond scheduling the repair and telling his contractors that we are being too picky. If you are expecting a company who stands behind the promises and genuinely cares about their product, look elsewhere. It has been 3 months since we took occupancy and he has been back in our home only once. Apparently once Tamlin Homes collects their final payment, they have no reason to follow up on anything personally. There are days when we have had more then 14 contractors running through our home and Neil expects us to manage them. We have not been able to fully move in or enjoy anything about this home. Below are just a few of the specific issues we have experienced as a result of hiring Tamlin Homes: We selected cherry cabinets for our kitchen and specified them in our contract. Neil had ordered Maple and when we told him it was wrong, he yelled at my wife insisting that we selected maple. We ended up changing our granite and tile to match so he did not have to absorb a $25K loss. We actually fell for the tearful sob story he gave in the kitchen after he calmed down. We tried to be incredibly accommodating to his mistake and never received as much as an apology or thank you for our concession. This was my wife?s dream kitchen and although it looks very nice, it will not every be as we wanted. Builder damaged our Wolf stainless steel range and blamed cleaners. Plumbers installed our dishwasher incorrectly and shorted the circuit board. Septic system was never tested after the hook up. 3 weeks after moving in we had a backup in 2 downstairs bathrooms. Doors and trim are riddled with nicks and dents from careless workers. Some doors will not close properly after being in place for less than 5 months. Garage doors need replacing already. After specifying in our contract and paying upcharges for insulation of the garage, Tamlin homes installed the cheapest version of the door style we chose. We were not given options and now the garage is constantly 120 degrees during the day. We needed to most have gas lines upgraded and relocated due to improper sizing of the initial system. This involved digging up our new lawn and opening up drywall to access the lines. Paint and Drywall ? I lost count of how many times we needed drywall and paint repairs due to incorrect positioning of lights and needing to open up walls for electrical and gas repairs. Touch ups are very noticeable and this is not what we expected in a new home. Staircase ? the focal point of the foyer, handrail is crooked and the finish is terrible. They have made 4 repair attempts to remove brush hairs and stain drips, etc., and each one results in my family having to relocate to the downstairs rooms for the night while the finish cures. There are now more than 7 coats of finish on the rails and they are loaded with drips and filled with excess finish. Neil refuses to come to the home himself to see the damage. Cannot Recommend this Builder: There are so many other examples of this builder?s failure to deliver on their promise, and my point would not be to focus on what happened in my particular case, but rather to understand what led to all of these problems. I feel it is necessary to include specifics in order to substantiate the review that Tamlin Homes does not provide the value they promise in a custom home. They clearly oversold their capabilities and their subcontractor base does not have the skill or experience to deliver the quality we expected and were promised in a high-end home. They build a nice looking home that falls far short on performance and function. Considering that you might be making the single biggest investment and purchase in your life, this is a very important decision and you need to do your homework thoroughly. We liked Neil and Bryan and that definitely impacted our ability to keep this purely a business transaction. We should never have made the concessions we did to accept some of the incompetence that occurred on our project. In hindsight we would have been better off working with a larger company that would have contributed the needed experience to build our home correctly the first time. The relationship seemed important at first but now it is obvious that it hurt our objectivity. We did understand going into this project that Tamlin Homes had not previously built a home of this size, yet we bought into the promise of the sales pitch hook line and sinker. We checked them out and saw their previous work. It looked good, but we now know looks can be deceiving. I sincerely regret that we did not look beyond the lipstick and mascara and had asked the homeowners more specific questions about how their home functions. I think everyone learns from their mistakes, whether they admit to them or not. Tamlin Homes may succeed if they change the way they approach their customers and their home building process. At this point, we would not recommend hiring Tamlin Homes for one primary reason: They have shown no accountability for the mistakes they made or the problems we have had. They have consistently made excuses and placed blame elsewhere. They have mislead us and have been less then truthful responding to our inquiries. Had there been a full time construction supervisor engaged on our project and who knew something about construction, who knew the contract specifications, and who took the time to understand our expectations, most of this would have been avoided and we would have been thrilled beyond words. Unfortunately I consider our decision to hire Tamlin Homes a complete failure on my part that will result in my wife and I having to spend additional money on completing and repairing problems that the builder had chosen to walk away from. Please be careful and watch everything if you choose to hire them.