Best builder in the area!!! The entire building experience, which can be very stressful due to ineptness at one of the county permitting offices, sub-contractors who don’t always do what is asked of them, and myriads of decisions that the home-owners have to make, was excellent under the care of John Lapsley and Southern Oaks Homes. The house his company built for us is very sturdy, surpassing codes. Because construction lasted 10 months (it’s on a challenging piece of property to build on, and the county permitting office delayed it unnecessarily for 2 months), the summer humidity got into the walls (a very normal thing for Florida), causing a little “cracking” during the winter after we moved in, between joined walls at the corners and the tops of walls where they joined to the ceiling, i.e., not really cracking but separation as the house dried. A very normal thing for any new construction. Southern Oaks Homes sent out someone to caulk and repaint it — and the quality of that work was excellent. It did not look like a repair job but like the perfection one normally only dreams of having. As new houses dry, there are usually also some issues with “settling”, but nothing has “settled.” Doors continue to close properly. Etc. The only problem we had after moving in was the air conditioner’s coils sprung a leak. This was due to inferior workmanship in China. The AC company replaced the coils under the warranty, but Mr. Lapsley went beyond the call of duty by getting involved himself, contacting the AC company to make sure we got the best service possible. At Southern Oaks Homes, the quality of products used is always superior to new construction in tract developments. Mr. Lapsley gave us choices for which level of superiority we wanted to pay for, and when we picked something inferior, he made it known to us why it was a bad choice. We had interviewed different builders before choosing Southern Oaks Homes. John Lapsley owner of Southern Oaks Homes, is highly ethical, which is one of the reasons we chose his company. He is also very involved in the whole process, giving a hands-on approach to everything, which turned out to be a huge asset to the project. When a sub-contractor did something wrong, Mr. Lapsley quickly intervened as an excellent advocate for us and made sure the problem was resolved as quickly as possible. For example, the aluminum railing company brought white railings when we had ordered dark bronze, and the wrong garage doors were delivered — stuff like this always happens on any building project — and Mr. Lapsley handled it professionally, swiftly, and in person, to make sure the house we got in the end was exactly what we had designed. During construction of the wood decks, we were dissatisfied with one section because the gaps between the slats of wood were not evenly distributed. Mr. Lapsley made the worker take it apart and do it right. His highly ethical standards makes him very trustworthy. He went the extra mile for us when we had problems that were not his area of responsibility, such as when we were delayed getting construction started due to ineptness in the county permit office; Mr. Lapsley went beyond the call of duty to get us past the county’s delays. The roof is perfect, installed by an excellent sub-contractor. The Southern Oaks Homes crew also installed solar tubes from the roof into each bathroom. No leaks! It’s a well-insulated house and our energy bill is half what it was in our previous house, which was smaller. The quality of installation of tile in the bathrooms and kitchen floor is excellent; Southern Oaks Homes uses a sub-contractor that works slower in order to get the superior workmanship. John Lapsley totally listens to the clients to give them exactly what they want, making suggestions that lent his expertise to the decision-making process without being over-bearing or pushy. Do yourself a favor, hire this builder! If you have any doubts, ask him to tell you where we live and we will gladly give you a tour.
