our Pittsburgh-Heartland Homes custom home builder new home construction.

Review our Heartland Homes custom home builder - Pittsburgh experience. Our Pittsburgh home builder.

Folks before I dive into our custom home builder experience I wanted to state a few keys items which you may find helpful as you read through our story and review our custom home photos. In our opinion we believe this to be the most detailed custom home builder experience you will find.

Our custom home in Heartland Homes community Castleview.
I think the Heartland Homes incentive when we bought our home was a free fireplace or something comparable. 

Our entire new home experience has lasted over 5 years since 3 months after closing on our brand new first owner custom built home. See section below [Start Of Our Heartland Homes Timeline] to read from the very start of our custom home experience and everything in between. Heartland Homes Pittsburgh custom home builder of our home.

3 month our Heartland Homes custom home.

5 month our Heartland Homes custom home.

6 month our Heartland Homes custom home.

@ 11 months our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh custom built home.

 

1. Our first key item is; as of March or April 2009 we filed to discontinue our Heartland Homes lawsuit. We won the court verdict in our favor however the monies portion of our verdict was $11,700.00. Our Custom Homebuilder (Home builder) Heartland Homes appealed the monies portion of our verdict. Since we already spent $19,416.38 of  monies just in legal fees (not including deposition fees, expert witness testimony, building engineer reports, photos, etc) and this didn't even cover any monies to repair the water problems with our custom home by Heartland Homes, why bother going any further?
   
   When we filed to discontinue our lawsuit, the verdict IS still in our favor, however we walked away with ZERO dollars to repair our water problems. Zero dollars from our custom home builder Heartland Homes for anything. 5 years of water problems in a newly constructed home. All totaled we will spend roughly about $48,000 - $50,000 in costs between all of the fees we've already paid and to have the work completed to prevent water from coming into our home. See 2009 photos and details below because now we know there is no flashing installed in the areas where we chiseled out bricks from our brick veneer and pulled back vinyl siding. Additionally we have no weep holes (weepholes) installed in our home to allow water behind our brick veneer to drain outside. According to our Structural Engineer inspection reports and building codes, we should have flashing and weepholes installed.

   See section below for more detailed information under
   [Structural Engineer Custom Home Inspection and Details]

2. Our experience with our water problems started 3 months after closing on our newly constructed custom built home. We closed on our home in February 2004 and May 2004  is the first time we experienced water problems with our brand new home. We contacted our home builder that time and every time we experienced water problems in our new home; see all emails, most with photos we sent to and received from Heartland Homes by clicking on this link.
   
   The reason you see our information being posted now online is because we've followed every path we could to try to get our water problems resolved by our custom home builder. Once your read the emails and documentation we have posted, you should be able to see we were told they were working on our water problems since July 2004. Its been a long path and we've spent countless hours attempting to keep everything documented as best we could. Trust me, I am not a retentive type person, however since I had to spent countless hours researching our "trail" so to speak before we could file our BBB complaint, we figured we might as well stay the course until our water problems are resolved, period.
    

   our custom Heartland Homes home 6 months old. our Pittsburgh home builder.

   Welcome to our custom built Heartland Homes home. Water issues filed as our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh BBB complaint.

3. If you've heard we've been in and out of court so many times, please note the following; our non-jury court trial was in December 2008. After we received the courts verdict in January 2009 we won our Heartland Homes lawsuit, our custom home builder filed an appeal for the monies portion of our lawsuit. The Judge decided we could have a damages only type trial, however the verdict was still in our favor. The monies portion was only for $11,xxx.00. To date we had spent well over $19,416.38 just in legal fees, nothing else. Why go any further? We were not permitted to submit additional evidence or even expand on any evidence already submitted.Since the damages dollar amount was appealed, we had a brief damages only type mini-trial or whatever it is called. That same day we called our attorney and told our attorney there is no longer any reason to continue, so we filed to discontinue our lawsuit in March or April 2009 (I believe was the date). That was it as far as court goes.
   Pittsburgh home builder, our custom home.
   
4. In 2009 shortly before we filed to discontinue our Heartland Homes lawsuit, we hand chiseled brick and pulled back vinyl siding from our home. We did this to see what was behind our brick veneer and also to see if FLASHING was installed around our Andersen Windows or front door. We thought we could submit that evidence to substantiate why we could potentially have our water problems. As I mentioned in item #3 above, we could not submit any additional evidence, period. See photos in 2009 to see what we found regarding standard flashing around windows or doors. Areas where we removed the brick and pull back vinyl siding, no flashing was installed.
   
5. The black areas you currently see in the front of our home is duct tape. Below is a recent photo of our home from January 2010. We never altered or removed any brick, siding or did anything to our custom built home until AFTER our court trial verdict in 2009, we did not want to jeopardize anything, period.
   
   Simply put, the bricks we chiseled from the front of our home cracked and could not be put back in place whole. So we managed to fit pieces of brick and plastic to stop any water from coming into our home and covered those areas with duct tape.

   our Heartland custom built home.

   our Castleview Estates custom home community by Heartland Homes.

   To verify we did not introduce the water problems in our home, please see all of our custom home photos shown starting in 2004 below.
   
   I know it seems an extreme measure or a bit crazy to hand chisel brick from the front of a home that is around 5 years old, built brand new. However living with water problems in your home since 3 months after closing on a brand new home would be on an equal footing in our opinion. See our photos, we have no flashing installed in those areas we removed brick and we have no weepholes (weep holes) installed to allow water to drain from behind our brick veneer [those photos will be posted under 2009 as well this week].

   Below are just 2 photos showing where we chiseled the brick from the front of our Pittsburgh custom home [see 2009 section further below for additional pictures]. Please keep in mind we are not in the construction industry. However in our opinion, if the manufacturer of the windows you have installed state "Unit must be properly flashed" we believe there is a reason for it. Click on the Andersen Windows document we received when we closed on our Pittsburgh built custom home.
   Two photos below showing just two areas where we chiseled brick from the front of our custom home.
   Our custom home in Castleview Estates built by Heartland Homes.	Andersen Windows installed in our custom built Heartland Homes. Heartland Homes community of Castleview Estates, Kennedy Twp.

6. At no time has our custom home builder sent any Structural Engineer to our home to inspect our water problems, make suggestions or any recommendations regarding our water issues.
7. At no time during our 1 year warranty period did our custom home builder even ask to come into our home to view our water problems from inside of our custom home they built.

START OF OUR HEARTLAND HOMES TIMELINE

Click the image below to review our custom home Heartland Homes timeline. Our 5+ years with our custom home builder experience.

February 2004 we closed on our brand new custom home built by Heartland Homes. May 2004 we started experiencing water infiltration issues into the block foundation of our custom built home (townhome).

Our entire time line is mapped out in the right column, labeled Custom Home Builder Timeline. Our photos below are only 1/16 of the photos we have taken over the years with our water problems.

2004  - water problem start 3 months after closing on our first Heartland Homes custom home.
Welcome to our love Heartland Homes Pittsburgh home.	Our Brand new Heartland Homes Pittsburgh Home.
May 22 2004 - April 2005 we send over 15 emails to our custom home builder regarding our water problems with our new home. See all emails we sent to Heartland Homes and received from Heartland Homes by clicking here.
3 months after closing on our custom built home. Our Heartland Homes complaint.	Basement wall enlarged section showing our water problem.
Welcome to our custom built Heartland Homes home.	our custom built home at 5 months old. Review our Heartland Homes complaint showing an extensive amount of water in our basement foundation. Our custom home builder located around the Bethel Park area.
July 22 2004 first response we receive from our home builder. Heartland Homes states WET BASEMENT remedy to begin in the next few weeks. We are working with supervisor.
Review our 6 month old custom built home, Pittsburgh, PA.	love Heartland Homes our custom home builder.
Our Heartland Homes complaint. Our custom home at 6 months old.	Welcome to our custom built Heartland Homes home. Photo more water problems in our Heartland Homes complaint.
Welcome our 3 month old custom home. Pittsburgh home builder of our custom home.	Welcome to our 7 month old custom built dream home.
Review our Heartland Homes custom built home.	Welcome to our first Heartland Homes custom home experience.
our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh 7 month old custom home in Castleview Estates, Kennedy Township.
September 21 2004 our Heartland Homes custom home builder states Due to the extreme amount of water Friday, I am noting in your file. Castleview is still a work in progress.
No communication from our custom home builder from September 23 2004 until January 21 2005. Beginning of January 2005 we sent over updated emails with photos showing water problems. Click here to review all communication and emails to and from custom home builder Heartland Homes.
2005
Welcome to our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes custom built home. Bethel Park custom home builder experience.	Welcome to our custom built home. Review the photo below from January 2005, 11 months after closing on our brand new home.
January 21 2005 our Pittsburgh custom home builder Heartland Homes states We will Continue to work Towards A Solution. The weather is a factor now.
Front of our new Pittsburgh Heartland Homes home. We sent a certified letter to Heartland Homes in Lawrence, PA. We sent the certified letter to Alan Gillespie of Heartland Homes. As well as Marty Gillespie of Heartland Homes. The letter was signed for, however after almost 3 weeks we never received any response. See May 2005 last column under Custom Home Builder timeline.	Welcome to our custom built home. Photo is dated June 15 2005. Water coming into our foyer from outside, part of our Heartland Homes BBB Pittsburgh complaint. See photos below showing our front door area and front door threshold. We believe this is how water is coming into our foyer.
NOTE: you will see photos posted for August 2005 showing our entire front door replaced. We do not have photos of the installation, however you can tell, our front door is reddish in color in these photos. August 2005, you will see a newly installed whitish door. Our entire front door and door frame is removed and replaced with a new door and door frame. Brookside Lumber came out and measured before ordering the door.
	Click photo below to see Heartland Homes response to our Pittsburgh BBB complaint.
WATER IN OUR FOYER and FRONT DOOR PROBLEMS
Pittsburgh Heartland Homes our custom home builder. Front door of our custom built home.	Service request to replace our door sweep in 2004, part of our Heartland Homes BBB (Better Business Bureau) complaint.
Review Pittsburgh custom home complaint - gap in the door and door frame of our home.	Custom home builder Pittsburgh, PA. Thumbscrews will not recess our front door of our home.
Review Heartland Homes custom home, little over 1 year old. Note all of the gaps in this photo of our custom home. Heartland Homes BBB complaint.	Review our custom Heartland Homes home. Folks please be sure to review all of the photos showing our front door area. In our opinion due to the rubber door sweep torn, the cracking around the time and frame, the gap where you can see light from outside, we believe this could be the reason we had water in our foyer. Photo is from June 2005.
Our Heartland Home June 2005. See water in our foyer. Review the water problems with our front door, water in our foyer. Please NOTE the Better Business Bureau response from Heartland Homes stating We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues (our front door and Wet Basement problems).	Our custom home by Heartland Homes. Always click any photo to enlarge the picture. Note water coming in from under our door threshold from ourside.
	Click to review statement from our custom home builder;  We met with Mr. Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and Wet Basement problems. Our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint response from Heartland Homes to Pittsburgh BBB. We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues. Click to review this BBB letter from Heartland Homes.
My first Heartland Homes Pittsburgh home. August 2005 photo of our custom home. See emails from our custom home builder on this site as well. We will continue to work towards a solution, email dated January 2005 from Heartland Homes.	our Heartland Homes Castleview Estates custom home new home construction problem. Water in our foyer, photo of our custom home below is from September 29 2005, see date on photo.
Love Heartland Homes Pittsburgh our custom home builder.	update April 5, 2010 in the next few days I will post the emails I sent to Marty Gillespie of Heartland Homes. The emails show digital photos with our water issues. In the Heartland Homes Better Business Bureau (BBB) letter above, this was after Marty Gillespie visited our home; "We are currently currently with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues." Please see the signed letter where it states Click to review this BBB letter from Heartland Homes.
Our Pittsburgh custom Heartland Home. 17 months after our new custom home closing.	Welcome home our Pittsburgh custom home.
Basement in our Pittsburgh built custom home.	See our Heartland Homes custom home photo from October 2005. Closed on our love Heartland Homes home Feb. 2004.
2006
Review photo of our custom home. our custom dream home built by Pittsburgh home builder.	our custom Heartland. Click on the photo below to see a picture of our 1st owner home, almost two years old. Our first brand new home. Marty Gillespie of Heartland Homes did visit our home in June 2005.
Our custom home by Pittsburgh Heartland Homes.	our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint water problems.
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review trenching around our home.	Our Pittsburgh custom home by Heartland Homes review. Welcome to our custom built dream home.
Our custom home.	Heartland Homes custom home.
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review details from our BBB complaint.	Review Pittsburgh Custom Home builder trenching front of our home due to our water problems.
Water In Our Electrical Panel
Click on any photo anywhere to view larger image. We paid 100% for the inspection and replacement costs to replace our electrical panel, 100%.   I am paraphrasing "Heartland Homes is not responsible for consequential damages" or something similar to that. Our electrical panel was replaced May 15 2008, we closed on our custom home February 2004, first owner home, first Heartland Homes experience. We are not going to post all of the photos we have showing water in our electrical panel. If you click on this link to go to the page with all of the emails to Heartland Homes and from Heartland, you can read all of those emails as well. Start around July 2006. Thank you!	Welcome to our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes home. Click on photo below showing water in our electrical panel July 17 2006. Close on our Pittsburgh Heartland Home February 2004.   Review Pittsburgh Heartland Homes response to our BBB complaint left column, a few pictures down. Stating that a COMPROMISED CONDUIT was found by the electrician. Review our Pittsburgh custom home builder water problems. Photo is from July 2006 during our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh BBB case.   Our Heartland built home. Heartland Homes our custom home. Photo of our electrical service conduit into our home. Photo below shows the Pittsburgh Post Gazette dated September 21, 2008. Home builder complaint with water in our electrical service panel. This photo dated August 2006, our home built brand new is slightly over 2 years old. Photo below is the electrical service conduit outside of our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes home. Click to view image below dated September 21, 2008, the electrical service conduit is split due to foam expansion in the conduit. You can't read the date on the newspaper in this photo, however 2 photos up from this photo you can. Click on that image to see the date of September 2008. In our opinion this was one of the stop-gaps to prevent water from entering our electrical panel after we discovered our water problem. Click image below to view our engineers report regarding the grey film in our electrical panel. We had an electrical engineer in and we were told there was corrosion in our electrical panel and the electrical service conduit outside was filled with foam. 4 year old custom built home and we have to replace our electrical panel due to water and corrosion. We paid for the inspection and to replace our entire electrical panel, we will take care of the electrical conduit when we have the weepholes (weep holes) and our flashing installed. We closed on this brand new home February 2004, little over 4 years ago.  We did NOT pay to have our electrical service conduit replaced as of yet. That cost is estimated at over $1,000.00 because the conduit is split apart as you can see in the upper photo.
Review our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint water in our electrical panel. See newspaper in photo below dated July 17 2006.
Electrical panel in our Pittsburgh custom home.
Our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes - problems with water in our electrical panel.
Review Pittsburgh Heartland Homes response to our BBB (Better Business Bureau) complaint. Letter from Heartland Homes to Pittsburgh BBB dated July 24, 2006. Click to read about the electrician finding a Compromised Conduit below from our custom home builder Heartland Homes Lawrence PA. Click to review Heartland Homes response above to the BBB regarding water in our electrical panel. Direct quotes from custom home builder regarding the production manager who has been to Mr. Romesburg's house previously concerning issues. Electrician found a compromised conduit which housed wiring for the breaker box that was allowing water in. Please click and read the entire correspondence from our custom home builder.   Water problems in electrical panel in our custom home. Click on image below to see water inside of our custom home that is about 2 1/2 yrs old. Water problem in our basement, electrical panel August 2006 photo below. Water in the electrical panel in our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes custom home.
PA State Attorney Generals Office
our custom home builder response to our Heartland Homes complaint to the State Attorney General Office. We also included some photos, please note date on photos.	Pictures of our custom home by Heartland Homes including photos from various dates. Newspapers in the photos can assist with verifying the dates of our custom home photos.   We don't know how you can dispute photos?
Our Heartland Homes review with photos of our custom home water problems from May 2004 - November 2006. We are posting additional photos showing our custom home builders response to our Heartland Homes complaint regarding our new home problems.	Click to view photos of our home by Heartland Homes Pittsburgh. Photos show water in our home November 2006 through July 2008.   Heartland Homes response to our State Attorney General complaint is dated
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh response to our complaint we filed with the Pennsylvania State Attorney Generals Office. Note date of response from our custom home builder.	4/3/2010 more photos to be posted in this section. We are going to post the full pages from our custom home builders response. Also we will post additional photos to supplement what we have posted in this section.
below is a picture of the photo boards we put together for our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh BBB complaint.	Review our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes BBB complaint. Photo below is another one of the photo boards we put together to better show our Heartland Homes story of our custom home with water problems. All told I believe we spent about $450.00 for photos, mounting boards, binders, etc for our BBB arbitration hearing.
2007
2008
Welcome to our Pittsburgh custom home. Click on the image below to see our custom home builder stating in 2004 Wet Basement Remedy to begin. 2005 Heartland Homes would Continue To Work Towards a Solution. 2005 our custom home builder Heartland Homes review BBB letter stating We met with Mr. Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and Wet Basement problems. We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues.	Photo of the basement of our custom home July 8, 2008. Review the date on USA Today newspaper in photo.
Our custom Heartland Homes 2008.	Pittsburgh custom home 4 years later.
2009
New home construction flashing
our custom built home in 2009, 5 years old. Review this photo of our home showing the trenching during our Heartland Homes complaint with the BBB back in 2006. Photo below is our dream home in Pittsburgh. The same area that trenching was performed on, is the same area where we do not have grass growing. We do live in a town home community and landscaping is taken care of. However I will post photos from the past showing since trenching, no grass has grown on the side of our home.	We pulled back the vinyl siding from the side of our Heartland Homes home. Click to review large photo and details from Andersen Windows stating Unit must be properly flashed. We have quality Andersen Windows installed in our home.
Andersen windows installed in our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh home. Click photo below to see what we see.	Andersen Windows are installed in our Heartland Homes custom home. Here is the documentation we received with our new home closing. The window manufacturer clearly states UNIT Must Be Properly Flashed, etc...
2009 photo of our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes custom built home. He	Front of our home when we started chiseling bricks to see what was installed behind our brick veneer. In the areas where we removed the bricks, we found no flashing installed.
We have a lot more photos to post showing where we chiseled bricks from various areas in the front of our home. Two sections around our front door and three sections; one area around each lower window. We will be posting those photos as well.	our custom home builder Heartland Homes Pittsburgh building permit. The building permit for our home was issued in 2003.
Front of our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh home where we chiseled and removed some brick veneer to verify what was installed behind our brick veneer. This photo shows our front door area.   As I've mentioned before, we do not work in construction. In our opinion the 2000 and 2003 building code state Flashing Shall Be Installed At The Perimeter of..	2000 Building Code and 2003 Building Code regarding flashing and weepholes (weep holes).   Please keep in mind, we are not in construction, however in our opinion building codes were established for a reason. Kennedy Township would not tell us what building code should have been used for our Heartland Homes custom home. See the building permit above for our home in 2003.
What are WEEPHOLES, WEEP HOLES ??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weep_hole Weep holes or "weeper holes" are small openings left in the outer wall of masonry construction as an outlet for water inside a building to move outside the wall and evaporate. The term was coined by archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley after finding evidence of weep holes in ziggurats. Plastic "weeps" are used in modern masonry construction. Weep holes are located near the base of masonry structures, particularly brick buildings. Raising the grade above weepholes may allow moisture, snakes, insects, and small animals to enter the building. Modern weep holes employ screens, constructed of flexible nylon or plastics.
Click to view image below that show placement and what weep holes (weepholes) are.	Review this photo showing more detail and layers to a brick veneer wall. Note the home construction flashing, the foundation, brick veneer, etc.
Review our custom home photos directly below. In our opinion we do not have weep holes installed in our home.
Photo below is from early 2006 after a trenching project on our home that was built new home construction in 2004.   Click on this photo to see in early 2006, from this photo, in our opinion we do not see any weepholes (weep holes).	Here is a 1 photo (we will post more) showing the front of our home. After the trenching work was completed in 2006, our first layer of masonry brick is about 8 - 10" below now.   Click on this photo to view larger photo. We do not see weepholes (weep holes) in our home. Our home was built in 2003, we closed February 2004.
Weep holes in one of the last homes built in our new custom home community.
Here is a photo of the front of one of the last new homes constructed in our Heartland Homes community. We realize our home was built in 2003, 2004. From what we recall this new custom home was built around 2008, maybe 2009.   Click on the photo of the new home above to see the weepholes (weep holes) installed in one of the last homes built in our new home community. I did ask for his permission to take these photos. All three photos are of the same Heartland Homes built home.	Review the weep holes installed in this home. In our opinion our home should have weep holes installed. Please read and review the building code excerpts we have posted above to see the  details about weep holes and flashing.   Another photo of the same custom home in Pittsburgh. Review this photo showing weep holes installed. This is not our custom home. Photos of our home Review our Structural Engineer Custom Home Inspection below stating to install flashing and weep holes.
In the mean time please review the details from the Structural Engineer we hired, shown below. John came to our home shortly after we started our legal proceedings in 2008, then again in 2009 after we chiseled brick and pulled back vinyl siding from our home.
April 3, 2010 - we still have loads of pictures to post. We have tons of photos showing additional water problems. Photos where we chiseled brick from our home to look for flashing. Pulled our vinyl siding back to look for flashing around our Andersen Windows., Photos to post showing we are not able to find weepholes (weep holes) in our brick home front.
Heartland Homes Lawrence PA
Structural Engineer Custom Home Inspection and Details
In our opinion; when we spoke with and hired our Structural Engineer we only asked our Structural Engineer for a high-level inspection report showing we did have water problems with our home. It wasn't until our court trial started that we discovered most of the items in our contractor proposal was tossed out, due to the fact that our inspection report did not contain the same details as the bid proposal =  those items not in the Engineers inspection report, were tossed out of the contractor bid proposal. Of course we didn't know is how it works until after our court trial started. Once you submit evidence, you can not submit additional evidence after the fact, at least from what we were told.   We called well over 10 - 15 contractors for bids and we were only able to get 4 contractors to actually come to our home and write out bids to do the work on our home for our water problems. We assume it was mutually decided between the attorneys that we have a non-jury trial. Whomever also decided that we DID HAVE 4 bid proposals submitted, that we only needed to pick 1 bid proposal to focus on. So the other bid proposals were never discussed during our trial. We assume whomever made that decision it was mutually agreed upon as well. Chris nor I made any of those decisions. I guess in hindsight now we can see why some of those decisions were made.
our Structural Engineer report dated February 18 2009, custom home inspection report. Click to view very large images below showing what our Structural Engineer believes in his professional opinion what it will take to correct our water issues. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND; this is NOT the high-level report we submitted for our trial. Had we as the homeowners known we needed this granular of details, we believe our outcome would have been a lot different. The Structural Engineer report page 1 and page 2 below, is when we CHISELED brick from the front of our home and pulled back vinyl siding.
Heartland Homes lawsuit details
as of April 3, 2010 we are still working on updating our full details pertaining to our custom home builder lawsuit. Here are some initial details to get  you started.
Review details of our custom home builder lawsuit. Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review of the Judges verdict in our favor.	Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review lawsuit appeal.
A few key notes to always keep in mind... If you ever have to go to court, please remember
March/April 2009 we filed to discontinue our custom home builder lawsuit. Starting in 2004 when our water problems started with our brand new custom built home; we notified Heartland Homes our builder. Our verdict was only for $11,700.00. The Judges verdict was being appealed by our custom home builder and because we had already spent close to $24,000.00 of our monies pursuing our custom home builder to correct our water problems that started 3 months after our new home closing, why should we spent any more time or monies? Our legal process and legal fees started in 2007 and continued into the beginning of 2009. I could post our legal bills and receipts, however we are not going to bother going to that trouble to prove we spent this amount of monies. We feel we've already proven enough with all of our emails, details, photos, etc that we were told our water problems would be resolved by our custom home builder and never were.  We were told by Heartland Homes our custom home builder (see 3 emails in timeline column) that Heartland Homes was working on our water problems; Wet Basement Remedy and Heartland Homes will continue to work towards a solution in January 2005. Even in June 2005 (see timeline column) with the Better Business Bureau complaint we filed, Marty Gillespie current President of Heartland Homes came to our home and introduced me to our point person at Heartland Homes, Craig that would take care of our water problems.  June 29 2005 Heartland Homes initial response to the BBB stating We met with Mr. Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and Wet Basement problems. We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues.  According to our receipts and records, we have already spent over $24,000.00 between replacing our electrical panel, BBB arbitration hearing photos, notebooks with details, etc and our legal fees for our Heartland Homes lawsuit, deposition fees, costs for all of the photos we had printed  and dry mounted to professional present for our BBB arbitration hearing and our non-Jury trial. According to all of the bid proposals we have received, minimally we are looking at over $22,000.00+ to repair/correct the water problems with our custom built Heartland Homes home. In February / March 2009 (we will be posting these photos as well) we did chisel brick veneer from our home and pull back our vinyl siding. We asked our Structural Engineer and the 1 building contractor to come to our home to see what was behind our brick veneer and siding and put together a more detailed, granular Structural Engineers report and bid proposal to have our water problems corrected. Review our Structural Engineers detailed inspection report to see flashing should minimally be installed to manufacturers recommendations. Bid proposal for the 1 contractor we asked to put a bid together shown below.
February 18 2009 our Structural Engineers detailed inspection report pertaining to the water problems we have had with our custom built home since May 2004. 3 months after closing on our brand new home.	Click to view larger photos showing some of the evidence we submitted as evidence during our Heartland Homes lawsuit December 2008.
June 29 2005; We met with Mr. Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and Wet Basement problems. We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues. Click image below to review Heartland Homes BBB documents regarding our complaint we filed with the BBB.
2010
Our Pittsburgh dream home, custom home photo from January 2010 in Castleview Estates, McKees Rocks Kennedy Twp.

 

 

Quoted article - Marty Gillespie President Heartland Homes Pittsburgh.

• Do the research and make sure you know what you are paying for. It's the biggest investment of your life. Posted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 2009.
  Click here to view complete article.

helpful custom home, home building information

• HomeOwners for Better Building - Uniting Homeowners to Protect the Family Dreams of Today and Tomorrow.
  
  
• buildIQ - Answers to your homebuilding questions.
  
  
• buildIQ YouTube video channel - see all types of homebuilding videos including Best Practice Window Flashing Installation, lots of other home builder videos.
  
  
• Pennsylvania Building Code - currently posted is the 2006 version at this link.
  • our home was built in 2003, we closed February 2004. We have the building permit and the occupancy permit as well if anyone would like to see them, please email us. We have excerpts from 2000 and 2003 Building Codes. I was not able to locate online a free copy as a resource, however I have someone that is an architect and she was able to scan those excerpts regarding weep holes (weepholes) and flashing for me. If you click on the link above you can download the 2006 version.
    
    
• Guide to Inspecting Residential Brick Veneer - very helpful to review so you can better understand what should be behind the brick veneer front of your home. As well as flashing and weepholes (weep holes).

Review Our Custom Home Details

more details coming very soon...

Heartland Homes

our custom home builder

 

our Heartland Homes review

Custom home builder Pittsburgh
our love Heartland home in Castleview Estates.
 

Heartland Homes Community
Castleview Estates
Kennedy Township
McKees Rocks, PA

 

Our Custom home builder experience. More details to follow...

Valuable Resource Tools

The Pittsburgh BBB Better Business Bureau has a valuable rating tool to use. Click on the link below or the BBB icon to the left, then enter the Business/Charity Name. The BBB is very well maintained and this is a great tool to help do your research on almost any company. Remember its your monies and your investment.

Pittsburgh Better Business Bureau

our custom home built by love Heartland Homes.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney Generals Office. You can file a complaint online and if you click on the link below you can review the actual Complaint Process that is followed. Another valuable resource to use.

Pennsylvania State Attorney Generals Office

See how we go from Wet Basement to Damp Spots to Eliminated the Water Staining issue.

Our Heartland Homes custom home.


See picture below. Pittsburgh Heartland Homes review below to see we are told Wet Basement starting July 2004. BBB is initially told we have a Wet Basement in 2005, that turns into Damp Spots on October 17, 2006.

On November 17, 2006, about 1 month after the BBB was told by our custom home builder we have Damp Spots, Heartland Homes references our water problems to The State Attorney Generals office as Heartland Homes will continue to monitor the situation, but believes that the remedial steps taken have Eliminated The Water Staining Issue. etc.

The 3rd column on this page already has the emails from Heartland Homes in the orange, yellow, white photo posted.

All three of the responses from Heartland Homes to the BBB are the next photo down in the last column from the emails, black/white photo. As of January 30 2010, we still have to reformat and post the State Attorney General response from our Pittsburgh custom home builder Heartland Homes.

What we've learned during our new home experience.

Make sure everything is documented 100%. Make sure the custom home builder and you, both document everything you discuss and you see, as well as the date(s). This is imperative if you have any issues. We are fortunate to have literally hundreds to 1,000+ photos and every single email we sent and received.

Do NOT just assume your new home issues will be taken care of. When you view the photos of our 1st year, you should be able to see our water problems are getting more wide spread and worse, not going away.

KEY NOTE I we learned during our trial - No where in the warranty does it SPECIFICALLY STATE when the custom home builder has to resolve your issues. They are not given any timeframe, NOR is any time frame listed in any of the documents you might see.

KEY NOTE II (from what I recall) when it was mentioned a few times during our trial that we have no idea what was behind our brick veneer and vinyl siding, do we? Then I was more interested in chiseling bricks away from the front of our home and pulling back vinyl siding just to see what was behind our brick veneer and vinyl siding. See our photos as well as the 2000 and 2003 building codes we have posted under 2009 section.

KEY NOTE III (as with chiseling the brick veneer and pulling back vinyl siding that we did) For A Court trial/lawsuit we had no idea what to expect and how detailed our evidence should have been. Unfortunately you only get 1 chance to submit your court evidence. Had we known how detailed we should have been, we would have removed our brick veneer and vinyl siding before we submitted our evidence for our court trial. According to our Structural Engineer, our windows manufacturer Andersen Windows, 2000 and 2003 building codes flashing is to be installed.  Weep holes (weepholes) are to be installed according to the same building codes and the Structural Engineer we paid to inspect our home.

our Custom Home Builder review on YouTube video(s).

Currently we have 1 YouTube video posted as an overview of the first year in our custom built Heartland Homes home.

3 months after closing on our brand new first owner home we start experiencing water problems. As you can see in the photos to the right, our water problems started in May 2004, through almost 5 years of water problems with our home.
Other videos to be posted soon. We've had almost 900 views of our Heartland Homes new home experience - Pittsburgh since we posted this YouTube custom home builder video November 28, 2009.

We provided clear and concise communication with our custom home builder every time we had water problems with our custom built Heartland Homes home.

When you click the link directly below to read the emails we sent to our home builder, you will see all of the PDFs, most containing digital photos showing our water problems in our home. Water problems that started 3 months after we closed on our brand new Heartland Homes home.

Our Pittsburgh custom home builder Heartland Homes was notified every time water infiltrated our newly constructed home. Click here to read all of those emails and the responses we received from our custom home builder Heartland Homes. Over 15+ emails we sent to our custom home builder when we had water problems during our 1 year warranty period. Click link above to read every email.

Custom home builder emails stating "We Will Continue to Work Towards a Solution. The Weather is A Factor Now." This was one of three emails during our 1 year warranty period.

I know I've repeated many times that we were told by Heartland Homes 2 months after we reported our ongoing water problems.
July 22 2004 Heartland states "Wet Basement remedy to begin in the next few weeks."
September 21 2004 Heartland states "Due to the Extreme Amount of Water Friday..." and
January 21 2005 "We will Continue to Work Towards A Solution. The Weather is a Factor now."

For as many times as I've typed those emails and dates, I guess I never realized that our responses only seemed to come around the 21st or the 22nd of the month.

Our Heartland Homes complaint

We are still building this webpage regarding our Custom Home Builder experience.

Our Heartland Homes complaint 

Our Heartland Homes complaint 6 month old custom home water problems.
Photo below was before we filed our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh BBB compliant.  

Our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint - water in our foyer. Also part of our Pittsburgh Heartland Homes BBB complaint.

 

Where our home stands today in 2010 

Side of our custom home built by Heartland Homes Pittsburgh. The front of our home is brick veneer, siding is vinyl siding as you can see.

New home construction. Our custom home was built in 2003 into 2004. When you click below and view the larger image, you can see where we removed bricks out of the front of custom built home. Most of the water that comes into our home is around our front door area.

When we removed sections of our brick veneer we could not locate flashing around our Andersen Windows in those sections.

Andersen Windows installed in our custom home. According to Andersen Windows, click on photo below to view, UNIT MUST BE PROPERLY FLASHED. This is the Andersen document we received from our custom home builder.

Pittsburgh new home construction, review our water problems. In our opinion we see no weepholes (weep holes) installed and no flashing.

Our custom home photo above is a very large image to view. We wanted to be sure you could read the details of our structural engineers report and see a good photo of our brick home front.

 

 

 

 

 

latest update our custom home

 

Custom Home Builder

Highlights from the start of when we bought our first owner custom built Heartland Homes home in Pittsburgh.

Please see our timeline for a complete review of our entire Pittsburgh Custom Home builder experience. Below is part of our Heartland Homes complaint with water problems in our new custom home.

Our Heartland Homes custom home community is Castleview Estates
Kennedy Township
McKees Rocks, PA 15136

Please see link below to read every email we sent to our custom home builder and read the emails we received as responses from our home builder in Pittsburgh.

Review before you dive into our complete time line further below starting in 2004...

• Heartland Homes our custom home builder was emailed with photos every time we had water problems in our home. See email link below.
• When you read the email responses from Heartland Homes below please note we are being told they are working on our Wet Basement issues, again see email link below or click on image directly below to read details from our Pittsburgh custom home builder.
  
• Never at any time did Heartland Homes send any Structural Engineer into our home. If they did we would have known because we would have to let them in.
• Never at any time from when we first reported water problems with our brand new home in May 2004 - until early June 2005 did anyone representing our custom home builder ever come into our home or ask to come into our home to view our water problems.
• Never at any time were we asked by our home builder if our water problems were resolved. As you should be able to see from the digital photos our water problems continued and continue.
  
• May 2005 we did send a certified letter to Heartland Homes Pittsburgh owner of our custom home builder before pursuing the Better Business Bureau (BBB), State Attorney Generals office or our lawsuit.
  
  We did see the certified letter was signed for. In the letter we did state we would wait 3 weeks for a response before moving forward with filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
  
  We never heard back from the owner of Heartland Homes in Pittsburgh, so we moved forward with our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
  Click on the black/white image above to review Heartland Homes response to the BBB.
   
• June 7 2005 I called the Meritage Group in Pittsburgh to discuss the water problems we were having with our home and how our custom home builder Heartland Homes stated via emails they would Continue To Work Towards A Solution to our Wet Basement, however they did not resolve our water problems, etc. Please know that the Meritage Group in Pittsburgh did not build our custom home. They simply managed our Homeowners Association.
  We sent an entire package to the Meritage Group in Pittsburgh along with tons of photos, emails, all types of details regarding our water problems.
  The Meritage Group in Pittsburgh was handling our homeowners association, we thought perhaps they could assist.
  Additionally I am not able to post what I, Dave Romesburg was told because I do not have it in writing and I have no way to validate what I was told. Instead we only posted the letter we sent to the Meritage Group in Pittsburgh.
• June 16 2005 Marty Gillespie Heartland Homes Pittsburgh calls me to discuss the Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint we filed with the BBB. Additionally he wanted to set up a time to come to our home with his Production Manager or whatever title Marty Gillespie used to refer to our Heartland Homes point person.
• June 21 2005 Marty Gillespie Heartland Homes and Craig from Heartland Homes meets me at our home to review our water problems. Marty, Craig and I walk around our home as various areas are pointed out by Marty Gillespie and it is discussed about trenching the around our home and other construction type repairs are discussed.

Be sure to review our photos, I will be sure to specifically point out what our home builder did to attempt to correct the water problems with our home in 2005 and 2006, after we filed our complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

• June 29 2005; We met with Mr. Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and Wet Basement problems. We are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues.
  
• Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review of the BBB document above also note when you click on the image above
• October 4, 2006 Heartland Homes states Company states they are currently working with the customer to remedy the problems with the door and Wet Basement problems, etc. Company seeks to make repairs.
• October 17, 2006 just 13 days later; now October 17, 2006 Heartland Homes Pittsburgh our custom home builder states; Company states they performed work on customer's townhouse and this work was done as a Courtesy. Statements also referring to our Wet Basement problems are now referenced as simply Damp Spots.
• Company further states they are not responsible for Damp SPOTS on foundation walls.

Review our custom built home time line starting here...

2004

• February 2004 - close on our custom built Pittsburgh Heartland Homes home.
• May 22, 2004 - 3 months after closing, water problems start in our custom built home.
• May 22, 2004 we notified our custom home builder immediately and every additional time water infiltrated our home.
• May 22 2004 - April 2005 we send over 15 emails to our custom home builder regarding our water problems with our new home. See all emails we sent to Heartland Homes and received from Heartland Homes by clicking here.
• Heartland Homes outlined warranty procedure is to send an email to an email address. Additionally this helped us as well, because an email trail was established and we could better substantiate the review of our timeline.
• July 22 2004 first response we receive from our home builder. Heartland Homes states; WET BASEMENT remedy to begin in the next few weeks. We are working with supervisor.
• September 21 2004 our custom home builder states; Due to the extreme amount of water Friday, I am noting in your file. Castleview is still a work in progress.
• September 23 2004 - January 20 2005 No communication from our home builder. Almost 4 months, no updates, no communication even though we have had water problems with our home since May 2004.

2005

• We sent new emails with photos in January 2005 due to continued water problems in January 2005.
• January 21 2005 our Pittsburgh custom home builder Heartland Homes states; We will Continue to work Towards A Solution. The weather is a factor now.
• February 2 2005 Heartland Homes states; Just an update. We will continue to work on the settlement that occurred around your building in the late spring, weather permitting.
• April 11 2005 we sent email to Heartland Homes regarding our weather stripping on our front door tearing again and about our basement leaking water issue.
• April 21 2005 we send another email, phone call to our Pittsburgh custom home builder about the lack of resolving our water problems with our home.
• May 3 2005 we send another email, phone call to our Pittsburgh custom home builder Heartland Homes.
• May 2005 I escalate our water problems to the Heartland Homes warranty manager and leave Rick a voice message. I believe that day my call is returned and I am told the warranty manager was on vacation, that is the reason that person was returning my call. 
• May 2005 additional note; I received a call from Michele at Heartland Homes. What I was told I am not going to post because I do not have proof and during our court trial I was told it was considered here say. We will leave it at that. We feel our photos, timeline, emails and history will speak for themselves.
• May 2005 we sent a certified letter to the owner of Heartland Homes in Pittsburgh. The letter was signed for and we asked for a response within 3 weeks or we would move forward with escalating our Heartland Homes complaint. Click image below to view our Heartland Homes complaint.
  
• We did not received a response from our custom home builder even thought we saw the certified letter was signed for, see photo above for more details.
• I called and spoke with the company that was handling our Home Owners Association The Meritage Group in Pittsburgh.
  After our conversation I sent them a full package of photos, our emails to Heartland Homes our custom home builder, etc. I believe the package weight about 4 lbs. Love Heartland Homes our custom builder.
  
  What I sent The Meritage Group was basically a copy of everything I sent to valid the BBB complaint we filed. Above is the letter that I included in our package, I thought perhaps our Home Owners Association would be able to assist us. What was discussed I can not post because it is considered here say as well. We will just leave it at that as well.
• June 2005 we filed our Heartland Homes complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in Pittsburgh.

2006

• October 2006 we filed a complaint against our Pittsburgh custom home builder with the PA State Attorney Generals Office.

2007

• $5,188.25 we paid in legal fees for 2007
• December 2007 we started filing for our lawsuit against our Pittsburgh custom home builder.

2008

• $10,998.78 we paid in legal fees for 2008.
• $895.75 we paid for depositions prior to our court trial in December 2008.
• $95.00 we paid an electrical engineer to inspect the grey film in our electrical panel due to water numerous times in our electrical panel.
• $890.00 we paid to replace and inspect our new electrical panel that had to be replaced due to corrosion. Our home was built brand new slightly over 4 years ago.
• December 2008 our Heartland Homes lawsuit court trial started.

2009

• $3,229.35 we paid in legal fees for 2009.
• January 8 2009 we received the Judge verdict in our favor, monies awarded were $11,700.00
• Heartland Homes appealed the monies portion of our verdict.

2010