Well the good plumbers and electricians and roofers and carpenters and HVAC won't work for the large home builders as they don't pay enough. They do fix mistakes that the low paid workers made building the houses too quickly.
The custom home builders hire better contractors.
I don’t disagree with you but a company calling itself “custom” does not guarantee quality.
Meaning there is no restriction from anyone calling themselves custom.
No industry test, no industry standard, it’s just a word one markets themselves or puts the word custom in their name.
So there are a huge number of bad custom builders out there just like there are bad contractors simply because anyone who builds a house can call themselves custom, there is no restriction to use the word is what I am saying. No standard, just a word.
Granted you can go in a community that a custom builder is building and see if it is quality looking job but this doesn’t mean outside that community other custom builders are the same.
We have a production home in a resort community as of spring 2023 spring. For one year EVERY and any concern we had was addressed without denying one request. I’m talking a boatload of them. Their warranty system so perfected that I have an online account with the builder detailing every work order.
Every request was met with a scheduled phone call and video call at the exact appt time to the minute. Followed up by a rep visit and contractor.
The two biggest issues were I was unhappy with the outside cement work, they tore it all out, 2 car driveway and front walk and did it over. Another big one was laminate flooring, it was NOT extremely bad by any means, after a repair we still weren’t happy, They had us move out for 3 days and installed upgraded top of the line laminate in the entire home, every room except the tiled baths and laundry. They also paid over $3,000 for moving expenses and 3 night stay in a condo.
Minor stuff was things like moving the HVAC thermostat to the very side of a wall instead of where it was towards the middle 1/4 ish of the wall because it would be over an aquarium I was going to put there or even if I wanted a large picture. It was the first time they had someone request that but they did it and it involved repairing a narrow area of 8 feet long drywall and repainting.
I’m not discounting any builder, there is good both large and “custom” and bad I guess. Our experience in both cases of production homes have been good and the key was at an INCREDIBLE price point. Since moving south almost 20 years ago.
Keep in mind all homes have to meet the latest building codes too. R15 in the walls, R38 attic, low E glass, hurricane strapping etc our home is stupid cheap to run. It’s really the town building inspectors who police construction. Also included was an air infiltration certification or whatever it’s called.
Now in our second production home bought new over the last 18 years I like the idea of a national builder who I know will take care of any concerns I have. This is not to say if you like a custom home in a community such as ours and want to spend the extra money for one that it is in anyway a bad choice. We have really nice custom homes here but many to us seem to be “over the top” very heavy moldings in the rooms, stuff like that and yet the floor plans for my wife and I weren’t as practical to fit our taste. Very “heavy” look to them and I agree some of the locals are small companies who may do a more quality job on some items if you want to pay for it. It still won’t guarantee the home will stand up to a hurricane any better.
But yes if you don’t mind paying 50+% more for the home in our area you will get a home loaded with fixtures and moldings everywhere you look.
BTW- I was on friendly terms with our warranty reps. All around the same age one told me coming out of Covid was a nightmare with suppler shortages, contractor labor shortages, lack of experienced workers, and to get homes built it was take it or leave it attitude from the contractors. Everyone was short on everything but his company backed any and every issue and concern from their homeowners.
Wow this was a long one! I’m sure you know that I am just discussing that we have been happy with our production builders.
BTW- that r38 in the attic? All builders use these big companies here to blow insulation. My inspector found some small area a little lacking above MBR. One phone call gets the wheels moving for the contractor to come back. They not only did that area but spent a fair amount of time going over everything in the attic. We have also have been very impressed with how nice all the contractors were. With that said most of this stuff could have been prevented, but for us in our case was just coming out of Covid the building industry was in disarray and at least our company stood behind every single issue we brought up. Very happy, would do it again however if you one to want to spend more “custom” that’s ok too!!
