GARLAND GRIFFIN HOMES

With Garland New Homes (formerly Garland Griffin Homes), the customer is always wrong! The builder didn't earn his fee as the "general contractor". He wasn't worth the premium he charged me per square foot and he didn't deliver the quality he promised. His project manager and suppliers partially communicate and miscommunicate so often it seems intentional. Something went wrong with the installation of nearly every upgrade, yet the builder wouldn't hold his suppliers accountable. I should have known not to trust a builder who told me not to judge the base price of my home on the cost per square foot because it's "not about the square footage." The project manager would not tell me the exact amounts of my credits until after I made selections and then refused to update me on the status of the roof repairs that were necessary before I even moved into my house - she said that she didn't have to answer my question until the second walkthrough. The builder removed cabinets from my blueprints after I signed the contract and said I had to pay for them myself if I wanted them yet also presented me with a change order for other items on the prints that they forgot to add into the contract. The flooring and cabinet upgrades in the contract were underestimated by approximately $10,000 (and I selected within my grade) - seems more like bait-and-switch than a miscalculation.

From the first meeting with Matt one is convinced that he can do anything you want and it will be no problem. Well we learned that anything different from the normal script of building homes becomes a huge up charge and that they treat you like its a huge inconvenience that your asking for it. We had a custom shower installed with a trench drain. When we moved in and had our first shower the water ran away from the drain and into the closet. We had to fight to get it resolved while we lived in the house unable to use the shower. I wanted the floor pulled up and resloped but they argued with us and would not. They only sloped a few tiles to prevent the water from running towards the closet. Now we are stuck with a shower that the water sits around the drain and if we don't dry up the standing water it becomes moldy. I guess using a level is something thats not a requirement. Also the shower controls stick out of the wall at the max distance that Moen can cover. It looks really bad but won't fix that either. Finally with the shower the caulking is cracking and falling out after a year and a half. This was all something we paid more for and so happy we did. (sarcasm) We had an elevator installed in the house to move from the basement to the first floor. I actually found the company and organized the order to buy the equipment. As the house was being built I found out that they started to ad more and more equipment to the elevator that wasn't needed. I questioned why things were added and everyone I asked blamed it on someone else. The cost of the elevator increased in cost over 5,000 dollars! That I paid!!! If I didn't get involved it would have been totally wrong and out of control in cost. Mind you that Garland doesn't want you to be involved in the building of the house until they ask you to come inspect the house at certain stages. So things that are wrong can only be caught after and you are charged again for the fix. Another "custom" option we wanted was a wood burning Fireplace. We decided to have a professional company that deals only with fireplaces. They installed it and instructed garland what they needed to do to finish it off. When we moved in the brick work looked horrible and they actually entombed the unit. The unit had huge yellow warnings that it needed a 1/4 inch gap around the unit for service. Garland also took the electrical controls of the unit and decided since they don't fit in the wall lets just take one of the the control units out. When we had the fireplace company come out that originally installed the unit they couldn't believe what was done. All the brick had to be removed and the electrical had to be redone. Again we are living in a house with mortar dust and construction going on as we are trying to live. We had siding that buckled which was fixed with nails that only buckled again. I noticed that they didn't install vents for the bathrooms and had them come out. Thankfully another siding company came out to install the vents and noticed that the siding was installed wrong and thats why the siding was buckling. They tore all the original siding off and reinstalled it the right way. One and a half years later. My only worry is what else did the original siding company screw up. I guess time will tell. The concrete to the house settled twice and needed to be lifted twice. The driveway is badly pitted after one year which they claim is not covered and blame it on the salt. Which is funny because another issue with this house is that they built it so that the yard slopes drastically up to the house on all sides. We have had someone who was visiting the house in the winter get out of their car come inside only to watch their car slide into the street! When we purchased our lot it was flat! I understand that the house has to be elevated but we are the highest house on the street. Kids sled ride down our driveway. The longer I live in this house the more I get upset at the quality of the workmanship and the material they used. We have wood floors that are delaminating once fixed under warranty with a comment like thats a fluke! Only to have more delaminating happening out of warranty. We have nail pops and ceiling cracks the length of the whole ceiling. We had a huge bump in the floor that needed to be fixed by cutting the floor beams jumping up and down on the cut beams till they cracked and installing splints to the cut/ cracked beams. (awesome) I could go on and on but I'm not the only one not happy with their work and I would not suggest them unless you can watch over everything they are doing.