This blog is about the home I purchased in February of 2010 that was built by Richard Boedeker of Tiki Construction in the Comox Valley.

                           One day I went to open the closet door & this handle came off in my hand.

                                                    (Details of this jpeg are noted below.)
 March 4, 2014 / Update  
Tiki Construction comment on my blog: “You may have noticed a negative blog about this business when searching for your new home. We are very aware of this buyer and have worked with Home Warranty on resolving their complaints. The home in question was already built when purchased and went through all the required inspections.” 

(From my perspective) we are not talking about a home with just a few minor defects that needed to be fixed. Please take a look at all the jpegs below, they speak the truth - and keep in mind these represent approximately half (or less) of all that is/was wrong with this home.

By December of 2012, when I discovered a new batch of defects I had simply had it with Richard. Much like the couple (the original owners) who lived at 1234 Slater Place (Comox) who also had a terrible experience dealing with him (they too at one point had a highly critical blog about Tiki).

As for the claim that Richard worked with home warranty to resolve the complaints, sadly, things were so bad between Richard and I that Echelon General Insurance (the underwriter for Pacific Home Warranty) agreed that I did not have to deal with him anymore, so the truth of the matter is that by 2013, Richard, who was often abusive (I know of other parties who also experienced this) was (thankfully for me) no longer involved with any of the repairs.

Next; in regards to my home having gone through all the required inspections - well this home might have passed inspection, however since that time there have been a number of areas that did not meet the building code, several of which are mentioned on my blog, having been documented by 3^rd party experts who were hired by Echelon.

Furthermore, as I was informed by Trevor Roberts, Building Inspector for the Town of Comox – inspectors do not regulate quality - their only provision relates to whether or not a home meets the minimum requirements of the code.

And I strongly believe my home is not indicative of a quality product.

In the coming weeks I will be posting even more jpegs in an effort to better illustrate this.

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February, 2010: At first, starting with the day I met Richard while doing the final walk-through inspection of the house I was about to purchase, Richard was civil & (at the time) I had a favourable impression of him, enough for me to write a reference letter for Tiki. However as time progressed over the course of many months & my dissatisfaction with the (increasing) number of defects grew I found it harder & harder to work with Richard & eventually, after living in my Tiki home for approximately one year, I asked him to take down the reference letter as I no longer felt comfortable recommending him to others. Since that time until the present date I have had numerous, highly unpleasant, arguments with Richard about the lengthy list of defects on this home.

Here are a few areas of concern. Please note; to be perfectly fair I have not posted images of areas that have been fixed.

Clicking on the image will expand it to its full size.

Just take a look at the sorry state of this ceiling. Coming from a builder who claims to be: "dedicated to building quality homes" how is this even possible?

This was discovered by one of the renovation specialists who Echelon General Insurance sent over to assess my concerns.

 This pic is of a nail coming up through the roof from inside the house & what does Richard or one of his workers do? Instead of removing it & sealing the hole they simply bent it over. Whoever this person was couldn't have been bothered to do the right thing & remove it.

 

This pic is of the wood trim at the peak of the house for which there is a 3/8th+ of an inch gap. Even accounting for wood shrinkage this is shoddy workmanship.

The pic noted above was written up as follows in the report by RDH Building Engineering: “Roofing and step flashing at the eave-to-wall intersection terminates without a water diverter flashing at several locations… This condition is considered to be a Defect In The Building Envelope.”

 Sloppy painting & even worse, there is not supposed to be caulking under the Hardiboard siding.

Take a look at the great slather of caulking under the Hardiboard trim seen at the left on this pic. The Hardiboard also appears to have a chunk taken out of it at the top just at the edge of the pic.

The white chalky dust on the end of my finger, also seen to the right of my finger on the tile came from rubbing the edge of the unpainted Hardiboard siding which I have been told is supposed to be painted because if it is left as is seen in this pic it will absorb moisture & then gradually crumble & deteriorate.

 In regards to the arrow noted to the right - inadequate overlap on wood trim pieces (many examples) has resulted in extreme gaps. The other 2 arrows to the left are of yet another unpainted Hardiboard edge.

 

This image is of the porch overhang support at the front of my house (see below for full image)

See example of area of concern, circled in red, in the image above this one.

The broken piece of Hardiboard that once filled this spot was easily removed by hand (image below is of the missing Hardiboard piece re-installed) by an estimator from a construction restoration company as part of the inspection process. 

This area was also written up in the report by RDH Building Engineering: "The subject cladding board is broken at the right end and is loose such that it can be slid upwards. It does not appear to be susceptible to
falling out as it’s restrained by the siding above and the adjacent corner trim.
RDH evaluation: This condition is considered to be a Defect In The Building Envelope."

The image noted above of a broken Hardiboard piece is how things were before the estimator removed it to inspect behind (see pic above this one).

The area circled is of the left bottom corner of my front window box. This area became extended, mushy & swollen during the rainy season & green moss (still barely visible) started to grow in the crack (due to the wood having shrunk back to reveal this gap). This is another area of concern which the estimator noted. 

 The image above is of the bottom left side of the front window box (the same general area shown in the image above this one) for which there is now a jagged gap where water can get in behind this piece of wood, even though only 12 months earlier this area was re-caulked after having exhibited the same problem.

This image is of the roof-line wood trim at the front of the house which is not flush with the soffit, for which there is a half inch gap with a now visible nail shaft. Note the distorted soffit rail behind.

The porch soffit exhibits this distorted/warped appearance all over its surface & look terrible in certain lighting.

RDH Building Engineering comment: "the Code Requires horizontal joints over drained and vented air spaces to be flashed unless the detail is constructed to minimize the ingress of water into the air space. An exposed butt joint would not satisfy the Code."
Note: what is circled in red to the left is an exposed butt joint.
Also please note the other area circled in red to the right; this sort of crude & jagged saw cut is evident in several places around the outside of the house.

 This scene is of the drywall inside my garage that does not line up with the concrete foundation.

              And here's another area in the garage where the drywall doesn't line up with the foundation.

Power-wash the porch at the back of my house along the side of the house & this is what I am greeted with on the corresponding wall inside.

 

One word: crude. Also notice the slather of caulking along the edge of the tub. Whoever did this didn't even bother to mask off along the edge.

Not exactly square. I have a corner shelf that I tried in vain to install, unfortunately there are not many walls inside that are square enough to allow it to be attached without having to resort to extensive modification of the shelf itself.

                                                                      Sloppy caulking.

                                 Sloppy masonry work. There are numerous examples of this.

Virtually all of the estimators & construction workers got a chuckle (ultimately at my expense) at the sight of this bent piece of flashing jammed on top of a crudely cut piece of wood trim. Note the slather of caulking above the flashing.

    Here's the bottom of the piece of wood trim mentioned above. Note the jagged saw cut.

The area circled above illustrates that there is no flashing installed which, given the gap highlighted in this jpeg, is another area where water can get in behind this service box (which is itself unnecessary, if only the conduit had been installed in the foundation when it was formed).

If it looks like these two closet handles are not level with each other it's because they are not level with each other. So too are both the toilet paper roll holders. Whoever was in charge of this didn't even bother to employ a level, it appears not even their eyeball to check & see.

On a side note; the main reason I purchased a new home (paying a premium over a pre-owned home) was so I would not have to deal with the repairs that go along with owning an older home, however, ironically, this is exactly what I have experienced and, to this day, am having to deal with - everything from a defective concrete driveway & patio pad (which turned blotchy white/gray), a skylight that leaked, extreme gaps around most of the exterior doors, shoddy paintwork,  numerous drywall nail-pops, closet shelf-brackets coming away from the walls, the front entrance door deadbolt lock misaligned with the door frame (which made it difficult to lock my front door), a warped & dented main entrance door (during the rainy season this resulted in a virtual flood of water that easily found its way past the gap in the front door to the inside of my house), exposed & broken hardiboard siding, drywall paneling in the garage that doesn't line up with the foundation & on & on... The majority of the aforementioned defects have now been fixed (thanks to home warranty) however once one problem is fixed another defect rears its ugly head.

If there had been 1/5th the number of problems associated with this house that I've had to deal with I would have probably been okay with everything & this blog would then not exist, however it is the sheer number of problems that make this new homeowner experience such an unhappy one.

To summarize; it is my opinion that this (Tiki Construction) home was hastily constructed with less than adequate regard for quality control and any satisfaction I originally experienced in the purchase of a new home has long since evaporated and now, if I could do things over again, I would have run for the hills when faced with the prospect of owning a home built by Richard Boedeker of Tiki Construction.

Update – Spring of 2012:

For a time Richard become easier to deal with, he made concessions for the less than satisfactory work & sent over a finisher to repair the numerous nail pops, the sunken drywall corners & a number of other things. He also applied a new skim coat over the chalky/powdery crawl-space skim-coat & struck a deal with me that instead of redoing areas of the ceiling (in several areas there are nail pops, cracks, ridges & undulations) which would have been a very messy & time consuming job, he installed tile around my fireplace, he even upgrade the shelving in my master bedroom & study. All in all Richard & I were on much better footing.

However, as time progressed & more defects were discovered, this temporary truce between Richard & I ground to a halt when on December 25^th, just before I was about to go over to my mom’s for Christmas dinner, I discovered water dripping down onto the concrete porch from the inside of the Hardiboard siding to the right of the front door, forming a pool of water. When I went up on the roof to see where this could be coming from, this is what I was greeted with:

How any professional builder could be associated with work as shoddy as this is beyond me. The only word that comes to my mind is disgraceful. In the lower area circled in red there is a 1 inch gap where the siding is supposed to meet, you can even see the red tape behind the Hardiboard siding & look at the state of the soffit circled in the background, falling out of its track.

(I know, I know Richard, you didn’t do this work yourself, it was the fault of _____ who you hired. Have you ever heard of the expression “the buck stops here”? Did you ever stop to think; maybe I should inspect all the work on a $380,000+ product that I am about to attach my name to?) 

Update - December 2012: yet another claim has been filed with Echelon Insurance (home warranty) who have now authorized an additional $7,000+ worth of warranty repairs towards the building envelope, which has been written up extensively by 2 renovation specialists & an engineer from RDH Building Engineering Ltd. who Echelon sent around to do an evaluation.

How do I feel now? Exhausted. Like someone has punched me in the gut over & over. This is what it ultimately feels like to me to be the owner of a Tiki Construction home.

Why am I so upset? (Enough for me to set up this blog.) Because I feel I have been sold a pack of goods. The builder, on his website, states over & over, no less than six times, the word 'quality' & when I met Richard on the day of the walk-through inspection he again stressed quality workmanship. However as time has progressed & I have been educated on what meets the standard of quality workmanship I have come to the conclusion that what I was told & what I now own are not in total congruence with each other.

What am I trying to accomplish? Two things; 
1) I wish to receive what I paid in good faith for, which means I would like the builder to fix everything.
2) I believe the truth should be told to which end this blog is a vehicle. 

In conclusion; there is the potential that someone representing the builder might try & threaten me with a lawsuit for the “crime” of being vocal & speaking candidly about my Tiki Construction experience. Richard himself alluded to this on more than one occasion. For the record; this will not work. Any and all legal threats will be enthusiastically responded to in court & any & all correspondence coming from individuals representing the builder will be posted on my website for all to see and if, like before, someone contacts Google in an effort to prevent this information from reaching the general public & they are successful like they were here: http://tikiconstructioncomox.blogspot.ca/ 

> then I will respond with an actual, full fledged website, which will not be shut down.