Dennis Sawby Construction

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• By Joan D.

  May 31, 2023

  Build a new home

  Overall, the design and construction went smoothly, albeit behind schedule. We made multiple changes to the original plan and both Dennis and Nick were responsive and flexible with our requests. We did pay out-of-pocket for a good deal of upgrades but the charges were not unreasonable. We've been in our home for approximately 4 and 1/2 years now and have experienced issues with the tile work in both our walk-in showers that required extensive and costly repairs. Dennis was responsive to my inquiries on the subcontractor they used for the tile work but was unable to assist in correcting the issue due to the warrantee having expired well before the issue was discovered and the subcontractor never responded to any of our calls or emails. It was also not covered by our insurance due to the nature of the issue, faulty grout and water seepage into subfloors. Otherwise, the house has definitely met my expectations and any regrets in design are mine alone. Having said that, an architect's eye might have caught some of the issues created by my changes.

• By Kathleen A.

  July 10, 2022

  New home construction

  $564,000

  We waited to post this until we had reached an end of the 1 yr warranty and communication from sawby ended and went silent. This is a read, so please take the time.

  Sawby is neither professional, interested in your dream home goals, or responsive and timely. His claim to craftsmanship and intentional design is heavily in contradiction to our experience.

  First, the good. They do use high end finishes. The neighbors as they have built and moved in, are wonderful. The view in our area is peaceful and lovely. The bones of the house are solid. That about wraps it up.

  We began in August of 2020 with the Panorama Vista development. The contract offered a ton of coverage and loopholes for him, but nothing for us. We had a home sale contingency, but his bank (banner bank) refused to allow him to start construction on our property unless we waived that. Less protection for us.

  Throughout the framework process, we noticed several things wrong. Doors where they shouldn't be, windows placed incorrectly, wrong dining room structure. All of these were according to original Floorplan, and not our red pen changes. When we tried to get it addressed, we were told (during the lumber supply shortage of all times) it was cheaper to do it wrong the first round and fix it later, than to do it right the first time. They also tried to charge us a change order fee for us putting it back the way it was supposed to be.

  The mortgage officer they reccomended breached privacy laws and tipped off Sawby that we didn't have an extra 30 days (30 day rate float down) and failed to call us to let us know. Their relationship almost cost us our home. Fortunately for us, we had a good realtor.

  Once we were in, the "1 yr warranty" was a joke. We moved in April 1, 2021, and there is still damage from them partially fixing things for the 30 day walk through, and leaving it incomplete and never coming back. We have exposed electrical junction boxes, patches of spackle unpainted, cracks in our hardwoods, poor paint job on our garage, cracks in our crown moulding, unpainted staples in our soffit open to rust, cracks in our stucco, to name a few problems.

  Worse, the backyard they added on is unpermitted, not engineered correctly, and destined to fail. The original Geotechnical report was ignored and when they changed it, no Geotech was called in to approve the plan. It is in violation of international building codes, specifically J107.6. We have confirmed this with our own, privately hired Geotechnical Engineer.

  The addendum for the backyard called for fully fenced and graded, but Dennis decided that he didn't want to follow through with the fence and backed out throwing a fit and never graded the hillside. We have had failures due to them also doing poor work on our neighbor's property, and do still have a crevasse from the failure, but they refuse to fix it as well. We have video footage showing the last person to touch said work was an employee but they deemed our warranty expired and refuse to fix the damage caused by the new house, which is very much still under warranty.

  The kicker of it all is that he is an LLC and likely uses this to reduce his risk, and your ability to get remediation. Your best bet is to have a pit bull of a realtor and lawyer holding him responsible and not taking ownership until you are satisfied. The city will not inspect before you get occupancy, nor will they inspect after. You have NO protection from his illegal behaviors. Between the government protecting itself (city is unable to be held liable for rubber stamping certificates of occupancy without verifying the work is correct and safe) and the cost of a nasty legal battle, just to see if there is anything left for Sawby to use to fix the damages they caused, the ability to defend yourself is minimal after you purchase the home.

  All of these issues have been brought to Sawby's attention and ignored.

  Again, this review contains no new information to Sawby Construction, but I hope it helps protect future buyers from being as taken advantage of as we have been.

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• By Greg B.

  October 17, 2020

  Build a custom home

  $570,000

  We bought a custom home from Sawby Construction in August 2020. Everything about our experience has been amazing. The quality of construction is top notch. The Sawby's and their realtor have answered all of my calls and texts promptly. The few changes we had were very reasonably priced and negotiated well in advance. There were zero surprises.
  The few minor issues we have had are fixed immediately. I would definitely recommend them.

• By Catherine H.

  April 23, 2019

  New Home Construction

  Do NOT buy anything from Dennis or Nick Sawby. They are slow to respond to your problems you have with their construction or contractors. It took them almost 19 months to complete our home from the time we started negotiation to finish. My husband had surgery the day they got the certificate of occupancy. They charged us $100 a day until we could get into the Title Company to sign. They up-charged us ~28% on any changes THEY deemed changes. Their architect was fighting with Dennis, so we NEVER got final buy off on the drawings, WHICH THE BUY-OFF FOR FINAL APPROVAL WAS WRITTEN INTO OUR CONTRACT. They built to buyers unapproved drawings then kept telling us we will fix it in the construction of the home...oh and by the way that will cost you 28% in up-charges for your changes, which were not changes if they went by OUR MARKED DRAWINGS (Taxes and Dennis' cut).
  Now we have been living in our home for 4.5 months. We had to have all the flooring removed and reinstalled out of our pocket and insurance claim (by our contractor Zion)- it was install incorrectly by the same contrator (Ishmael Rubio) that did the tile work. The floor boards started coming appart because they installed the cabinets and the 15 ft island on top of the floor so the floor could not float. Rubio's work sucks. One bathroom shower drains water in floods out of it through a European shower door onto the bathroom floor. The shower floor does not sloop correctly towards the drain. He already tore it out once and this was his second attempt at FAILURE. The bonus room shower was not tiled correctly by Rubio's worker and has jagged edges that are sharp and cut your feet. Rubio/Sawby was suppose to remove the marble and redo it 3 months ago. Not done still--the shower door is sitting behind a sofa still waiting to be installed. Sawby screwed up designing the drive way and I have a 3 foot drop off from my drive way that 3 trucks and one car have dropped their wheels off of which has damage our driveway concrete. Our drive way is steep and you can not see it unless you know it's there. I could go on and on. But I am not the only house with issues that Sawby Construction have built. Two house in our little cul-we-sac were built by Sawby without the main support beam under the house and discovered after the subfloors were down. They were fixed but who builds and forgets or over looks support beams! And Good bless those that have to put up with the Sawby attitudes. Enough said. BEWARE.

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