Well, I have not found many reviews on Stevenson Homes, but there should be so that people can be forewarned about the widespread problems experienced with this builder. The company is run by Lyle [last name removed--Ed].
My wife and I chose to have our first home built by Stevenson Homes (then called by two names - SDC: Stevenson Development Corporation and its subsidiary Corridor Homes.) The home was erected in early 2003, and lived in by us until late 2009.
I honestly don't know where to begin with this review, as there are so many issues to report. Basically, they were easy to work with and very accomodating up to getting the house purchase agreement signed. After that, it was all downhill. Most of their homes look OK on the surface, but dig a little deeper and you will find problem after problem.
My wife and I caught a lot of the mistakes made as they occurred, due to our frequent site visits as the home was being constructed. As neither of us was terribly knowledgeable on home construction at the time, a lot of mistakes slipped by us. You can't rely on this builder to catch any of them. We were told that some of the items would be fixed "soon" during construction. Well they kept building around and over some of these uncorrected mistakes, and we kept getting strung along. The utility area in basement was a total mess in layout, compared to what the house plans showed. Nothing was where it was indicated to be, and the sump pump which was required by code had been located directly underneath a basement window; not where the plans showed it to be. I requested that it get moved. They took it out and then poured the basement floor without one. Then they chopped a crude hole in floor and did half-baked install afterwards.
Basement overall was totally lousy. Foundation walls crooked by 3" in some places, missed insulation everywhere you looked, sloppiest plumbing I've ever seen, poor location of electrical panel and hot water tank (in spite of numerous requests to have it corrected to reflect the home plan layout.) Drafts from every electrical switch when the wind was blowing, sewer piping was run outside insulated wall through garage, heating system was "professionally cleaned" but we found hunks of drywall and debris in every duct: only the heating vent openings had been vacuumed out. Kitchen island was erected in wrong spot. Their fix was to relocate it and cut out the "squares" of vinyl floor that were drilled through and try to patch with leftover flooring. Big ugly glue seams were present that I could see from the front door. The customer service rep (Neil) told me that "no one will likely see it but you. Don't worry about it; its fine." Eventually they re-did the entire kitchen floor, but left as much damage to walls and baseboards as they fixed on the floor issue. Every deficiency on our list was either fixed in a lousy manner or a huge amount of bickering and excuses before it was fixed.
Our lot was supposed to be "graded with loam." Their definition of "loam" apparently means hard clay. Another fight to get a couple loads of real dirt for the yard, but not nearly enough was supplied. To this day the lawn is stunted and grows poorly unless there is lots of fertilizer and constant rain.
Our bedroom (master) was constructed with NO insulation over the garage portion, resulting in very cold floor in half the room and this room very drafty and cold in winter. Didn't know this until just before we moved out.
Had a leak on garage roof due to lousy flashing install. Also had very uneven floor in living room. Fixed a lot of these issues on my own, as I was able to. Some of it just had to be tolerated as it was impossible to fix without major work.
Talking to neighbors, friends and colleagues who built with Stevenson Homes brought numerous tales of regret from their other customers. Our neighbor for example had water lines run on exterior wall of home on outside of insulation. Lines froze in winter; go figure. And their landing for their basement stairs had no support from underneath; it was just hanging from the studs, as no one finished the job after the floor was poured in the home. Another friend had "squishy" spot in carpet. Peeling back flooring revealed a large cavity in basement floor concrete, simply filled with wads of underlay in the hopes that no one would notice. You are starting to get the picture of what these guys are like by now.....
Stevenson Homes has built homes in several communities. Each time it is the same story. Several homes are built in a development. Eventually word gets out what shoddy workmanship they deliver and poor after sales support. Then the company moves on to a new community to dupe the next batch of customers who are unaware of the problems encountered in the other communities. Olds, Carstairs, Bowden, Sundre, Drumheller, just to name some places where they have built homes. Collectively in all of these communities are a lot of unhappy customers from Stevenson Homes. So many that I am truly surprised that Stevenson has not been sued by the homeowners collectively, or that he is still in business.
Would NEVER consider building with Stevenson Homes again, no matter what the price was.
Avoid this builder like the Plague. Holmes on Homes would probably have a show or two that he could do about the way these homes are put together. Some of them should never passed inspection, but some of the building inspectors haven't been doing a great job in the area either.
If you are considering buying a Stevenson Home, I highly recommend that you drive around their neighborhoods and ask random home owners about their experience. I doubt you will get many recommendations.
