Posted by Wes Johnson One-half of our original home was literally dropped onto the highway when the tongue fell off during transport! Needless to say, that caused some damage. If that and the leak described above didn’t ruin our new home, however, the first set up crew did. The damage occurred because the crew underestimated the weight of the home, and used only two sets of rollers and ramps to slide the two halves together, when they should have used at least four sets to properly distribute the weight. When they severely bent our frame, they attempted to conceal the damage by stacking a pile of concrete blocks around the location of the bend. We found out because the company owner had his child playing at the work site, and the child mentioned something he had overhead among the workers, much to his father’s consternation. When we found the damage and began to investigate, we also discovered this contractor – who the dealer said was "the best in the business" – wasn’t even licensed by the state to set up manufactured homes! The result of all those twisted I-beams was that the exterior walls had noticeable leans to them – some by as much as 1" from top to bottom. It was so bad, I could tell it with the naked eye from both inside and outside the house, although Spanky (our Clayton Homes Regional Manager) swore he couldn’t see it. He couldn’t deny what my four foot level indicated, however, when it was placed against the wall (although he did suggest on multiple occasions that the brand new Craftsman® level was "defective"). The walls were leaning. There was even a discernible bulge in the exterior wall near where the tongue fell off our home in transit – as though the studs actually buckled there behind the OSB wrap when the home’s frame literally hit the roadway. There were also similar bulges in our floor where the set up crew mangled our frame. While discussing our home’s supporting structure and set up crew follies, consider our piers and pier supports. Our dealer tried to set up our home on a foundation that hadn’t even dried yet. We had to demand the workers wait until the concrete had time to dry. Our set up crew then went by the wrong plans and put many of our support piers in the wrong locations! It was only after our first set up crew damaged that home badly during set up that a second house had to be brought out, that the second set up crew (we insisted on different workers) noticed that a number of piers were in the wrong locations. So had it not been for this extra mishap, we could have missed the fact our home wasn’t properly set up until after our set up warranty had expired and our floors and roof were sagging. Sadly, however, even this second set up crew made terrible blunders – they even used broken concrete blocks to construct some of our home’s support piers! Speaking of structural integrity, walking between the two halves of our original manufactured home, we were aghast at the condition of the lumber. Many studs had huge cracks running for several feet, extending from one edge of the board to the other (which renders the board virtually useless from a structural point of view). Others looked like they had been chewed at by an army of rats, or had two rounded off corners because they came from too close to the outer edge of the tree. Still others had large knotholes near the center of them. All of these defects combine to make your house weaker – in terms of roof load capacity, in the ability to withstand wind, and resisting the effects of settling. To see some examples of these problems, go to http://www.manufacturedhomebuyers.com/lumber.htm. In one picture, a knothole big enough to poke your finger into rests between two rounded off corners of a stud – can this board support the weight an engineer expects it to? Could these problems have resulted from transportation stress on already inferior lumber? To me, that seems like a likely explanation. The factory couldn’t give any rationalization, but everyone agreed this lumber was unacceptable when presented with the pictures. There is a workable solution for this, but very few customers will ever see this part of their home – that is, they won’t even know the problem exists! Another quality problem which was either due to fraud or further negligence struck me as one of the most egregious. This was another hidden defect, and one which flew in the face of something we had repeatedly stressed the importance of to both the dealer and manufacturer: energy efficiency. My wife and I paid for R-28 insulation in our roof (the factory had paperwork to "prove" we received that, too), which would have been 9.43" of insulation. What we actually received was 3" to 4" of insulation on average, with some areas which had no insulation. The actual R-value we received was a factor of 10 or less. (It wasn’t even the same type of insulation as our Consumer Insulation Information sheet listed.) The factory claimed it was a "fluke," but the standard R-value for this manufacturer in this region is R-11. I believe in the law of parsimony: the simplest explanation is the most likely one. We received approximately what they normally put in, and there was no bizarre coincidence. Was a factory worker just not paying attention to the order form? If so, how many other homeowners get shortchanged in the same manner without ever knowing? I talked with every set up employee who was willing to discuss it, and the consensus was that this is business as usual: our situation was typical rather than the exception to the rule. You can find out about what is hidden in your home before sky high utility bills break the bank, and you can have it fixed properly if you know what to do. We noticed on our walk-through that the fireplace did not seem to be seated properly – as though it had shifted in transit. Looking in the bottom, I saw a considerable amount of ceiling insulation (in this case, cellulose, which looks like crumpled up tan/brown cardboard with bits of cut up paper in it). Laying on my back and looking up the flu, it was obvious that it had an opening several feet up where it wasn’t properly connected. Sparks and flame could have entered our wall cavities or roof. We took photographs, and made sure the fireplace was properly repaired. A Clayton Homes / Luv Homes employee joked it was too bad for us we caught this problem because if we had kindled a fire we could have gotten a new home for free. Since we may have lost our lives, that was not really a chance we wanted to take. To sum up, we were left with no less than three separate bent areas in our frame by the "best" in the business, which produced bulges in our floors and walls. We paid for R-28 insulation in our roof, which would have been 9.43" of Rockwool insulation. What we actually received was 3" to 4" of cellulose insulation on average, with some areas which had no insulation. The factory claimed it was a "fluke" (just as they did when the tongue fell off our new home during delivery. We suffered through leak after leak, and all the resulting damage. For every problem listed here, I could name a half dozen more that other consumers as well as my wife and I have faced. The general manager of the local dealership claimed all the mistakes on our home were "bad karma." Perhaps he should consider that karma is the direct result of our own past actions (or that you reap what you sow). The set up folks said they were just glad to see us in the rear view mirror. Knowledge is power, so don’t be caught short of it regarding what may be the largest single purchase of your life. Manufactured home dealers count on customer ignorance to make the majority of their sales and their profit. That's why I wrote The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook, http://www.manufacturedhomebuyers.com/. The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook also strives to illustrate ways to save money. That’s the single most important reason people turn to manufactured housing. A relatively inexpensive home in and of itself does not automatically translate into savings, however. You have to first make sure the home you purchase will be properly built and set up, and energy efficient enough so that you can afford the utility bills. Then you have to be careful the dealer doesn’t take financial advantage of you, and finally you have to fight to make sure your loan is competitive. Through all of this, the burden weighs solely on the consumer. The sheer number of repossessions in this industry illustrates that no one else has been looking out for the consumer – the dealers or the finance companies certainly haven’t been. Then there are a hundred other ways to save money, from wisely choosing home options, to making extra payments when you can, to adding extra insulation, or doing some of the work yourself. You can defeat the industry at their own game even though the deck seems stacked against you; if you know what to ask for, what to look for, and how to deal with the system. If you are willing to exercise due diligence, purchasing a manufactured home is a splendid way to get a lot more home for considerably less money. The knowledge you need is here, if you provide the required tenacity you too can swim with the sharks and end up feasting on shark steaks! Link: The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook
on 3/8/2005, 2:51 pm
209.215.39.7
Most of our interior doors also developed splits within days of our moving in. Someone came all the way from Tennessee to our house with new doors in the back of their pick-up truck – in a driving rainstorm. The new doors were probably ruined anyway, but the Clayton representative claimed he replaced the old doors. In fact, we had been discreetly watching him from a distance – all he really did was smear putty in the cracks. A cosmetic patch for a structural deficit which was a temporary fix at best – but enough to perhaps survive the length of the warranty. By no means was the outright deception over, however.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread