C.W. Custom Builders, LLC Really STINKS!

Let's get into the details... I'll start from the beginning and go through the whole process we endured, from start to finish so grab a chair and take a few minutes to enlighten yourself in the crooked ways of CW Custom Builders, the worst custom home building company on Earth.

The Beginning:

Once we decided that the location was right for us, and that we were interested in going forward, we started meeting with the Realtor, Linda Dickstein. From the beginning, she was unable to answer most of our questions. When we asked about how long we should expect to wait from the time we signed the papers, we were lead to believe it would be between 4-6 months. LIES! Our actual timeline was 14 months long, and there are still ( after a month of being in the house ) items that are unfinished!

Underhanded Contract :

Linda rushed us through the sign-up phase, telling us that we could get into the house sooner if we were able to get the paperwork in ahead of another buyer she was working with. We then contacted our lawyer, and tried to get the paperwork to him quickly. Since Linda couldn't figure out how to use the copy machine that day, she had to deliver our copy of the papers later. Well, that turned out to delay the delivery to our lawyer enough to miss the deadline to get changes made to it. This meant that we were forced to deal with some less than ideal clauses including one that stated that if we delayed closing, for any reason, we'd be charged $2,000. Our lawyer asked to make some small changes, but of course, all were denied by the builder.

Bait and Switch :

We blazed ahead with selecting our light fixtures, plumbing options, and flooring. As per Linda's recommendation, we immediately moved on these so as no to delay the builders in any way. Within 6 weeks of the contract signing, we had all of our selections made with the builder-selected vendors. As it turned out, the builder changed lighting vendors a month after we made the selections, but we were never notified. It wasn't until we asked Linda about the lighting that she mentioned this to us. Additionally, it meant we had to pick all the items out again, with the new vendor. If that wasn't bad enough, due to the fact that we had waited over a year since we selected our flooring, much of it was no longer available, so we had to make another trip to Schenectady (30+ minutes) to pick that out a second time as well. Topping this off...we would have had the same problem with the plumbing vendor if we hadn't gotten them to sign a contract for the items when we picked them out because they changed to a different deal. We would have had to pay more than 3 times as much for lesser-quality goods if we were actually forced to go with the new packaged deals they started offering. What should have taken us 1 week to do, took us 2-3 times as long because we had to repeatedly do the same things.

Timeline Deception :

We signed the contract on September 4th but it was not until February that we saw the first blueprints! Interestingly enough, we were originally told the house would be DONE by the end of January. We made some modifications to the standard prints, but nothing more than adding a window here, and removing a 3 foot wall there.

Incompetent Realtor :

Linda's uselessness shined again when we had to select the placement of the ledger board for the deck.She told us that we could put the 12' board on one side of the back door or the other, so we selected a side, even though it made little sense. When we did the final walk-through, the person conducting the walk-through asked us why we did this, and said that the workers were confused as to why we had done this since there was no way to connect the deck to the back door. He told us that we could have split that 12' length into smaller segments to more appropriately join the deck to the house....thanks Linda.

Inflexible Builder :

We asked in the beginning to have our own seed used on the lawn. We offered to do it ourselves, hire another contractor, supply the seed for CW to use, and every other option we could think of to get the Kentucky Bluegrass that I wanted. They would not do any of it. No matter what, they would only use their seed, and would only allow their subcontractor to do it. Even the offer to supply the seed I wanted, on the day and time they wanted it there, all at my own expense, was not acceptable for them.

Watch Them Like a Hawk:

CW does not allow customers to be on-site without the Realtor present due to" insurance reasons." While this is true, it is not the only reason. We wanted to have weekly tours to check in on the progress once they started framing so that we could keep track of what was going on. Linda discouraged this, and actually went so so far as to force us to schedule the 10 minute meetings more than 2 weeks in advance. Had we not been there with (and frequently without) Linda, we never would have found some very serious problems:

Hole in the exterior of the house (about 6" by 8").
Missing wall in dining room.
A stud that had a knot removed, leaving less than 1/2" of wood to support the load.
Waterlogged subfloor was significantly warped in many places.
The weather wrap on the outside of the house was not properly done. The top layer does not overlap the bottom, and in fact there is a significant gap between them. This left the house far from water-tight until the siding went up months later.
4 Leaks! Two days before the drywall went in we found 4 serious leaks that they did not want to address .
The shutters on the house were not the ones we picked out.
We specifically asked for the mirror in the master bath to NOT be glued to the wall because we wanted to swap it out later. It was glued on anyway.

We brought these concerns up to Linda, and you can read the ridiculous email conversations by clicking the links below. The most insane response was to the first, where we were told that the hole in the outside of the house, was not a concern. They were going to leave it there, and simply finish the inside wall off because "It would still be energy efficient." Surprisingly, when asked, Linda would not use this same course of action on her own home, if I were to personally put a hole in her wall ...wonder why?

Lazy Builder :

Throughout the build, we were never consulted on anything. The worst example of this was the rock placed in our back yard. I can't tell whether I am standing in my back yard, or driving down I-90. DEC forced them to do something to stop erosion due to the incline. Had they asked us whether we wanted to take the rocks for free, or pay them to put in a retaining wall, we would have picked the wall for sure. A simple query could have gotten them more money, and us a usable back yard, rather than one that is a safety risk for all the kids in the neighborhood.

Useless Driveway :

Probably the worst offense in this process was the driveway that we had to rip out and redo after only a week in the house, and at a cost of $4,000. The original driveway exceeded 18% slope which is well off of any ratings charts I was able to find.. In case you are not familiar with this, here are two helpful links, one from California, and one from Iowa (esp. pages 6 + 13) that outline issues and guidelines around driveway construction. We own a 95 Toyota Camry...which anyone would consider to be a practical car. Unfortunately, I had to let the dog and wife out at the bottom, and approach from the very corner of the driveway if I didn't want to scrape the bottom of the car. In fact, the 24 foot, commercial size moving truck could not get in or out of the driveway without putting large gouges into it. Click to view the actual measurements of the driveway, and here for pictures of the cars going in and out.

14 Months Wasn't Enough Notice? :

It took 2 weeks of living in the house, and showering in the main bath, before the plumbing vendor was able to get our master shower fixtures installed. We ordered them more than 12 months prior, but were supposedly on backorder around the time the house was completed. How much more notice is needed to get something in?

Still Missing:

As of the one month mark, we still are missing a light fixture in the kitchen. Our invoice clearly stated that we paid $100 for a fixture over the island, but that fixture has yet to be seen. We've made in excess of 5 calls to the electrician (who was otherwise good) to get it put in, but as of now, we don't even have a scheduled time.

UPDATE: The electrician finally came shortly before Christmas, after we had some heated phone calls...

MOLD!:

After three weeks of living in the house, we had the linoleum ripped up and tile laid down. Much to my amazement, when they ripped up some of the underlayment, we found a large pocket of mold. There were no leaks to be found, which only points to one possible scenario, which is once again, CW's lack of integrity. In their haste to get the floor in, they disregarded standing water on the subfloor and laid the underlayment over the top. Now we have to hire a mold specialist to seek out any other mold we might have.

Improper Drainage:

It seems every day we find another problem. The latest, as of about the 1 month mark, is that the back yard was improperly constructed which has resulted in it's complete inability to drain water. Though we've not had rain in several days, the ground is completely saturated and there are pockets of standing water.

UPDATE: It took $7,300, plus another $450 to install a retaining wall and properly grade the yard to allow for drainage. This was done in July of 07 by a contractor we hired. Now that we have the wall and grading, the back yard is finally usable, the mosquito problem has diminished considerably, and I no longer have algae-ridden standing water all over the yard. How long did the grading take? A whopping 4 hours or so...but that was too much for CW to handle I guess...

LIES!:

After 81 days of ownership, I finally made my way to the attic to check for mold. Turns out, CW Custom Builders, LLC is a bunch of liars! They did NOT fix the leaking sewer vent that I photographed. There are clear signs that water is still penetrating into the structure. Plainly visible in these photos are a red mineral stain from the water sitting on the surface of the PVC pipe as well as water mark on the insulation just below the pipe.

UPDATE: Once the leak got bad enough for the tape to fall off the ceiling during the summer of 07, CW finally sent Adam back to address the issue. He had to replace the boot on the sewer vent (shocking), and then fix the interior by redoing the seam that was ruined. He did NOT replace any of the drywall, so that's ANOTHER place I'll have to watch closely for mold...but by now it seems a regular part of owning a CW Custom Builders home. Maybe they put "custom" into their name to imply that the mold problems are customized for each home?