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We purchased a David Weekley home based on promises and representations made by the sales staff, marketing materials, past awards and your reputation in the Tampa area. Let me outline the list of problems that we have had or still have with what was to be our dream home. This list is by no means inclusive of our problems, but rather a mere sampling.
1) Told by sales staff on 3 occasions, there was a front porch across house. It doesn’t have one.
2) We were supposed to have a full lanai in back. After moving across country from California, we find out that 8 feet of our lanai houses two air conditioning units. We were not told this or formally notified of a design change until 3 months after we signed a contract. We were not given an option to have the units placed elsewhere. Several houses on the same street have units placed by master bedroom.
3) There are major structural issues with the house.
4) The roof trusses are jimmied in to fit, rather than flush.
5) The roof is so uneven that it looks like there are waves on our house.
6) The foundation is not level. In some spots, it is an inch higher than the surrounding area.
7) There are several large (1/4”-3/8”) cracks in the foundation
8) There are several major design problems. For example, the cabinet in one bathroom protrudes into the molding around door. The door was not placed far enough to one side to account for the cabinet. We were told all the Tyson units are designed this way.
9) We were told that we had a 3 car garage, yet the third space is taken up by air conditioner units.
10) There is not a straight wall in our house. Some walls bow in 1-2”.
11) There is not a molding in the house that is mitered correctly.
12) We have a severe erosion problem in the back yard.
13) Windows are so uneven that there are some windows that the top and bottom measurement differ by 1-2”.
14) We were told by a David Weekly employee that “green wood was used”, causing many of the problems, including the uneven walls and windows.
15) Interior walls were not placed correctly, resulting in several rooms that are off on one side by 2-3”.
16) Water softener plumber forgot to include a drain.
17) We never got a paint touch up set.
18) We still don’t have a listing of all the numbers to call for repairs, or a listing of our colors. We didn’t receive our homeowner portfolio until the day of closing.
19) The main wall in the Great Room was so uneven and bowed; the warranty department had to put crown molding to cover up fixes. We were originally told that David Weekly was going to put crown molding in the entire room, but when the fix occurred, it was only put in on the wall and let unpainted. So we had to pay to put it on the other walls and paint it.
20) Condenser units installed incorrectly.
This is merely a sampling of the many errors. So we go through the process with the warranty department. Nothing is ever fixed the first time. In many situations we have had to have work done on items 3-4 times. For example, the side porch, it took them 4 times to fix and it is still not right. Not to mentioned, during one of the fixes they splattered paint on our walls and our neighbor’s walls. This has yet to be repainted. Or the tile guy uses the wrong color grout (not even close enough in color to try an argue it is a dye lot issue) so all the repairs are noticeable.
Employees spend more time blaming someone else than actually fixing the problem. For example, to repair the poor miter cuts in the molding, the painters were supposed to repair and repaint the molding. They repainted the molding but told us the carpenter had to fix the molding. The carpenter, of course says it is the painters responsibility.
To add insult to injury, we have had items stolen from our house by your employees. My husband is self-employed, so when he is there supervising your staff to ensure that the items get fixed and we are not robbed, he is loosing money. The few times when items were actually repaired, the repairman usually break something else in the process. For example, the molding guy damaged several of our tiles by throwing his power tool on the floor when putting up the crown molding in the great room and repairing the baseboards around the island in the kitchen.
We are not some picky homeowners, or as we were told by one of your employees “Boy, California must have good building codes, because the problems you have are nothing compared to what gets built in Florida”. All I wanted was a house constructed with appropriate materials and built by competent employees. I understand there are always going to be minor repairs and problems with a new house. Our problems are not minor. Other David Weekly homeowners in Wilderness Lake Preserve Phase II have expressed similar concerns.
Company details:
David Weekley Homes
Corporate Office
1111 North Post Oak Road
Houston, Texas 77055
[protected] phone
[protected] fax
dwhomes.com
Local Division
4505 Woodland Corporate Blvd. Suite 200
Tampa, FL 33614
Fax: [protected]
Re: Wilderness Lake Preserve
Plan 3936 B
Job #: [protected]
Purchase Date: April 02, 2005
Move-in date: October 31, 2005
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
We are lucky our house has not burned down due to the terrible and dangerous wiring done by David Weekly contractors. We did not realize how poorly our house was built until we started updating our light fixtures and ceiling fans. PATHETIC! When our bathroom track lights were installed, the contractor took a hammer and knocked a large (14 inch X 6 inch) hole in the wall and installed without an electric box in the wall. Just a plain flush mount. Neither light was grounded. 2 of the 5 ceiling fans were not properly grounded. David Weekly came out a few times and tried to fix wiring issues but never could figure them out...half ### fix. Continued to have problems. As a result of poor wiring behind the master bath shower wall, I starting getting an electric shock while taking a shower and touching the shower head (This was 6 years after being in the house and only a matter of time). Not a little shock but a pretty good jolt. David Weekly came to my house and instead of fixing it properly, they knocked a hole in the wall, and then bypassed the the line by cutting a hole in the brick on the OUTSIDE of my house and bypassing the electric line about 6 to 8 feet. Looks terrible on the side of my house. The touch up on the wall and paint where they knocked a hole in the wall is awful and doesn't even closely match. Air conditioning ventilation in the attic was very poor craftsmanship and design before I had someone come fix. I found 2 drop clothes used by contractors, one under the insulation in the attic and 1 in the door under the sink that goes to the bathtub jet motor. 1 had urine stains and both had trash (half eaten sandwich) wrapped up inside. Yummy! The wiring in the garage and sprinkler system was SEVERELY screwed up and cost me about $1000 having people come and look at it. Broken bottles, wood trimmings and trash under the sod was continually found in the yard. This was my family's first house. We were very young and naive and should have research better and had an outside inspector come and take a look. We will not make this mistake again nor will we EVER come close to a David Weekly home.
Johnnie - Fort Worth, TX
I'm curious as to where you all purchased your David Weekley Home? I live in a David weekly Home and LOVE IT! I live in Baldwin Park in Orlando Florida and several of my friends also own a David Weekley Home and are quite pleased. I would recommend them to anyone. Not only do they have the best service and sales staff, but if you have issues, they do their best to fix any problem that occurs. Have you all called the Centralized Warranty about your issues? Owning a home no matter who the builder is, will have some responsibilities on the homeowner. Any of these issues above could happen with any builder! At least David Weekley fixes the problem, or tries to. There is a reason why they are rated an A+ by the Better Business Bureau. I love my home and David Weekley! Thank you for building my dream home for my family!
YEP! Give a wet back a hammer and call em a carpenter!
I too have had nothing but major problems since the day we moved in, when the doorknob fell off the front door and we could not get in. That should have been a warning and we should have turned and ran. Walls bowed, electrical outlets tripping the breakers, a huge plumbing leak in the laundry room, second floor shower leaking into ceiling of first floor x 2. Master bath tile floor cracked across room because sub floor was not secured. Tile grout was wrong color. The commode was not secured to the floor. The list was three pages long. We are currently dealing with a roof leak that as of yet no one has replied back to us about. The last time, a year ago, I was told maintenance needed to be done on the vents in the roof to prevent leaks. I paid out hundreds of dollars. The house is not even 5 years old. I too thought my dream home was being built but it has been nothing but a nightmare.
I bought a David Weekley home and have had major foundation issues . Our bathroom tiles started to pop up and we went to replace it. We found out why the tiles were popping up - the foundation was never properly cured and instead of rock hard concrete, we have concrete that you can dig through with your fingers. They tiled right over it, instead of fixing the problem!
I couldn't agree more with the complaints I've read about David Weekley Homes. They have to be the worst excuse for home builders on the planet. All the complaints I'm reading here are the same old story, nightmare actually, that I am living. I recently had a Weekley home built and it is the worst decision I ever made in my life.
I guess I'll have to sue if I want to try to get anything done about it.
David Weekley has the highest turnover in the homebuilding business, this is the source of many of their issues. When I built my home with them in 2007 I had 5 different building superintendants and 3 different salesepeople. The ones that are still there are constantly afraid of losing their job.
I honestly don't see how this company has such a good reputation. For one...the floor plans that they tout so highly are severely flawed. Most have small pantrys, small closets, and tiny secondary bedrooms. I dare you to go to some of their model homes and fit just a full size bed in the secondary bedrooms.
Also, almost everything in their homes are upgrades. Just ask one of their salesepeople to tell you what is an upgrade in the model...watch how quickly they skirt the issue. Don't believe me? Ask the salesperson if the LIGHT on the ceiling fan is standard ! Guess what...it's not.
I could go on and on. My experience with them has been horrific and I will never purchase another David Weekley home again. I also tell all my friends the same. It was in short...a NIGHTMARE.
We have a David Weekley home in Texas where the flashing was not installed correctly on a faux balcony. It has been a 5 year nightmare of trying to get Weekley to repair it properly. Part of the problem is the staff changes constantly in the Warranty office and they do not own up to the repairs and blame it on other people. We are contemplating civil action because I am fed up with them.
We have owned 4 David Weekley Homes and have NEVER had a problem with any of them. As far as I'm concerned they build one of the best products on the market. BTW - It's Weekley
if this is so, i dont want to know what the other companies are like. HORRIBLE EXPERINCE, THE WORST BUILDER
“4 DW homes and never had a problem with any of them”... hmmm...this statement is a little sketchy as the probability of having no problems with any home (even the finest custom home) let alone 4, is ZERO. I bought a new DW house in 2000 and it was a virtual case study on how not to build a home.
At the end of the day I FEDEXed a letter describing the situation to mr Weekely which resulted in a flurry of activity addressing most of the issues (at that time).
This company builds volume/tract homes like GM built cars in the 70s - ie assembly line. The concept looks good on paper but in practice there are too many variables to control, especially with the time and cost constraints of the tract market.
In our subdivision there is an artificial community lake that had serious engineering flaws and as a result was drained. For six months instead of having a lake in our backyard as promised when we bought the house, we had a nasty basin with a shallow moat infested with various disgusting creatures. Our home values dropped as a result and our neighborhood was an embarrassing sight to everybody. We sued the homeowners association and David Weekly in a class action lawsuit but the judge dismissed it on the grounds that David Weekly "promptly" fixed the matter (by promptly I mean after 3 months of nothing and 3 months of caterpillars and bulldozers tearing up the basin).
Writing from Chelsea Harbor subdivision in Sugar Land TX