The photo above shows the area in my backyard on the far left before the trees that got flooded in a heavy rain. It happened soon after our Pre-Settlement Walk-through with Ryland Homes, so I asked to have it fixed in my first "Warranty Service Request" on 1/23/08. These "WSR's" are repair items discovered after My Ryland Homes Initial Repairs "Punch List".
Carolina Landscaping Group came in with a "bobcat" and regraded a good size area of my back and side yard with the water now (hopefully) flowing out into the woods behind my back yard. Kudos to Ryland for having that sub-contractor, but there are other sub-contractors that I will elaborate on later that were less than desirable, in our opinion.
Before you read the rest of this post, please be aware that my wife and I did not enjoy our first year of Ryland Home ownership. See "My Last Ryland Homes Blog Post & My Attempt To Help Ryland Homes!" to get a better overview of our Ryland Home complaint to the BBB, and links to the over 100 Ryland Home problems that were all eventually fixed after 13 months of having much of our time wasted.
Here are my three "Warranty Service Requests" as of 2/14/08:
1/23/08= On 1/22/08 we met with Mike from Ryland's landscaping contractor (Carolina Landscaping Group), and noted the following to be done by Monday, 1/28/08.
On a previous day when it was raining, we noticed, as well as Mike noticing, that there was a good amount of flooding in the left rear portion (as you look at our house from the street) of our back yard. Mike said he will re-grade that entire section so that the water flows back to the treed area behind our house. Mike said the back yard also needs more dirt to be put under the sod in a larger area of the back yard near the flooded portion so that the grading is more conducive to water flow to the sides, and then away from the house. New sod will then be placed over that new additional soil area. Evidence of free standing water was also noted along most of the left hand side of the house near the property line from the center of the house on back. Grading will be adjusted there too, to get quicker flowing water. = GOOD FIX APPEARS TO HAVE WORKED WELL AS OBSERVED IN THE LAST DOWNPOUR OF RAIN.
All zones for the sprinkler system were turned on and tested. Some sprinkler heads need adjusting as they are "bent over" and not providing proper coverage. One "rotor" head in the back is spraying too far, and will be adjusted down. Another sprinkler head on the front left corner of house needs moving away from the gutter downspout, as the coverage is now being blocked by that downspout. All sprinkler heads will be checked for damage, as the sprinklers came on the day before when it was 24 degrees out, and all the water froze into ice around the entire house.'
Lastly, Mike said that we were shorted three 7 gallon "Ligustrum" plants in the front, and they will be brought in and planted at no charge to us. DONE WELL!
1/25/08 = Yesterday, the utility sink in the garage began leaking out of the bottom drain area. We have shut off the water, but need to have this fixed ASAP, as contractors use this sink to wash up. = BROKEN PART FOUND AND FIXED QUICKLY!
Due to the fact that two framers were called out to inspect the wood frame 2 X 4's on both sides of the house (due to hardi-plank buckling on the outside of both sides of the house), the "blown in" insulation in the attic was compressed down and moved around to the point that I can see the ceiling of rooms in some areas. Please have more insulation blown in to insure proper insulation of the attic once the framers come back to be told exactly where to look on the outside of the sides of the house, so they can determine where to put additional 2 X 4 bracing to eliminate the buckled areas. This "Buckled Hardi-Plank" issue was part of the original 67 repair items given to Dave for "production repair" follow up. = RYLAND HAS AGREED TO BLOW MORE INSULATION IN SHALLOW AREAS, ONCE THE FRAMERS COME BACK OUT. (UPDATE - On 4/9/08 framers came out unexpectedly, and I told builder in an email to have them come the following week.) More insulation was finally put in on 10/31/08 after the warped hardi-plank was fixed.
2/9/08 = 1. When the "stand alone shower" people come out to switch out the rollers, and/or glass door for the master bedroom shower, please have them reverse the doors in our second bath tub/shower, as the handles to open the glass doors on the inside are located on the door that leads to the toilet. I think the hardware and the doors can be easily switched around so that the handles on the inside are for the door that leads to the floor in front of the toilet. Please reverse the doors on the "stand alone shower" in the master bath too. = NOT DONE AS OF 4/18/08, BUT I LEARNED THAT THE DOORS CAN'T BE REVERSED DUE TO WATER FROM SHOWER HEAD COMING THROUGH. ADDITIONAL METAL HANDLES NEED TO BE INSTALLED ON BOTH SHOWER DOORS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. These were finally put in many months later.
2. While we had the guy who fixes the plastic drains in the vanity sinks out once before, please send him again with a replacement for the drain plug in the secondary bath as it is scratched up compared to the ones in the master bath. He said to my wife that that is the way they all are, and that is not true, as the master vanity drain plugs are fine. =DONE end of 3/08.
3. Please replace the threshold at the bottom of the front door as it has a big mark in it. = DONE end of 3/08.
4. Please power wash the front driveway/walkway so that the chucks of cement missing from many areas can be easily seen for the punch list person to do his cement repairs. The rear cement patio does not have to be power washed to get the big stain off of it, as I will be doing a brick stencil stain coating over it. = NEVER DONE with my OK, as cement repair was done at the end of 3/08.
5. I ordinarily would not ask for another good cleaning of our house, but two things have happened that has made most of my window blinds, floor, kitchen counter dusty and dirty. When Creative Countertops replaced the Silestone countertops they had to drill a hole in the faucet area. That dust was minimal, but yesterday Builder's Wholesale Flooring ripped out the entire Foyer wood floor and dust and dirt went everywhere. The plastic curtain that they put up did not stay taped down and the draft coming through the opened front door found its way under and around that thin plastic "drop cloth" curtain. = NOT DONE AS OF 3/29/08, BUT I PREFER TO WAIT UNTIL ALL OUR MOVING BOXES ARE OFF THE FLOORS. I requested week of 4/21/08 for this to be done and it was.
2/11/08 WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST:
1. The electric eye mechanism for the garage door has exposed wires that need to have a twist on caps at both sides of the garage door. = DONE BY PUNCH LIST PERSON.
2. Front Door dead bolt lock does not close completely, and the back door to the Lanai needs some dead bolt lock adjustment as it is hard to close properly and easily. = FRONT DOOR IS ONLY DOOR THAT NEEDED TO BE FIXED AND IT WAS DONE BY PUNCH LIST PERSON.
3. When the person who filled the holes in the master bath vanity countertop comes back to buff out the repair, please have him buff out the swirls and streaks on the top of the secondary bath vanity countertop. = DONE AS OF 2/21/08
4. On the inside bottom corners of the Lanai screen frame, there is some "pushed in trim" that needs repair. = DONE at end of 3/08
Again, all Ryland emloyees (vs. all sub-contractors) are doing everything possible within their powerto make us, a Ryland customer, happy. In my next post I'll discuss my opinions on how employees at the "low end of the totem pole" in any medium to large corporation usually don't have a lot of power to make changes, while often times having a lot of responsibility to make the customers happy.
ALL FUTURE NEW WARRANTY SERVICE REQUESTS AFTER 2/14/08 ARE SHOWN ON THE NEXT PAGE.
2/12/08 UPDATE:
Regarding:
"5. I ordinarily would not ask for another good cleaning of our house, but two things have happened that has made most of my window blinds, floor, kitchen counter dusty and dirty. When Creative Countertops replaced the Silestone countertops they had to drill a hole in the faucet area. That dust was minimal, but yesterday Builder's Wholesale Carpet (Ryland's Flooring contractor) ripped out the entire Foyer wood floor and dust and dirt went everywhere. The plastic curtain that they put up did not stay taped down and the draft coming through the opened front door found its way under and around that thin plastic "drop cloth" curtain." = I WOULD PREFER TO WAIT UNTIL ALL OUR MOVING BOXES (over 100 in total) ARE OFF THE FLOORS, AS WE ARE MOVING THEM AROUND TO STORE WHAT'S INSIDE (It was done the week of 4/21/08.)
One last note on item # 48 on initial punch list: "Lanai French Door Glass on right will be completely replaced." The glass in the door is damaged and not the door itself, as discovered by the builder. = On 2/20/08 the window and door glass contractor came out and he took out the damaged glass in the Lanai French Door only to discover that the glass replacement was the wrong size. It was put back, and after an hour was spent on it, I was told that they would call me when the right size glass was in. (UPDATE - At end of 3/08 it was DONE.)
2/21/08 WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST:
NEW ITEM - The front door lever handle on the inside was never switched to a door lever that opens to the left when the door was switched to open in that direction to not hide the light switches when entering. The lever is upside down now compared to all the other door levers in the house, so please give me a door lever for a door that opens to the left as you enter our house. Thanks. (DONE as of 4/11/08.)
1. The last two times the wind got above 25 mph to only 35 mph (see early morning of 2/18/08 showing the thunderstorms we had last night on WeatherUnderground.com history page - http://tinyurl.com/ywc2mm), there was a loud whistling howl inside our house. I'm guessing when I say that it is a problem with the baffles. But, in all the homes we ever lived in, there has never been a "banshee" howl noise like this. I'm hoping that the next time it gets windy over 25 mph, that the punch list person could at least try to find the source of the loud noise. (UPDATE - Discovery that noise goes away when front door opens has led to the belief that the wind in being trapped in the entryway and going up through the holes in the soffit around the can lights. The puch list person caulked those holes up in an effort to start a process of elimination. It has seemed to have fixed the problem by 5/14/08, since there were 25 mph winds and no noise.)
2. Please ask Jeremy to look at the Cypress Model home in our tract, as the border around the inside of the front patio has the expansion gasket hidden better than the parging done on the other model homes. That is the way we'd like our front porch to look. Thank Jeremy for the suggestion to look at the models before we approved the parging that he offered to do, as we did not like the way that looked. = Besides"parging" by Ryland with the wrong color, my punch list person has offered to enclose the entire border where the black expansion gasket is now seen with the right color parging. This is strictly a cosmetic thing, and will cost me $75 to have it done properly.
2/23/08 WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST:
1. The last time Jeremy was over, I showed him the 8" (approx.) "saw blade" looking cut in the center of our front porch, and Jeremy's response was that all Ryland's contractors use covers on their saw blades. My wife and I have discussed when that "saw blade" looking cut in the center of our front porch happened. Here is our firm opinion. Since we are both detailed oriented we would have seen that cut earlier on when our contractors were here. Also, our flooring and cabinet contractors used the grass area with an extension cord to our outside electric outlet, and their truck to cut what they had to.
We are certain that when Ryland's contractor came out with only one guy to do the entire job from 9 AM to 7 PM that for his convenience, he was cutting the Bruce Hardwood on our front porch to be near the Foyer. I remember seeing it there. Since that was the last major job requiring the use of a saw blade, and we hadn't noticed it before that, we are certain that that is when it happened.
Jeremy said that he would have Mike look at it and try to fix it in any case, but I wanted to let Ryland know of our continuing displeasure with that Ryland contractor. My wife and I feel sorry for the poor guy who did that very hard job of scraping up the linoleum base under their first Foyer wood floor all by himself, but the manager said to me when I called around noon that he didn't know that there was only one guy doing the work. After that, there were two other guys from his company that came over and did nothing but supervise for an hour or so. We think that the young guy doing the work was very tired and made that "saw blade" mistake in the late afternoon. (UPDATE - By the end of 3/08, the punch list person filled in the deepest parts, and smoothed over the rest of the cut as best as possible.)
2. My wife told me this morning that she was getting concerned about a low sounding "drip - drip" noise (the drip sound is at 2 second intervals) coming from the back of our house and sounding the loudest in the far South East corner of the Master Bedroom. It may not be a leak in the attic, since after about 3 good rains, a wet spot in the ceiling of the MB should be showing, I think. Even though the insulated walls, and the double pane windows should not allow a "drip - drip" outside noise to come in, I looked for an explanation outside our house. It was too dark at 4 AM to see out from the MB window, so I went out on to the Lanai and the Heat Pump was on, so I could not hear the "drip - drip" noise. But, I noticed that there was a downspout coming down the South East corner of the outside of the house right where the noise was coming from. So, while I've never heard of a downspout causing a noise like that (the drip noise sounds like the water is hitting something solid) maybe that is the source of the drip noise? In any case I wanted to put on record that when it rains (my wife heard it during the last rain, too), there is a "leak in the roof" sounding drip noise where I mentioned. (UPDATE - While no other house we've owned with downspouts has ever made this noise, I've learned that all new houses now do. I attribute it to more cheaply made gutters and downspouts. My builder bought a "fold out" extension for the downspout a few weeks later and that solved the problem.)
2/28/08 WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST:
1. When Joseph (Joey) comes back to install the two clip/door pulls on our Master Shower doors, please have him cut the excess gasket that hangs down about an inch on one of the clips that is there now. (Punch list person did it at end of 3/08.)
2. When Richard or Mark comes back from Coastal Cabinets to replace the last two cabinet doors, please have him adjust one small draw in the Master Bath, as it is not opening and closing properly. DONE as of the middle of 3/08.
3/4/08 WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST:
1. Mike said that he did not have the kind of paint necessary to touch up both toilet seats and covers in both baths. He suggested that we do a WSR. So, we can live with the small nick in the Master Bath toilet cover, but the secondary bath toilet seat and cover need replacement. (It is my opinion that due to Ryland Homes cost cutting efforts in this poor Real Estate market the toilet seat cover was done by touching it up with paint. However, it looks fine and was done by the end of 3/08.)
2. When Richard or Mark comes back from Coastal Cabinets to adjust one small draw in the Master Bath, as it is not opening and closing properly, there is one more small draw that has never been replaced before that does need replacing. (UPDATE - second draw was adjusted and not replaced by the middle of 3/08.)
Also, I know it is a small thing, but please have Jeremy try to get Joey from the shower glass door company to come by with the two clips and cut the black gasket on another clip. (UPDATE - punch list person cut the black gasket and no clips by 4/26/08.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 3/7/08
1. When the punch list person comes back to install the front door threshold plate and door lever, and finish the touch up painting (green paint for front door, white paint for aluminum frame on Lanai), please leave a small can of green paint ("collette woods")with me, as this was not in the "touch up kit" that was left for me to use. (Given to me by 4/11/08.)
2. There is an open electrical "knock out box" inside our center island in the Kitchen. Our electrician tells us that since this is not "to code" and is a potential electrical hazard, that we should ask for a "K/O seal". We think it is 1/2" in size, but we are not sure. (DONE by the end of 3/08.)
The only thing not on the list is that "overly bouncy" spring tension problem in the breakfast nook window facing the Lanai. A rep from Silverline will come out to see if he can fix it on Thursday, 3/27/08 in the AM. (UPDATE - the rep said the window was improperly manufactured with too much spring tension as we discovered by comparing it to a similar window. New spring tension weights installed on 4/25/08 - SEE 5/14/08 WSR.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 4/15/08
1. Please put more pine needle mulch all along the left side of the house that had the drainage problem. Much of the original mulch was moved or scattered and it is very thin now. On the left front side of the house, some shrubs were moved and added at my request and it is very thin there, too. The back of the house has bare spots also. (Done on 4/25/08)
2. Also on the left front side of the house, I had a downspout drainage problem causing the water from the roof to dig a hole where the downspout meets the "tray" that guides the water away from the house. So, I bought an additional "tray" from Home Depot to fix the problem.
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 4/18/08
1. Please have the company that does the screens and the screen door for the Lanai come out to look at the holes in the door area that are big enough to let wasps into our Lanai. We have had 4 or 5 wasps get into our Lanai recently and we are now using our Lanai more often. We feel the door needs to be fixed somehow, or have it replaced with a new door, as the screen is not serving the purpose for which it was intended. That is to keep out bugs larger than the very small "noseeum bugs". (4/29/08 - Punch list person filled holes in screen door with clear caulking and I bought door sweep for the bottom of that door.)
2. Please have the people who install the garage doors come out to inspect the noises and jerky motion of the chain driven garage door opener. From having these kind most of my life, I believe that it needs an adjustment to work more smoothly and with less noise. (At the end of April it was discovered that the garage door was never lubricated or adjusted! Also, the outside handles and strappings on the outside of the door that we paid for were never put on until 3 months after close of escrow.) This was done at the end of April.
3. We had a closet organizer contractor in to give an estimate on wooden closet organizers, and he said that our design center option of extra wire shelving in the master closet was sagging in one spot due to the fact that a vertical support was missing. He said that the span of the horizontal wire shelf was too long to support the kind of normal weight you would put on the shelf. So, please have the people who supply your wire shelving come out to look at the situation, and hopefully provide one more vertical support to the long span of wire shelf. (At the end of April a bracket from a wire rack we took down was used by the punch list person to solve the problem.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 4/29/08
1. Please install a door stopper on the door leading to the master bath. The door is hitting the towel rack and not reaching the door stopper on the base board. Done
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 5/2/08
1. There is a very tall tree about 50 feet from the back of our house that in the opinion of Mike from Southern Landscaping and Jeremy was hit by lightning due to the fact that it is missing bark in a couple of places about 60 % up the tree. The top of the tree does not look healthy like the other trees surrounding it. Jeremy said he would get someone who is an expert on Southern Pine trees to look at it to see if it could fall down in strong winds and possibly damage our house. If there is a good possibility that it could fall, we would appreciate it being removed. Done in 3 weeks.
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 5/14/08
1. On our front porch, at the top of one of the structural posts, the caulking has all separated. Please re-caulk. Done
2. I have already called Jake from Silverline windows, and he is checking into what tension spring balance would be appropriate to fix the same window that he replaced the spring balance in already. That window is now not staying all the way up when you open it. It falls down about 8 inches from the top fairly quickly when you open it all the way. I'm hoping that there is a spring balance that is stronger than the one in there now, but not as strong as the one that was replaced. Jake said he was going to a company meeting this week where there are people who would know what to do. Done
3. I have already called Mike from Southern Landscaping to come the week of 5/19/08 to take out the dead patches of grass and replace them with new centipede sod. Done
4. Along the side, and at the bottom of the door leading from the garage to the laundry room there is a gap (about 2 inches long) that needs additional weatherstripping. In the late afternoon when the sun is coming through the garage door windows, you can see this gap very clearly. Done
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 6/9/08
1. Please have the plumber look at our master bath shower "hot/cold" handle to see if the looseness that occurs in going from one direction to the other can be fixed. Done
2. The molding on the floor that is under the door from the garage to the laundry room needs painting. Done
3. Paint is needed on the outside of the house in between the breakfast nook windows. Done
4. Please have the gutter company come out to see if anything can be done about the increased loud drip noises coming from the the downspout located by the corner of the master bedroom. When it was foggy on the morning of 6/6/08, I had to put a temporary sponge at the bottom of the downspout in order to try to soften the noise of the heavy fog condensation run off. My neighbors on lots 75 and 73 do not have these drip noises (I went over to their downspouts when mine was making the dripping noises), so maybe my drip noises are due to the angle of the downspout? Or, maybe something is clogging the gutter flow of water just before the downspout entrance above? A collapseable extension on the downspout fixed the noise.
5. One of the small towel racks in the master bath comes off the bracket when you pull the towel off. This does not happen with the other small towel racks. Please find what is causing this. Done
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 6/24/08
1. The master bath towel holder (the long one) has a bar across that pops out too easily when getting the bath towel. Please have someone reposition one end bracket closer to the other so that the bar does not come out. Done
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 7/12/08
First = Door frame edges unpainted (raw wood exposed) as follows:
1. Front bdrm. entry doorway
A. Outside right edge - hinged side
B. Inside right edge - hinged side
2. Front bdrm. inside closet - hinged side
3. Front bathroom - hinged side
4. Coat closet - inside on hinged side
5. Both interior laundry room doors - hinged sides
6. Exterior door leading from garage to laundry room on hinged side edge unpainted, and large separation/hole down edge between door & drywall
7. Kitchen pantry - interior - both sides
8. Master shower area = inside small linen closet both sides; hinged side on exterior
9. Master shower area = inside large linen closet both sides
10. Master closet - inside - hinged side (ALL WERE DONE)
Second = Looking from the street, on the right hand side of my house about half way to the back, there is a sprinkler head (not a rotor) that keeps getting stuck in the "up position". Please replace. (FIXED VS. REPLACED)
Third = There is a "buzz/humm" noise coming through both intake vents in the main hallway every time the HVAC unit comes on. I think the noise is coming from the HVAC unit in the attic. HVAC filter replaced, so fixed.
Fourth = One of the intake vents in the main hallway is not closing all the way. There is a "bang" noise that occurs each time the A/C comes on from the air filter being sucked upward due to the larger than necessary space where it is positioned. The other intake vent works fine, so I'm hoping the problem one can be fixed. (HVAC filter was making the noise, so foam tape around the perimiter fixed the noise)
Fifth = Recently there were property line stakes put on both sides of the rear of my backyard. I assume this is in preparation of the pond going in behind my house. My wife and I are asking that when the the trees and land behind our backyard is removed that a tarp or thick paint drop cloth be put over the entire screened in Lanai area so that dust and dirt don't get all over our screen and Lanai area. (no promises on this request)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 7/20/08 (IN THE WALL LEAK!)
About 4 PM on Sunday, 7/20/08, we discovered a wet carpet that was on the floor of our main home office in a secondary bedroom in our Ryland home. The minor water damage was inside the wall and near an outside wall that had a drain pipe within from our A/C unit in the attic. I left a phone message forRyland's builder in our tract. I called a part time worker for Ryland who lived in our tract on Monday, 7/21/08 at about 7:30 AM, as I knew he started his day early. He came right over from his house, and reviewed the damage. The builder arrived at about 8 AM and he discovered a broken A/C drain pipe that was located outside that room by using his hands to easily move and remove that drain pipe. The water damage was minimized due to the fact that it was only condensation from the A/c unit, and not a broker water pipe. That same builder determined that a small portion of the inside drywall, some 2X4 structural pieces of wood, the OSB plywood, and the exterior hardi-plank of the house had to be removed along with all the carpeting/padding in the room due to about 8 feet X 2 1/2 feet of carpet and padding being wet. Also on Monday, 7/21/08, an industrial sized dehumidifier was brought in for a day and a half to dry the concrete slab and anything else around the wet areas. I emailed the builder's boss who immediately approved about $1,692 in restoration costs, once he came and saw the water damage to the small portion of the rug/padding. He insisted upon not trying to match the color of our carpet to the "new dye lot" color of the replacement carpet, so we got all new carpet and padding from our aftermarket carpet supplier who originally installed the carpet in that room six months ago.
On Wednesday, 7/23/08, my wife and I moved all the files from a horizontal file cabinet and put them in cardboard file boxes. We spent the AM moving all small items out of the home office, so that on Friday the larger furniture could be moved back into the room. The framers were supposed to come by 1 PM to avoid any possible rain that was forcasted at 30% chance by 3 PM. By 3 PM the outside of my house was not even started to be closed up, and my call to the builder about this was not returned by then, as he was very busy with other homeowners. I tracked the builder down in the tract and he got them over to my house in 30 minutes.
On Thursday, 7/24/08, the part time Ryland contractor/neighbor finished off the inside dry wall and left the painting until the new carpet was installed the next day due to the possibility of baseboard damage by the carpet layers.
On Friday, 7/24/08, the new carpet was installed with a minor "dye lot" problem not matching the same carpeting that was installed in a different room. This we could do nothing about, and it did not bother us much as we would be the only ones to notice a slight difference in rug color from one room to another. That same part time contractor/neighbor then finished the painting and the desk and file cabinets got put back into the home office. The rest of that day and Saturday AM was spent by us putting all the files and office equipment back in the home office.
While the entire incident was frustrating and annoying, Ryland did complete the fix in less than a week to our satisfaction. There was minor mold discovered during the incident, and it was treated, and determined to not be a major problem by a specialized company that deals with all kinds of mold.
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 7/31/08
1. I just spoke to Mike Murphy of Carolina Landscape who originally (1/18/08) never told us when we complained about the six, bad looking, Indian Hawthorn (Snow White) plants in front of our house (within the 30 day guarantee) that the problem is deer eating the leaves. He just said at that time that these plants were getting too much water (we reduced watering), and to wait until after the winter is over and they should look better with proper fertilizing (which we did). These plants were without lower leaves on 1/18/08 when we first saw them, as the leaves were turning brown and falling off. They still have no lower leaves, and look sparce. Mike said that his man, Chris, sprayed these plants with Bobex (deer repellent) on 7/29/08, and that spraying will last for 3 months. We will buy Bobex at the John Deer store and spray again on 10/28/08. But, we want it on record that if this Bobex doesn't work, we want those six plants replaced. According to the owner of a local nursery these plants have a tough time doing well in the soil conditions in our area. Our neighbor has the same problem with these plants. (Ryland said that as long as the plants are not totally dead, they will not replace them. Plus the Bobex appears to have brought more leaves to the botom of the plants, but they still look bad overall. We finally accepted the "Ryland hard line" on this, and gave up trying to get better looking plants out front.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 8/4/08
1. Please replace a cracked tile in my secondary bathroom. (Done on 9/2/08)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 8/11/08
1. There are 3 or 4 wood planks in our family room discolored and rough to the touch above a repaired hole in the concrete slab. This is probably due to a moisture barrier failure in the slab, since the plastic moisture barrier was broken when the hole was dug. This hole was there to correct a builder error in leaving out an electrical line to the center island in our kitchen. Please replace the affected wood planks, and insure that moisture will no longer come through in that area. (Done with a moisture barrier sealant generously applied around the entire hole, and color matched new wood planks installed within 2 weeks)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 9/6/08
1. A different ceramic tile in the secondary bathroom now has a crack in it. Ryland's contractor just replaced the first cracked tile on 9/2/08, and the new cracked tile happened only 4 days after the first one was replaced. Please have them come out again ASAP and fix this new cracked tile. I will again let them use another one of the extra original tiles, so that the color matches. (Done.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 9/16/08
1. The wall and ceiling paint is bubbling in the master closet. It may be a leak in the roof, so please take a look at it and repair it ASAP. (Poor paint job was repainted by 10/1/08.)
2. The front door frame on the outside has areas where the raw wood is showing through. Please paint these areas. (Poor paint job was repainted by 10/1/08.)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 10/20/08
1. The new builder for our tract just told me to put in a WSR for this. Early this morning a fairly big construction truck (from the sound of the engine and transmission gears) hit my mail box and damaged it. The metal box is dented in and the wood pole that the box rests on is damaged. (He had it fixed by noon the next day!)
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 10/24/08
1. (This request is actually an uncompleted item from our original "punch list" on 1/18/08). The exterior hardi-plank has many separations and minor buckling on the upper sides of the house. It cosmetically looks worse than our neighbors smaller buckling situations. We met with the Hardi-Plank rep on 1/21/08, and the reassurance letter from the rep that we were promised never came. The framers said they did not find where buckling was located from the inside of our attic, so our initial builder said he would bring them out again and show them exactly where the problem areas are. An attempt was made to bring the framers out again, but the date scheduled was not good for us. So, I emailed our initial builder to pick another date. He said he never got my email, and the framers showed up on that same bad day for us. We sent them away. Our initial builder said he would fix the problem before our one year warranty was up. UPDATE = Finally, on 10/30/08, 9 months later, many "more than originally planned" 2X4's, 2X6's, and 2X12's were put on both upper left and right insides of our attic by new framers as "back braces". Some should have been there from the start. These helped to provide a more even backing for the exterior hardi-plank. Both the Horry County Building Inspector and my own building inspector that I hired originally did not catch these structural supports missing even though they were in the building plans for our house! This information came from our new builder, who quickly spotted the cause of the problem, recognized it as the same problem as another home owner down our street, and had it fixed in a few days. He had about one third of the hardi-plank removed on each upper side of the house, and replaced those with new hardi-plank along with additional Tyvek insulation. Both entire sides of the house were painted with two new coats of paint. Additional insulation was blown in the entire attic area to fix the "stepped on" (during the repair) blown insulation that was there first. The net effect was extra attic insulation and wood bracing for both upper sides of the house, that should make the upper sides of our house even stronger than originally intended. I praised the new builder.
2. From 1/25/08= Due to the fact that two framers were called out to inspect the wood frame 2 X 4's on both sides of the house (due to hardi-plank buckling on the outside of both sides of the house), the "blown in" insulation in the attic was compressed down and moved around to the point that I can see the ceiling of rooms in some areas. Please have more insulation blown in to insure proper insulation of the attic once the framers come back to be told exactly where to look on the outside of the sides of the house, so they can determine where to put additional 2 X 4 bracing ("back braces") to eliminate the buckled areas. OUR ORIGINAL BUILDER AGREED TO BLOW MORE INSULATION IN SHALLOW AREAS, ONCE THE BUCKLING IS FIXED. Done on 1/31/08.
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 11/23/08
1. On Friday, 11/21/08 in the late afternoon I found my sprinklers watering my lawn when they are set to come on at 4 am. I checked the sprinkler controller and found that all the date and time settings were way off (year 2000?), but the days of the week and the times allotted for each zone were still in tact. Inside my house there was no evidence of a power outage or electrical short of any kind. I have installed a 9 volt battery, and I check the circuit breaker in the metal box above the sprinkler controller box. The only thing that I saw was that the "on" and "off" wording in the circuit breaker box was upside down. Please have someone come out to look at both boxes and try to figure out why this happened so I can prevent it from happening in the future. (On 12/5/08 my new builder said I should not have the same problem of an "outside short" now that I have installed a Lithium 9 volt battery. Time will tell.)
2. Our stainless steel sink in the kitchen has a "sound shield" (according to the mfr. we called) that is now peeling off where it was glued on. Please have someone come out and re-glue it back on. (On 12/5/08, new builder tried to glue it back with "roof leak stop" cement. While he did a great job of not getting any "black stuff" all over our kitchen, the proper glue will be needed to, hopfully, permanently fix this.) = (On 12/16/08, a new SS kitchen sink was installed after discovering that the replacement Moen LSB1- #25 SS sink had the beginnings of the same "sound shield" peeling off problem! The two repair men put silicone sealant around the outside of the new sink's sound shield, and I hope the middle of the sound shield won't eventually come lose.)
3. The phone wire/cable that was formerly attached to the side of the house (I think) is now not attached. There are two holes in the hardi-plank where there was none before, and I think that these are where two brackets were that attached the wire/cable to the house before the painters re-painted the entire side of our house. Please fill in the holes and secure the wire/cable so that the wind does not blow it around and hit the hardi-plank. (On 12/5/08, the new builder educated me to the fact that the local telephone company will come out for free and adhere their cable to our house. The holes in the hardi-plank were a mystery to us, and threrefore I must caulk the holes myself.)
4. Please have someone check the "wobbliness" of the custom wood ladder that was built to access the garage attic storage area. It appears to have loosened up more that it originally was after 10 months of use. (On 12/5/08, the new builder informed me that I was mistaken that Ryland built this ladder. Ryland only added "leveling pieces of wood" for better stability at the bottom. Therefore, if I feel there is a safety problem with the ladder itself, and not how it was attached, I was give the mfr's name and toll free number to call them myself.)
5. I have not used the secondary bathroom's tub, and there are two small marks on the floor. Please inspect and repair. (On 12/5/08 the new builder told me that this type of repair needed to be caught at my "final walkthrough" on 1/17/08, as stated in the "Warranty Service Manual", and therefore it is NOT warrantable now.)
6. The upper white flashing on my front roof line was fixed with nails (thank you) while I was away. But, there is dirt or grease now on the area where it was nailed in. Please clean. (On 12/5/08, the new builder got a tall ladder and went up to clean with elbow grease only, and as best he could, the grease/dirt left by the Ryland repair person. He offered to come back and clean it better, but we decided to err on the side of reasonableness, and said we were OK with it the way it was.)
7. The wood molding on the bottom left of my garage door opening is cracked and needs minor paint touch up. Please repair. (On 12/5/08 the new builder put a nail into the cracked wood molding to secure it, and told me that the warranty manual says that it now isn't warrantable, since there should be "no touch up painting done" after our 1/18/09 Close of Escrow!) Since it is a minor touch up paint job that we had missed for 10 months, we didn't complain.
WARRANTY SERVICE REQUEST - 11/26/08
1. The last time Ryland's contractor was out to fix the broken ceramic tiles in our secondary small bathroom (the tiles are still fine), they did an "acid wash" of the grout due to the coloration differences of two different grout applications in fixing the ceramic tiles on two different occasions. My wife and I were not happy with the "acid wash" results after it had dried, but we originally were going to "live with it" due to the dust/dirt created when taking out established grout. Now, even though we had sealed the grout, there are very noticeable, long cracks in the grout that need repair. We are asking that the entire small floor be re-grouted with one even color of grout while the cracks are repaired. (On 12/05/08 the new builder said it is not warrantable, because on page 150 of Section IV of the Warranty Manual, it says that there is "one grout fix only". I said I think this is the first time that I've asked for the "grout only" to be fixed in this room. He then said he would check it out and, if so, he would have it repaired. As it turns out, it is a warrantable repair, and I've been offered to have it fixed by the same Ryland subcontractor who fixed the broken ceramic tiles in that room.) (As of 1/11/09, I have put off getting this fixed for my own personal reasons.)
2. In the master bedroom there is one window that has noticeable lumps around some of the wall surrounding it. Other window walls are smooth around the perimeter. Please have someone come and sand the rough areas down and re-paint with the bone white color paint. (Finished on 12/16/08).
These next items were never sent in "officially" as WSR's, as the new builder agreed to fix the "hollow sound" coming from the kitchen center island Silestone countertop. A structural support will be installed after removal of that countertop. (Done on Tuesday, 12/16/08, but damage to the veneer siding caused by the removal of the silicone glue from the Silestone to the wood was noticed. New overlapping panels will be installed to cover these cosmetic defects on each end of our center island.) Also, a door under the kitchen sink had a screw that needed moving along with the entire door. (This was repaired on 12/16/08.)
1/11/09 = While there will be some "nail pops" and foundation cracks that need repairing before our one year warranty is up, I am finishing this post, as I am dog tired of keeping this lengthy "Online Journal" ("Blog Post")!
Before you finish reading this post, please keep in mind that my wife and I did not enjoy our first year of Ryland Home ownership. See "My Last Ryland Homes Blog Post & My Attempt To Help Ryland Homes!" to get a better overview of our Ryland Home complaint to the BBB, and links to the over 100 Ryland Home problems that were all eventually fixed after 13 months of having much of our time wasted.
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