Red Door Homes of the Carolinas - Clayton, North Carolina

Samantha Cullifer

Well, it's been 3 years since we moved into our home and I'm finally ready to give my review of Red Door. Ultimately, you get what you pay for and your priorities will determine your satisfaction with this builder. In October of 2021 we moved into our beautiful and spacious Lexington. It has great curb appeal and all the modern features and fashions you could ask for. But we quickly realized just how much the quality was lacking and 3 years later it has become apparent to us that many of the staples of a quality built home will have to be redone by us in order for them to last.

Pros: the house is beautiful and stylish, it is the perfect size for our family, it is structurally sound, we were able to choose many unique upgrades
Cons: The walls are paper thin meaning no noise insulation between rooms even with doors closed, The drywall was put up shoddily with seams showing in every room, the painting was done sloppily and it is not durable, The house is drafty, The main area of our home is heated and cooled well but for some reason the bedrooms on the perimeter of our house are always either freezing or smoldering: maybe poor duct work? Our front door paint started bubbling and peeling after 1 year, The grout in our shower is crumbling and losing its tint because it was a very thin layer of grout, Our shower door was not installed correctly and came off the hinge within the first few days and even after repair it did so again shortly after the one year mark, The plumbing work under the counters is unsightly and done poorly, The flooring is cheap and immediately started peeling up where they "patched" it during install, Almost all our outlets and switches were crooked and not flush with the wall, Several of our outlets were never connected, Our septic tank was not backfilled properly and immediately collapsed in to a large degree ( we were told this is normal but I believe the extent to which it collapsed reveals how poorly it was done), The 12 month warranty and revisits for repairs never actually fixed all of the things we agreed upon and it took several visits from incompetent people so it was extremely inconvenient.

None of these cons are catastrophic but they were disappointing and frustrating and they are all things we have to address and put money into within the first 3 years of homeownership. In the end you get what you pay for and it depends on what you want. You could get a smaller home with less stylish features but it would probably be better quality and longer lasting, or you could go bigger and try to get a little bit of everything but you will probably have many issues to address sooner rather than later.

We are comfortable with this house, we like it well enough but if we were to sell this house now, after 3 years, there would be many issues we would have to address in order to make it marketable. We probably would not choose Red Door if we built a home again but who knows?

TR Pettis

If I could give negative stars I would. I have had nothing but issues in my house built by red door. The builders do not care, they rush the job use below standard grade materials. The cabinets in the kitchen are peeling because they got a tiny splash of water on them. The master bath shower floor pan has completely cracked through. The tub in the second bath had to be resurfaced because they refused to replace the damaged tub “because it would delay closing” so they wouldn’t get the bonus. They take short cuts on everything. My windows are not level, they said oh well that’s the best we could do. I’ve constantly had HVAC issues, this morning I found my fuse box completely melted and arcing. Talk about a scary experience knowing my house could have burnt down overnight with my family sleeping in it. Stay away from RedDoor and save yourself the headache.

Jake Breedlove

These guys are absolute clowns. They produced a garbage house, with garbage service. Most recently, my sink ripped out of the wall where they screwed it with two 3/16" short lag bolts into drywall, and two tiny screws, or nails. This damaged almost all of the plumbing underneath the sink. Our problems started almost immediately after they broke ground. The back foundation wall of the house failed, something they refused to fix until I raised a stink about it. Finally, it was fixed, and they built the house. It all looked OK until they got to drywall, at which time, it became a complete and total horror show. I can see the lines where they did poor mud jobs, inadequate sanding in any regard (they claim that it's fine if you can't see it in direct light from 10 feet away or some other such jargon, but it's literally visible in the daytime.)

They didn't provide access to all the sections of the attic, so I couldn't inspect the roof our house throughout its life time. I would have no way to know if the roof was leaking before the ceiling became saturated in certain areas of the house. They cut 3/4 runs of low voltage cables in the attic, requiring a ton of work and effort to repair them. There have been multiple attempts to fix squeaks and groans in the floor, and while they have improved, it's awesomely bad. The floor is coming up in anywhere we have vinyl flooring, so badly that you can see dinstinct lines underneath the flooring, and several months later, after numerous requests, the warranty has lapsed and nothing has been done. Run, as far and as fast as you can. This place will literally charge you 350+ thousand dollars, for trash. Images of the sink attached. If you'd like HUNDREDS of other images of their terrible quality work, feel free to message me or email me.

Find someone else, anyone else, to build your home.

In response to the reply below, that's a big fat why can I still see the joints in my floor peaking through the vinyl flooring that was reported before the warranty lapsed? Straight up lying isn't cool man.

Andrew

09/29/2020. We had a great experience with Red Door Homes and we are happy to recommend them!

Deep dive;

Our journey started with Brian in the Clayton office. He was excellent at helping pick out our house plan and selecting options. Thanks, Brian!

Once the contract was signed, we got our financing lined up and broke ground in just a couple weeks!

Our builder, Joe, was awesome. We cannot praise him enough. He was well-organized, communicated often, and really made the whole experience pleasant.

I was particularly impressed at how well he scheduled the subcontractors; there was virtually no down-time on the build!

Our strategy going into this was price-per-square foot and we couldn't be more pleased at the value we received.

Thank you!

Sara Penna

Red Door Homes helped us build the house of our dreams in the middle of post-pandemic nonsense. The process took about a year from start to finish, and over all, I recommend them as a professional company. They weren't perfect, but our builder, Steven, was responsive and fixed any problems with fidelity.

If you are going to build a house, you need to understand that a lot can go south over the course of the 6-12 months. You WILL run into snags and there will be no one to blame. While this is frustrating, Red Door Homes communicated well and did their best to alleviate stress.

In terms of quality, everything will be contractor grade unless you pay more. The good news is that you will have everything for cost and quality laid out for you from the very beginning. There was only one thing that we got that was different than expected, but if we had asked more questions, we may not have had that problem. Make sure you understand the specifics of your contract at every sentence, and you will be satisfied with the result.

When it came to "custom building," Red Door Homes will change anything in your desired floor plan as long as it is structurally up to code. This allowed us to expand our kitchen, change a bathroom layout, and add features we knew we wanted. They were very helpful and accommodating.

As construction goes on, one thing to remember is that your land will have many people from many companies on it. Red Door Homes contracts out most jobs, and all companies do things a little differently. Overall, you should expect that workers will be respectful of your property, but as it is a construction site, know that you may see garbage sometimes.

We love the home that Red Door Homes built for us, and although they ran late in their plan, they always kept us in the loop and answered our questions. Building a home is stressful, but if you have support and patience, you will be satisfied with the results that Red Door Homes provides.

Kristin Ainsworth

If you or someone you know is looking to build, tell them to stay away from Red Door. We have only been in our house for two years and I can’t even count the number of issues we’ve had on two hands. Pipes have separated. The laminate flooring is starting to separate. Shower and bath fixtures have come off the walls. We’ve had to go back around bathroom fixtures and reseal them. Our septic has already messed up. It took 5 times for the house to pass inspection after it was finished being built and I guess that should have been a red flag for us.

Angela Ward

Too many issues to speak of and I wish I had not built with this company. From the build to the preferred mortgage company ( intercoastal), timeliness and poor management of construction site / contractors...If the housing market was not in shambles and my family not in dire need of a home I would have cut my losses. I tell my friends and family never to use this company. This is a cost plus contract and YOU are on the hook for everything over allowance or lack of oversight. Never once was I asked about where I wanted certain things or discussed beforehand. I learned about these things after the fact and after researching the county laws. They don't consult with you on where critical parts of the build will go, my well and septic went 40k + over the allowance and I wasn't notified until almost closing ( when i called about it). Ceilings show seams throughout, plumbing issues,electrical... . For an over 300k build I would have been better off with prefab or modular, even resale fixer upper. I wasn't invoiced with overages to the well budget until I CALLED THEM a week before closing. The total overage was 43K over budget!!! I can't describe the sickening feeling and subsequent mental health crisis it caused.

The project manager, Taylor, wasn't coming behind the trades checking on things. I had to clean the home at move in because they had electrical come back out after initial cleaning...Failed inspections for things that should have been caught by construction manager, which pushed cert of occupancy back.. just an anxiety inducing, high blood pressure, nauseating experience. I spent a lot of time communicating with county officals to push things along, advocate for myelf..etc. Hopefully no one else goes through what we did.

Update... I recently learned that the PM for my build Taylor, was fired. He was not a good manager and the company always made excuses for him when I complained about the way he was managing the jobsite. I'm glad no one else will be affected.

Also, many of the subcontractors they use have bad reviews with overall ratings in the 2.5 to 3 stars. If you use RD to build your home, just be aware you will not have control as to who is doing the subcontract work. You will be stuck with bad or unresponsive contractors who do not respect your time and property but will take your money.

Lorenzo Phillips

As a first time home buyer the experience has been a breeze. Every step of the process has been explained in perfect detail. Kaydee out of the Clayton NC office and Serrita from the Greenville office are the best at what they do!! I’m totally satisfied!!