My friend bought Brookfield home. Their customer support is pretty good. I heard Brookfield replaced their neighbor's hardwood floor due to dishwasher leak during its warranty.

We considered Shapell homes both at Alamo Creek (Danville) and Gale Ranch (San Ramon), but decided against them, and went with Brookfield in Windemere instead.

At Alamo Creek, we found many completely built but still empty (unsold) houses a really bad sign. Plus the mix of smaller (cheaper) and larger houses in the same street/neighborhood isn't what we would prefer.

At Gale Ranch, the main concern was the power lines.

Other than these issues, we liked Shapell's design and build quality, judged by both model homes and some actual houses we went inside to see.

Certainly, Shapell's relatives would try everything to defend it but here is another website to check up to see how may law suits were filed against Shapell in the past and there will be more in the future.

No surprise to see those images. After my home was flooded last year, Shapell even did not want to pay for my damaged belongings and said it was not their warranty but a good will offer depending on how we could appreciate Shapell's efforts on fixing the leaking. It's hard to imagine Shapell did not pay a few thousands dollars for its warranty but could buy back a problematic home from buyers to fix it.

i don;t work for Shapell..I bought one of their houses

I don't work for builders - I work for homeowners. 15% of my work is inspecting NEW homes. These posts are exactly why people should get independent home inspections. New homes are imperfect and are increasingly assembled by untrained persons. The city/municipal inspector spend just minutes on each phase of construction. I spend nearly 3 hours inspecting a new home if it is less than 2500 square feet.

Recently I completed a home inspection of a 8200 square foot home. I documented 56 code violations.

Michael & Haily: There are more defects than you are aware of. Get an independent home inspection NOW. You will be paying for builder defects when you sell that home. http://www.creia.org

It seems like we have people that work for builders on this forum. I live in a Shapell home now in bridges and I feel the quality is not that great. I think Shapell used to make good homes, but since the boom, they have gone down hill. There are many lawsuits going on with the bridges home due to poor quality. Lennar homes are also not that high in quality. I like Brookfield homes but their quality is probably on par with the other builders. I like it for more of the design and finish. I've seen the finished Hawthorne homes and the quality, just based on my visual inspection, looks great. I think the builder's warranty and response to issues is key.

shocking..Shapell is much better builder than brookfield, lennar ..I know there is a case that Shapell actually bought back the trouble house and fixed it...

This looks like one post and one problem with Shapell. This web site looks unprofessional. How about proof-reading or spell-check? Hom should be "home" and leasons should be "lessons."

Frankly, I see badly built houses every day. New construction is no exception. When I complete a new home inspection, clients and Realtors wonder if the municipal building department spent more than 15 minutes on the site. That's another post for another day. It is the builder's responsibility to erect reliable dwellings. We all make mistakes. Let judge eachother by the way we correct our mistakes.

Shock! Never thought of such terrible home could be sold by Shapell.