Van Solkema Custom Home Builders

We came from out of state and we were new in the area and we were looking for builders. This company had developed a small neighborhood. We felt that the work looked good. Unfortunately none of the neighbors would come clean with us. Before we even put money down the builder started to break ground. Out arrorney had done some research and found some issues so we had legal rights to get out of the deal. We decided to go ahead with the work anyway. My husband's job brought us here. We were living seperately as a family for over a year, and we just wanted to get our home built and be together again. We felt there were things that were being done incorrectly, but he would become rude when we would approach him. We were told we could move into the house in Jan., 2009, but had to live in the basement for six months. The home inspector found over 100 issues. He stated he'd never seen a home with this many issues. The contractor did work with us and most of the issues were taken care of. The drywall in the house had to be done 3 or 4 times and repainted each time. We were told by the initial drywalling company that the drywall had never dried completely. There were hundreds of nailheads coming through the plaster. He used my in-house vacuum to clean and suck up the debris which voided the warranty. I asked him not to lay carpet, but he did while the painting and drywall was being done and some of the carpet was ruined. The sink is dented, but they couldn't replace it because they would have to take out the granite countertops. Our Wolf oven was dented. Our walnut floors were not finished correctly. The floor was ruined and it took four months to replace. The roofing wasn't done correctly. There was a leak in the roof and he tried fixing it with gutters. The inspector said it wouldn't hold. I spoke with another contractor who told us what had to be done. Our contractor didn't get it fixed until the third time. Gutters were falling off of the house. Somebody walked in the stamped concrete and ruined it. He replaced parts of the driveway, but had to hire someone else to do it because the original subcontractor wouldn't work with him anymore, so the sections of driveway all look different. They tried to cover it up and it turned out really dark. The concrete in the front of the house was laid when it was cold and is cracking and breaking. Tile in the mudroom was cracked, scratched, and broken. The yard was never cleaned when they were done. There was personal and work debris scattered all around the yard. He used our property to plant show trees for his home. We asked him to remove them, and he finally did, but put up a fight. We have a pond in the back of the house that you can draw water from to water the lawn. We were told that the pump should remain outside because it would be unsafe to be in the house, but he had fought us to put it in the house. We have a toilet in an upstairs bathroom that was never centered. The home inspector pointed that out. The contractor just shrugged when I mentioned it. Holes were in walls from furniture being pushed into it. There was a gas leak in the laundry room. Our furnace and our ductwork was so terribly dirty when we moved in because when they were doing the drywall and doing the furnace to dry it. They had to have a company come in and clean all of the ductwork because of that. The formal ceiling in our living room is wavy and when I approached him about that with a solution that would save time and money. He was supposed to absorb the cost of the repair, but told the subcontractor that he would just raise the price. The subcontractor refused to do the work. We had heard from several of the subcontractors that he had said just to do the work that we had the money and they'd get paid. A wooden porch was put on the back of the house and the wood slats for the overhang were not put up securely. I had to have someone else come out to redo that. Aside from the obvious problems, the building in general from the craftsmanship to the materials is just of poor quality unless I personally chose it. Whatever the builder chose to use was poor quality. We then realized he'd been taking our money for his personal interests rather than paying his subcontractors. We had a lien put against us by 3 subcontractors because of this. We have filed litigation against the contractor and he currently has cases by six subcontractors who he has not paid. We have since met other families that have been hurt in a similar manner by this contractor.