Home Improvement Today?

The wife and I had bought a log home made out of 12x6" logs. There were two other buildings on the property, they were built to look like the house with 12x1" siding hand hewn to look like logs. These had 3 in of chink in between them and were nailed to OSB. Builders had not wrapped the house. Below you'll see pictures of what happens when you do that. Pulled all the siding off, fixed the OSB, replaced windows, wrapped building, and installed LP SmartSide engineered wood siding.

 

We put a new lock on the front door. Decided to go with a high tech one: fingerprint, code and Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi component didn't work, even after contacting customer service. The customer service rep couldn't understand some things I was saying. So, we returned it and got a simpler one. I left a not so flattering review of the one I returned and their customer service contacted me, asking if I would delete or change it to a more favorable one. You can't always believe the reviews you read.

 

some companies dont post unfavorable reviews.

 

Yep. I wrote a scathing review of a Skil product and it was taken down almost immediately.

 

I got "moderated" on one review for a kitchenaid mixer because i said it was under powered...even at max speed.

 

Home Depot deleted my review about their 9ft Grand Duchess Balsam Fir Christmas tree with twinkling lights a few months back, because I mentioned it was leaning and had defective lights out of the box. For $500 what'd they expect me to say? I returned it.

A lot of those smart locks won't tell you if the door was actually shut when it last locked. Something to keep in mind.

 

You can't believe reviews any more. Amazon dinged me for leaving an unfavorable review on a desk light/magnifier that was designed by an idiot.

I stumbled across this site that helps weed out the fake reviews, but I'm not sure how good a job it really does.
https://reviewmeta.com/

 

Your second pic is the EXACT reason I HATE OSB.

 

Drove by a small subdivision in progress 2 days ago while raining. It rained for a good part of 24 hrs. Most (around 10 I'm guessing) of the roofs were exposed and all OSB. Drove by again today and most had roofing installed. Probably never dried out and a disaster in the waiting.

 

Out of sight out of mind. Before I retired the company I was working for had a delivery driver leave a window package at 2 houses one house between 1 house got white the other beige. Same contractor, but the driver swapped 1 window leaving the a different color at both places. The f..ing sub installed the windows and left. I got the call to go uninstall and swap them out. Because our guy delivered it that way and how would the framer not know that was not what they wanted.. It happened more than once with different items I had a 3 door panel swap once that I had to go to 3 different homes miles apart to swap out different panels. Swings were correct glad for that, glass, no glass and 6 panel vs 2.

 

The window schedule would have been the first place any decent framer looks. Then you can go to the paint schedule if there is one. That always lists the door and window colors. Did he mix the colors or put all beige on one and white on the other. If it's the latter he lost a 50/50 coin toss. A toss that never needed to be made since the info was in the plans and even if it wasn't a simple phone call to the super would have solved it. lol

 

@theesotericone No it was in a track housing development. The 1 window was being used as a transom 15"" above the door, door frame was the color of the window package. There was no excuse, Especially when the lot sizes were 50' fronts. Same builder had me rolling on the ground when I got called out to a home because the windows were frosting up -18 outside 2" of ice on the inside. Home owner was fuming because they couldn't get the temperature in the house above 60 in that cold snap. The attic hadn't been insulated along with 1 wall granted it passed, the insulation inspection from the city. So when I pulled the trim. I found it hadn't been insulated either. I promptly left after a call to the contractor. We were wholesale suppliers, not contractors. The insulation problem was found by the heating company. The builder has the habit of throwing the suppliers under the bus.

 

Did this particular builder's company start with an "E" and end in "id-Co"?

 

...... No but I have an older one from '77 some minor foundation issues. I think they took a 10 yr pause and started up only a few years ago. Most of what they are doing now patio homes and splits. But I can't kiss and tell. I would just say I would be concerned about several of our generals. Most of them do a fairly good job but I have my concerns with many of the CM's many don't hold the subs to the standards they should.

 

@Fargo Taco funny thing about the contractor you mentioned every house they build has 1 dead give away that its theirs. They use casing for base in every house they build.

 

Sounds like a DR Horton build.

 

Oh Horton. I mean, it’s not like Horton builds anything. They just warranty whatever the lowest bidder installed. Bunch of dorks in an office building with Excel spreadsheets and plans that someone else drew on CAD. Like a lot of builders.

 

You got suspended from submitting product reviews on Amazon?

 

Amazon gave me a "first warning" and promised I would have my review "privileges" removed if I didn't straighten up. All their warning did was prove to me that Amazon reviews are bull shit.