Custom built home our first love Heartland Homes home.

custom home builder experience	Welcome to our custom built love Heartland Homes home.	Complaint about water infiltration in our garage foundation as well as our basement.	Custom built Heartland Homes home that we bought brand new in 2004.	our Heartland Homes new home review. page updated April 1, 2010
heartland homes custom home gallery
Homeowners for Better Building
our Heartland Homes custom home builder construction.

always remember to click on ANY photo of our custom home, to see the larger more detailed image of our custom built home.

Welcome to our love Heartland Homes custom home.

Click to view photos of our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh home

Love Heartland Homes our custom home builder.

13 months after we first reported water problems in our first owner, our first Heartland Homes home, new home construction.

Our introduction to our Heartland Homes custom home.

Here is our 6 month old custom home built by Heartland Homes in Pittsburgh.

6 month old custom home built by Heartland Homes Pittsburgh.

Our Pittsburgh custom home by Heartland. Photo shows water in the foyer of our home.

Our new home in Pittsburgh, new home community in Kennedy Township.

July 2008 photo showing water in our Heartland Homes custom home. our Heartland Homes review, water problems.

Heartland Homes built our custom home. Here is another photo showing email from Heartland Homes stating "We will continue to work towards a SOLUTION. Weather is a factor now."

Email from January 2005 as you can see in this photo. The picture above of our basement of our custom Heartland Homes home is from July 2008. We closed on our 1st owner 1st Heartland Home February 2004.

Photo of our Heartland built home 7 months old custom built home.

Our Heartland Homes complaint Better Business Bureau (BBB). Click to view the letter from Heartland Homes our custom home builder stating

click to view a larger image above and on any photo, any where...

Closed on our brand new Heartland Homes built home February 2004.
Water problems start in our custom home May 2004. Notify our custom home builder, Heartland Homes Pittsburgh; immediately and every time water infiltrated our home.
See photos above dated 2008 showing water in our basement.

our Heartland Homes Castleview home
Castleview in Kennedy Township, Pennsylvania

27 Castleview Drive McKees Rocks, PA 15136
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh's #1 custom builder

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Behind our brick veneer installed in the front of our Pittsburgh custom built Heartland Homes home.
We removed various sections of our brick veneer home front just to see IF flashing was installed per the
window manufacturer, Andersen Windows. Additionally we wanted to see what else could be the cause of our water infiltration issues.

Please keep in mind we are not in the home construction industry or any industry building custom homes. Everything we have posted is based on our opinions, researching building codes and also our custom home Structural Engineer report.

Heartland Homes never removed any brick veneer from the front of our custom built home. All work during our Better Business Bureau case was below or at grade level. Except they sealed the lower section of our brick veneer during our Better Business Bureau, Heartland Homes complaint. Our custom home builder did not resolve our water problems.

Bricks removed and pictures taken below are from Thursday Feb 26th 2009.
NOTE: click on any photo to view larger image.. See our Andersen Windows documentation regarding flashing around our windows further below. The Andersen Windows documentation we have posted was given to us by our custom home builder Heartland Homes in Pittsburgh.

Front view of our custom home built by Heartland Homes front view of our home. We never had the opportunity to submit any of the photos on this page as part of our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh lawsuit or our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint we filed with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). This picture shows all 3 windows and the dates the bricks were removed.	First window to the right of our front door. We have 3 Andersen Windows installed on the lower section of our Heartland Homes home. Welcome to our Pittsburgh custom home. This was the window opened the week prior to the other photos you see here. 1st window to the right of our front door.	Luxury brick installed front of our townhome Pittsburgh. No one ever pinpointed the reason why we were getting all of the water in our basement we decided to see what was behind the brick of our home. Since I work during the day, I had to use a flood light to light up the front of our home. This way I could chisel out the brick in areas to verify the flashing. As you will see in the photos, NO flashing is installed in the areas where the brick is removed.
ALL PICTURES BELOW IN THIS SECTION IS THE MIDDLE WINDOW TO THE RIGHT OF OUR FRONT DOOR.
According to Andersen Windows "installation flanges DO NOT take the place of standard window and door flashing..." Love Heartland Homes Pittsburgh custom home builder. IMPORTANT NOTE We were told throughout our 1 year warranty time frame that our issues would be resolved. Yet none of our water issues were resolved, though their warranty department stated "received your pictures, we will continue to work towards a solution, weather is a factor now.".. However there never was a solution to our water infiltration issues.	Brick veneer front of our new Heartland Homes custom built home. Welcome to our custom built home. Removed bricks from various areas to verify IF flashing was installed. Per Andersen Windows document above from 2002, "heading flashing and installation flanges DO NOT take the place of standard window and door flashing...."	All of our water infiltration issues have been going on since 3 months after closing on our brand new Heartland Homes custom built home/townhome. Builder was notified every single time we had water infiltration into our home. Pease review emails above from Heartland Homes Warranty Department stating they were working on resolving our water issues. OUR OPINION We believe a lot of our water infiltration issues that started 3 months after closing on our home are from flashing not being installed around our Andersen Windows as their document states.
A lot of the photos on this page are very similar. We chiseled the luxury brick from the front of our Heartland Homes custom built home because we had water infiltrating issues since May 2004. NO ONE from Heartland Homes ever asked to come into our home during our 1 year warranty to look at our water infiltration issues. If they did we would have known, that wasn't the case.	Love Heartland Homes never corrected our water infiltration issues during our 1 year warranty even though the emails from their Warranty Department stated they were working on our issues, etc. Check out our MAIN PAGE to view all of our photos and details.	May 2005 we sent a certified package to Founder/owner of Heartland Homes Alan Gillespie or Marty Gillespie at Heartland Homes to let them know of our issues. (click link above to read letter) We never heard back from Heartland Homes Pittsburgh founder Alan Gillespie, or Marty Gillespie of Heartland Homes until we filed our case with the Pittsburgh Better Business Bureau (BBB) June 2005.
review water infiltration in our Pittsburgh custom home. Issues start 3 months after closing on our custom built home.	Our custom built home photo from 2009. Welcome to our love Heartland Homes custom built home.	View after we removed luxury brick from the front of Castleview Estates Luxury townhome. new home construction, window flashing.
	love Heartland Homes community where we live in Kennedy Township, McKees Rocks.	Click on ANY photo to view larger picture
ALL PICTURES BELOW ARE OF THE END WINDOW FAR RIGHT OF OUR FRONT DOOR. CORNER OF THE HOUSE WHERE WE GET WATER IN AS WELL. BULK OF OUR WATER IS AROUND FRONT DOOR AREA.
February 2004 close on our brand new custom built love Heartland Homes Home.	May 2004 water infiltration issues start with our home. Heartland Homes builder notified immediately and throughout entire time.	Our first brand new home experience with any builder. Here is a photo of the front of our Heartland Homes custom built home.
Our brick veneer front of our home.	I think what you see is the installation flange. In our opinion there is NO flashing installed from the look of our photos after we removed brick.	Note flange for the window, no flashing installed.
Review photos of our custom built new townhome, new townhouse in the Pittsburgh, PA.	See Andersen Windows documentation below. Our home was built in 2003 into 2004. Closed on our custom home built by Heartland Homes home February 2004 Andersen Windows specifically state in the 2002 document above "heading flashing and installation flanges DO NOT take the place of standard window and door flashing. Unit must be properly flashed and silicone sealed for protection against WATER and air infiltration."	New custom built townhouse Pittsburgh PA. We never had the opportunity to submit any of the photos on this page as part of our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh complaint to the BBB, State Attorney Generals Office or our lawsuit.
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh's #1 Custom Home Builder our home builder

Heartland Homes quote from Marty Gillespie President of Heartland Homes.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 2009.
"Do the research and make sure you know what you're paying for.
It's the biggest investment of your life."
(click link above to view full article)

Heartland Homes construction of our brand new custom built home luxury brick front of our Heartland Homes home built in 2003 completed in 2004.
We closed on our Heartland Homes home February 2004.

Due to water infiltrating our home since May 2004 and continuing, I wanted to verify what was installed behind our brick home front.
We removed brick in various areas in the front of our home to verify and/or validate if FLASHING was installed.

Please see Andersen Windows documentation we received with our Andersen Windows, when we closed on our
brand new Heartland Homes home February 2004.

Builder notified every time we received any water infiltrating our foundation.
Please click on our MAIN PAGE link to review all emails sent to Heartland Homes Warranty Department.
We do not want to continually repeat the same information on every page of our site.
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh's #1 custom builder was the builder on our custom built home.

Our fully detailed step-by-step Heartland Homes Pittsburgh experience is on "our new home experience" webpage.
Please click on link above to review every granular detail you can imagine with our new home experience.
Including none of our water infiltration issues being resolved by the builder of our home.

SEE DETAILED DOCUMENTATION BELOW

The documentation to the right is what we received when we closed on our brand new custom built Heartland Homes home.

Andersen Windows specifically state in this 2002
document "heading flashing and installation flanges DO NOT take the place of standard window and door flashing. Unit must be properly flashed and silicone sealed for protection against WATER and air infiltration."

Please review the detailed photos we have below, showing even after we removed the brick from the front of our home in various sections, no window FLASHING was installed in those specific areas.

Our custom built Heartland Home was built with all
Andersen Windows installed in our brand new home.
Here is the official 2002 Andersen Windows documentation we
received with our new home packet from Heartland Homes.

Heartland Homes new home construction with Andersen Windows installed.

Here is the Andersen Windows documentation we received from our custom home builder at our closing walk through. Please review this document as it does specifically state windows are to be flashed.

We are not builders, however IF the window manufacturer, in this case,
Andersen Windows state FLASHING must be installed, it is for a reason.
Perhaps this is the reason why we have water infiltrating our home for 5+ years.

2003 International Building Code
excerpt regarding flashing & weep holes.
our Heartland Home was built in 2003.

We are not 100% sure what building code was used for our home.
We called Kennedy Township, they could not determine what code was used.
We were also told the builder inspector used during that time is no longer with the township.

section1405.3 Flashing
"Flashing shall be installed at the perimeters of exterior door and window assemblies... etc"

note: we have no weep holes installed in any layer
of masonry/brick on our home, period.

section 1405.3.2 Masonry
"Flashing and weepholes shall be located in the first course of masonry above finished ground level... etc"

International Building code 2003
our Heartland Home was built in 2003.
We do have a copy of our building permit just in case.

our Heartland Homes 1st new home we bought and closed on in 2004.

Click on image below to review emails from Heartland Homes our custom home builder to us regarding our water infiltration issues. Click on image above, you can then zoom in to read all three emails from Heartland Homes.	July 22 2004 - 2 months after our water infiltration issues start, Heartland Homes states - "Wet Basement remedy to begin in the next few weeks. We are working with Supervisor."
	September 21 2004 - 4 months after our water infiltration issues start. Our custom home builder Heartland Homes states - "Due to the EXTREME AMOUNT of WATER Friday, etc."
	January 21 2005 - 8 months after our water infiltration issues start. 11 months after we closed on our brand new Heartland Homes home, Heartland Homes states - "...We will CONTINUE to Work Towards a Solution. The weather is a factor now. etc"

daverome.com Please check out our other website as well. Thank you so much for everyone's support!
27 Castleview Drive McKees Rocks, PA 15136
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh's #1 custom builder

Heartland Homes wins Three Housing Excellence awards - 2008
Click on picture below to see their BUILDERS Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh awards!
The link directly below will open in a separate window.

"Heartland Homes has always been known for its attention to detail and fantastic home designs,
but on Friday December 12th - Heartland was awarded with three concrete examples."

"The biggest investment you will ever make in your life."

Our Builder of our Custom home
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"More than 20 years ago, Heartland Homes was created with the desire to be the very best.
Whether a single-family home or an entire community,
our goal was then - as it is now - To exceed customer expectations on every level.

Today, our company remains resolute in our commitment to excellence.
We take great pleasure in offering exceptional value for every dollar spent in building your home.
What's more, we treat each and every customer with Honesty and respect. If it's important to you, it's important to us.

Quite simply, we at Heartland Homes are passionate about what we do.
In turn, we hope to share that passion with you throughout the creation and building of your dream home.

Our Mission Statement:
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