Innova Eco Building System Supplied dimensionally defective SIP building kit; Short supplied materials; Overbilled; Lost my property Miami Florida

I ordered a custom house "kit" from this company for erection in Abaco, Bahamas on my pre-existing foundation, comprising SIPs (prefab panels) and associated fasteners, structural reinforcements, adhesives, sealants and coatings. I arranged to have doors, windows, a/c equipment and some other misc supplies purchased from other vendors shipped to their facility with their express agreement so all could be packed in my containers for export when complete. The company had their engineer do the necessary calculations and they supplied me with drawings showing the panels they planned to manufacture. I found several major errors in their drawings which they rectified. I sent the window supplier to meet with them, and when the windows were ordered I sent the detailed specification sheets for the windows to them. The windows were delivered to their premises with their approval and encouragement in advance, so that there would be no issues with window openings.

Lo and behold, when the SIPs showed up in Bahamas and we started erection, my contractor discovered that the majority of the panels were dimensionally defective. First, the window openings were cut too large (they cut them to the size of the flanges, not the frames) and this affected about 1/2 of the wall panels; second two entire elevations were manufactured 3" too tall; third, the roof panels for the octagonal hip roof on two levels were cut to the wrong compound angles along the hip junctions (these geniuses laid out the roof panels flat on the floor because apparently they can only think in 2 dimensions); and finally the quality/composition of the magnesium oxide skins on the panels varied dramatically from white soft chalky material to brittle pink material that fractured when screwed off with the supplied hardibacker screws. The internal skins were full of porosity so that they had to be skim coated with joint compound.

Their engineer specified that the transverse seams in the skins on the (long) roof panels be staggered but they supplied them so the seams lined up causing a weakness in the roof structure, particularly the second level. So much for the panels. Now the supplies. They failed to supply any of their proprietary window brackets called for in the engineering detail, I had to life-flight them over in my personal luggage; they supplied way too little of the recommended caulking/adhesive material so we had to purchase dozens of tubes of caulk at around $12 a tube to caulk the panel joints; they failed to supply enough (over 100 short) of the special SIP screws which held up completion of the job while they scurried to Fedex more; they were short MGO sheathing that was ordered to allow us to sheath the interior and exterior of the conventional wet walls where SIPS could not be used for a matching appearance and finish coating, so we had to purchase additional sheetrock out of my pocket. They supplied way too little (6 small buckets) of the wrong type of the interior joint compound they prescribed (DAP flexible joint compound .. they sent 6 small buckets of textured not smooth and this was barely enough to mud the upper level) so we had to buy normal joint compound locally and use that. They couldn't even handle the third party vendor stuff right.

My A/C supplier delivered 8 cartons to Innova and they signed for them. My container manifest listed 7 cartons of A/C stuff and the missing carton was the brackets for the condensor. Innova lost these so we had to custom make a mounting platform on the job site. And the cherry on the cake was they hit me up with a $500 charge to pack the third party items (doors, windows etc.) in my containers, which they agreed to do for free up front. Now we all know that most companies have their share of goofs due to the fact that they pay peanuts and get monkeys; however these screw-ups are usually resolved by upper management. But the management of this company went to the Kruschev school of management. They lie, obfuscate, finger-point, duck and weave to escape their contractual and moral obligations to make things right. Jerry, the general manager, appears to have a PHD in deflection.

He blames their errors and omissions on me and my contractor, and he lies and rewrites history without batting an eyelid. When I finally pinned them down on some glaring errors on their part (they actually sent me photos of the octagonal roof panels laid out butted up flat on the floor in their defense when I said they did not fit in the field when erected!!) they stated that fixing these errors in the field was "normal" and "minor" and that I should be happy with my house. The fact is I paid my crew $5000 a week and all the time spent furring out the window openings, hoisting roof panels up onto the roof and then taking them down for recutting and remortising the foam, recutting the elevations etc. came out of my pocket, as did the cost of buying materials that Innova was supposed to include in sufficient quantities in their kit. And while this was going on I was also paying for container and crane rental at confiscatory island rates. Bottom line we overran the planned build by a couple of weeks and blew the budget by over $10000 entirely due to Innova's errors and omissions.

They claim to be 100% innocent despite being confronted with glaring evidence of their screwups, and have offered not even an apology, let alone any compensation. Their contract states that defective panels will be repaired, if possible, or replaced by them. Since the panels were in a foreign country with very high import duties and difficult logistics, I asked them for monetary compensaion and they refused. So in accordance with the contract I requested replacement panels but they refuse to supply them, to this day. Caveat emptor.