United-Bilt Homes – Sherman

My experience with United Built Homes by Paul Yoder My experience with UBH began in February, with a call to their Sherman office. I talked to their receptionist, who conducted herself in a professional manner, and referred me to their representative Robert Guzman. We told him we were interested in the home known as ?Highland?, which is a model home that is on display at the Sherman office. We agreed to meet on Saturday, February 16, 2013. When we arrived at the Sherman office on 2/16, Mr. Guzman met us and told us to do a self-conducted tour of the house. We walked through the house, and liked its layout and construction. We returned to the office, where Mr. Guzman told us the house was available ?as shown? for $140,000.00, with free granite countertop upgrade. ?As shown? the house was carpeted, bricked, with a two car garage, with refrigerator, range, microwave above the range in cabinet, granite countertops throughout, dishwasher and garbage disposal. We assumed that ?as shown? meant ?as shown?. We agreed to talk it over and get back to him in the next week. We called Mr. Guzman repeatedly over the next six weeks, with poor results. He repeatedly said ?I?ll call you back?, and never one time did he return a call. After 8 weeks of waiting for a return call, we contacted the UBH office in Tulsa, who said he was very interested in building a home for us. Three days later, he called back to apologize and said we would have to deal with the Sherman office, and gave me Mike Porter?s name. We contacted Mr. Porter in late April. He was professional in manner, and requested a meeting with myself and my wife Barbara, along with Dee Dee Armstrong, a UBH representative. We met in Sawyer OK, and began negotiations. At this time we were told that the ?Highland? that we were interested in was $160,000.00, plus brick plus granite countertops, which was out of our price range. Needless to say, we were very disappointed. After my wife and I discussed it at home for several days, Ms. Armstrong suggested the ?Saratoga?. We reviewed the floor plans, decided against the ?Saratoga? and selected the ?Shiloh? instead. Mr. Porter and Ms. Armstrong met with us several more times, and after negotiations we signed the contract for the ?Shiloh?, at a price of $143,000.00. This reflects a reduction in square footage from what Mr. Guzman told us, with a price increase of $3,000.00, without carpet or brick and no appliances in the kitchen. We had to pay extra for granite countertops in the kitchen. At the time we started talking to Mr. Guzman, UBH was advertising free granite countertop upgrade, which we could have taken advantage of if Mr. Guzman had not continually put us off. Following several weeks of rain delays, a survey was completed and a gentleman showed up and did the ground prep work. The surveyor and the soil prep man were very professional and did a good job of preparing the building site. That?s when the real trouble began. A man named Javier showed up with a helper and built the form for the concrete slab. Following more rain delays, the trenching for the footer and reinforcements was done and the plumbing was installed. At the completion of the plumbing installation, I noticed that the plumbing was incorrectly installed too close to the edge of the slab, and the cold water inlet pipe and the sewer outlet pipe were incorrectly located 90 degrees from where they should have been. It also seems the plumber?s plans did not reflect the rock ledge which Mr. Porter and I had agreed on and which is on my plans. Further, the plumber simply misread his plans and placed the water and sewer pipes incorrectly. The next day, the plumber returned, corrected some of his mistakes, but the sewer pipe is still incorrectly placed and necessitates additional digging, more bends in the sewer line, and additional expense on my part. Several days later, ?Javier? returned and poured the concrete with the help of a concrete pump. I was there during the pouring, which was completed without incident. Several hours later, I returned to find that the finishing machine (power float) would not run. I determined it was due to water in the fuel, and helped ?Javier? get the motor running. This reflects poor equipment maintenance and lack of preparation in my opinion. Several days later, ?Sergio? arrived with a crew to do the framing. As they laid out the framing and chalk lined the floor plan, he discovered a very serious error on the part of ?Javier?. It seems ?Javier? had mis-measured the dimensions of the slab and located the front door entrance and front porch 4 feet inside the house. ?Sergio told me that ?Javier? would return the very next day and ?fix? the problem. This was not done, and ?Sergio? and his crew went ahead and built the framework for the house over non-existent concrete propped up on wooden blocks. In my opinion, this simply compounded the mistake. I informed Bruce Copeland, the ?construction superintendent?, who assured me the problem would be taken care of. Several days later, ?Javier? returned with his son and ?fixed? the problem. They dug another footer and simply poured more concrete on top of the existing slab, without removing the wooden blocks, without covering the exterior of the wooden blocks, without finishing the outside edges of the concrete pour, leaving a seam in the porch, an obvious seam with holes inside the front entrance of the house, an obvious seam with holes in the center bedroom of the house, with a ½? drop from the seam to the front door and a ½? drop in the slab from the seam in the bedroom to under the front window. At this point I became very upset, and contacted Mr. Copeland again, who assured me it would be ?fixed?. Two days later I contacted Ms. Armstrong, sent her pictures, and informed her we needed to talk. She responded immediately, and was at the house site the next day. I showed her the obvious problems and she agreed it was unacceptable, and pointed out several other things that needed to be corrected. I would like to commend Ms. Armstrong for her care and prompt attention and her help in attempting to correct the situation. The following Monday morning, Ms. Armstrong met with Mr. Porter, and they had Mr. Copeland contact me. Mr. Copeland assured me again that the wooden blocks would be removed, the bottom piece of siding would be removed, the front of the re-pour would be finished, the inside seams would be polished, the high spots of the seam ground down and the low spots raised by re-pouring over the dips. I was assured that he (Mr. Copeland) would inspect to assure that things were done correctly this time. On 7/23/2013, some unknown person arrived while I was not at the house site, patched the front of the unfinished re-pour without removing the siding and the wooden blocks, and left, with concrete splashed on the siding. At this time, I feel it may be necessary to contact an attorney to see what my rights are, contact the Better Business Bureau with a formal complaint, and to see if I can force the removal of the wall that was built over non-existent concrete, force the removal of what will now be a 4 piece slab, and force the proper repair of this whole sordid mess at the expense of UBH, with proper compensation for my loss of sleep/stress/aggravation and damage to the integrity of what should have been a one piece continuous pour slab. In early August, Javier returned and ?leveled? the low spot in the center bedroom but putting some ? concrete with adhesive? over the low spot and smoothing it by hand. At the end of this ?repair?, the seams are very visible, the difference in texture of the concrete is obvious, and will have to be covered with some type of flooring. The next weekend, Javier and an assistant arrived and laid tile (which I purchased) to cover the ½? off-level entrance at the front door, did not bring the necessary equipment to cut and lay the tile, and I was left to finish the job with additional materials which I furnished. The one bright spot in this whole affair has been Ms. Dee Dee Armstrong, who has remained courteous and caring and professional throughout. I have no confidence in the ?Construction Superintendent? Bruce Copeland, who has NEVER been on time, NEVER done what he said he would do, DOES NOT in my opinion properly supervise the crews during construction, and has repeatedly lied to me to my face. The plumber should have corrected all his mistakes prior to pouring the slab. Obviously, ?Javier? should NOT have poured the slab without someone with enough intelligence and literate in English checking his work. ?Sergio? should have been intelligent enough to NOT build a wall over non-existent concrete. This whole affair will affect my satisfaction with UBH Sherman, and will result in my telling anyone who asks my opinion of the quality of work done.