Wayne Homes Customer Service Post 2 Year Warranty

Even though our 2 year top to bottom warranty expired in February of this year, we were very pleased with Wayne Homes' continued customer service, even though on paper they were under no obligation to us. 

We noticed while spring cleaning that one of our windows (Silverline Anderson Double Hung) was showing signs of condensation in between the panes.  We knew it likely had occurred before the warranty was up, but we didn't notice until after the fact.  We called Wayne Homes and were happy to hear that our windows come with a lifetime warranty, even though our Wayne Homes 2 year top to bottom warranty is up.  We just had to call the 1-800 number and let the Silverline rep know what our issue was.  Because we kept the sticker on our window with the serial number for the window on it, they were able to pull up our exact window, and they sent out a replacement, no questions asked. All we had to do was pay $25 shipping.

Wayne Homes followed up with us about our window issue, and when I told them about the shipping cost, they double reimbursed us in the form of a Target gift card.  That is excellent service and one of the reasons we are so happy we built with Wayne.  We know they are here for us. 

2 Years Post Build

Our 2 year fit and finish warranty expired in February, meaning we've been living in our Wayne Home (Jamestown Model) for over 2  years now!!!  It's hard to believe- it's gone by so quickly!!! 

We have all positive updates to share.  Wayne's Customer Care team has been outstanding with their customer service and truly did provide excellent coverage!  All issues have been addressed, and we can honestly say we are very pleased with our Wayne Home. 

Updates:
* The windows that leaked have been fixed!  Siding was taken off around window, and turned out that's where the problem was.  They fixed it, replaced damaged ledge, had a painter come out to make it brand new again, and we've not had a leak since!

* Scott (Wayne Homes Customer Care Liaison) came out to personally address the mold in the wall of the garage.  Took siding off to see how far it spread.  Turns out it was limited to where the insulation had ended.  Whole area affected was sprayed with bleach, siding was put back on, and we are feeling better now that we know it was limited to only the exterior wall of the garage where there was no insulation.  Since the siding guy had come out, they even added a finished box where we plan to install another hose (on the house!) Last time they were here, they framed the ledger board for free sot that we didn't have to hassle with it when we put on our deck! 

* Drywall and painters came back to do the 2 year touch up.  Walls look great, and there were quite a few nail pops!  Only in a few places can you tell it's been painted over, when the sun hits the wall just right.

* Save your gas/electric bills- we turned in our paperwork for our 2 year energy efficient guarantee, and it got us almost $600 back in a rebate that we weren't expecting!!!  And to be honest, our bills aren't that high... (See previous post with one year utility bills outlined)

* Even after our 2 years is up, Wayne customer service has continued to reach out to us to make sure we are still happy with our home, and we are!  We noticed while spring cleaning that one of our windows was showing signs of condensation in between the panes, and Wayne Homes is taking care of that, too!  We are so happy we built with Wayne.  We've been well taken care of!

* I'll take some pictures and add them to the blog.  Now that it's summer break, I should have time to update my blog!

Wayne Homes Warranty Work 1 Year After Moving In

We've been living in our Wayne Homes Jamestown model for a little over a year now.  We've had a few warranty issues, all which have been addressed by Wayne Homes.  Unfortunately, our window leaking issue is reacurring, so we've had to place another call into Wayne Home's customer care.  They've sent out the window company (Anderson Silverline windows) to caulk the  corners where the windows (2 of them, one in the master, one in the spare, both upstairs) were leaking, but it's continuing to get water.  Now, the one ledge has absorbed the water and swelled, and the other window has signs of rot/mold in the corner.  We're hoping they do something more than caulk it again this time around, since that has not solved the problem.  On a brighter note, we still have one more year of warranty coverage.  I'm thankful for that!

We also noticed that in multiple spots in our basement, our concrete foundation is cracking.  Wayne Homes came out to inspect, and they said that this is to be expected, and as long as they don't shift, we don't have to worry about it.  The cracks go in a stair like pattern along the mortor, and they also go straight through the center of the concrete bricks, ceiling to floor.    Anyone else have this issue?

We're pretty concerned about this next issue.  When my husband was installing his cabinets in the garage, he removed a section of the wall, and what we saw behind it was very disturbing.  We have mold (black in color, but not sure if it's black mold or not) crawling the entire wall.  How did that happen?  Is it behind more walls of our house?  We were told to put some bleach on it and that Wayne Homes would get back to us.  It's Wednesday, March 2, and we alerted Wayne Homes this past weekend, so we're hoping to hear back from them sooner than later. 

On top of the mold, we were disappointed to see that we did not have any insulation behind the wall, like we were told we would.  We spent a few hundred dollars during the build to insulate the garage ourselves with insulation we purchased from Home Depot so that our garage would be warm in the winter- my husband does a lot of work in the garage.  During the build, our project manager told us where the garage would be insulated and where it would not, so we insulated all of the areas that Wayne Homes would not be insulating.  Now that we see Wayne Homes did not insulate where we were told they would, we can understand why our garage has been so freezing cold!!!  Bummer!

First Year Utility Bills Wayne Home

We averaged all of our utilities for our first year. 

Gas Average: 59.60/month

-Winter Thermostat = 65

-Furnace

-Fireplace

Electricity Average: 89.76/month

-Summer Thermostat= 68

-AC

-Oven

-Water Heater

-Well

Energy Efficient = Rebates!! Or not...

We were looking forward to getting back come ca$h in rebates for our energy efficient products (central air conditioner, water heater & furnace) and we were sure we'd be eligible.  After all Wayne Homes does boast their energy smart guarantee.  Wellllllll, let's hope that the materials they used to build our home are more efficient than the products they installed in our home, because as it turns out we weren't eligible for any rebates.  I'll post a breakdown of our utility bills once we see how much of a hit we take for running our "not efficient enough to be eligible for an energy efficient rebate" air conditioner...




On a brighter note, the clothes washer and refrigerator we purchased ourselves WERE eligible!

2 Year Post Build Update: Our 2 year energy efficient guarantee earned us almost $600 back in a rebate!!  Glad we saved our statements for gas and electric.  To be honest, we didn't even think our bills are that high. 

Wayne Homes Warranty Work So Far...

Updates:

1. Our field manager no longer is working with Wayne Homes.  We give him a lot of credit juggling as many jobs as he did during our build.  At one time he was working 8 or 9 simultaneously! 

2. We have been using our warranty, and the warranty department at Wayne Homes has shown us excellent customer service so far.

Warranty Work That Has Been/Is Being Addressed:  Our warranty guy, Scott, is new, and he seems to be doing a nice job of jumping right in and getting the job done.  He even offered to come out to the house. 

* The painters came back and touched up all the things we noticed after we moved in (not the nail pops) just the things that were there when we did our walk through but we missed them.

* The painters painted the front door, fixed the dings (that were there before we moved plus one that was our fault.  Sweet!

* The leak in the pipe where the condensation from the furnace exits the house has been fixed by HVAC guy.

* The window company came and replaced a lever that stops the window from opening too far.  Nice safety feature!  It was broken when they installed the windows, and now it's good as new! 


* Mismatched Windows- We JUST noticed this!  It's like Where's Waldo.  Can you find the one that doesn't belong?

If you noticed the top half of the left window has six grids, whereas the others have nine, then you found it!  We noticed this on two different windows in our sun room.  The good news is that as soon as we told the warranty department and sent them a picture, they ordered us new replacements.  They should be replaced soon...  Update: They were!

That's it for warranty work so far.  We'll post next time with pictures of the exterior and all that we need to have done there!  Wowza!!! We have a lot of work ahead of us with the exterior.  It actually worked out, though.  We got the inside all nice, and now we can shift our focus to the yard.  To be continued...

Exterior Quotes/To Do List

Spring has arrived, and with that, a shift in focus from the interior of our new Wayne Home to the exterior.  Although, I guess that's only partially true since as I write this our painters (Galaxy Painting) are at the house painting the exterior front door and trim, as well as some of the things we noticed after we moved in.  Really, the interior touch ups are minor.

TIP: Ask your painter what brand/specific paint color/finish they used for the trim, walls (if you don’t already know,) and front door/trim so that if you ever need to touch it up down the road, you can get an exact match.  We only have a little extra white trim paint and house wall paint left over, so down the road it’ll be good to know what colors were used.  

TO DO LIST / QUOTES:  I'm including prices purely for those out there who are considering building.  There are a lot more costs that come up in addition to just building the house.  For anyone who is a numbers person like I am, it definitely helps to know what you're getting yourself into before you sign the papers to build.   

• GRASS: after getting a quote, we decided to buy a rototiller and do this ourselves.  Not sure what this'll cost us but it has to be significantly less than what we would have been charged to have someone else do it.  We got an estimate for sod, too.  Who affords that stuff?!!???  Surely not the route we're going to take to cover an acre of land! 

          UPDATE: We fought the yard, and the yard won.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to prep an entire acre and spread seed, not to mention watering it.  What were we thinking??!!  And we have a well- how would we ever water all this land???  Sooooo, we are looking at spending around $4,000 to have our lot hydro seeded, no watering necessary.  This is our cheapest quote so far- and you get what you pay for, so not sure what we're going to do.  We're waiting until the fall to make a decision.  Apparently, fall is the best time of year to put in a lawn, that is, if you don't mind spending the entire summer constantly cleaning the dirt tracks off of your floors. Update- we bought a cub cadet and did the work ourselves in the fall.  We still have about 1/2 acre left to do, but grass grew with little effort.  Lots of effort prepping it though.     

• LANDSCAPING: $22,000 (Our landscaper has some amazing ideas and multiple beds, but we'll probably do most of this ourselves a little at a time over the years)  We found a really amazing landscaper, though, who for $300 sat down with us and asked us a bunch of questions (about 30 or so) and from that developed a blueprint of the landscaping he suggests we go with.  The blueprint is the size of our dining room table, and is very detailed.  Everything is labeled, and we can plant things as we can afford them.  Eventually, we will  have things that will be blooming throughout the entire spring/summer/fall all at different times, like a fireworks show.  And it's all low maintenance which was a major priority.  It was worth it to have the ideas, but we probably won't be paying him to do the whole thing.  Unless we win the lottery. 

• ASPHALT DRIVEWAY: $8,500 (this is with a turn-around) Z's Driveway Maintenance out of New Castle

Update: They put in our driveway and left footprints on our newly poured concrete walkway.  They put two dents in our garage trim with their roller, and they chipped the concrete edge going into our garage the ENTIRE way across, AND they shorted us five feet for the area where we were planning to park our jet ski-as of now the jet ski won't fit.  They acknowledged their mistakes and will come back to give us the 5 feet they shorted us, but we're not sure what they plan to do about the rest.  We had to stop payment on their check until they came out and added the extra they shorted us, plus gave us $500 for the damage, which is fair.   Lesson Learned- You get what you pay for.  They were the cheapest.

• CONCRETE WALKWAY/STEPS TO FRONT DOOR: $2,000 and they're doing a patio, too, for that price!  Melnick is doing it.  He's local and has great reviews on HomeAdvisor.  We had to go with a concrete patio in our backyard because no one would bring a concrete mixer to our house for a tiny little walkway/two steps for less than $1200 so we figured at that point, hey, let's put the patio in for the little bit extra it'll cost us! 

Update: He did a beautiful job on our walkway to our front door.  The patio shape turned out amazing, however, the score lines he had his friend put in left chips going the whole way across in both directions.  He's offered to seal the score lines.  He did, and it looks much better.  The finish on the patio isn't amazing but they were so reasonably priced, we can't complain. 

• FENCE: $12,000- for 54'' tall aluminum fencing that covers our entire backyard (we have over an acre of land) and has three gates.  We're getting a great deal, but we figure this is still more than most people spend on fencing, due to the fact that we're needing over 600 feet of it. (Countryside Fence)   

• DECK: Andor, the family, and some friends will be doing this spring 2016.  $17,000 for Trex.  Huge deck wraps around the sunroom.  Wood deck would have been less than 1/3 that cost but would require a ton more upkeep down the road.   

• SHED: $1,500 Andor built it himself.

• SITTING WALL: $2,000 Stone from Nesbits's on Route 8.  Andor built it and even istalled lighting.  It is beautiful!!!

We're realizing it's all going to cost a lot of money.  We knew it would be a lot, but I mean A LOT!  Who knows how to estimate these things if you have no prior experience shopping for them?  Just some things to think about when examining your finances and deciding if you want to build a home where so much is left up to you after the home is built.  



TIP: If you want to have any of the above items paid for with your loan, you have to allow for it in your PPIs when you secure your loan.  We thought we'd have about $10,000 extra to put toward some of this stuff, but it turns out we ran out of money and have to finish paying our excavator out of our own pocket for a large portion of the final grading, French drain where the Wayne Homes drain comes out above ground and creates a swampy mess, rain drains that go underground to back of property, and spreading topsoil from our mountain in the backyard.  That being said, all of the items we're getting quotes for will be coming out of our savings...     

This is our topsoil.  It's a muddy mess right now.  I can't wait to have grass back there again!  

 That stream in the middle of the picture is where we need a French drain.  Wayne Homes went about 50 feet out from the back of our house, but it'll be up to us to do the rest. 

I'll post again later on in the spring/early summer, once we've made some progress on the exterior.  I'll include costs, as well as utility bill averages, and any warranty work, if it comes up.