I would add that the builder who built our house in Wisconsin was quite competent, honest, and had excellent subs. Granted, he was a custom homebuilder, not building tract homes, but he was very good. We had almost nothing in the way of exceptions or issues with the construction of that house.
-D > On Dec 11, 2020, at 8:38 PM, Dan Penoff <d...@penoff.com> wrote: > > Builders can be idiots. Ours was, mainly because they were tossing homes up > so fast they weren’t paying attention to details like we did. > > They had these little multi-part carbonless forms you could fill out to > address discrepancies you found. After about 30 days or so of the framing > going up they just gave us a box of them. > > Understand that we didn’t ask for or point out anything that wasn’t clearly > spelled out in the construction documents - nearly every issue was their own > fault. We cost them so much on that house that they ended up changing their > construction practices in some areas and even changed the contract. They were > simply being half-assed and we caught them at it and held them up to the > standards they were allegedly maintaining. > > Nowadays, builders will make you sign a contract with arbitration clauses and > NDAs. That wasn’t the case in 1995. Our house in Indiana has arbitration > clauses for darned near every aspect of the contract. This way they can fight > you and not get hauled into court, which is far more expensive - and - the > NDA prevents you from going public about the problem(s) you arbitrated. > > Pretty sneaky. > > -D > >> On Dec 11, 2020, at 8:29 PM, Curt Raymond <curtlud...@yahoo.com >> <mailto:curtlud...@yahoo.com>> wrote: >> >> This isn't helping my opinion of builders. >> >> Brother-in-law and his wife are in the final stages of having a place built, >> its been more than a year since ground was broken. Builder dragged his feet >> all spring, blamed COVID but they hadn't done much more than dig a hole >> before March. >> Now they're having trouble getting power hooked up. Turns out the builder >> didn't even try until 3 months ago. Had a whole dang year and didn't bother >> to try, built the whole place while running generators. >> >> BIL wisely won't let me talk to the builder... >> >> -Curt >> >> On Friday, December 11, 2020, 8:21:45 PM EST, Dan Penoff via Mercedes >> <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: >> >> >> We’ve always owned our tanks for just that reason. >> >> Our former house across the street has a 100 gallon tank buried in the front >> yard. Right after we moved in the LP supplier that filled and supplied it >> to the builder sent us a bill for the monthly tank lease payment. >> >> Nope. >> >> In the bill of materials for the adder that covered all of the LP system >> installed in the house was a 100 gallon underground tank, related piping, >> etc., etc. We paid for that adder (around $800, I seem to recall.) When we >> told the LP supplier we owned the tank, they said no. We went to the builder >> and pointed out that we paid for the tank as a part of the adder based on >> the contract. >> >> “But all of the tanks we supply are leased.” >> >> "Nope. We paid for this one, it’s in the bill of materials. Contractually, >> it’s ours. Builder shall supply…." >> >> Builder had to buy out the lease for the tank. Lesson learned. >> >> -D >> >> > On Dec 11, 2020, at 8:13 PM, Curt Raymond via Mercedes >> > <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: >> > >> > My parent's propane supplier royally screwed up this year. Their tanks are >> > 30+ years old and the supplier decided to stop filling them. They never >> > bothered to tell anybody this and the tanks ran out 2 days before >> > Thanksgiving. >> > It turns out that the supplier owns the tanks. With egg on their face they >> > had to provide an emergency tank the day before Thanksgiving. I'm curious >> > to find out how long the "temporary" tank stays... >> > >> > -Curt >> > >> > On Friday, December 11, 2020, 6:54:54 PM EST, Mitch Haley via Mercedes >> > <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: >> > >> > Most people have NatGas available and use it. >> > The rest of us, we mostly use Propane in the Great Lakes, while there's >> > still a lot of oil in New England. >> > >> > Propane markets seem somewhat independent of crude oil prices. >> > My new vendor was $0.92 back in January, so I was really looking forward >> > to the summer price bottom. So, what did I pay in August? $0.95 plus >> > tax. >> > I'm the guy who owns my own tanks and doesn't have the cost of the tank >> > baked into my propane pricing. But this was a cheap year for tank >> > renters too, my Mom's winter contract is fixed at 1.399. >> > >> > On 2020-12-11 18:11, Allan Streib via Mercedes wrote: >> >> The market is probably speculating that with vaccines starting to roll >> >> out that travel (and fuel use) will be starting to pick up again. >> >> >> >> Also January would be peak season for use of heating oil? Not sure >> >> whether enough people still heat with oil for that to be a big >> >> factor. Last time I talked with my furnace guy, he said there's like >> >> two >> >> people in my area that know anything about oil furnances, but oil was >> >> never big in this area. Around here, the oldest homes originally used >> >> coal, and they all moved to natural gas. >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________ >> > http://www.okiebenz.com <http://www.okiebenz.com/> >> > >> > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> > <http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> >> > >> > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> > <http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> >> >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________ >> > http://www.okiebenz.com <http://www.okiebenz.com/> >> > >> > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> > <http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> >> > >> > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> > <http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> >> > >> >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com <http://www.okiebenz.com/> >> >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> <http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> <http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> >> > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
