TRAILHEAD BUILDERS INC

BLUF( Bottom Line Up Front) If you have to purchase one of their homes in a housing community in Yellowstone or Carbon County Montana be aware and have a professional home inspection company look over the home because he will not honor the 12 month builder warranty. If you are in the custom home build market like we were just do an about face and RUN! Trailhead Builders is just a contractor that has no employees but subcontracts to other contractors while taking no responsibility for their failures. Stay away! Worst home builders and experience we have ever had the displeasure to be stuck dealing with in over 14 homes over my military career. 2 years after closing and still not complete. Poor craftsmanship, no oversight by any foreman / journeyman nor owner of business and zero communications. Not once did we find anyone but subcontractors at the job site during the build process. The fireplace mantle was such a fiasco that after multiple failed attempts I had to do it myself and repair the broken masonry around the fireplace. We canceled the living room ceiling beam as we had no confidence in their craftsmanship. Walls are no better as you can see tape lines and spattered paint and rough texture on a smooth finish. Couldn’t follow blueprints which led to mistakes such as not installing a gas line for the gas dryer that Trailhead Builders purchased for part of the home build. Also did not install two garage exhaust fans, but did send someone out to do a substandard install and now have ductwork running below the ceilings instead of hidden inside. Only installed one subfloor layer (house has a crawl space) to cut corners and increase the already inflated costs. Near the front door there is a 1/2 inch slope in less than 18 inches in the floor. We are reminded of this every step we take as the uneven floors bounce and shake furniture. They left three piles of dirt/rock that I had to take care of myself by renting construction equipment. Gravel driveway was not built to the correct width and is sunken and rounded in places along the path. During winter snow, cars will slide off due to rounded areas. Wish I could post all the pictures of what they found acceptable and the pictures of their attempts at fixing a few of the items over nine months slowly dragging out repairs that they found acceptable and then quit all together, but hopefully you get a good mental picture(see pic with snow coming through “insulated” garage walls). Trailhead’s owner refused to do any walk-through before closing and never demonstrated any items in the home nor where all the items where in utility room and how to shut off utilities in case of emergency. We only decided to close due to the fact that our 90 day interest rate lock was about to expire in less than a week and knew the rates would continue to rise. The home was over 3 months late on completion with no one really working on anything since they are all subcontractors and didn’t directly work for him.

We were living in another state and were told about Trailhead builders. We met with the owner and were very impressed with his professionalism and willingness to help us through the process. Even before we had a contract or agreement with him he was always very willing to answer questions and help us. We were able to come meet with him and he spent most of a week going to vendors with us to pick out materials, products, finishes, both internal and external. After which he came up with a contract price which was very reasonable compared to 2 other builders we were also looking at. This was the price we would pay not including change orders we put in that is very common when you add or decide to change something. These were also very reasonably priced. The quality of work and attention to detail was exceptional. All the subs were high quality as well and always very personable. The entire process was very low stress as he kept us updated on a regular basis, was easy to get ahold of and work with over the entire build process. Overall we ended up with a great house that we can now enjoy in our retirement. Definitely recommend this company with no reservations.