Week 5, Windows, Shingles on Roof, HVAC, and Plumbing

This has been another impressive week. It seems like we are about a full week ahead of schedule, which makes me very happy. This gives us time if there any problems ahead. This week they have installed the windows, shingles on the roof, HVAC, electric, low voltage, and plumbing (very busy week). Our Pre-Drywall Meeting in scheduled for next Friday, can't wait. We weren’t planning to point out any problems until our Pre-Drywall Meeting, but my husband decided to go ahead and email our PM last weekend and here are the outcomes of our problems we told him about.

• The crooked pole in the basement was fixed on Monday of this week, looks good now 
•  The small surface crack in the basement slab that has formed near the sump pump (he said this is not structural since it’s so fine so it won’t be fixed, I knew this answer was coming.
• The shower seat size, it only 8 inches, we are hoping this would be 10 inches (We confirmed ourselves the plans say 8 inches)
• One of the studs in the coat closet is broken off at the bottom (PM has now marked it to be replaced)
• Missing window in the water closet (it's being ordered)
• We discovered more things wrong with the new stuff from this week that we want fixed, but I will get to that later...

We were told to check in with him before going in from now on as he worried that we went with no stairs, I told my husband to say we didn’t and that we flew a drone with a camera to see everything, lol (We will email him every Thursday/Friday to confirm we are allowed to visit that weekend like he asked) I don’t mind this as long as we allowed to visit every weekend.

With our Pre-Drywall Meeting coming up next week. We have made a list of everything that still needs to be fixed before Drywall this includes the things we noticed this weekend. My family is on top of find everything wrong, after all they are experts in their fields, so hiring inspector isn't needed. However if you don't have an expert in your family to look over things I recommend hireing someone. Here is our current list:

• Replace stud in Coat closet (now marked on be replaced)
• Add missing window in water closet (has been ordered)
• The drain for master bath tub is not glued (didn't look like they where finished yet as the tub wasn't in yet)
• No studs for the frameless shower door to hook to (PM said this is on his list)
• No framing for the mud set tile in master shower edge (marked)
• A HVAC run is being held up by a shirt, really no joke (PM remove this when we told him, he had no idea why it was put there)
• A HVAC run was smashed and had holes in it, this damage looks to be caused by the electricians running their wiring. (PM said this will be fixed)
• The hole cut for the master bathroom tub seemed too close to the hot and cold water controls.
• The plumbing running in the wall in the basement up is sticking out of the wall stubs, the whole wall needs to be shimmed out or drywall won't be straight (something is marked here)
• There where some holes leading to the outside that need to be patched (some marked, others not)
• A header in the basement was cut to run HVAC was replaced with a small flimsy metal brace, header needs to be replaced like it was done on the other side of the hallway where it was cut also.
• There is random nail going into a power wire in spare bathroom upstairs. Remove unneeded nails to prevent this
• The drain for the laundry room is braced in the ceiling of the first floor using a random spare piece of PVC pipe, should be a regular strap like the rest of the plumbing. (This wasn't the only plumbing braced incorrectly like this)
• Light in the basement wasn't put up since there was no space
• We want to confirm the grading of the backyard to make sure we don't end up with a swamp. 
• Vents run in attic were pitched a too much with the straps, need to be adjusted
• Wasps nest in garage needs to be removed
• Faucet being brush nickel, as there was a mistake on MSS, confirm in-person with our old SR (we have a new SR)
• There were other things we noticed but looks like my PM already marked to fix. 
• We will be asking to move a low voltage line for the master bedroom TV cable next to the outlet (we have a meeting to confirm these locations on Monday, even though they are already done)

I will note they didn't appear to done fully with the HVAC and plumbing, so we will give them until our pre-drywall to take care of all this. We have informed our PM of these issues on the Monday after our visit, and he is already working on fixing the issues.

I do want to say we did see somethings that made us very happy, HVAC guys covered all the floor vents to stop debris falling into this, very nice, remember others having problems with this. Windows looked to be installed well. Roof looked good from the ground.

Picture time...

Pictures of what's wrong that's already listed above

• Replace stud in Coat closet
  
• Add missing window in water closet
  
• The drain for master bath tub is not glued (didn't look like they where finished yet as the tub wasn't in yet)
  
• No studs for the frameless shower door
  

  
• No framing for the mud set tile in master shower edge (marked)
  
• A HVAC run is being held up by a shirt, really no joke look, it's a wife beater shirt, must have been too hot climb down the ladder to get a strap, lol
  
• A HVAC run was smashed and had holes in it, this damage looks to be caused by the electricians running their wiring.
  
• The hole cut for the master bathroom tub seemed too close to the hot and cold water controls.
  
• The plumbing running in the wall in the basement up is sticking out of the wall stubs, the whole wall needs to be shimmed out or drywall won't be straight (something is marked here)
  
• A header in the basement was cut to run HVAC was replaced with a small flimsy metal brace, header needs to be replaced like it was done on the other side of the hallway where it was cut also.
  Incorrect on this side

  Correct on other side notice the light hanging more on that later
• There is random nail going into a power wire in spare bathroom upstairs. Need remove random nails.
  
• The drain for the laundry room is braced in the ceiling of the first floor using a random spare piece of PVC pipe, should be a regular strap like the rest of the plumbing. (This wasn't the only plumbing braced incorrectly like this)
  

  

  
• Light in the basement was just hanging since there was no space (HVAC and electricians didn't work together nice here, play nice boys)
  
  
  
  Picture of everything else
  

  Front 

  

  Back 

  

  

  
  

  
  

  

  Garage ceiling

  

  Kitchen 

  

  Sink in kitchen and dishwasher

  

  Refrigerator waterline

  Morning room

  Morning room ceiling

  

  Family room

   Toilet half bath

  Sink half bath

  Living room 

  

  Dining room 

  Smallest spare bedroom

  
  

  Biggest spare bedroom

  

  Hall bath upstairs 

  Master bathroom

  

  

  Runs outside for Electric meter and HVAC

  Our ground, never seen it like this before, but works

  

  

  We can open and close the dampers 
  

  

  

  Crazy plumbing, not the most direct route but does work

  With all that being said we will let you know how our pre-drywall meeting goes next week

  
  

Quality check in

We went to check out our lot and the quality of homes started so far while we wait.

 

Our lot status: 

We noticed 2 of our stakes were missing from before, not sure what happened. The snow or just construction could have buried them in the mud. The house that they broke ground on that appears to be on our street, they are saying it’s on the other street, as it’s on the counter. They are still working on wrapping up power and water on our street due to all the snow we got, which I understand. It’s looking like we may break ground by the end of month, but that's like 75%. They are referring  to this delay as weather and developers delay. I’m fine with the delay currently, come the end of the month, I hope to be started.

Quality of the homes started:

I was really surprise on the quality of everything that we have seen with the other houses in the  our community. Last weekend was the first time we went inside a Ryan homes house during the building. There were 3 different stages we got to see, drywall, framing, and first coat of paint/counters installed/tile installed. The framing look nice as fare as following code, but it wasn't all positive. I did notice somethings that really matter to me done the way I don't prefer, but it's to code. There was one thing I noticed that was something that would be a must fix, one stud was so unlevel I could clearly see it without a level. Not too bad just seeing that one thing.

Positive 

The drywall looked smooth and seamless with paint and without.

The tile looked well done.

The ductwork was very well sealed. Very happy and impressed with this, as this very important for saving money while we live in the home.

Not positive 

Low voltage wiring run around the framing and instead of drilling holes in the stubs and running it through the frameing. I don't prefer this because the wires will wear more wear they are tight around corners and be more likely to cut or damage from future work, like nailing the siding. Nothing is wrost then a pinched cable under the drywall, causing problems that you can't find. Did they do this on your house? I may bring it up to my PM before they run it on our house, to see if this how ryan homes always does it.

 Note this was fixed, they were in the middle of running the wires, and it was finished the correct way through the stubs not around. :)

The studs were not 16inches apart on the inside walls, looked to be 24inches. Could cause problems with trying to hang things on an inside wall later, as It would be better to hit a stud twice, one on both sides. Did they do this on your house? 

Note this wasn't on every inside wall, just some.

Note: this wasn't our house we were looking at, they have models started that we looked at as base this off of.

We also got model numbers for HVAC and water heater, something I asked for but no one could provide. I did some research for reviews, I could only find good reviews, so that's good news.

I have heard of problems with the windows ryan homes uses, we weren't sure if they are using different windows in our community then the communities that had problems. If you had problems with your windows with ice on the inside, what kind of windows did you have and did they fix it!?

Water heater

HVAC

Windows