Lancaster Home Builders

Just adding on to my last review. We had them build us a house and moved in January 2018. On top of everything in my last review, we already have water leaking in through one of our doors. The house is 2 years old. I lived in a house that was 20 years old and never once had water leaking. Just shows how much effort they put into their work. Avoid these guys at all costs.

We sent an employee out to re-seed the yardThe employee reported that he took the machine over the front of the yard ,then re-seeded the yard! When I joe N [redacted] inspected the yard I found the yard extremely dryI returned a week later & again the yard was very dry! If the yard has bare spots in the spring, We will re do the yard in the bare areas The yard will not grow if it is not maintained & kept watered! Regards Joe N***

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered] Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: as I have explained multiple times before, LHB is not capable of doing satisfactory work and we do not trust them to do any work on our propertyBecause of this, we require that they pay for us to hire a third party to fix LHB's prior work Regards, [redacted] ***

I went to this property and looked at the sewer pipe from the street and it is several feet off the edge of the road in the grass area!The sewer pipe that we installed Was Inspected by the Township inspector when it was installed and before it was backfilledIt was APPROVED by the inspector, then backfilled.Tell us why here

DO NOT build with Lancaster Home Builders. Everything was a nonstop battle with them. They will screw you over in a second and cut corners in any way possible to save money. It all started at the beginning with one of their reps, Naomi Brown. We told her and LHB that our limit was $250k. They ended up putting a quote together for us for a house that was about $330k. She blamed it on a computer error but anyone who is even a half decent realtor should have been able to know that the house we were designing was way over $250k. I even knew this was too good to be true. We were designing a 2200 square foot, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house, stone front, granite countertops, 3 car garage, huge deck, and every upgrade imaginable, and they were convinced we were only at $250k. I even questioned it and they assured me we were within our limits. Turned out they were wrong, as I suggested. So after planning for about 2 months, we had to start all over again from the beginning. We did look at other builders, but LHB did compensate us a little bit for our time and gave us incentive to stay with them (free upgrades), so we did.

The building process itself went fairly smooth. There were some issues with the foreman, Mike. He is just a terrible communicator and I honestly felt like he wasn't at the house enough to know what was going on with it. There were some things that he just went and did without our input, because he felt it was right, like he was building a house he was going to live in. We were supposed to have a hose bib in the front of our house, for washing cars, watering plants, etc. We used one of their house plans that offered it so no reason it should have been moved. Mike decided that he didn't think it would fit anywhere on the front of the house, and moved it to the side of the house, without and consideration to what we thought. If you go to the front of our house, I can find about 3 spots the hose bib would have fit just perfectly, but Mike didn't think so, apparently. So now we have to run a hose across our front yard if we want to wash cars.

When we did our final walk through with Mike, it was extremely rushed. This house was freshly painted, and there were marks, scuffs, cracks all in the drywall all over the house. Not only that, but lots of areas the painters completely missed. We pointed them all out, and Mike basically made us out to be a pain and said we were too picky with the paint. I understand painting isn’t going to be 100% perfect, but there were marks EVERYWHERE. Something you should not have in a brand new house. On top of that, we had light bulbs already out, dents in our front door, scuffs and cracks on our interior doors. Our kitchen island had a chip in it, our bathroom vanity had a chip in it, and about half of our interior doors were missing hinge screws. Our front door was also not mounted correctly. When we moved in, I could see light and feel air from 2 out of 4 corners of the door. To this day it is still not fixed, after having them look at it about 6 times.

When we moved in, there were still marks on the walls everywhere. Scuffs, missed spots, cracks, paint lines and other marks all over the house. We told Mike about it and he said to mark everything with blue painters tape, and he would have his painters come out and fix everything. So we did. The next day I get a call from Mike saying we are too picky and that our house "Looks like it has measles" from all the tape everywhere. Again, this is a brand new house, so calling us picky because we want the paint fixed is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. After having the painters come back about 3 times, the house is better, but honestly I could have painted it better myself.

We also had water in our basement upon signing it over, which is supposed to be prevented with the sump pump. Somehow our sump pump went bad in the first month or 2 of putting it in. These pumps are made to last a while ( like 10 years), I don't understand how it would have went bad that quick. And if it did, it should have had a warranty. It honestly makes me feel like this pump was a leftover one and they just threw it in my basement. They then went down to the local hardware store and replaced it with the cheapest pump they could find. It does work, but now it is extremely loud and pumps very slow.

When they did the carpet in our living room and master bedroom, it was basically just a bunch of pieces of carpet they patched together and you could see seams everywhere. Our living room and bedroom are not extremely large, so carpet could have been laid in one piece. What they did though was basically take leftover carpet and patched it together. They tried about 3-4 times to blend the seams, and while it does look nicer, it is still noticeable. A lot of our hardwood flooring also had nicks and started to become separated.

They did not seed our yard up to expectations. The entire yard was supposed to be hydro seeded, which was agreed upon during the planning, and they only did a portion of it. Some was hydro seeded and the rest was just seeded by tossing loose seed by hand. They never aerated either which is an issue when you are planting loose seed. The loose seed was just leftover seed they had sitting around from other jobs. The hydro seeded portion came up fairly well, but most of it died despite watering it and fertilizing it as instructed. The part that they did not hydro seed never grew and they would not do anything about it. It was nothing but weeds, which you can see in the pictures. I feel that this section should have been hydro seeded like the rest of the yard, but for some reason they felt it did not need to be. The paperwork all said "seeded" though and did not specifically say "hydro seeding" so they got us on that one.

We had shingles blowing off our roof after the first couple months. Joe was at our house, and before they blew off, most were hanging on by one nail, and actually turned sideways. So they were not covering as it was supposed to. Joe looked at it and said technically they were still up there and did not blow off, so he did not need to have anyone fix it. Even though they were turned about 90 degrees, they were still technically on the roof, so Joe decided it was fine. Keep in mind, our house is still under warranty at this time. The next day some blew off completely into the yard and we had to wait almost a month till someone came out to fix it. When they did show up to fix it, there was no heads up or anything. I woke up around 7am on a Saturday morning to 2 or 3 guys on my roof hammering away. Not a huge deal, but out of respect to the homeowner, I think a simple heads up isn’t too much to ask. Again, lack of communication on Mike’s part.

Our front walkway and back walkout are both cracked already. The back walkout was actually separated from the house from the ground sinking. A lot of builders wait until the ground settles before pouring walkways, for obvious reasons. They did fix these issues, but fixed it just by caulking the gaps. The caulk they used is not even close to the color of the concrete, so we have a giant line going across it, and it cracked again not long after they caulked it.

Our soffit on the front porch was dented in about 5 different spots upon moving in. They tried to avoid fixing this too, basically saying that stuff like that happens. Again, it is a new house and should not have these issues. After asking about 3-4 times, it was finally fixed.

Joe also tried to avoid cleaning the house before we moved in. When we signed the house over, there was still saw dust, drywall dust, and wood chips all over the house. There was actually wood chips and trash swept behind the oven and cabinets as well. Per the contract, the house was supposed to be cleaned before we moved in. This is normally done by hiring a cleaning lady. It was done eventually, but it was after we took ownership and had to request it about 4 times. It was another attempt for them to try and cut corners and save money.

We were told that our entire house would be framed out with 2x6 boards. Our garage was framed out with 2x4s. The paperwork never said that the house would be 2x6s and the garage would be 2x4s, it said the ENTIRE project would be framed out with 2x6s. I still never got an answer as to why this was done this way. I understand that this may be normal and most houses are like that, but what I am getting at is their communication skills, once again. The paperwork never specified the garage would be any different than the rest of the house, so I was expecting the garage to be the same as the rest of the house. Sometimes they forget they are dealing with first time builders.

To summarize everything, Joe likes to cut corners and do everything as cheap as possible. He also made an attempt to keep $1500 of our money. There was a refund due to us because their estimate for the septic system was a little high. They owed us around $5200 and tried to send us a check for around $3700. Took a little while but we got it settled. Mike is a horrible communicator and likes to make his own decisions without contacting the homeowner first. He also hires very low quality and unexperienced contractors. Naomi has no idea how to make a basic excel spreadsheet and cannot tell the difference between a $250,000 home and a $330,000 dollar home. I will say that Dave Nadu and one of Mike’s workers, Jeremy, were great to work with. Will not be building with this company again and will never recommend this company to anyone. Rumor has it they are starting a large development not far outside of Lancaster in the near future, so if you are looking to build in that area, avoid these guys.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Avoid this builder at all costs. Here is a write up of my full review since it will not fit on this review.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yF-oqApzdgiQbTLdGH5RTHvoQz97oaliON8PDM51rBE/...⇄ />
Here are some pictures as well.

https://imgur.com/gallery/xk8maQz

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I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID *** I accept the resolution for the escrow to be released to me to hire someone of my choice to take care of our lawn.
Regards,
*** ***

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: as I have explained multiple times before, LHB is not capable of doing satisfactory work and we do not trust them to do any work on our property. Because of this, we require that they pay for us to hire a third party to fix LHB's prior work.
Regards,
[redacted]

We feel our offer to move the sewer vent was more than adequate . We reject paying $5,000.Tell us why here...

Good afternoon,1. Owner verbally harassed customer - RESPONSE: Met with the customer on March 25th. Numerous items were reviewed during the meeting, one of which it took additional discussion to come to an agreement. The agent sent a recap of the meeting by email which the buyer responded to the...

next day thanking us for the meeting and was happy with the outcome. 2. Mold on woodwork - RESPONSE: There was a walkthrough prior settlement but there was no mention to there being an issue of mold. Five weeks later the buyer called about an area of discoloration, which lumber sometimes does during construction as it is exposed to the elements. As a precaution, We cleaned the area, applied a mold eliminator and applied a Sealer. Owner was present and approved the work done. 3. Foundation walls - RESPONSE: Areas were noted where small areas of water was penetrating the concrete wall. We offered to excavate the exterior of the basement, clean, reseal, apply a water proof membrane, add a second Sump pit & pump to take care of this issue. We are still waiting for customer to accept our schedule date in November to start work (Attached copy of letter which was emailed & sent by certified mail) 4. Basement floor cracking - RESPONSE: Concrete floors crack from settlement. These are hairline cracks found in most basements. The repair noted on #3 will remedy this 5. Electric - RESPONSE: All electric work was done to code, inspected and approved. The electrician met with the customer two times with a gauge to show them all outlets were working properly. The customer was not able to duplicate any problems at this meeting. We had a second electrician (3rd party) review our work and they too found all work was completed correctly and Working properly to code. (Attached is their invoice stating it is to code). 6 Miscellaneous punch list items - RESPONSE: We will schedule this with customer anytime they can work it into their schedule during normal working hours. 7. Lawn - RESPONSE: Home owners expert verify lawn will not grow - attached are photos taken November 12th. The lawn is 6 months old, was planted during the summer and is growing adequately. (See photos). 8. Wall being too short-RESPONSE: This home started as one of our standard models and was total modified over a 3 plus month period. The plan was then signed off prior to construction. The Wall in question was built per the plan. After the buyer purchased a refrigerator and put it in the house, they did not like the way it fit in the opening and wanted builder to shorten the wall which involved cutting drywall, studs, replacing hardwood flooring, refinishing and repainting the wall. We did this work at no charge and requested a testimonial from the buyer which they gave. Sincerely,Lancaster Home BuildersJoseph * N[redacted] Jr, owner

It is the choice of the customer if they want someone else to work on there yard .If they want to do that we will release the $1,500 escrow to them as long as this will settle the yard issue.    Joe N[redacted] Lancaster Home Builders

We sent an employee out to re-seed the yard. The employee reported that he took the machine over the front of the yard ,then re-seeded the yard! When I joe N[redacted] inspected the yard I found the yard extremely dry. I returned a week later & again the yard was very dry!    If the yard has...

bare spots in the spring, We will re do the yard  in the bare areas.  The yard will not grow if it is not maintained & kept watered!  Regards  Joe N[redacted]

I went to this property and looked at the sewer pipe from the street and it is several feet off the edge of the road in the grass area!The sewer pipe that we installed Was Inspected by the Township inspector when it was installed and before it was backfilled. It was APPROVED by the...

inspector, then backfilled.Tell us why here...