Reviews for Talavera Designs

My Background:

I was a Home Builder for 7 years from 2004-2011 and currently a Licensed Professional Home Inspector (TREC#20219) since 2011. As a Home Builder I built SPEC homes and never hired anyone to design or engineer framing plans. I built the same SPEC house plan over and over (almost 100 of them) and never needed engineered framing plans.

Dec 15, 2014: Jim was hired

I hired Jim Salyer (Owner of Telavera Designs) to provide engineered framing plans for a custom home I am building. Jim Salyer (Owner of Telavera Designs) was paid $750 up-front with cash...which he required to be deposited in person at his bank. Jim bid the job at $750 dollars for a complete set of framing plans. Jim promised plans to be delivered with-in 24hours, which seemed odd. It took Jim Slayer weeks to deliver plans and Jim was hard to get a hold off during the process with ignored email message and missed phone calls.

Dec. 20, 2014: Plans Received

Received Plans, but missing roof, cross section and detail plan. Jim then stated I would have to pay additional $250 to receive final set of framing plans. At this point I had no choice and had to pay due to approaching dead lines.

December 29, 2014: Final Plans Received

Framing Plans were not engineered. I-joist manufactures, structural framing contractors and all supply vendors I sent the farming plans to for bids and material take-offs said they could not use framing plans due to improper spanning, sizing and calculations of floor assembly which were based on old building code charts.

The Framing Detail Plan was not useable and lacked all important information regarding fastenings schedules, critical bracing locations at roof structure, and much more.

This was further realized after I was given a current set of framing and framing detail plans from another Builder to compare the 2. The differences were shocking.

When this was discovered, I held off on sending the final payment of $250 out of the $750 that had already been paid until I received different reviews from 3rd parties regarding Jim's framing and framing detail pans. 3rd Party reviews reached the same conclusions: framing and framing plans were not engineered, did not meet current building codes or standards...not useable.

It has been less than 30days after receiving the final plans, and Jim has already threatened me with liens and constantly phone calling and text messages.

I expressed my dis-satisfaction with his service and he responded via text message stating "There are always other opinions on how to do things."

In order to keep the project moving forward, Jim will be paid the final payment of $250. However, I am reporting this issue to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers for falsely impersonating a Structural Engineer.

I do not recommend Jim Salyer (owner of Televera Designs.) mY eXP