My new Norris 150+ defects

[Dan]

Took delivery of my new Norris by Clayton in Aug .
76x32. Paid extra to have all the nice little extras. Gold package
2x6 sidewalls, Roof trusses every 16” instead of the standard 24” R22/19/30 insulation.
25oz carpet. OSB wrap, Architectural shingles.
It should have been a very nice house.
My list of defects exceeds 150 items. Most things are small. Some are major.
I haven’t moved in yet. Waiting for repairs to be completed first or ???. Im very confident my dealer will take care of most things. My dealer did seemed a little set back by the length of my list. He has contacted the factory about it. Hey! What can I say, They sent me a lemon! I’m in the process of trying to get a response from them about the major defects, which are walls and doorways being noticeably out of square.
Every interior wall of the back section is off.
I’m considering about asking them to replace the house since the walls are off square.
I would be interested in hearing anyone’s thoughts on this.
I’m in the process of putting pictures of the house in an online photo album.
You can see them at http://photos.yahoo.com/dan_d_daniel
Check back later for more photo’s as things progress.
Thanks
Dan

[rmurray]

Looks like the quality control manager was on break when your home went by his/her station....I looked at your photos..and saw nothing major that cannot be easily corrected...there are many here who would die for these simple problems....Looks like the dealer did not have a very good final finish crew....You have made the repair job easy with all the detail and photos....Save you portfolio of pics....you can use them if you ever want to apply a Quality Control manager of a manufactured home plant...Looks like a few more hours in final finish at the plant would have gone a long way....some of the loose molding is from moving the home and a good dealer finish crew would have found and corrected many of these...some of these are directly caused by the dealer finish crew....Has the dealer sent someone to take care of his problems??....It is interesting that the first thing he does is call the plant...He should have sent a crew and take care of 100 of these items in a few hours of work....Leave the stick notes up ..will make it easier to find all problems....Your are right not to accept the home until you are fully satisfied......

Keep us informed

[David Oxhandler]

From the photos you put on line it looks like a beautiful home. It is really difficult to tell what the problems are from the photos. It sounds like the biggest problem you have is that the home may be out of level. If your finding walls, windows and doors out of square it is most likely that the home is simply racked. If so, this is usually the reasonability of the dealer/installer and a good re-leveling will cure most of your difficulties. The rest sounds like cosmetics that should be easily remedied by the builder.

Regardless of where or how built all new structures require a "shake down" period. Give the dealer and builder. Write a numbered list of all the problems. After you have listed each problem then list the dates and names of the people at the dealership and the manufacturer that you spoke to about the problems.

Also be sure to include:

Your name, address and a telephone number where you can be reached during the day
The name of the manufacturer
The serial number and model number of your home
The HUD label number (the red tag on the back of the home)
The date purchased
The name of the retail business who sold you the home.
Copies of any correspondence or contacts with the retailer and the manufacturer to resolve the problem.
Make copies of this letter. Keep one and send a copy by Certified Mail Return Receipt to:

-1- The Dealership where you purchased the home

-2- The Manufacturer of the home

Maintain a log of the dates that service men came to your home and what they did during that visit. If the problems are left unresolved then you need to contact the state agency where you live that administers the federal code regulating manufactured housing. You can find the contact information for that agency on our site at www.mfdhousing.com/saa

[Dan]

Thanks Guys for your guidance.
I will be sure to keep records of the repair progress, in case I need it later.
I believe the walls were built crooked, as well as the doorways though.
I have many more pictures to add but it’s a slow process with dialup.
~Dan

[Eugene]

Boy,
Most plants would fire the QC manager who let a home leave the factory like that. RMurray is right, you have a lot of easily correctable items, of those you can see. I hope your real problems aren't hidden.
Anyway, The biggest problem you have is the toilet placement. this is a pretty involved repair. The condition as exists today, is a HUD code violation.

David is write, document and give the dealer and manufacture the list. They should be able to fix things, as for buyiong the home back, that happens pretty rarely. I won't expect that to happen.

[joe]

Wow, I looked at the pictures. This is shoddy craftmanship. It makes me wonder about the structure of this place. Why not drywall thruout?. To anybody considering a clayton home buyer beware.

Joe

[Dan]

Hi Guys!
I will be moving into my house this weekend.
Finally got most of the defects corrected.
Two bigshots from the factory had come out to look at the house. As I pointed out their defects they either didn’t say anything or just blew smoke. For example #1
I had told them they need to caulk the backside of their sinks to keep water out of the cabinets. They said no water could get into the cabinets because the have plumbers putty under the sinks.
My pictures show holes into the cabinets at the backside of the sinks!
#2 I told them about all the walls being crooked on one half of the house. They set the first wall crooked and measured off it to set the rest, which put them all off.
They measured one of the rooms at two points to show me it was the same measurement. Of course the measurement is going to be close. Both walls were crooked, but at the same angle with each other. They needed to use a big square to measure it with.
During the last week, The dealer sent out 2 or 3 guys, three different days and the factory sent out 2 guys for three days. The dealer guys had also worked a number of days before this. Screwing everything up they touched of course.
All the repair guys had nice personalities. Unlike the setup crew, another story in itself. Unfortunately the dealer guys were not very skilled and I wished I had done some of the repairs they screwed up, myself. The factory guys did mostly good work but took shortcuts sometimes, which still gave me bad results. I had to be looking over everyone’s shoulder to get them to do a decent job.
I felt uncomfortable having to be a mother hen but I had no choice. There was a difference in the quality of work if I wasn’t watching.
The factory guys somewhat corrected 4 of the doorways that were crooked while I was away. It was really starting to irritate me that they couldn’t get my doorways straight and square.
The last doorway to be corrected was the one between the utility room and the den. They had left for the day, but I wanted to see for myself what the problem was with the doorways. Why is it so hard to correct them??? I took the trim off both sides of the doorway to see. Pictures # Norris_0135D to Norris_0135H.
Apparently they leave a gap around the doorways and windows for flexibility while moving the houses. I would guess.
The top face board of the doorway was sagging down for no apparent reason. The right side top had a gap between the framing lumber and face board with a nail brad holding the face board out. The left side had balls of dried glue holding it off level.
The framing lumber around the doorway was almost perfectly square, level and straight. There was no reason for the face boards to be so crooked.
The next day the factory guys showed up. I told them I had removed the trim from around the doorway so I could see what the problem was. I asked them to replace the face boards since there was some new ones available.
Now it becomes clear why the doorways are so crooked.
The guy cuts the 2 side face boards first and tacks them up. Next he cuts the top piece and sticks it up on top. There is a ½” gap above the top face board and door frame. It doesn’t look level. He’s ready to tack it on also.
I say, hold it a minute! I stick a level on the top piece and its off level. One of the side face boards is 1/8” shorter than the other.
Next I use a long level as a straight edge along the sides. One side is bowed in and needs a shim behind it. He puts the shim in, but vertically positioned. I say, let put it in a horizontal position so the face board doesn’t twist later.
My conclusion is- At the factory “ These guys don’t use straight edges or levels to check their work.”
Also when they cut something. “That’s it” They don’t make a correction if it doesn’t fit correctly.
Anyway, Im glad I had a good dealer who was willing to correct the problems that he could. The home looks pretty good now.
After 6 weeks of nothing but stress and frustration.
Finally im starting to feel excited about buying a new home.
~Dan