Keystone Custom Homes

I purchased a home from Keystone Custom Homes in 2008. The home is located in York, Pa.

The plastic window well began deteriorating after I was in the home in approximately eight years. I contacted Keystone Custom home about the problem. The builder informed me that there was no record of the problem in my file. Keystone's employees are notorious for not documenting these problems.

Long story short, Keystone referred me to someone who could fix the problem at my expense. I contacted this person and was informed that they did not have a crew to do the work. I ended up finding someone to do the work at the cost of $2,500 dollars out of my own pocket. Now, I have a problem with the concrete cracking on the outside of my home and water has begun to leak into my basement.

I contacted Keystone and they want me to send pictures of the problem. I have not sent the pictures yet.

Furthermore, I feel I am going to get the runaround again. I will decide what plan to do within the next week.

Buyer beware!! Keystone wants to sell homes but does not live up to its statement of outstanding customer service. I have been trying to get my lawn fixed/repaired since moving in (May 23, 2017). Keystone has never responded to my letters, etc - only sending a couple of individuals out to basically do nothing. When initially installing my lawn they did not grade properly, along with not tilling out large rocks (I took over 3 full wheelbarrows of rocks the size of my feet), and putting no top soil down.

The mesh that was put down was just put down over the weeds which then pushed the mesh up, which then had to be removed, as we could not mow, etc. When raised, this created large channels/gullies of water runoff. When the workers did come out, they also took out some large rocks, but did not fill in the holes, only putting some dirt from another construction site onto a small portion of my lawn.

So now here I sit with numerous holes in my yard from rock extraction from the workers, large areas of my lawn without topsoil and numerous channels of water runoff, along with standing water from improper grading not allowing rain water to properly runoff. This is NOT a ‘grass is not warrantied’ issue, but an installation issue as grass needs a proper foundation to be able to grow and Keystone did not put in a proper foundation!

This is how Keystone treats its customers after moving in. I have even filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau - and 3 weeks has gone by and still no response from Keystone!! Buyer Beware!!!

We have been in our home almost 10 yrs. Have had major issues with the shower grout falling out from the beginning.

The cement patio and sidewalks started crumbling away the 2 year. We have spent thousands on keeping the large patio together. The landscaping is horrible. We have water running down the development in the backyards.

The window well structure is falling apart. Could go on and on

Approaching the 2 year point since the beginning of the building of my new home in Ivory Ridge in swatara township, Dauphin county, Pa. I positively would NOT recommend this company.

The majority of the homes on Yale Street on the even number side continue to have major water problems from the hill drainage above us because Keystone did nothing to properly insure proper drainage of runoff water. Talk to them and they will side step the issues and make up every excuse in the book as to why its not their problem when they know fully well it is because the drainage was never properly addressed. There are currently at least 8-10 houses affected. To fix this problem it cost well over several thousand dollars to fix my water problems and divert the runoff into side Gullys that Keystone refused to do.

Thankfully the water problems were only in the backyard and did not reach the house. The House is well built with little problems thus far, but the garage floor cement was not properly laid and had to be repaired, again something in a new home that you must watch with Keystone. They did do the repair, but at best a patch work quilt look that again I had to repair and paint seal to have it done properly. Design Galley which you are forced to use is extremely limited and costly for any upgrades, which you will want because the homes come bare bones, even to the point that window trim inside is an option.

Advice, Get everything in writing before hand, don't trust verbal statements, Read the many other complaints here and elsewhere and make decision from there. My personal opinion would be to find another company.

Update on property in Ivy Ridge after 1 Year.

Yard took thousands of dollars to fix Keystones lousy preparation and landscaping. Yard had huge water problems prior to building and was pointed out to keystone who said not to worry grass will fix it. They did not fix the problem other than garbage fixes that did little to fix the problems. With 3 stories of homes above us where did they expect the water to run off too? Swale lines were never done correctly and than used as excuses when a fence and pool were installed even though the water was running in the same exact place as it was prior to building. Only after I installed a 10x10 pit with rocks did this problem get fixed. The whole line of homes on my side of the street have the same water runoff problems and keystone will not address the issue. Plenty of excuses. Fact is land was never developed properly for the hill runoff from the homes above. Keystone is well aware of it as so many homeowner's are affected. Keystones District/Regional overall manager was no help at all in fixing this problem , made excuse after excuse and was arrogant at times. Fact is again that Keystone has sold homes here with land water problems and refuses to address the issues except to blame the homeowners. Interesting that there are 10 homeowners that complain about the same issues and have been left to fix Keystones lousy and improperly developed land.

Advice on Yard: Do your own if you can get a good price on the home. Don't plan on good landscaping unless you love weeds, rocks, and allot of water problems.

HOUSE:

Here the problems were much less. Keystone built a well built and constructed Home. At the one year point I have had only very minor problems, namely some minor caulking do to settling. I am Happy with the House. One problem that I did have was the garage floor which had about 30 sections in it that chipped off from the surface cement. Obviously poorly prepared cement work. Keystone did patch these spots in a timely manor, though the garage floor does look like a patchwork quilt now. I painted and epoxied the floor and it looks better. The local overall home warranty manager has handled house repairs in a timely manner.

Overall Advice:

Keystone seems to build good homes. Options are expensive and very limited. Design Galley is the only place that you can select from and does not have much in selection and you are forced to use them. Stay as far away from the landscaping as possible and make sure you check the yard after rain prior to closing. Do not believe in landscaping promises if you have problems after closing, get it fixed before closing.

One other comment:

Certain sale program was wonderful for us and worked very well. Look at all options, and get any promises in writing.

I recently bought a home from Keystone Homes because I had read great reviews and heard that they build nice homes. However less than year into my home and I have been fighting to get my warranty work completed.

To get my driveway corrected took eight months. The company working for Keystone even told me to stop calling. My siding is peeling away and they have not yet put a work order in, after three months. I called the siding and made my own work order and they told me that they have not heard anything about coming to look at my house. The doors on my house do not line properly and have had to replace all my locks. After the winter the flowerbed and other areas around my house had settlement up to a Foot. What they decided to do is drop off clay not even dirt in my front yard and leave it up to me. So why did I buy a brand new house with a warranty, from keystone it so I can do all the work. Also I had a customer rep. quit half way through my first year. I found out that I was lied to by Keystone. The way I found out is because some of the items were listed as complete and I was inquiring about getting them fixed. Another complaint I have is ALL my trim work is pulling away and the caulk is cracked and missing, KEYSTONE HANDED ME A TUBE OF CAULK IT IS YOUR PROBLEM.

Also Keystone lied to me about my land. They said it would be level and it is not and the final grade is less than satisfactory. The yard has divots all through it and you can see exactly were they buried wood, rocks, concrete, and singles. All you have to do is look for the spots with no grass. They also told me I could plant trees in the back where a gas line is, that was not true. I was also told I could put a playground set on the line, since no digging is required, that also was not true. So now I have land that I can not do anything to because I told misleading information throughout the entire time about what I can and can not do.

So buyers beware!!!!!