Pulte Homes

The last couple of days they have had to rip out drywall from the furnace room, pantry, toilet closet, linen closet and laundry room. All because when the worker put the baseboard on in the furnace room he drove the nails through the baseboard and into the condensation pipe that resulted in a significant hole that had been leaking under the ceramic tile since before the closing. Pulte has nothing but unskilled workers that don’t take any pride in their work. No one speaks English, so you can’t even communicate with them. If you are even considering building with Pulte don’t…It will be the biggest financial mistake of your life.

Original Review: My husband and I recently closed on our new house in Stone Creek, a 55+ Community in Ocala, Florida. I am horrified by the poor workmanship from the beginning of construction to the end. No one reads the plans. We paid $266 per square foot for this mess. The first thing that happened is the kitchen window opening was bricked for a much larger window, so they had to fix that. Then they had to dig up our foundation in the kitchen area because the piping under the cement collapsed and they couldn't run the wiring through. They promised a letter from an architect certifying the floor repair has been done properly with a guarantee, and that still hasn't happened. Lots of mistakes throughout the framing process, that if my husband had not pointed them out, they would not have been fixed.

The thermostat wiring was put in the wrong area of the house and noted long before the drywall was up, but they waited months, and then after the painting was done, to pull the wire up in the attic and fish it through another wall, which of course involved making another hole in the painted walls. The electrical box for the dining room light was not centered in the room, it was about a foot off. They were told long before the drywall went up, but of course, they waited until after the ceiling was drywalled and painted to move it only to put in the wrong light box, which then had to be changed out to be able to actually hold a light fixture on it, but they had to go through the attic to finally get it fixed.

While installing the air conditioning vents in the ceiling, there were several vents that the plaster just fell off around vents when they were screwing them in. They had to replaster and did a terrible job on several of the vents and had to replaster an entire seam of plaster that cracked between the dining room and kitchen. They ordered the wrong size kitchen cabinets over the refrigerator area and damaged another cabinet which was repaired and not replaced, because they put the granite countertop in too soon. Lots of dings in the cabinetry and they never painted an entire section of the walls above the kitchen cabinets.

After closing, we began to clean what they didn't, which was everything, and we were appalled that there is paint spray and caulking on every surface in the house including the carpet in the bedrooms. It amazed us that after the floors and carpets were in, that the flooring was not covered especially with all the work that still needed to be done. After my many complaints, they finally had the workers put on booties, but that was a complete waste of time. The workers put on the booties, but then they walked outside in the mud and then back in the house again never removing the booties in the meantime. Oh, and the painters painted along the top of the tub in guest bathroom...who does that? It took me hours to scrape the paint off only to find that they didn't bother to caulk it.

The front door is not lined up properly and you can hear the wind whistling through it. They have been there twice to fix it, still not fixed. And they neglected to put fur stripping on the sliding glass doors, so the bugs are free to just walk in. The keys didn't work, it took them twice before they worked. Oh, and the "day of closing" they spilled a bucket of water in the master bathroom that ran into the master closet. We closed on Friday, February 24th and after an entire weekend of cleaning up water, I demanded the carpet be ripped up and replaced. Good thing it wasn't replaced yet because after we thought it was all dry, last night after 7 days of drying out the closet area, water is now seeping out from under the ceramic tile at the threshold of the master closet. I guess there is still water under the ceramic tile...

They say they have a customer care department, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what they look at or care about. My husband and I have decided as far as the painting that needs to be touched up throughout the entire house and all the flat surfaces such as baseboards and trim that they just painted over debris, caulking and plaster, we will make the repairs. We can only hope they have the decency to give us the paint to do so. The thought of having any of the finish workers in my home again gives me nightmares.

Josh is the boss. Never been to the site for toilets, faucets, doorways shower ramps, and windows. They refused to do it, I gave them the first check in November. House was not started. Then the second check in Dec 3, 2022, and the house was just started two weeks ago. He gave them the option to move to a new county where there will be lots available and they can do it. Then he said after the home is done. I can have it done by hiring my own. They refuse to discount the home. Before you buy from them, josh called headquarters of Atlanta which Atlanta Georgia has different rules.

Around closing time after inspection upon bringing it to the managers attention was simply told that just because the inspector points out something during the inspection does not mean they are legally bound to fix it. Communication was also not great during the construction phase. Have not lived in house yet since we are out of state residents so cannot yet comment on the build quality.

On 1/14/2023 I called Ruben **, Jr. (sales) and he said they haven’t had an inspection of the house yet, but they do use 3rd party inspectors. I asked for the county inspector contact information who came out and approved the foundation, frame, electrical, and plumbing and he said they haven’t had the frame inspected yet. He refused to give me any details of who has inspected the house this far in the building process nor would he answer questions regarding any country inspections done thus far. He instead talked with his manager (no name given) and they said they would pay for me to have my own 3rd party inspector come out and review the property and they will fix any issues found.

I told them I don’t want anything fixed/patched/treated, it’s uninhabitable and they need to start new or refund my earnest money. I told him I’m not buying a home with a severely cracked foundation, rotting frame, and black mold which is likely in the pipes by now. He said neither I nor my friends are allowed to contact him going forward, his manager will advise me of next steps if we decide to seek legal advice. These people are shady to the core and do NOT recommend.

One day I met with Pulte's warranty manager just outside of our home on the way to my work on 22nd December and I described to him the situation verbally. He replied that you have to email for a service request. On that same day I opened another Emergency service request along with an email. But very unfortunately nobody came to fix that issue. I called several times to their Emergency Contact person and even left several voicemails. They called back 2 days after I sent the email and replied that they are unable to do any work because of upcoming holidays.

From 22nd to 25th December when temperature was under minus (-16) and frigid we spent horrible time without hot water!! I was supposed to call 911 in that situation but my wife said no as it was Holiday time. On 30th December one mechanic came to fix that Boiler and he said it is totally out of order and defective. I am wondering how they installed that dummy and defective machine. We are still out of Hot water. The mechanic was supposed to install another new Boiler today but yet not!!! That's how the renowned builder works.

Two weeks later, the contractor showed up with more than 300 sq ft of flooring to redo our kitchen. I asked, why would you show up with this much flooring if there is one spot buckling? he replied, “They didn’t tell you? This unit had severe water damage before it closed.” We were not told. In fact Pulte and our builder lied directly to our face about this. Just before closing, while installing pantry shelving Pulte builders nicked the water line to our fridge. This led to an over-weekend flood of our finished first floor and standing water that soaked into the drywall, doors, and finishes.

Pulte, lifted a couple planks turned a fan on, replaced the molding to hide the soaked drywall and proceeded to close with us about 2 weeks later. The floor technician told me they had product in a warehouse for our unit because they were “waiting to hear from us”. When I discovered the wet concrete under our floor boards in July I asked them to remove all of the flooring- we found soaked concrete. We pulled the molding off, found crumbling drywall.

We lived on concrete, dusted floors with a dehumidifier until September 2021, when they finally had the material in to replace the water damaged floor. During that time, I requested compensation for the cost of our mortgage payments while living in construction. Pulte refused and said the best they could do was a $100 gift card.

I have been in conversations between our lawyers for over a year at this point. Pulte still owes us thousands from when we lived in a hotel for 10 days while they remediated the unit. They finally released the restoration images to us and turns out for the first 3 months in our brand new home, we were living with growing mold.

Pulte had NO intention of informing us of the damage THEY caused while building our home. I discovered (luckily) early on what they had done. The evidence of them trying to hide this (from ordering addition supplies to “hold just in case” specific to our unit) proves they knew there would be a claim. They were going to just pull the floor up and replace it had I not called inspection in to find the level of damage to our walls and doors. This would have left the mold growing in our walls. Almost everything on our first floor was torn out and replaced. (You can see the map of damage in the drawing)

Now, Pulte refuses to share completion of work documents and has been pressuring us into an NDA without it. We have asked for compensation for the time we lived in concrete and mold, our pay for relocation and legal fees. Pulte barely answers our lawyer and refuses to help with the future damage in equity this has on our unit (stigma damage).

I want to protect other local residents from this horrible company. If they built your house, get it checked. If you’re looking to build, do NOT go with them. They have not compensated us for the damage and TIME spent remediating this mistake, and we will continue to pursue legal action so they are held accountable.