S from Calgary

I am revising my review as I see I am not the only one who has had the misfortune of dealing with this builder. It's been nothing short of a nightmare. I got my house in December 2013. My list is too long to review here but some of the issues include ongoing problems with hardwood flooring, two different colored tiles in my kitchen, plumbing leaks, a gas leak, walls that are not level, a dishwasher and hoodfan venting we had to install ourselves, a spider crack in the main bath that has been patched ect ect. I won't bother with "quality" of work as I am in complete agreement with the negative reviews here. But I will focus on my hardwood floors. I sympathize with "Kari from Calgary" as I have gone through the exact same thing. My floors started cupping and splitting in about April 2014. I contacted the builder and the hardwood floor company many many times. . What I got was a few fixes with hardwood that wasn't even of the same finish. When I pointed that out, I was told it would blend together and the floors would settle down. It never did and when I approached the builder again they told me to contact Alberta New Home Warranty. During their inspection, with the head of Stepper Warranty by their side (they knew each other), I got asked if I ran the fan during and after a shower ( twice always), if i ran my hoodfan when I cooked (always as I have a gas stove), how many plants I had (one) and if I got condensation on my windows (no, because I triple paned my windows). The guy didn't even bring any tools/ equipment. He let Stepper's rep do that. He also made it very clear that if I tried to dispute his decisions, it would cost me thousands of dollars to do so. How is that a non-biased assessment?? I have supporting evidence that my house was framed and insulated WITHOUT being wrapped and it was rained on. That means the moisture had gotten into the walls and wicked to my subfloors!! After my subfloors dried, the hardwood never recovered. Based on these questions, I recieved a report from ANHWP stating that my floors were cupping and splitting due to "lifestyle factors that were beyond the builder's control". I tried contacting ANHWP quite a few times but no one will return any emails or calls telling me what these so called "lifestyle issues" are. Thats because there is no answer. I have no pets or children. I dry mop the floor and kept the humidity at the level told to me by the builder. I did everything that was asked of me. I even went as far as to rent a dehumidifier. I've had many reps from hardwood companies come out to see what I could do. Every single one of them was shocked that Stepper actually thought this was acceptable. It is now going to cost me thousands of dollars to fix a floor I had already paid for. As far as "Rick from Calgary" review goes, its ridiculous. He thinks everyone should be actively involved and visit the site regularly. First of all we pay these builders good money to do the right thing. Not everyone has a schedule that allows them to visit often. Why should we babysit them? Second most of us don't know much about construction so we rely on the so called expertise of the builder. Having said that, we visited the site EVERY DAY and things still went very wrong. Disregard his rantings. But pay close attention to the builder you pick. If you want to spend thousands fixing your NEW house, then this is the builder for you. If you still chose to build with this company after reading the reviews, then the fault is yours.