Sustainable Homes Inc

Great!!!!! Final product exceeded expectations. Project was closely monitored. Project Supervision was great and occurred daily. Communications were done in person, via phone, email and text messaging - never an issue in communicating. Project expense was closely monitored and readily available when needed. Work area was kept clean and organized - never had to request any type of clean up to be performed. Sustainable Homes did a fantastic job!!!!

My wife and I were interested in building an energy efficient home. Being new to Texas, we were not familiar with contractors in the area so we searched online for green builders. We found ‘Sustainable Homes, Inc.’ Owner, Darrel McMaster. Their website explained the technologies they incorporated in their homes such as geothermal, solar, spray foam insulation, water collection systems, etc. The website listed several options and the cost per square foot depending on the options you chose. We contacted them and met at a home they were completing. Mr. McMaster and his wife seemed very knowledgeable and we believed he was the right contractor for us. When we originally checked their website and spoke with them, the numbers quoted seemed reasonable. We later realized some of the tactics they used to keep the numbers low…such as poor quality windows and only stained concrete floors. All allowances were very low. Unfortunately, we did not realize this until after we had signed their Pre-Construction Agreement. We were required to sign a Pre-Construction Agreement and pay $3725.00 plus half of the architect fees upfront with the balance due when the plans were completed. Their Pre-Construction Agreement stated that the agreement was “for the specific purpose of completing plans and specifications necessary for construction of the home”. It was quite vague we realized later. Mr. McMaster’s contribution was predominantly to serve as an impediment to the progress because of his unwillingness to share our preliminary plans with the architect which resulted in much frustration on our part. The architect had to make many revisions which could have been avoided if he had been given the correct information in the beginning. Our daughter had to draw the plan we wanted which we forwarded to the architect before we saw anything close to what we wanted. We had to pay the architect in full for the home plans before we received the final copy…which we never received. There were many red lights along the way which we ignored because we knew we would lose the money we paid upfront if we backed out. One example is Mr. McMaster telling us we needed to set up an account with the electric company which he said he could not do. We later learned this is normally handled by the contractor. He did this so we would be paying the electric bills during construction. Any time we questioned something, Mr. McMaster became defiant. We finally had to tell them we could not move forward with their company. We needed a contractor we could trust. Mr. McMaster failed to provide a complete, itemized list of the systems and materials which are necessary for the construction of our home. The home plans were incomplete in spite of the fact that we paid for them in full. We had to have the plans corrected and completed by the company we are now working with. The contractor we are now working with did not charge until construction began and informed us that is the normal process. All pre-planning is part of securing the job. Unfortunately for us, we could not find any information about Sustainable Homes, Inc. or Darrel McMaster online. We want to help others avoid the experience we had by avoiding this company.

I am still working with them and so far it has been very good. The staff is wonderful.