Many people say they buy a brand new home because they think it will be problem free since everything is new. However, one Wake Forest family says they found out the hard way that new doesn't always mean hassle-free. At first glance from the outside, you would never know the Triblehorn's home has any problems, but once inside, you'll quickly see major issues.

"I had water pouring through my ceiling, my floor was soaking wet, my sofa was soaking wet," homeowner Sondra Triblehorn said.

She says when they got a hard rain, water just poured into the home.

"There is no flashing that takes it straight out, when that gets wet it just pours right into the house," Triblehorn said.

The water damage is also upstairs in the kids bedrooms. The Triblehorn's bought the brand new Parade of Homes winner back in 2004. However, they didn't discover the leaks right away.

"Within the first 14 months we had a leak," Triblehorn said.

She says the builder, Peedin Family Homes, Inc., did send crews to fix the leaks and begin water removal, but over the years, they continued to have major water intrusion. Since the new home only had a one-year warranty, she says her builder was not willing to help.

"He said our warranty period was over and he told us it was our responsibility to fix the house," Triblehorn said.

They did have a homebuyer's warranty, but that didn't cover the damages either.

"Basically that warranty does not cover faulty construction or builder defects, it covers structural issues which they deemed this was not a structural problem it was a builder defect," Triblehorn said.

Over the years, the Triblehorn's did repair the water damage themselves several times and attempted many fixes.

"It worked for a little while, but then we had water come in again," she said.

With more damage each time, the Triblehorn's had two engineering firms look at their home, who also determined the leaks were because of workmanship issues during construction. Armed with the reports, they went back to the builder who directed them to the brick mason on the job, Tommy V's Brickworks.

"They basically told me the brick was put on incorrectly and I said, 'okay can you fix it,' and they assured me they could fix it and they gave me a quote and I said, 'aren't you going to fix it because you guys installed in incorrectly, I should not have to pay for it,'" Triblehorn said.

Fed up, the Tribleshorn's contacted ABC11 and I got in touch with the builder and brick mason. The owner of Peedin Homes said at first they thought the Triblehorn's wanted extra work done as the home is several years out of warranty, but if the brick mason did something wrong he would fix it.

The brick mason said he sub-contracted the job out, but agrees if there's a problem with the job, he would take care of it. Once they took the brick off the home, Triblehorn says the main problem was discovered.

"There was no flashing that would take the water out from the windows or the roof line," she said.

It took some time, but the brick mason came through and fixed the Triblehorn's home.

"I think they did a really good job," Triblehorn said.

She says she is thrilled with the result and now after seven years of headaches, just wants to enjoy her home.

"It will be nice to see what it likes cleaning my house instead of redoing it all the time," Triblehorn said. "I just want to say thank you so much because if it wasn't for you, we would have to pay big bucks to have this house fixed, in upwards of $30,000."

Triblehorn's insurance company covered some the damages inside, while the brick mason and builder took care of fixing the other issues.

Whenever buying a home, it's important to get a home inspector or even a step further a professional engineer to look at the home. Despite the Tribleshorn's home going through the county inspection process, the issues were still missed and it passed inspection.

Original Article

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