What is quickly built homes?

12 years ago

We bought our home 9 years back...House is originally built by Toll Borthers in NJ in 1986. When we bought the house, it was not in nicely maintained condition but over the years we did lot of changes/remodeling projects such as new floors, new a/c,heater, patio,kitchen etc, so far we have put in around $100,000. 2 years back we remodeled our kitchen and year after kitchen was done, we ran into lot of problems with structure under kitchen and kitchen floor, I will write about those problems in details in other posts. To fix the problem under kitchen I am calling lot of contractors, inspectors, structural engineers to get an estimate and understanding of problem. Few of them mentioned to me.."these are quickly built homes" what does that exactly mean? does it mean, these houses are going to keep having problems, does it mean that they are not going to last longer? homes in our community are in the range of 600,00 - 800,000 they are not cheap but I don't know what to make out of such remarks..does it mean we should sell this house than keep repairing or making it better? any suggestions, thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Comments (7)

handymac
12 years ago
Quickly built has little to do with how well a house is built. What does matter is the design, materials, and workmanship.

I helped in building several Habitat for Humanity homes that took two weeks or less to build. I'd put those homes up against any comparable anywhere---and they are now 15 years old.

During the building boom, builders got paid by the house. The more houses, the more money. Many construction companies began cutting corners and using cheaper materials.

You are now stuck with the results. So, what you will be faced with is having engineers/architects review the actual parts being affected by your reworking, and changing materials/designs to make the result lasting and as trouble free as possible.
live_wire_oak
12 years ago
Just because the home is costly, doesn't mean that they used good quality materials and workmanship in it. Toll Brothers has a pretty bad reputation for basic quality and if your home is starting to have problems, I would suggest having an engineer inspect it to get an overview of what the current issues underlying problems might be. They could be minor settling issues, or they could be a result of that poor workmanship. It's better to know what you're dealing with than to slowly end up replacing the home piece by piece over time as it breaks.
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millworkman
12 years ago
a "quickly built home" is like a "tract home", a builder or developer puts the houses up very quickly generally all of the same style or very limited selection. These houses are built in a very short amount of time using generally less than excellent craftsmen and utilizing basic builder quality materials (i.e. about the cheapest they can get generally) The houses all must still pass the building codes but there is not thought or provisions made for future renovations and expansion so the homes are generally built with out any over construction or as close to the maximum spans and minimum specifications as possible in order for the builder to maximize his profits. In other words it is not considered a custom home or built with the care and quality of a custom home.
sombreuil_mongrel
12 years ago
I think Millworkman is exactly right in his definition. But it is not true to say that a house must have faults _because of_ going up rapidly. It's actually a good thing to get "under paper" in the shortest time possible. It takes no more time to frame with 2x12 joists than 2x10's, etc.. It just costs more in material.
Very rare is the situation where a builder is asked to build a house "for the ages" anymore.
Casey
tom418
11 years ago
My house was built in two months. 2400 sq feet, in North Central Connecticut. I'm still dealing with issues 15 yrs later (see my "Bowed wall" posting above).

Yes my house was "inspected". What the inspector missed:

Foundation too low. Front siding was 3 inches above ground level.

Numerous electrical issues: Shared neutral with both "hot" conductors on same leg; kitchen small applicance circuits feeding outdoor lights, Dining rm circuit feeding living rm.

Bathroom fans vented to inside of attic.

Among others. I fixed the electrical items.

I've learned that when building a house you have to be there constantly.At the time, I was flying up from Long Island by private plane, once or twice weekly. NOT enough!
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
9 years ago
The speed at which a home is built has nothing to do with quality. A house built in a factory under ideal conditions will fare much better than a custom home exposed to the elements for unknown periods of time.
energy_rater_la
9 years ago
prior to having blower door tested & inspected tract subdivisions, gov housing subdivisions etc in addition
to custom & all types both new & existing homes...I
was of the opinion that if the same floorplan house
had been built 15+ times...surely they had it down
pat.
in my mind by house 3 patterns would be made,
most issues worked out on site...but in the real world..
so much depends upon the human factor.
guy has too much partying on weekend..his/her work
suffers most of Monday.
had an argument...feel bad...

what I found was that each house/apt had different issues..
there was no refinement of effort from house/apt1 to the final build.

I've never heard the term quickly built homes btw..
in what part of the world are you located?
best of luck.