Atkinson General Contracting Ripoff! Improperly Installed Windows and Doors Drive Owner Out Of Home Parks Arizona

In July 2001 I purchased a $585,000 home from a seller who had the home custom built in 2000 by Atkinson General Contracting from Flagstaff.

The day I moved in I discovered mouse traps with dead mice in them. The house was drafty and I could hear the noise from the highway and trains in the distance. The house had a strange odor.

Every time it rained some of the windows leaked. Water came in under the front door and the french doors. The leaks became progressively worse. The bedroom door wouldn't close. I called the builder but he never came out. He sent his foreman out a couple of times but the bedroom door still wouldn't close. The doors still allowed the elements (and nasty vermin) in. Nothing was done to stop the leaks around the windows.

In the summer of 2002 the leaks grew worse and the lights would dim during storms. I hired a painting contractor to restain the house that had become dry and had siding that was warping. I asked him to try to stabilize the second story deck railings that had become dangerously loose. The house was only two years old! He informed me there was no sealant around the windows and doors. He applied sealant but it deteriorted very quickly thereafter. You'll see why as you read on.

I hired several contractors and a home inspector to try to discover what was causing the leaks. No one ever thought to check the windows. They were top of the line Hurd windows. By this time, there were numerous cracks in the plaster all over the house.

The wood baseboards were showing signs of water damage as well as the second story catwalk wood supporting beams. The walls above the bedroom door and underneath the catwalk were showing signs of buckling. The dining room ceiling caved in. My floors were soaked during rainstorms from all the leaks.

Atkinson came to the home for the first time around Thanksgiving 2004. He looked at the problems, made lists, and said it might be the Hurd windows and doors. Not to worry he said as everything was easy to repair. He said he'd call Hurd and get back to me. He didn't call Hurd according to them when I called them myself.

Finally, in December 2004, another general contractor came to my home and did a very thorough inspection. He removed trim from around the windows and discovered the windows were basically just sitting in the openings cut out for them. They were not caulked before placement, had no house wrap underneath the flanges, the flanges were not nailed, flashing was missing, and there was no sealant. The only thing holding the windows on was the trim!

An engineer was called in and he documented the numerous defects that includes not only improperly installed windows and doors. He found a spliced structural beam that supports the ceiling. The lap siding is improperly installed and water got behind it and caused it to warp. The rain and snow got behind the interior walls soaking the insulation and paint and caused it to blister. The exterior second story decks are improperly installed allowing water to enter the house and that is why the dining room ceiling directly beneath one deck caved in.

A mold inspection was performed and there are two types of mold growing behind the walls. I got at least three or four mice in the house every week. Bees and wasps have built nests inside the house!

When Atkinson was presented with all of the reports from the experts he promised to fix the house. Atkinson came out twice by himself and actually made the deck worse. He covered my french doors on the second level with plastic wrap and left it like that.

He sent his son out with plastic and tape and his son removed trim from some of the front windows, taped plastic on the flanges and put the trim back on! When I questioned him about why the windows aren't being removed and installed properly he told me to talk to his father.

I moved out of the house on April 1 and rented a house because of the mold and not feeling safe in my own home any longer. I gave Atkinson a key to the house and pleaded with him to fix the house properly. When I came back several weeks later I discovered he sent out someone to put patches on the cracked interior plaster in three places. That is all that was done.

The windows are still the same. The front door and french doors still leak and allow dirt and debris to enter the house. There is still mold behind the walls and the plaster has pulled away from the window frames due to the water saturation. He decided to put bandades on major wounds and do this on his very lax time schedule. He told me he was busy building other houses.

You can see two photos of my home in an ad that the architect runs in Sedona Home and Garden Magazine! That really burns me!

So here I sit, writing my story in my rental house. I have a house I can't live in and don't have the funds to fix it myself. I am now divorced and put every dime I had into that house thinking it would bring me the security I was so desperately seeking.

The Registrar's office can't help me as it is past the two year statute of limitations. Finding a lawyer in a small town is impossible due to conflicts of interest. Now I am calling attorneys in Phoenix. That is my ripoff experience.

Meg
Parks, Arizona
U.S.A.