Gallery Homes

WARNING !!! DO NOT BUILD WITH THIS BUILDER !!!

My wife and I purchased a home from Gallery Homes in September 2008, in the Airdrie community of Prairie Springs.

We have experienced nothing but frustration and anguish due to the numerous problems with this builder since day one.

Many of these problems were acknowledged by the builder throughout the build, who assured us that the repairs would be completed in a timely fashion, but that they were extremely busy with other houses in the community and that they could not commit to a specific time frame.

This should have been a red flag for me, but being my first experience with building a home, and based on the promises made during the negotiation process I placed far too much trust in the builder. The builder verbally acknowledged the majority of our issues, and provided us with a plan to repair the items; however, their trade’s people were always "busy" and could not come by to complete repairs even though they were working in the area.

To list a few of the problems;

1. Did not follow plans on drawings. Major errors had to be corrected, including incorrect stairs into basement, incorrect closets, incorrect rough-in in basement, incorrect island in kitchen, to date they still have not , and cannot provide us with final drawings of the home.
2. My Wife witnessed one of the builders break a drainage pipe in sidewalk, and raised the issue at the time it occurred. Not repaired, and we have drainage problems with sidewalk which creates a skating rink on our walkway every winter that has already resulted in injuries.
3. Furnace was incorrectly installed. A drainage hose was not secured which created. An unbearable sewer smell throughout our home forced us to evacuate several times last summer. Over the course of the 4 months we experienced this odor a roughly twice day. We contacted the city thinking it was a gas leak only to be advised otherwise. We pursued many different possibilities, and just prior to paying for a rather expensive video camera inspection of the pipes, it was confirmed the odor was created by an incorrectly installed drainage hose, which has been leaking into the bottom of the furnace since installation. The bottom of the furnace is rusted out, and may need to be replaced.

Under the builders warranty, it is mandatory for a builder to complete an initial walkthrough, AS WELL AS, an inspection after year one of possession.

We requested on multiple occasions to have our one year walkthrough done by this builder, but they ignored every single request. We have many issues such as nail pops in the drywall, dowels for railings that were never completed; we paid extra money for high-end sealant for our tile floor which was never installed after island repairs. This was even acknowledged by them in writing, although to date this has never been completed.

To add to this, several other homes built by this builder in Prairie Springs also to this date have not received their one year inspection.

We are now approaching our third year in the home, and not one repair has been made, nor has Gallery made contact with us to arrange our one year inspection, despite our numerous requests, and the builder himself acknowledging our requests.

Our immediate neighbors on both sides, as well as numerous other families in the community, have not received their follow up walkthroughs. Three years later, we still have nothing done, and the builder has now told us in writing that he will not do anything for us, as according to his "records", ALL the work discussed has been completed and our contract is now expired. He has flat out stated he has no further concern for our issues, and of course he has refused to provide any records substantiate his claims, because he has none.

All of our dealings have been directly with the owner of Gallery Homes. Despite having made promises to my face at a meeting in my home, he has not made any attempt to follow thourgh with the repairs he committed to. He has ignored all written requests, failed to respond, and appears to have no conscience or feel any remorse for his lack of action.

I would NOT recommend this company to anyone, and simply state to any potential buyers to do their research on this company to protect themselves.