Hybrid Home Builders

In September of 2020, my wife and I contracted with Joey Hughes, (ICF Cowboy, Hybrid Home Builders/Hybrid Construction Group) to build our two-story home of ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) in Montana. Mr. Hughes wrote the contract with a completion date for the home 90 days after the start of construction. Construction began early September 2020. Installment payments were to be made at specific points in the build. We paid $100,000 upfront at the signing of the contract. We paid an additional $87,500 at the start of the dirt work. In late November, only the footings had been poured and lower walls constructed. Mr. Hughes guaranteed that the roof would be on in two weeks. Because we were leaving for the Thanksgiving holiday, we paid him the next installment, a second payment of $87,500, that was not supposed to be paid until after the roof was on. Mr. Hughes started the Hybrid Home Builders, LLC (HHB) in late 2020 and registered the company in February 2021. HHB poured the lower walls and foundation in January 2021. The walls were severely crooked and the foundation/concrete floor for the lower floor was wavy and 5 inches lower in one corner and the corner footing of the house settled significantly. The plans called for a downstairs bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower but HHB did not rough in any plumbing. In March of 2021 we learned that HHB didn't even have the ICF deck panels for the second floor yet and they were not expected until July 2021, even though Mr. Hughes told us in October of 2020 that he had all of the materials for the build. HHB installed the deck panels in August 2021 and poured the concrete for the upper floor in September. Mr. Hughes and HHB showed up to the poor with no tools (power trowel or grade stakes for a 1500sf concrete pour. They attempted to hand trowel and float the concrete which dried rapidly and came out worse than the bottom floor. Several professionals looked at the build site and expressed their concerns about the quality of work including a number of HHB employees. We hired a building inspector to look at the build. The inspector red-flagged the project for soil, engineering and safety concerns and indicated that Mr. Hughes had not followed the ICF manufacturers requirements for supporting the ICF deck panels. Mr. Hughes came to our house in December of 2021 to request more money starting he ran out. We haves Mr. Hughes a 30 day notice to correct all of the defects with the build (too many to list). Mr. Hughes refused to tell us how much he was going to invoice us for stating he would just "add it on at the end". Mr. Hughes left our property on December 7, 2021, and has not returned nor has he responded our texts or emails. The structure is less than 50% complete as of March 2022. Joey Hughes had refused several requests to return the money ($87,500) we gave him in good faith expecting the roof to be on by the first week of December 2020. This was contacted to be a 3 month build that is now 18 months and less than half complete. We were advised by 2 other ICF contractors that it would becost prohibitive to fix what is wrong with the structure and they recommended tearing down and restarting.

Throughout this project there were literally months that would go by that no one would show up to the build site. Mr. Hughes seemed to be full of excuses mostly regarding the weather and his employees not wanting to work. My wife and I have been very flexible and willing to renegotiate the contract but Mr. Hughes refused. An attempt at recouping some of the money we've lost through his insurance failed because his insurance does not cover faulty work or HHB walking away from the job. Sadly we will have to get an attorney to resolve the matter.

I absolutely would not recommend Joey Hughes, ICF Cowboy, Hybrid Home Builders, LLC, Hybrid Construction Group, LLC to build anything. He and his company are currently inexperienced at running a business and constructing structures.

If anyone is doubting this review, please call (831) 419-7144.... Perhaps you'd like to see it for yourself.