BC Building LLC

The planning phase of the project went very well. We discussed in general what we wanted for details in the home. The builder was very open to the idea of working with us throughout the project to build the home that we wanted. We went back and forth a few times with changes to the details of the house design, and ended up with a good result. The builder told us that he wanted to work with us this way through the building phase of the project, and told us that he could construct a new home in 3 to 6 months. Once construction started, it became very difficult to get any time with the builder to discuss details and progress. The builder was not on our project on a full-time basis, as was our expectation. It took from early April until Early June just to complete the rough framing of the house. During this time, the builder would talk to us in 5 minute phone conversations, and promise a sit-down meeting at some future time, but was never available for that sit down meeting. As the house progress continued to be slow through June, July and August, we confronted the builders with the issue of the pace of the project, as well as tried to address issues that we had for details that we wanted in the home. The builder had no excuses for all of the delays, and felt that he had done nothing wrong. The relationship with the builder went downhhill from there. At one point we recived an invoice for services completed on a thursday. The following Wednesday afternoon, the builder called to see if we had payment for the invoice. He told us that the installation of insulation had to be cancelled, since the installers needed a 50% deposit to start, and they were set to start the next day. Since we had not paid the invoice from the prevoius thursday, the builder did not have the funds to cover the insulation deposit. When we got to the house to look at the progress, we discovered that the items on the invoice had not even been completed, a requirement by Massachusetts law for licensed contractors. At that point, we ended our relationship with the builder for any future work on the house. Later we discovered that some of the windows installed do not meet building code. I had asked the contractor to look into the differerent options for windows, hoping to get windows with better solar heat gain on the south side of the house. The builder told me that there were windows that provided the solar heat gain, but I would lose a few points on the U factor (insulation value) of the window. Once the windows were installed, I found that the u factor of the windows was a 0.45, instead of the 0.30 of the regular windows. The max U-factor for Massachusetts is 0.33, so the windows he put in are out of compliance with the building code. We are pursuing options to have the windows replaced, but the builers are not interested in taking any responsibility in this matter.