Have you ever thought about remodeling your kitchen or converting those carpeted areas to tile, or tiled areas to wood, but were reluctant to do so because of the cost? While most homeowners may be happy with their original design center decisions, occasionally there is a desire or pressing reason to make some kind of change. Now you may be able to do just that, all thanks to Pulte’s recent offer to address tile flooring problems occurring in virtually all 3,000 Phase 1 homes.
Yes, homeowners now have a unique opportunity to take advantage of an offer that is difficult to pass up. You may have other ideas on how to allocate funds from Pulte's buyout offer. That buyout offer is an available alternative to having Pulte perform a complete tile replacement job. For legal and tax implications on spending money from Pulte's buyout offer, you may wish to consult your attorney or tax advisor. Read on and I’ll share with you what some homeowners, including the Johnsons, have been doing with the money Pulte has paid homeowners in lieu of Pulte performing the tile work themselves.
If I told you that with the money Pulte is willing to give you in lieu of having Pulte perform that retile job, you can have your proverbial cake and eat it too, you would be skeptical. As some homeowners already know, Pulte has been writing checks to Sun City homeowners in amounts ranging from an estimated $6,000 to over $30,000. Our check was for almost $24,000 for 1,462 sq. ft.
The amount of the check depends on two things. First, the amount of tile flooring in your home that Del Webb/Pulte originally laid, i.e., based on the square footage of tile flooring used. Second, the grade of the installed tile you originally selected at the design center. Since Pulte has a record of that information, you do not need to worry about securing or possessing that information. All you need to do, assuming you are interested in a cash buyout, is to ask your customer relations manager for a cash buyout figure. Typically, they will email that information to you. If you accept, Pulte will send you a letter and a release form to complete and return. If you do not know who your manager is, call Pulte’s Customer Relations and they will give you the cell number of your area manager. Pulte’s number is: 914-4800.
Buyout figures will be given to any Phase 1 homeowner that has had their tile flooring inspected by Pulte and Pulte has determined there is a need to perform a full-house tile replacement. If you had your tile floor inspected and a full-house tile replacement was not authorized, your buyout options may be limited. In that case, or if you have any questions concerning your options, please contact Ron Johnson by email at rljohnson32@cox.net.
The real question is what can you do with, say, an extra $20,000+, a “problem” we were faced with? If Pulte writes you a check for $20,000+, as they did in our case, or for whatever amount, the first question you may have is whether you will need most of that cash amount to retile your flooring on your own, assuming that is your decision? If the answer is YES, there is little incentive to request a cash buyout. However, in virtually all instances, the answer is NO. If you agree with Pulte’s recommendation on the need to install a crack isolation membrane, which is designed to permit minor slab movement (horizontal displacement) without affecting the tile or grout, how much of that $20,000 will you need for a new tile floor?
As a reminder, no one is obligated to accept Pulte's retile offer since by doing so you will be asked to relinquish certain legal rights and to release Pulte from certain potential liabilities in connection with the underlying concrete slab. Those are complex legal issues that only your attorney can properly address.
So, how much of that $20,000+ is needed to address the tile concerns that Pulte had identified in our home? The answer may surprise you. We accepted Pulte’s offer of a cash buyout in lieu of Pulte performing the retile job. For reasons only partially related to the hollow tile problems, we decided to hire a tile contractor to perform essentially the same job that Pulte would have done. The cost to us of doing so, which included the cost of the tile, a crack isolation membrane and labor was 52% of Pulte's buyout amount, or just a tad more than one-half of the money Pulte had given us. The immediate question is how can a private contractor perform essentially the same job for roughly half the cost Pulte is willing to pay the homeowner?
There are several reasons to explain how an individual contractor is able to achieve such a cost savings. Many private flooring contractors are typically sole proprietorships and have little overhead beyond their own home. Typically such contractors purchase their supplies through a wholesale flooring company that is designed to meet the needs of trade professionals. On such company is ProSource, http://www.prosourcefloors.com. For example, ProSource offers contractors wholesale prices for carpeting, hardwood, laminate, ceramics and natural stone. Homeowner access ProSource's showroom is restricted and is through your contractor. While the homeowner can select more expensive tile from a variety of suppliers at ProSource, also available is a selection of lower priced porcelain and ceramic tiles, including a wide selection of tile that is specially "sale" priced as low as $1.47 per sq. ft., to which a freight charge is added. While homeowners may wish to purchase tile from a different local source like Dal-Tile, Arizona Tile, or IMC, who are also granite distributors with numerous slabs to view, there seems little need or incentive to do so.
We selected 20" grade 5 porcelain tile made in Italy for that same low "sale" price. Since ProSource puts tiles on periodic sale, there is always a wide range of sale items from which to consider.
Pulte’s buyout offer paid us $6.50/sq. ft. for Grade C tile costs, yielding us a cost savings on tile of $4.85/sq. ft., based on our cost of $1.47 + $0.18 (freight).
Another cost savings was the cost of the crack isolation membrane, manufactured by Dal-Tile rather than by Mapei, saving us an additional $1.00/sq. ft.
Finally, a third cost savings was in the cost of labor for tear out and installation amounting to about $2.05/sq. ft. Adding those savings up yielded a total cost savings for us of just under $8.00/sq. ft.
The tile contractor we selected came to us through a Sun City homeowner recommendation. The contractor's name is Vincent Barilla, owner of Independent Tile, on the web at: http://www.independenttile.com.
For example, assuming a savings rate of $8.00/sq. ft., a 1,000 sq. ft. tile job in your home would reflect a potential savings in materials and labor totaling $8,000, based on the original installation of Grade C tile. For a different illustration, a 1,500 sq. ft. tile replacement job would yield a cost savings to the homeowner of about $12,000, assuming, of course, the homeowner opted to have their tile floors replaced along with a crack isolation membrane.
Pulte asks that any homeowner doing their own tile contracting should insist that the contractor utilize a crack isolation membrane, which is laid on the surface of the concrete slab after a special primer is applied. Otherwise, the tile problems ostensibly being addressed by Pulte's offer to retile your home will not help in remedying the problems created by loose and hollow tiles.
Pictured at left is a tile setter in the process of laying tile over the concrete slab that already had the crack isolation membrane installed (in red) in the laundry room closet.
Sixty percent of Pulte’s buyout offer, or $9.60/sq. ft. represented fixed cost or reimbursement rate, while 40% represented the reimbursement cost for our particular grade of tile. That $9.60 fixed cost rate will not change from one homeowner to another since that represents their fixed costs for tear out, Mapeguard (crack isolation membrane) and tile installation. All homeowners accepting the buy out should receive $9.60/sq. ft. plus the replacement cost for your particular tile. Your tile grade is the only variable factor in determining how much the homeowner would receive from Pulte.
In our case, the reimbursement rate for our grade of tile was $6.50/sq. ft. That cost factor, added to all other replacement costs Pulte agreed to pay for, totaled $16.10/sq. ft. That compares with a total outlay by us for the tile job performed by Independent Tile of $8.21/sq. ft. Our only additional cost was to purchase a new medallion and border, $350 from IMC, which was installed by Vincent at no additional charge. Other entry way options are also available.
In the case of a buyout, Pulte does not reimburse for the cost of relocation while they will pay a certain per diem rate if they perform the job. On the other hand, privately engaged tile contractors may be able to perform the entire job while you are living in your home, working around your needs for a serviceable toilet. In our case, and in my brother’s Sun City home, the entire tile job took only 5 days, 3 days to move furniture, toilets, appliances and perform the tear out and 2 days for a crew of 7 to lay the membrane and tile. We stayed home for four nights and decided to stay out of their way one tile setting day, seeing a movie and staying at a pet friendly hotel for one day and night, the Hawthorne Inn & Suites, http://www.hotelplanner.com/Hotels/16727/Reservations-Hawthorn-Inn-Suites-Henderson-910-South-Boulder-Highway-89015.
So, with the tile job costing us a mere 52% of Pulte’s buyout offer, what was next? We thought we’d do a partial kitchen remodel, replacing the Corian countertops with granite, while adding a full backsplash, a new sink and some additional fixtures to replace those the home originally came with. While we visited three granite distributors named above to make our slab selection, the actual pricing/contracting and fabrication was performed by Granite World, which is the same company Del Webb/Pulte uses. Their website is: http://www.granite-world.com/contact.htm. They do excellent work.
The cost of tearing out the old countertop and adding a required sub-top to support the granite was fixed at $511, regardless of the granite we selected. The only variable was cost of the granite. Granite prices of the ones we were considering ranged in price from $37 to $96 per square foot, which included a 6” splash.
We settled on Golden Crystal from Dal-Tile, which had a base cost of $58/sq. ft. for what we estimated was 75 sq. ft. of granite. That initial cost jumped from $58 to $74/sq. ft. when we added a full splash over the included cost of a 6” splash.
The job took 6 days, leaving you without a kitchen sink and cooking range for that period. The tear out and installation of the sub-top was done on day one, while the granite installation was done on day 6. Between days 1 and 5, the shop was working on the design, configuration, and fabrication of the 14 separate pieces making up the total project, only partially seen in the photo above. Not pictured are two adjoining grantie countertops on either side of the refrigerator.
The total cost of the overall kitchen project was $6,858.
That included the costs for a new sink and new plumbing fixtures plus the cost for labor for a reasonably priced plumber I can highly recommend. Total cost: $790.
In all, the granite-kitchen project accounted for 29% of Pulte's available buyout money.
That left us with a balance remaining of 19%, or roughly $4,500. We will have to figure out what to spend it on or to bank the funds.
To summarize.
| Johnson's project costs or remainder as a percent of buyout offer | Savings per 1,000 sq. ft. of tile flooring, Grade C tile | |
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Since the two projects ran back to back, there was a fine layer of dust literally everywhere. All we need to do now is to return our home to a dust-free condition.
Addendum:
1. The dollar savings reported above may be more than your dollar savings since Independent Tile has since adjusted some of their costs upward.
2. Homeowners relying on the results of their Chapter 40 filing are presumed to be excluded from a floor inspection and any offer by Pulte since you are presumed to be represented by legal counsel.
Ron Johnson, 23 March 2009