Thinking about buying a Stanley Martin home? First imagine spending nearly half a million dollars on a brand new home, thinking that you’re going to get the best. Then imagine on move in day, only half of your house has cooling (In the DC metro area in the thick of summer). And just to make matters worse imagine that the half of the house without AC is where you are supposed to sleep. Then imagine within a week of moving in, you’re hosing friends and family… Perhaps celebrating the purchase of a brand new home. Then imagine using the communal bathroom on the living room floor (number 1) and it clogs. You can’t think of a reason why it would clog, you try unclogging it to no avail… and it’s Friday evening so the builder is unresponsive. You call roto-rooter to the tune of $800.00 to come out and inspect only to tell you that there is a blockage underneath the concrete slab in the garage. The builder finally responds to you on Monday, very apologetic, but also tells you they will have to cut out the brand new concrete in your garage to replace a crushed pipe. Imagine the same thing happens again a month later to a different pipe in the garage. Everything needs to be removed from the garage, loaded in to a pod, while they cut out brand new concrete, make a mess, and then you have to move everything back again yourself. Then imagine over a year later you notice water leaking through the window of a spare bedroom. It’s been leaking the whole time you lived there - but you had no idea because it’s a spare bedroom and you assume that when you buy a new house, you wont have water pouring inside and down your wall. The builder is apprehensive… “It’s not in the warranty period we’re not sure we can fix it but we’ll send someone out to look at it.” Now imagine just over the two year mark - you’re finally feeling like all the kinks have been worked out and you’re just beyond the warranty period for your HVAC unit and then your 3rd and 4th floor HVAC unit (the one referenced earlier that wasn’t even ready by move in day) shits the bed. You call the warranty dept, and they tell you it is outside of warranty - that there is nothing they can do but to send someone to tell you that it is indeed broken and outside of the warranty. It’s not working because all the refrigerant leaked outside of the unit (likely leaking during the warrantable period), and there’s nothing they can do. So you call the HVAC person to figure out what this repair will cost and they tell you, somewhere between $1000 - $1500. Do yourself a favor and avoid Stanley Martin like the plague. They over promise and under deliver and skirt responsibility time and time again. The quality of craftsmanship is sub-par at best.
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