BEWARE! BDM Foam is the parent company of ArkTinyHomes of Heber City, Utah. I am writing this review about ArkTinyHomes. ArkTinyHomes does not have a website. They do have a Facebook page They advertise finished homes on Tinyhouselistings. That is where I saw a home I liked. It was sold so they offered to custom build me a home. . I ordered a custom built off-grid container home in June 2022. It was delivered on 11/13/2022.
ArkTinyHomes
***** - Friendliness during purchase (family run business, very nice folks)
* - Quality of work
* - Inspection
* - Reliability
* - Customer Service
On the day the 40' shipping container home was delivered it had the following issues.
No toilet - I requested a composting toilet but got no toilet at all.
There is a covered hole where a flush toilet might go but it is sitting right smack in the entrance to the bathroom. If a toilet was installed it would be necessary to step over it to get into the bathroom
No washer dryer
No cat door which was the 1st thing I asked for when customizing.
Broken shower
Hot water heater wired incorrectly
There was a propane gas leak.
Paint overspray on both sliding glass doors.
A shelf was laying on the counter.
The panel to the hot water heater had fallen apart.
The kitchen window is about an inch higher on one side than the other.
Where the backsplash in the kitchen was supposed to be there were marks on the wall where backsplash had been removed.
The caulking was poorly done.
The drywall was pock marked which they claim is 'texturing'.
The mini-split provided is has a very low efficiency rating.
The mini-split was mounted crooked. One side higher than the other.
There is a 1 inch gap at the bottom of one of the sliding glass doors where outside air comes in.
I suspect 2" of insulation not 4"
I requested an exterior door to cover one of the sliding glass doors for security and I got a door that covered half and it was not secure. It blew part way off in the 1st wind storm.
They purchased and installed a solar system but did not provide any way to connect a generator to it or any way hook it into the grid if needed. The panels were not installed on the roof but I was told they would send someone to help me do that or hire someone to do it. The person they hired had no idea what he was doing and installed the panels incorrectly. I ended up paying over $1,000 to a local company to redo it correctly,
After the container arrived I notified ArkTinyHomes about the issues.
They said they would either fix it or hire someone to fix it and/or reimburse me for any expenses I accrued in the mean time.
I purchased a composting toilet (put it in the corner away from the entrance), a washer dryer, had the shower repaired, the hot water heater rewired, fixed the gas leak and had the panels installed on the roof. The company would not reimburse me. It was cold and they did rent a generator while the panels were being installed so I could charge the batteries. I had to unhook the batteries from the system one at a time to charge them . (no +/- terminals like car batteries but a single plug) There is no way to hook a generator directly into the electrical system or to connect the home directly into the local power grid.
They kept insisting that the problems were cause during shipping and that they were not responsible for anything that occurred during shipping.
After 5 months of trying to get them to 'do the right thing' and pay for or provide missing components and/or repair the faults with the home I was forced to sue them in small claims court.
We went to Online Dispute Resolution and came to a Settlement Agreement where they agreed to partially reimburse me for expenses I had accrued and to repair the other issues. They repaid me some of the money I had spent on items and repairs but did not make any repairs (over $10,00 worth according to an estimate I received from an independent contractor). I filed for a summary judgement and as they did not show up at court I was awarded a judgement for the entire amount $12,000+. I have received nothing and they have not reached out to me in anyway. I am now in the process of trying to force payment through additional court measures.
They requested that I make all my payments totaling $65,000 to BDM Foam which I did.
I did some research and found other court judgements against both ArkTinyHomes and BDM Foam.
Please be careful when purchasing a home from these people. Do not pay in advance. Do not sign any documents that state you are buying the home 'as is' and do not sign anything that says they are not responsible for anything that goes wrong during shipping. Make sure they take responsibility until the home is delivered and if there are shipping damages that they will be responsible for making the shipper repair the damages or do it themselves.
Have any container inspected or go to Heber City, Utah and see the home before buying it.
This nightmare is ongoing. read more