In October 2003, I was a single mother with a beautiful 18 mth old daughter home just 10 mths from China. We had a 25 year-old home in NE Calgary and were facing the inevitable that comes with older homes: upgrading furnaces, roofing, siding, etc. While none of these issues were pressing at the time, I knew they were around the corner. I had a 5 year plan to get into a new(er) home.
Fortunately, my mother felt that 5 years was too long to see her granddaughter in a safe, secure home and took out a reverse mortgage against her own property to shorten the timeline. I wanted to live in Tuscany and we began the search for a new home. After viewing a number of existing homes and showhomes, we selected a Cedarglen Bonnyville model and started the build process. Note that prior to the selection of a builder, I did a number of internet searches against all four builders (Cedarglen, Cardel, Beattie and Baywest) and was turned off a couple of them after finding blogs and posts made by dissatisfied home owners. I felt pretty good at the time that I made a good choice with Cedarglen.
The build went okay. There were some glitches: Cedarglen was in the process of changing its selection process and I got jostled around more than I would have liked. I would show up at suppliers only to find out that they no longer were involved with Cedarglen. As no one understand the new process, I did not receive the interior design consultations that were promised. But I still felt that I had made the right choice in builder.
There were a couple of minor issues that came up during the build (kitchen placed incorrectly, etc) but overall things seemed to go well. The house was ready on time (built just before the 'boom' in Calgary when trades were fairly abundant). There were a couple of things that were frustrating when I took possession:
- The light or fan over the stove can not be turned on without the entire air exchange in the house being turned on! Needless to say, this renders them complete useless particularly during the winter when you do not want -30 degree air being pulled into the house. This baffled even the Cedarglen representative that did the final walkthrough with me and he had to make a call to understand when the air exchange came on only to be told to pass on to me that I got a free upgrade! What??
- The light in the dining nook is completely off centre. When this was pointed out to Cedarglen, they responded that I had signed off on the placement during my electrical walkthrough. When I advised that I never had a walkthrough, I was told that they had my signature on file and that the discussion was over. It should be noted that just a couple of weeks ago (Nov. '08) I asked for a copy of that signed walkthrough and was sent back the portion of my build contract that stated "no electrical walkthrough". Duh!
But all that was relatively minor and I still believed I had selected a good builder. Until 2006.
In 2006, my neighbours approached me and asked if I was aware of what my siding was doing on the south side of my house. They could easily see this portion of my house each and every time they went up or down their stairs. I was shocked to see a fairly large portion billowing in the wind. I immediately phoned Cedarglen and left a message for the Tuscany representative. I phoned again, and again, and again and finally had a receptionist call me back to tell me that this was not their issue as the warranty on my house was only 1 year. I asked if, at the very least, they could direct me to their siding contractor so I could have the situation assessed. I was told that TriWest had done the install of my siding and that Cedarglen no longer had a relationship with that company. Cedarglen did provide the name of their current siding contactor (can't recall the company) but a call to them was fruitless.
I called Tri-West and hit another brick wall. They advised that they no longer work with or for Cedarglen in any fashion and that even if they did repairs, they were simply too busy to do them.
I spent the next 6 - 8 mths trying to find a single company that would come out and address the siding situation. Finally, a small firm agreed to come out and, when they looked at the house, told me that the siding was so poorly installed that I should consider taking it all off and replacing it with stucco for about $30 - 40,000!! In the meantime, they screwed a patch of siding down with some unsightly screws in a desperate attempt to slow the deterioration of the siding. I hoped the screws would hold long enough to engage Cedarglen's help.
I tried repeatedly to speak to someone in a position of power at Cedarglen but calls went unreturned. At one point their receptionist told me that I "just didn't get it" and that I was wasting my time given the 1 year warranty had expired.
Earlier this year, people walking in the green space behind my home would either stop and stare at the billowing siding or call me out to advise me of what was going on. They needn't have bothered - the sound of billowing siding is horrendous and my daughter and I were experiencing many sleepless nights.
Something had to be done as the billowing had extended well beyond of the portion held in with screws. I located a number of siding installers through the paper and Kijiji. Fortunately, the boom is over and people are desperate for work.
With each contractor that came out, the verdict was the same. The siding was doomed at installation. It was not installed to meet even minimum standards. The expert siders were appalled that a builder would not only allow such a horrendous job, but that they would not stand by it when it was finally discovered. The contractor that did the eventual repair work has stated that he has "never seen anything quite like it" about the installation and that it is clear the original installers didn't have a clue what they were doing.
I asked him (and the others who provided estimates) if Cedarglen's site manager would have known that the job was so crappy and they all stated that it would have been immediately apparent to the site manager. They believe, as I do, that Cedarglen was fully cognizant of the problems with the siding and that they simply chose to overlook it in the hopes that it would hold for 12 months and they could cry "past warranty, past warranty".
The south side of my house had to be stripped of the existing siding and have it reinstalled or, in some areas, replaced. The cost was $4,000. And the north side needs to be done as well. Heck - the whole house needs to be done but I can only do as much as my line of credit will support. Cedarglen has once again refused to become involved quickly bringing up the 1 year warranty again. They claim that since it was not identified within the first year it is too bad, so sad.
What hurts is that while the symptoms of the crappy installation were not apparent until after the 1 year warranty was up, the problem existed the moment that the installation was conducted. It took me 5 minutes on a google search to identify how to correctly install siding and to see that my siding doesn't even come close.
You don't go into a new home expecting to deal with siding issues in less than 2 years. The manufacturers of my siding (Kaycan) offer a lifetime warranty on their product...unless it is improperly installed. Cedarglen and TriWest negated this warranty but improperly installing the siding. Installation guide: http://www.kaycan.com/kaycan2/docs/Kay3543_r1_07_08.pdf
I built a new home specifically to avoid siding issues. No one budgets for these kinds of expenses on new homes. Given how much it costs to build a home, maintain it, landscape it, etc. I would caution anyone to build with a company such as Cedarglen. You'll be stretched at the best of times and given our shaky economy, it is too risky to get into this and face residing your house in a couple of years!!
I guess if you can get a toaster with a two year warranty, a computer monitor with a three year warranty, a car with a five year warranty but a new home with only a 1 year warranty, you should be looking more closely at why. But when it is clear that the company throwing that warranty in your face would have known about the siding months before possession, you would think they would step up and take responsibility.
Am I alone with the siding issues? No - there are two other homes along the same green space as I that have had or are having the problem. All 3 are Cedarglen and I believe there are more out there. I can't sell this house as the siding issue is so readily apparent. The whole house needs to be done and could cost upwards of $14,000 for all the work.
If you have had the issue with Cedarglen or TriWest please let me know. I will be pursuing legal action and making as much noise about this as I can. I don't want to see anyone else in this situation.
