Excel Homes

We took possession the end of December and were told as it’s winter excel will not be pouring our driveway as it would not be covered under there warranty, however as we are in the middle of June and still do not have a driveway my wife and I are extremely unhappy, every attempt to find out when the driveway will be poured has been ignored. This is only our most recent issue, the house in general was thrown together by terrible trades. Large spots on the walls that were not painted, paint of floors, carpet and windows. The carpet is lifting all over the house and it was not measured correctly on stairs. The floor boards are separating along with a number of other problems.

Bought our new home from Excel homes in Walden, Calgary. It’s been 5 months (got possession in Nov 2019) and our garage floor and driveway already have huge cracks going all across the length and breadth. I am assuming the ongoing Excel Homes construction next door has caused this due to poor construction quality. I immediately complained this to excel but their response is that it’s normal even though 99/100 driveways in the Walden area have no cracks. The other 2 things you will frequently hear from them is that every home in different and it’s home owner damage. I am fed up of hearing this and would take immediate pictures and show them as it’s happening. But they won’t own this at all. I am attaching all pictures here showing the level of damage in 5 months and pictures of ongoing Excel Homes construction next door. Judge for yourself but would not recommend that you choose them for your next home building project.

We bought with Excel homes in 2017 and have had water seeping through the framing into our living space. To this day it has not been fixed. In 2018 Black Toxic Mould was found and the levels were over 400,000pm3 in the basement and over 20,000pm3 on the main level Alberta Health Standards is 1000pm3. A remediation was completed in 2018, but since have had problems in 2019 and two weeks ago in 2020.

Hardwood floor very noisy .. didn’t fix the carpet on stairs properly... hood fan buttons not working properly.., didn’t paint the drywall after repairing that ... very cheap quality of hardwood ... the hardwood floor gets lot of scratches and marks ... fully dissatisfied with the excel homes products nd their services .... I suggest every one don’t buy home from excel homes co ..

Very poor customer service. They had to change the whole carpet due to their fault during the installation and still, they haven't finished yet it's been almost 6 months. I keep fighting for the service that the promise in the purchase agreement. Six months walk thru issues still outstanding after one year. One year walk thru done but no response or follow up by excel. All in all the worst company I have dealt with regarding the warranty of its product and service. The customer guy just doesn't listen, lazy guy.

Very bad service, will never recommend Excel home to anyone. I have signed the purchase agreement in October 2018 and still they saying possession will be after November 2019 but not guaranteed date. I have paid my 5% deposit and Excel homes is sitting on my deposit with no progress. They simply gave excuse that they are overloaded with order. Sales team is good but back office does not care about the customers.

The TL;DR version ... sales process is great, overall build quality is serviceable where it matters but corners get cut all over the place, get everything in writing, and post-sales support is mediocre at best.

Lowering my score from the original three stars I gave Excel homes to zero.

One of the issues I didn't mention earlier was the garage door. It was noisy and got stuck all the time. I brought it up with the builder a few times and they sent out the company that installed it. Got everything from that's normal, the sun is interfering with the sensors, needed basic maintenance (that they charged me for) and my favorite you must have hit it with your car when all their other diagnoses didnt hold up. The bottom panel was rusting, mostly due to the way the driveway was poured water pools at the lip where the garage pad meets the driveway. Finally became completely inoperable at the five-year mark. Then I found out that parts for this type of door are only available from the company that did the original install, given the terrible job that they did and lack of service over the years I didn't want to get anymore work done from them. So - another $6000 down to get a new garage door and opener.

An update on the driveway, it's completely peeled, parging is falling off the side of the house as well but on the plus side it looks like it's been sandblasted - win I guess? Instead of getting the basement finished next year Ill be fixing the holes in the floors that Excel left behind on the second floor because they have gotten noticeably larger and then spending $10k on getting the driveway resurfaced.

Excel homes - the gift that just keeps giving.

Original review

Had our new house built just about two years ago. Overall, the house is great, and we love it, the sales process was excellent but starting from the build to after sales care I have to say my experience has been trending downwards from my initial experience with this organization.

Anything you want changed / done get it done before they get that first deposit cheque. After they have that money, the only way you can get anything changed is if you forgo your deposit and cancel the build altogether. I think another review said get everything in writing ... seriously ... get *everything* in writing.

Just a few examples of where things started going south for us ...

1. We had a spice kitchen where we ended up with a 2 ft by 3 ft cabinet that can only be accessed via an 8-inch door. Effectively making the storage space useless. Understood that it was a code change that made this a necessity but verbally by the salesperson we were told that something would be done to make this space useful. But once the build commenced it was left as is and to be honest no one ever said anything to me besides that they personally could not help me with the matter or refer me to anyone that could potentially help. The cabinet company they used is super unresponsive, I reached out to them a few times for accessories and maybe to help me with some sort of fix, but they have been less than helpful as well. Someday when I have a bit of money, I guess I'll sort this out myself.

2. There were damaged sub floors that we caught during one of our initial walk-throughs. We directed Excel's attention to the matter, and nothing was done. Carpet was laid over it and you could feel the dip where the boards were broken. Fast forward to our 1-year inspection, Excel finally decided to do something about. They cut the carpet in a new place, pulled it back, cut out the broken piece and then jammed a random piece of board in the hole. You could obviously see that there was a bump in the spot now as the fix was not flush to the sub-floor. I just gave in to be honest and said fine good enough; was just tired of dealing with the issue and couldn't afford any more time off work. We got the lowest end carpet with the plan to replace it in a few years so the heck with it, I will fix the sub-floors properly when I do that.

3. Master bathroom glass shower doors were crooked, upon further inspection realized the top door frame was cut too short. First attempt to fix was prying the bar off, centering it and then using silicone to fill the gaps. Didn't work. Finally came back a second time to replace the defective part but the guy who did it just made a gigantic mess with the silicone. Excel's response was that's good enough. So, I did my best cleaning it up and add it to the list of things that I'll get sorted myself someday.

4. Front landscaping. This one is funny and I'm not really bent out of shape over it just thought I'd mention it. I guess the developer decided that all the properties needed landscaping in the front. We took possession right on the day of a big snowstorm in October, landscaping had been done too late. Grass is dead, slope is all messed up, whatever, I didn't have to pay for it will fix it next summer.

5. Driveway, gotta love that less than 10% damage means that it's okay rule. Driveway started peeling the first few months, according to Excel it was salt which is weird because it was only in two specific spots and nowhere else, including the sidewalk so I guess its magic salt that defies the laws of gravity when it hits that point. There were also massive cavities on the side of the driveway where the pad didn't go all the way to soil / landscaping - which made a perfect home for a family of some type of small rodents that I'm still fighting off. They fixed it after a bit of back and forth, but it was like pulling teeth to get it done. Best part of this one is that an Excel representative told me not to seal the driveway for the first year and then when it peeled same dude said to me why didn't you get the driveway sealed. Just to repeat myself - get everything in writing.

6. Basement window didn't have gravel in it and was filled with construction debris. This one got on my nerves, the first person we dealt with didn't want to do the outside inspection due to the snowstorm. By the time of the next inspection that guy had quit, the dude that took over from that point on started using "Should have noted this during the move in" as a mantra for any issues on the outside of the house. Wanted me to clean out the window well so that the gravel could be done which I did a few times, but it would fill in with trash again because they wouldnt come and fill in the gravel. Took a few months but eventually the gravel was put in.

7. Que the "Should have noted this during the move in" mantra ... there were a bunch of drill holes on the siding on the garage obviously from the installation process, but they wont fix them because we didn't do the exterior inspection.

I could go on but it's pointless ... just wanted to give a small sampling of the after sales Excel vs. before sales. Before the sale, the customer service is amazing. After the sale, they start from the position of "can't do anything for you buddy".

The floor plans, initial build, adherence to budget, timelines, etc. are great. It's just they are a very rigid and inflexible through the build process and to be honest once the thing is done, they are done with you as well.

Worst home buying experience
Paid much than my friend
And got alot frustrating
As every problem with home is said to be normal
No one even hear what you want they have only no
Never care for your feelings
Thanks and Sorry if this hurt someone

I recently took possession of an Excel home and didn’t realize I paid almost half a million for a house in order to not use the garage. Parked up to the stairs in the garage and still sticking out by a foot. The other side of the garage will be occupied with an intermediate sized car, so essentially one side of the garage is useless. Measurements on their floor plan list the garage as 21’0” x 19’6” but the inside of the garage is 19’7” x 18’10”. Apparently the listed measurements are for the outside but not sure how anyone buying a house could decide if the garage is the right fit. If I was given the correct measurements of this garage I would have never bought this house since the garage does not even accommodate my car. I understand that space is an issue with a growing population but we were also told that a standard garage is 20’x20’. Not exactly sure how a family with a van or anyone with a truck or just a long car in general can even fit. Am I suppose to just sacrifice my car to even use the garage in my own house. Extremely disappointed with Excel and the misleading information that we were given.

Pretty much just paid for a house that is essentially useless.

THIS WAS BY FAR THE WORST DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE. THE SALES MANAGER (MAUREEN M) IS INCOMPETENT. THE AREA MANAGER IS WORST (CODY N). THEY DONT KNOW CUSTOMER SERVICE. THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO HOLD THEIR END OF THE DEAL. THEY WILL RUSH YOU INTO SIGNING THE CONTRACT THEN LEAVE YOU HANGING AND PENALIZE YOU FOR THEIR MISTAKES. THEY WILL L.IE..L.IE..L.IE TO SELL THE PROPERTY. THEY DONT OWN UP WHEN THEY MAKE MISTAKES INSTEAD PIN IT ON THE CLIENT OR THE REALTOR. THEY DON'T HAVE ANY CONTACT INFORMATION WHATSOEVER ON THEIR WEBSITE TO TALK TO SOMEONE WITH AUTHORITY. CODY AND MAUREEN ARE USELESS TO DEAL WITH!!! I HAVE EMAILED EXCEL CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE ADDRESS LEFT IN ONE OF THE COMMENTS AND OFCOURSE NO ONE WILL GET BACK TO YOU. I WOULD HIGHLY!!!! DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM EVER CONSIDERING EXCEL HOMES. PLEASE STAY AWAY!!!!!!!