Garman Homes

We purchased a Garman "G-Lite" Home in October 2011 in Durham. We loved the layout of the home, and still do, but over time we've experienced some defects that have affected the overall home experience, and trying to get all the repairs done within the provided 1 year warranty was nearly impossible- it was a constant negotiation, despite documenting the issues from the closing walk through forward. The sale itself was easy to work through, and we received all the assurances in the world, but now that we've lived here for over 2 years, and things like settling, fixtures breaking, nails popping at every single seam in the ceiling, despite repair twice, we have to question the worksmanship of the home, and are putting a lot of money into fixing cosmetic, and non-cosmetic issues. Overall, while we're happy with the home, we're not happy to have to be putting so much work into the house to repair poor construction. We affectionately call our house "The Angles"... because no two angles in our house are the same. An example of things that we need to repair, or re-repair: Nail pops throughout the entire second floor, about 27 in total. Many of these were repaired... and then re-popped. 2 large wall cracks in the Master Bedroom Bathroom floor had to be leveled at 1 year warranty period, we have had to redo that. Shower was installed incorrectly, and water pooled within the shower, causing mold. Repairs were made, but now the shower door doesn't close after the repairs. 2 of the toilets have broken. We've had a wax seal break on one, ruining the bathroom floor, and the upstairs toilet needed the internal levers/plunger replaced. Caulking from kitchen counter to back splash had spaced out due to wall settle. Contractors told Garman that the counter needed to be fixed to go against the wall, they said to caulk it anyway to fix it cosmetically, and if the seam occurred again, they would repair it. Well, the seam happened again, and they won't consider looking at it, so we now need to replace the counter and back splash because there's a 1 inch gap from counter to the wall now. The fuses are cheap. We've had to replace them all, because even though they're 15amp rated fuses, if you plug a vacuum in to clean the hallway, it blows the fuse because a light is on somewhere else. Basically, any time the fuses hit 10 amps, they pop. What's the point of 15 amp fuses? The fuses are also all over the place, in terms of what ties to what fuse. All the light fixtures in one room are tied to the attic fuse, and all the upstairs hallway and bathroom lights (but not the outlets!) are on the garage door fuse. Makes installing a ceiling fan REALLY difficult. For some of the repairs that Garman did complete, they were either not finished or cleaned up. For example, the shower was re-leveled to drain, but now the door doesn't close. Or, the bathroom floor was leveled, but no one came to clean up any of the dust caused by the sanding process all through out bathroom, closet, and bedroom. We had to wash all the fabrics in those rooms in order to get the wood dust out. A window was also replaced, so the trim had to be removed. No one came to repair the trim and paint/fill the new nail holes. Our stairway wall cap was replaced, but it wasn't sanded before painted, and is now rough to the touch/scrapes people as they walk by and rub against it. As I've said, the overall working with Garman company to buy the house was easy, but ensuring quality work and that repairs were at a high level, was just impossible to achieve. The reason we bought a new house was so we wouldn't have to deal with these issues, but now I regret not buying the used houses we looked at- at least we knew what we were getting into! I'm not angry, just upset that they didn't really seem to understand why we were so frusturated working with them over time. I would take the day off from work to wait for contractors to come, and they'd never show. In short, I was just worn down from the entire process of trying to get the house as to where it should be and properly built and what we purchased. I also don't want to compare, but this is our 3rd new home, and this is the only house we've had huge issues with. We've learned to accept it, and are making the changes and repairs ourselves, but we're going with a different builder in the future.

I had issues with my air conditioner and I had the HVAC company come out. They wanted to charge me $500 to fix it. I asked them to come down to like $300 and I went ahead and paid. Then I thought that it was wrong. So, I called Garman and they corrected it within 24 hours. The unit apparently never had the Freon charged. The HVAC company said that somebody had stolen it. I think it never got charged in the first place. It was also in the basement; so I hadn’t noticed it. Garman Homes was very quick in responding and they fixed the issue. They basically had all the charges reversed and gave me my money back.

I looked at several different builders and developments of which I was interested in a couple of developments but I liked the fact that they were willing to work with their customers to customize on the homes. They did that first with me and then a lot of the other builders to sketch the plans. They were not deviating that much from the plan. I would highly recommend them to the other members. They were responsive to all my concerns and I had a lot of concerns. However, they did have some things to work on but overall they made up for it through their responsiveness and willingness to correct. They actually built the house a little early wherein they were supposed be done by the 23rd of December 2010. I would be able to get in early and set up things for Christmas. They were very punctual.

We had our existing house deconstructed, and Garman Homes built a wonderful new home for us! We have been in for over a month and love it. It is constructed with very good quality and craftsmanship. And it was completed right on schedule.