From Randy Shaw.
Aspen Construction Brentwood
READ THIS BEFORE CONSIDERING BUYING A HOUSE FROM ASPEN:
I purchased a new construction Aspen home in September of 2017 and I am regretting that decision daily. Here are a few of the reasons that I regret the decision:
1. The punch list from closing is still incomplete after 10 months of living in the house. After over a month of waiting on Aspen to start the repairs I never heard from them. When I contacted them, they blamed an ex-employee and said they would start the repairs. The list is still not complete.
2. The 30 day warranty list has barely been started. The few repairs that have been attempted were very poorly done and left the house in worse condition. For example, my banister rails fall out off, my exterior doors wouldn’t lock properly, three of the exterior doors don’t seal against the weather stripping, trim molding pieces are missing in the Kitchen, a hole on the side of the house that isn’t sealed, and the list continues from there.
3. My second story balcony (that is over finished areas of the house) was not built to code and leaked water into the 1st floor walls and through the ceiling. I lost the use of the balcony since March 18, while Aspen has been attempting to repair the issue. The first fix was to pour over 2,000 lbs of mortar on the balcony to create a slope. After realizing this fix was not suitable for a rooftop balcony, all of the mortar had to be removed and a sloped subfloor was then installed (which also did not meet code as they did not use construction adhesive on the subfloor per the manufacturers installation guidelines). Aspen would not work with to ensure the railing would be correct after the repairs and now the fix looks like an after-thought. The balcony doors were raised to accommodate the raised flooring and I had gaping holes to the outside around the doors for over a month.
I travel frequently for work and have been trying to work with Aspen to get these repairs scheduled and completed but the workers continue to not show up. This issue was first identified on March 18th and I’m writing this review on July 1st and my house is still a construction zone. During inspection of the insulation in the first floor ceiling below the balcony, we found that there was no insulation installed at all.
Aside from the fact the house negligently built, the other big issue are the quality of repairs and crews that Aspen uses. I continually have to clean up debris and scrap material after workers leave. It was an inconvenience the first couple times, but after dozens of times it’s just poor practice. Their crews have been very inconsiderate showing up at 6pm on a Friday to re-install exterior doors (yes I didn’t have doors on my house and had to cancel plans to wait for a crew to come Friday night and install the doors). The crew began to install the doors backwards and beating them to force them into the opening. I couldn’t communicate with the workers as none of them spoke English. Of course the builder wasn’t present at 6pm on Friday night to oversee the work. The doors were replaced and they were hung without using shims (meaning the doors are not solid mounted, and under the threshold is completely open to the outside.
I cannot put into words how frustrating it is to purchase a new home and have such massive issues, then to have the builder not fix the issues correctly, and have the repairs drag out month, after month, after month.
I have tried to reach out to the owner of Aspen but he will not communicate with me. My home purchase was the largest financial decision of my life so far, and I wish there had been more reviews of Aspen for me to make a better home purchasing decision. I have spent more time and energy on this house, along with massive amounts of frustration and anger, than I would have if I bought a 1-2 year old house. My nightmare continues but yours does not have to start. You have options of builders to choose from, so choose wisely. I will update this post if the situation with the Aspen improves or gets worse.
