BARANKO CONSTRUCTION

We purchased a partially built spec home from Baranko in January of 2004. At the time we were expecting a child, and needed a larger home before he arrived. Our hope was to be settled in by May. We were told 3 months to finish. We could do minor customization, and still be finished on time. Our promised date was March 15. Once we signed the paperwork, all work stopped. We tried to get them going again, but they took 60 days off. We were unable to close until the July 4 weekend. By this time my wife was 8 months pregnant. Once we moved in we had several punch list items “covered” by the Pro Home 1 year warranty. In actuality the builder has final say as to whether or not an issue falls under the warranty. We had water coming in on two sides of the house. Mike Baranko told us this was Mother Nature, and not the fault of the builder. This was noticed 30 days after we moved in, and supposedly part of the one year warranty. I ended up fixing myself, and out of pocket. Much of the finish work was not done well. Dry wall seams were not sanded prior to paining. The bathroom pluming was not insulated, and froze. This happened after 5 months in the house. It should have been covered by the warranty, but ended up being another out of pocket expense. Pipes & conduit were not properly routed along soffit space, instead strewn all over the ceiling of the basement. The 9 foot ceiling is actually 8 once you cover all the poor work. His painter, cabinet & finish woodworking subs were great. His plumber, drywall, and hard finish subs were lousy. When planning the heating & cooling I was worried the Air Conditioning unit was too small. I asked for a larger unit, at my expense (our home has many west facing windows). Mike would not upgrade the AC unit. I asked for a guarantee that the unit would keep the home at 75 degrees on a 90 degree day. He would not do this, nor would he upgrade the AC unit. On a 90 degree day, with the blinds closed, our home cannot maintain 75 degrees. By 4 PM it is usually 80. I replaced the AC unit myself, again out of pocket. Much of their work has been redone since we moved in. When I pointed out these issues to Mike during the build, I was told I was too picky. In my opinion complaints about leaking windows, freezing pipes, poor finish, and a sub-par AC unit do not seem too picky on a $280,000 home. Prior to signing the paperwork, Mike was readily available. Once we handed over the escrow check, Mike never made himself available, instead using his realtor as a buffer. We chose the builder because we were told he worked on 20 homes per year, later finding out he did somewhere between 50 & 100 the year ours was built (when I asked him how many homes he was working on, he said “oh, a lot”, when pressed further he would not tell me). He could not manage the work, and our job suffered. This was our first home build, and an expensive lesson. Email ashaddy@gmail.com for more detail.