Hi Justin.... be extremely careful.... I gave a $45,000 deposit to a company that are out of Quebec, that told me they were in New Brunswick, and met on this site, this was great as I am in the Maritimes....they have had my plan since Feb March...for a May delivery then June then next week, Then Fri or Mon then July then the first week in Aug ( my engineer has not receive 1 structural drawing from him in the 3 months he has waited) ... until I pulled the plug... I wanted out since late June...I had a P.I. go to the factory this week... and they found maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of wall panels done or various stages of readiness.... but no columns, no dormers, no roof. no large headers, no beam... and all of them are not certified or engineer stamped...
He will not give me my $45,000 back or that worth in engineer stamped panels ... he want me to give him more money... he wont say how much...he just says the whole amount ( could that be the whole amount including the missing pieces.. he wont say) he just keeps repeating the whole amount before ANYTHING leaves his shop ....or even before he will tell me how many panels he has done and could be stamped and he wants it BEFORE the panels leave the shop in Quebec, not upon delivery and inspection...
He also wants to talk on the phone and not in writing.
I would be happy to send you even yesterdays emails or all of them and you make your own decision on if you would like to deal with this company.
I believe SIPS is the wave of the future, it solves a multitude of problems, labour shortages, energy costs etc and still firmly believe in this product... I even wanted to sell the product...I would have loved to have a SIPS house...
I might suggest to the powers that be.... that this issue be addressed..... so one bad apple does not spoil the whole bunch... and have forums... not here because he is here....where the average consumer can go to learn what to expect... in the SIPS buying/ building process ... even a general industry standard...
dont be like me, living in a travel trailer on site staring at a foundation that was started months ago, waiting for a house pkg that never comes and fearing the loaming Maritime winter!
Check it out ....make sure the panels are certified...check it out and the interprovincial and cross border judicial systems, check it out.... I know now that there are reputable companies out there and was dealing with one to start.... but this company said they could do it a few weeks faster..... I guess anyone can see how thats working!!!            Pam

I think you're in need of an attorney ASAP.

Cork-Guy
 
that was my initial thought too, but if you read in some other threads , the mfg. did respond to the owner and as usual there are 2 sides to every story. It appears by his account he was told to stop production by the home owner.

It would not be surprising that it could be the case of the owner becoming overwhelmed with the whole process and in turn driving the mfg. nuts

OMG I bought the plan you said you could do revisions, then said you could not... fair enough...I hired a designer because you said you needed the plan right away and could not wait for the original designer...paid 400 for that plan revision, that you said was no good...I hired another designer again paid this time 600 and you said hers were no good as well... then hired another designer... paid to have the plan totally redrawn 1200 plus... this time I thought I had a solution... because you were starting to pick the plans apart..... for you to work with the designer on the new plan... you would call the designer directly.... for this extra service they provided they charged me an extra 900. but hey... you had a plan that you revised for an extra month, the only thing missing was the centre support column and that had to be done specifically for SIPS or Stick....so it would be exactly what you needed, no more delays right ... wrong... you said the plans were all messed up even though the city granted me a building permit based on these plans and only these plans to stick frame with only the centre support to follow...
even though you had and worked on the plans in CAD format ( at your request) for at least a month you said you did not have the plans so I went down to the company picked up the plans on disc loaded them onto my computer and sent them to you myself the end of May first of June ( like I said my desk top is in Storage but I paid for them June 2) and you acknowledged the receipt of same, but all this time you were saying Fri or Mon and you would have the plans to the engineer for approval... you didn't have an engineer... so I provided one, I needed one anyway to do an undertaking, and you used him to do the structuring for you, even though you said since your panels were not certified then they would be engineer stamped but hey it.... no more delays, wrong... It was at this point that we started to get scared... we had a family reunion to host at Christmas that you were aware of, in a house that did not exist... it went from 2-3 weeks for delivery to 6 weeks maximum, to trust you!!!! and even if I started stick framing then that the panels would be here and up before then.... OK that sounded reasonable but, that was it... no later than the 12 of July and in that time you would provide our engineer with the take offs for approval and enable him to do an undertaking... Well as time went on and then you were saying you were working on panels and this was done and that was done... and when I asked how you could be doing that? I had not approved the final plan and nor had my engineer, how could you have even make panels without that according to your company policy so you told me... you get the plan ... do a takeoff... then after takeoff you go into production... It was at this point that things got interesting My husband called you several times making sure the panels were legal as in stamped and on the way as you said on time you made no indication that they were not to the take off stage every time we asked it was Fri or Monday it was also during this time that we told you point blank that August was not an option... when you started talking about a Quebec labour holiday that took place the last 2 weeks of July.
Approx the end of July I stated to talk more with the engineer to find out if, he was the hold up as you said, it was then that the facts can to light that combined with the past caused us to make our final decision, even though we had asked you many times to return our deposit and you would ignore questions, and requests in my emails but refer to other things in the emails but ignore the problems, we thought this was rather bizarre.
Our engineer told us that he had not received one structural drawing from you,though he sent you solutions. It was at this point that we had to find out exactly were we stood without the lies and what we could do to salvage the situation... the engineer expressed doubts on your ability to do this project and we also had our suspicions that it was the roof and the eyebrow dormers that were giving you the problems.... especially when he told us that a sips company with an engineer could work with a plan that was drawn on a napkin, and make it out of SIPS and it would be structurally sound!!!
Well when we sent the PI to your site and trust me that was the wiser decision than Mike going and found out that the roof and dormers were not started and the wall panels were in different stages of readiness...if they were ours, that was all the confirmation we needed.
The problem was not the designers or the design... it was you.
We had started to have the plans redrawn for stick framing and change the facade so I would not be reminded of this nightmare... but kept the footprint and the windows the same size and location... etc so we could use sips walls, just in case a miracle would happen and they could be stamped and made legal for construction... so working with our engineer he felt that the walls were fairly safe and if we went with trusses... then his concerns about point load would be alleviated... as it turned out that was all you had anyway.

I told you that at that time I would be willing to purchase at fair market value...all the legal panels you had and the floor joists... provided you could have them stamped and inventoried so I would know what we are missing, and delivered immediately ...
the full value of the delivered panels, less deposit, would be placed in trust with our lawyer even though you demanded we give you even more money to be released when the panels are here stamped and in usable condition...with our installer and your person going over it...., ( you also told us that since you were rushed the panels would not be perfect but I could fix them on site )
Even though you clearly broke our agreement.
Win win right
No wrong, your response was that nothing leaves your shop until the bill was paid in full ( even though you are missing the centre support beam, dormers, roof support and the roof and ???) and you said would not inventory the panels until I agreed to that.
We even asked for the price of the panels... if it was more... you flatly refused again stating the bill would be paid in full etc etc and you did not know what you had.
What happens if the value of the panels doesn't equal $45,000 was never mentioned
I even asked what you would be willing to give us for our $45,000 and you said nothing leaves your shop until the bill was paid in full.
Is this complete enough for you, I know I have missed a lot of details but these are the highlights
Yes I did miss one important fact
You say you now have a new and improved program to do the work what you neglected to mention is you got the program the last of July the first week in August, and you MIGHT be able to produce in the future but I am not taking that chance or giving you any more time
I will not shut up or stop bragging as you call it....I want everything in the open...I will not speak to you in person as you also wanted. I will use whatever legal means I have to to get my deposit back including... posting my expirence to all and any SIPS forums, BBB, legal action, consumer advocate etc.... what you did was just plain wrong... what you should have done was when you found out you did not have the ability or the software , hardware etc to do the job was at least offer our money back or ask us if we could wait, at least giving us the option to find another company.
I stand by my decision to stop this and to stick frame and to advise anyone to use extreme caution when using your company... I also offer my emails as evidence to our contract and contacts
I again ask you to please return my deposit ....You are not even Licensed to do any business in Nova Scotia
Does the word fool cross any ones mind?
Now I will ask the SIPS community is or was there anything I could have done or do to have had a more positive out come... even a private conversation.. any suggestions??? as I would love to build a SIPS house in the future Pam

Gee sorry I forgot to post my reply... that I sent to the manufacturer for errors and ommissions check Mon.as he asked me to do.... he has not responded.....
You are correct but you have it backwards
It is the manufacturer who is a very new company and has only done simple designs to date, who was overwhelmed. Apparently this house was extremely difficult to do in SIPS
I have owned my own company for 7 yrs... I just always wanted a SIPS house and I was going to sell the product in my subdivision.... but.... I had to see if it was everything they said it was... so.... I ordered my own house and so starts my expirence.
there are at least 2 sides to every story
but only 1 truth

too much drama for me!     God bless the both of you, it sounds like a painfull experience for all concerned. One thing for certain in my experience when they start out bad they end bad.
Good Luck!

Dear Chris, you have wisdom tought, i hope that means what i think, but i think your analitic mind put the finger on the dot.

Pierre Desjardins
Banerpan
Quebec