Friday, October 3, 2014

People Planning to Paint - Please Read!

Hi everyone!

I know a lot of people are thinking about painting their homes once they move in, so I wanted to share something that our PM told us in case you aren't aware (since we weren't until yesterday). Apparently, if you paint your walls it voids the warranty on all of the walls that are painted. Our PM said it wouldn't cover ANYTHING that happens to those walls including nail pops and warping. Even if your drywall mysteriously ripped in half it wouldn't be covered.

I know this sounds completely ridiculous, but it's definitely something worth looking into. We even asked a friend of ours who built a Ryan Home in a different community and he said they told him the same thing. It's definitely possible that this is only true in certain communities but I'd just check with your PM directly.

With that said, we will not be painting unless he tells us he was wrong about this for some reason (but he was REALLY confident in his answer). Some of you are aware that we bought paint, and I know some other people bought paint as well, and the good news is, is that unopened paint can last 10-15 years as long as it's stored in normal temperatures (no unifished basement areas, garages, etc where it can freeze and fluctuate a lot in temperature). At least, that's what several Google links told me.


In other news:

My boyfriend headed down to the house yesterday to meet up with our PM. We had seen a few problems here and there so we wanted to address them with him. Here's a list of some of the problems we saw and his reponse:

  • Crack in molding above big window (exterior of house)
    • He ordered a new piece and it's already on site. They'll replace the broken one
  • A big cut in the ceiling of the basement
    • Noticed that there was a lump in the floor -  they realized the beam used in the floor has a small bump in it so they had to cut the drywall, cut off that bump, and installed another support beam)
  • Vent on outside of house still crooked
    • He'll have it fixed - siding crew was supposed to do it but they didn't
  • 4 footers for deck (we thought there would be more than that since a friend of ours had 8 for his)
    • We only need 4 footers
  • I thought we were getting recessed lights on our porch??
    • Admitted they missed this on the blueprints. This was already corrected yesterday.
  • Drywall looking bad on one wall in the basement
    • Because they were cutting and removing beams in the basement ceiling they had to cut the drywall tape on a wall connected to it so it would relieve the pressure. If they didn't do that then the drywall could rip. This will be fixed
  • Cabinets - some drawers look pretty crooked
    • These will be fixed towards the end - he explained the last two weeks are used for the detailed work so everything is perfect
  • Mudroom door - looks like it was installed incorrectly according to the plans of the house.
    • It was - he'll fix it
Our PM also let my boyfriend know that the deck we were going to get was out of stock and wouldn't be available in time for the house to be finished. Now they're giving us the highest tier of trex decking which is pretty awesome! So now we're getting the Transcend tier in "Tree House" with white railings. In a perfect world I would like a little dark of a color but I really can't complain. We're getting a really good deal on this deck (For a refresher on price see this Blog post). We're still paying the same price but now we're getting actual Trex (not GeoDeck - see this post), and now we're getting their best tier of decking which not only is better with fading and strength, but it has a nicer grain with more depth! Saaweeet!

Tree house (Source: trex.com)

Our vinyl flooring was also installed (foyer, kitchen, morning room) yesterday. As many of you know, we are planning on replacing the vinyl with these beautiful laminate planks when we move in:

They're a little darker in person

Now we're concerned that these may void some type of warranty (like the paint does with walls). I'm REALLY hoping it doesn't, or it would only void the warranty of the vinyl, in which case, we obviously wouldn't care.

Overall, things are going well! We love our PM and I love that he admits to things that he misses. I have much more respect for someone who says "We missed those recessed lights, but they will be fixed," than someone trying to play it off and make an excuse. Nobody's perfect, so little things like that don't botter us, especially because he gets the job done and gets it done well and fast.
 

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for the information....that is crazy but I am not surprised. I will be sure to check with our PM as well. I believe our home comes with a nice color already but I know I wanted to paint something! If I have to wait it out...it wont be the end of the world...right? LOL

    Nice to know your action items were taken care of and your PM is responsive to things of concern.

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    1. Yea.. I wasn't too surprised. I just think it's stupid! It's just paint! Oh well. I may see if I can paint some doors to get some color in the house. We'll see.

      Yea, he's awesome! Hope everything with you guys is going well!

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  2. I would go over his head to find out for sure. That just sounds ridiculous, we all know paint will have no effect on getting or not getting nail pops. Does he realize the walls are painted when you move in? I'm sure i'm preaching to the choir on this.

    We've talked a few times with our PM as well as our sales rep, about how many people paint soon after moving in. The only thing we were ever told was to save some extra paint, because after they repair any nail pops, they will only prime it if it had been painted. We'll find out for sure.

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    1. He was REALLY confident in his answer. A friend of ours who built a Ryan Home in a different community was told the same thing. I think it's beyond ridiculous but I'm honestly not surprised. I guess your warranty just covers the walls as they left them (and paint changes that).

      I would at least check with your PM (not your sales rep) because he'll be the one more likely to fix the problems and your sales rep won't have anything to do with it.

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  3. I too think that sounds a little goofy. I know everyone who I speak to in our community who are already in their homes have painted. I don't think paint would void a warranty. Either way I will ask as well.

    I still probably won't be painting until we close... At the pace we are going maybe 2015! Lol!

    Its good to see you are staying on top of things. I plan to do the exact same thing.

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    1. It is DEFINITELY goofy! The PM was very confident in his answer though. Like I said, it could differ between communities but I'd double check.

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  4. Hmmm... that sounds pretty wonky to me about not being able to paint. Our SR and PM told us that when they make repairs throughout the year that they would need extra paint if we painted after we moved in. They never mentioned the warranty stuff. I will let you know what our PM says!

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    1. Lol! Hmmm. Now I'm starting to doubt things since all of you are saying it's fine to paint .. Maybe our community is just weird?? Idk. We'll have to ask again.

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  5. From what I understand, every community is different. We were told both yes it will void the drywall warranty and no it won't. We have both in writing so technically I think we would be OK, but I have no doubt it would come with a battle. Check about the flooring too- think about if, if a floor board would come up in the area you guys replaced the floor, how can you prove it wasn't because of your secondary floor? I'm totally not taking their side (read my blog and you would know, haha!) but I'm just thinking of other things i have had a warranty on that I could void myself! The drywall warranty would not be worth it to void. I promise, you'll get in your new home and in about two months you will look and say "oh, one nail pop here and there" and think all is well. It was about month 4 for us that it went nuts with pops, seams and a few cracks- and more everyday. I'm gonna have to buy the value pack of blue tape at this point to mark em and we still have 4 more months! Hope this helps- I know it's totally frustrating, but I promise, there is SO many other things to do in the house in the first year! I have about 4,000 things on my list still to do before I actually would want to paint now! And trust me! I reaaaallllllyyyyyy want to paint :)

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    1. Thanks Chrissie! I really appreciate your input, and definitely know you're not siding with Ryan! haha! Once he told us about it voiding the warranty we both agreed it would be best to wait because I we'd have to fight them to fix every nail pop if we did (like you said!). Totally not worth it to me!

      The closer we get to closing the more I can see how busy we're going to be so I'm kind of relieved that painting is off the list for awhile! Especially, since you said that you guys have that many nail pops!

      As for the flooring, I 100% get what you're saying, but my heart has been so set on replacing the floors that I'm ignoring my common sense right now! I still haven't decided what we're going to do with the floor but we reached out to our PM to ask him about it so I'm gonna see what he says.

      Thanks again for your input! It's nice to hear from someone who has been through most of this process already!

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  6. We are currently building our 2nd Ryan Home. We painted when we moved into our previous home and there was not problem with them fixing nail pops etc. They just don't repaint your walls...you have to save pain and paint over the marks yourself.

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    1. Thanks! It seems like this is the norm in most communities, but we're still be tolding that it completely voids our warranty. I guess it varies by community? Who knows .. we're not going to risk it since our PM has been very confident in this statement, at least for our community.

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    2. That sucks :( Oh well, your house totally looks beautiful!

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    3. Tell me about it! haha! But thank you!

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  7. Love your blog! We built a Florence 3 years ago and are thinking about building the Palermo with third car garage. We were able to paint when we moved in as well. They just cover with white flat paint, not the color you used. So our basement and upstairs stairwells did stink! They had 200 nail pops between the two. So lots of touch ups. That is crazy they say it voids warranty!

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