Chad G.
2/5
We liked several things with Stratford Homes; seeing pictures during the building process, price stability, and options, and that we could opt out of things and get them done local. Worth Construction was the builder. The good was overshadowed with the many issues we have dealt with. We liked Randy; he is a friendly person, but I ended uptaking over the remainder of the project due to extreme delays. Some delays were Randy, some were Stratford. House documents were signed in January, and a build date in the summer was estimated with delivery in october. We did not want to build in the winter; the house arrived in January the next year. The builders guys did a pour job on our basement floor (cement cracked significantly). The builder selected a sub for the garage, covered deck, and covered the front porch. The garage alone took almost 3 months from start to finish, and that's not even with concrete and doors. The flat work contractor was supposed to get the deck concrete holes inspected and didn't show up. I had to call the county inspector to call off the inspection a half hour before scheduled (Randy repeditedly said he would call but didn't). I then moved away from the builder and selected contractors for the remaining work myself. Things then wrapped up on the project. It was noticed BEFORE any stone work, the large picture window in the front had a crack in the frame on the top (see photo), it was promised this would be fixed. Stratford sent a tech to use vinyl repair kit approved by Sierra Pacific (the garbage manufacturer). The next spring it was cracked again. Brian with stratford,agreed the frame needed replaced. I then started looking closely at other windows. 2 other windows have cracks in the frames. I brought this up to Brian, he took this information to Serria Pacific, who denied warranty because "the stone work on the house was being pushed by the frost in the ground and cracking the windows". Then Brian denied fixing any of the windows. Two of the windows have no possible way for this to happen given one is above the concrete stoop (as stated earlier this window was seen cracked before stone was added), and another the earth doesn't meet the stone work at all so this is a completely false diagnosis. Our kitchen window was tweeked from delivery ,nd Brian kept promising replacement of the sash, which took a year. We had to stuff shopping bags into it because it would not close (1/4 inch gap. wind would blow through a,d it took a year and a half to get this fixed). A major blunder during the plans was Stratford changed the front porch as requested on the print, but they didn't change lower level on the print. The foundation was then poured wrong no, matching the house. Randy didn't have our garage or stairs built to code. We had to find contractors to add dry wall to meet county code whi,h of course cost extra. If Stratford wants to improve I would start with picking a different window company because there are way better options for the money. Offer a spray foam option which would help with air seal and stiffen the structure. Deliver the house with very minimal windows installed. The front door was tweeked and still is not right. Be involved with the builder or bring that in-house to ensure when delivery is scheduled a path for transport and site is ready with a plan. Our home was backed in and jerked around (have video) which I believe to be a lot of our issues. We fully expected Stratford to back up their product but they flat out did not. Simply put we would go a different direction. This is tough to say, because my mother bought a home from them in the 90s, and the experience was great.
When you build, you of course expect issues and things to not go as planned, but we feel our experience was extreme and have many other examples not included above.
To Stratford, we were considering a lawsuit, but you win! My wife and I just do not want to expel any more energy toward getting you to honor your product warranty. We will instead be sharing our experience.
Feel free to reach out with questions.
