All the more reason to hold the builder accountable. "Fix it properly or the whole town will know you tried to FK me by covering it up in the middle of the night!"
Small towns are awesome if you keep your own nose clean.
I have worked with a great many builders helping them address product quality and warranty issues.
High end custom builders in the GTA were always eager to improve the quality control processes, and end product because they rely solely on word of mouth. The builders I worked with were booked 3 - 5 years out, with every project typically in the 5+ million dollar range. When they turn their homes over to the buyers there is never an issue.
Many production builders on the other hand usually just prefer to set aside a set dollar value per home to address warranty claims and then do the minimal inspection processes as required by code. They're content to just throw that money away and accept negative customer reviews.
This attitude however has lead to large expensive class action lawsuits and settlements. Given the existence of homebuyer's insurance you'd think there should be no need for a class action lawsuit however, that is just not the case when a group of homes is totally uninhabitable without major repairs. I've never been sued, but I've been consulted on cases where groups have sued builders, and where individuals were having difficulty with their warranty claims.
One major observation I've made is that most buyers do not want to consider anything beyond submitting a warranty claim and accepting what they're paid from the entity entrusted to run new homebuyers' insurance programs. It is only when a home is either unsafe due to major structural damage, or serious moisture and mould issues, or the inability to maintain an indoor temperature within 70 degrees F +/- 5 degrees that I've seen buyers willing to pursue legal action... because they cost and head aches are just too high. In so many cases I've seen people just dump their new home lemon onto some other unsuspecting buyer.
In addition to rural community issues, I've cases of unethical builders who when faced with complaint during the construction process just walk away from a project. These builders often structure their payment plans so that they get paid in stages and in every stage they're paid in advance for the next stage of construction. It is to their advantage to walk away and in some cases it may be justified.... but in many it is not.
Given the massive investment, the stress and limited recourse open to homebuyers, it is not surprising the crap many people will put up with during new construction or major renovations.
This is why I say do your homework, have an iron clad contract prepared by someone other than the builder, and make sure that you have a clear scope of work for every stage of construction, and specific high performance scopes of work related to the building envelop detailing and the mechanical system installation and commissioning.
