Lennar Home with Poor Ventilation

We had a Grand Home built in 99 that had the exact same problem. We spent a small fortune on air purifiers and did everything we could afford to do, but gave up and moved just this past Summer. We did have an A/C company come out that suggested we add some air returns (it was a 3700 square foot home with only two air returns in the entire house), but we didn't want to invest in the expense because we knew we wouldn't be there long, due to multiple other problems with the home.

I will say that since moving into our new place (with a small air return in almost evey single room), I have noticed a drastic difference. My husband even commented today on how he went to change the air filters and they were clean as a whistle. That said, look into adding some returns. That's the best advice I can give you.

Good luck. I know how frustrating it can be!

1 mom found this helpful

We are living in an apt that was built in 1986 that has the very same problem! I can literally take *everything* out of my refrigerator and put it in our master bedroom closet and NOTHING will spoil!....I spent just 2 minutes in my bedroom the other day looking for something, and came out of there crying because it wa causing my back to hurt so bad! (I have spinal stenosis and fibromyalgia.)

Needless to say, I have not slept with my husband in the past 14 months because of our bedroom temperature, unless we are at his parents' house. Our son also can not sleep in his bedroom because there is NO circulation in there, either. In the summer, his room is HOT, and in the winter, it's as cold as ours....I've been sleeping with him on the futon in our living room (also to make sure he does not get into stuff he shouldn't when he wakes up in the mornings).

Definitely one of the questions I have put on our list of "to ask about" when we start looking for a new house in the spring!

So sorry to hear that you are going thru the same thing...Hope you get answers from Lennar, and soon!

I can't address any issue with your builder, but I do have a possible source of help. Our new home was built by Calmark. They provide access to their HVAC people to come back and FIX all this stuff after you get moved in. We had Kruger Heating and A/C http://www.krugerac.com/ come out and fix the air flow throughout our house once we got in and got settled. It made such a *huge* difference, and now, when it is 36 degrees, I am sitting here quite comfortably. I highly recommend them. I do not know what they charge for this service, as it was included in our builder's services, but it was worth having them come out and take a look at it.

Good luck!

My parents had a similar problem with their home. What they did was install vents above each door to allow air flow. Or you could replace the doors with ones that have either vents in them or adequate space underneath the door to provide some ventilation.

Installing ventilation grills to each room door allows air flow to closed off rooms. Speak with Lennar to see if they feel that this will indeed correct your problem.

Get someone out to check the attic. The vents to the bedrooms could be not even connected to the A/C or they could be blocked. I moved into a new boarding house in college and the back bedrooms were awful. Turned out the vents in the attics were not even connected to the A/C.

Lennar is pretty strict with their warranty time frame. It has been a long time since your home was built. My only suggestion is to call the main office and ask to speak to Don Luke or his assistant. He is a regional vice president and apparantly the top of the ladder. If anyone would do anything I think he would be your best shot. Straight to the top!
Good LUck!

P.S.
You didn't get his name from me!

Write a letter to them and after they respond then if they will not correct it go to the web site of TRCC and have a state inspection. They deal with homeowners and builders. I have foundation problems in a 4 yr old home. An attorney told me to do this. Register your home take notes and complete inventory of what is wrong. Then send it all. But make sure all is in there. When they came out to inspect they would only go over what was in my report which makes me mad because more happens daily. Good Luck The next step is to get an attorney of which all I have is prayers for that one. G. W

I worked for a major builder around that time and the houses were built that way for the most part unless the bottoms of the doors are high enough to allow circulation (and many are)..........you might try some baby gates for your kiddos rooms to solve the issue in their rooms....HVACs have to have circulation...are your returns clear? clean and nothing in front of them? I know they used to put them in goofy places...and, of course, ceiling fans help as well.......hope you find a solution.........

My sister had a similiar problem with her home. She had air vents installed on her bedroom doors. Her doors were white and the vents were painted white and istalled toward the bottom of the door. You can hardly notice them. Any other fix would required lots of money. Buy the vents, like the ac ones, and have a carpenter take your doors down, cut a hole in them, install the vents and then hang the doors again. The down side is that this does allow sound to travel in and out of the room. But it's a cheap quick fix.

We have a similar problem...we just bought our house in May and some of the rooms get a lot of air and some get hardly anything. The a/c guy came out today and "balanced" the air flow and I think he was there all of 30mins. This was still covered under our warranty, so you may want to call Lennar or the company that installed the a/c to begin with. And we do keep all our doors closed as well. The air system should still work. If enough air is being directed to that vent. Good luck.

I have no expereince with Lennar, but it sounds like your problem is in your duct work. I'd recommend having someone out to look at the duct, make sure the unit, duct, and vents are properly sized for your size house, and that the duct work is properly balanced. They may also need to make sure you have enough return air vents. If you plan to close doors to rooms on a routine basis, there should be a return air vent in that room or close. You can call Gillette Air Conditioning ###-###-#### and schedule an appt to have them evaluate. There is a trip charge for them to go, but you could get an estimate then decide how to proceed with Lennar. Good luck.

We have a Highland Home built in 1992 and had a similar problem. We had a H/AC person come and take a look.....sure enough, the vents to those rooms were too small for the size of rooms they were supposed to supply. However, to put in the correct size venting would overload the units (AC or Heat), so he put in larger vents and set our house up on a zoning system, so when one zone is being heated or cooled, the other is not....and it automatically goes back and forth keeping the temperature in each zone at the temp you have it set for. It has been great, as we are able to keep bedrooms warmer at night (in the winter) while not wasting heat in the living spaces and vice versa during the day or in the summer. Try our guy if you are so inclined: Damion Roberts ###-###-#### with Roberts Heating and Cooling....he is also an off-duty Firefighter
Good Luck!

Call the air conditioning company that installed your equipment and see if they can help. Make sure there was aload calculation done on your home. There should be stickers on the equipment with the phone number. Warranty is probably only good for the 1st year, but they should be able to help.

D.

Our home is the same way. We had a heating and air guy come out and look at it and asked him about it. The houses are made to keep ALL the doors open all year round. Also, the doors have huge gaps under the doors too. most people see this as a problem and order thicker padding and carpet, but it's actually for ventilation and circulation. My kids room was like a meat locker and mine like a sauna!! We had to open all the vents in all the rooms and keep the doors proped open. Whatever happened to the good old days.