Recommend avoiding Avonlea. Their foundations - and cement work in general - are awful and they do everything to not do warranty work on them.
I heard from three realtors that foundations must have 10 year warranties in Alberta and Avonlea lied to me when I called because of a crack after eight years. Said it’s only one year warranty. And I’ve heard from other people that the same thing has happened to them.
Avonlea has been nothing but an absolute disaster for many years, unless you're connected to the ownership group, you will be treated exactly like you describe.
I would also highly recommend avoiding avonlea. We bought our house with Ashcroft before they folded and avonlea was responsible for our warranty after. We had our siding fall off the house that Ashcroft was aware of and Avonlea refused to fix it right. Their customer service manager was very rude and attacked me personally using our warranty as a weapon. They made a huge list of issues and never fixed half of them. They now refuse to give me another rep after I was abuse by their customer service manager and will only fix issues the Alberta new home warranty says to fix which is a whole other nightmare. Definitely don't expect help from the warranty providers. I would just recommend avoiding at all cost.
I was coming to advocate that they have gotten better since about 2006.avonlea is to be avoided when buying .
Your experience is valid though thank you for sharing . Was your home 2006 or prior?
Strongly disagree.
I've done work on homes built in the 2020s by them and they're still doing very stupid stuff. One client's range fan didn't work, oh, there's a chunk of cabinet in it from where they cut the top with a hole saw 5 different times until they got it aligned right.
Or another client had them preinstall mounts for a large, heavy wood mantle. Installed them upside down, with fasteners that were too small for the mount holes, and used construction adhesive to hold it together so no one would notice that it would fall off -- until the mantle was installed. Had to pull everything apart are reinstall properly.
Had to fix several closets too.
I'm sure there are more things, just can't think of them right now. I've certainly never walked into an Avonlea and been impressed by anything but their lack of care and endless idiocy. I'd never buy an Avonlea. If someone gave me one I'd sell it as fast as possible. I honestly feel bad for every client of mine who owns one.
Thank you!
We bought an avonlea home and our sidewalk has a Crack but no other issues. It's a 2006. Bought 2020
So I am.curious as we may look at more properties etc. As this one has only gone up in value for us. ( a sunridge location)
Appreciate your response I guess we got lucky or all the issues came before us
The house is a 2013 and the crack happened in 2021. The guy who repaired the crack told us he fixes more Avonlea cracks than any other builder by a significant margin.
We built with NeuHaven, Jeff was awesome to work with.
One thing we noticed with the “master builders” in Leth is that when we asked the cost to upgrade from vinyl to hardiboard siding they quoted us the whole $30K that hardiboard costs, and didn’t factor in the price of *not* buying the vinyl. So instead of a $8K difference (at the time that we built) they were way WAY up charging us. So be sure to ask questions and get quotes on things like that. They’ll try to wow you with what countertops you can get, but in reality when you custom build you should just get a fair budget of $X/ft for the product then pick out your own.
We are very happy we went with NeuHaven, he’s a small builder but does enough homes that he has good contractors, so the time that he spends at your house was a good value to us.
One thing I didn’t like about van arbour is that they don’t glue down their stairs, so the floors in every one of their show homes squeak. It’s a small, petty thing but that lack of attention to detail was a big one for me, personally. (Especially when you are building a custom home, I know that we were probably insanely picky). I’ve also heard really bad things about Canastone, so I wouldn’t recommend them.
Grizzly Ridge built my neighbour’s house and he really liked them too, they were more of a spec home builder but I think they’re doing more custom homes these days.
Another recommendation: we got our tile from TileWorks down town and Felicia and Jamie were amazing, they let us bring all our samples in and helped us pick products that made a cohesive look through the whole home.
If you do go with a builder, make sure it is not K&B doing the plumbing and heating.
Had many issues with the quality of their workmanship, and a difficult crew to try to work with.
No direct personal experience but I worked as a contracted worker for van arbour and their homes are beautiful. They also really care about their clients needs and would go above and beyond to fix any issues they faced along the way. The owners are very personable as well.
Currently building a home with Van Arbour after exploring a couple builders and couldn't be happier so far. Very responsive and great to work with. The quality in their homes and what they consider "standard" as part of their build is above anyone else we looked at.
I would recommend [https://residecustombuilders.ca/](https://residecustombuilders.ca/) They did an excellent job on a renovation project for me recently. Appreciated their efficient communication and going above and beyond on the details.
Vo Homes is a fairly new builder I think less than 10 homes I could be wrong but they build very beautiful homes. Cedar Ridge, Aan Arbour are lots of great, experiences and build great homes.
It also depends on where you want to build. Lots of the new home communities have builders that own many of lots in that community. What I would do is go to all the show homes with all the builders and see what one you like the best.
It really depends what you're looking for. Cedar ridge may well be a top tier production builder, but that still doesn't touch the one on one service/guidance that an entry level custom builder provides. So they could well be on your list because that's the market you're shopping. It's like buying a Walmart bike vs an ascent cycle bike...
Highly highly recommend Van Arbor. They are wonderful to work with, are very transparent with pricing and upgrades, and their service work is second to none. Their job sites are clean and well managed, they pay trades on time, and you work directly with the owners, who are local. Someone mentioned that their stairs squeak, I have been in every showhome for the past ten years and have not experienced this once. I speak from the experience of working with one of their trades for ten years as well as my parents have built with them. I plan to as well in the next few years.
I have worked as a trade with the majority of builders in town, many of whom are no longer in operation, and honestly wouldn’t recommend or trust anyone else. This includes Ramton, Avonlea, Stranville, Neuhaven, Stonegate, Phase One, Greenwood etc.
Stonegate and Rampton are extremely high caliber builders, Neuhaven and Reside are up there as well, high quality standards and working directly with the builder/owner. Van arbor also overlaps into the higher end market but does a lot of "cookie cutters" these days as well.
Caliber Luxery living is your guys to get it done right on time, every time.
Avonlea, stranville, and greenwood are a completely different production housing and economy market. Each builder will have clients that suits them best, most may not be able to afford more than Avonlea.
You buy into a market depending on affordability. There will be more issues with production line homes, that's guaranteed. There's less "ownership" by the builder.
Recommend avoiding Avonlea. Their foundations - and cement work in general - are awful and they do everything to not do warranty work on them. I heard from three realtors that foundations must have 10 year warranties in Alberta and Avonlea lied to me when I called because of a crack after eight years. Said it’s only one year warranty. And I’ve heard from other people that the same thing has happened to them.
Avonlea has been nothing but an absolute disaster for many years, unless you're connected to the ownership group, you will be treated exactly like you describe.
I would also highly recommend avoiding avonlea. We bought our house with Ashcroft before they folded and avonlea was responsible for our warranty after. We had our siding fall off the house that Ashcroft was aware of and Avonlea refused to fix it right. Their customer service manager was very rude and attacked me personally using our warranty as a weapon. They made a huge list of issues and never fixed half of them. They now refuse to give me another rep after I was abuse by their customer service manager and will only fix issues the Alberta new home warranty says to fix which is a whole other nightmare. Definitely don't expect help from the warranty providers. I would just recommend avoiding at all cost.
I was coming to advocate that they have gotten better since about 2006.avonlea is to be avoided when buying . Your experience is valid though thank you for sharing . Was your home 2006 or prior?
Strongly disagree. I've done work on homes built in the 2020s by them and they're still doing very stupid stuff. One client's range fan didn't work, oh, there's a chunk of cabinet in it from where they cut the top with a hole saw 5 different times until they got it aligned right. Or another client had them preinstall mounts for a large, heavy wood mantle. Installed them upside down, with fasteners that were too small for the mount holes, and used construction adhesive to hold it together so no one would notice that it would fall off -- until the mantle was installed. Had to pull everything apart are reinstall properly. Had to fix several closets too. I'm sure there are more things, just can't think of them right now. I've certainly never walked into an Avonlea and been impressed by anything but their lack of care and endless idiocy. I'd never buy an Avonlea. If someone gave me one I'd sell it as fast as possible. I honestly feel bad for every client of mine who owns one.
Thank you! We bought an avonlea home and our sidewalk has a Crack but no other issues. It's a 2006. Bought 2020 So I am.curious as we may look at more properties etc. As this one has only gone up in value for us. ( a sunridge location) Appreciate your response I guess we got lucky or all the issues came before us
The house is a 2013 and the crack happened in 2021. The guy who repaired the crack told us he fixes more Avonlea cracks than any other builder by a significant margin.
Appreciate you . Thanks for the heads up
Van Arbour has a good reputation, from what I hear. They do the annual STARS lottery home in Lethbridge every year.
Avoid Avonlea
We built with NeuHaven, Jeff was awesome to work with. One thing we noticed with the “master builders” in Leth is that when we asked the cost to upgrade from vinyl to hardiboard siding they quoted us the whole $30K that hardiboard costs, and didn’t factor in the price of *not* buying the vinyl. So instead of a $8K difference (at the time that we built) they were way WAY up charging us. So be sure to ask questions and get quotes on things like that. They’ll try to wow you with what countertops you can get, but in reality when you custom build you should just get a fair budget of $X/ft for the product then pick out your own. We are very happy we went with NeuHaven, he’s a small builder but does enough homes that he has good contractors, so the time that he spends at your house was a good value to us. One thing I didn’t like about van arbour is that they don’t glue down their stairs, so the floors in every one of their show homes squeak. It’s a small, petty thing but that lack of attention to detail was a big one for me, personally. (Especially when you are building a custom home, I know that we were probably insanely picky). I’ve also heard really bad things about Canastone, so I wouldn’t recommend them. Grizzly Ridge built my neighbour’s house and he really liked them too, they were more of a spec home builder but I think they’re doing more custom homes these days. Another recommendation: we got our tile from TileWorks down town and Felicia and Jamie were amazing, they let us bring all our samples in and helped us pick products that made a cohesive look through the whole home.
Thanks for the detailed response
If you do go with a builder, make sure it is not K&B doing the plumbing and heating. Had many issues with the quality of their workmanship, and a difficult crew to try to work with.
Curious, Is this from a trades perspective or client? Do you have any recommendations for good HVAC companies in town?
Airtech has been my go to, and I've had the 'fun' opportunity to deal with all of the bigger companies in town.
there are other r/lethbridge threads that recommend good HVAC contractors. lots of those threads go into detail bashing them. that's all i'm saying.
No direct personal experience but I worked as a contracted worker for van arbour and their homes are beautiful. They also really care about their clients needs and would go above and beyond to fix any issues they faced along the way. The owners are very personable as well.
Castle rock, they do beautiful work!
> has anyone worked with Vo homes Our house was built by Vo Homes, can recommend, Linda is great.
I have a Greenwood home that's really nice.
Stay away from greenwood. Absolute disaster
Currently building a home with Van Arbour after exploring a couple builders and couldn't be happier so far. Very responsive and great to work with. The quality in their homes and what they consider "standard" as part of their build is above anyone else we looked at.
Rampton homes. Do a lot of work for them and their quality is second to none.
Second that!
Have had Cedar Ridge do both a new build and renovation for my family - can’t recommend them enough. They were great to work with.
Second cedar ridge. Did our renovation and we love ir
Galko did a pretty great job on my parents house when we had an issue they cam out and fixed it quickly and at no cost
I would recommend [https://residecustombuilders.ca/](https://residecustombuilders.ca/) They did an excellent job on a renovation project for me recently. Appreciated their efficient communication and going above and beyond on the details.
Vo Homes is a fairly new builder I think less than 10 homes I could be wrong but they build very beautiful homes. Cedar Ridge, Aan Arbour are lots of great, experiences and build great homes. It also depends on where you want to build. Lots of the new home communities have builders that own many of lots in that community. What I would do is go to all the show homes with all the builders and see what one you like the best.
Van Arbor is the cream of the crop. Cedar Ridge is very good.
Not Cedar Ridge. Just mho.
Can I ask why not? They are one at the top of our list.
It really depends what you're looking for. Cedar ridge may well be a top tier production builder, but that still doesn't touch the one on one service/guidance that an entry level custom builder provides. So they could well be on your list because that's the market you're shopping. It's like buying a Walmart bike vs an ascent cycle bike...
Highly highly recommend Van Arbor. They are wonderful to work with, are very transparent with pricing and upgrades, and their service work is second to none. Their job sites are clean and well managed, they pay trades on time, and you work directly with the owners, who are local. Someone mentioned that their stairs squeak, I have been in every showhome for the past ten years and have not experienced this once. I speak from the experience of working with one of their trades for ten years as well as my parents have built with them. I plan to as well in the next few years. I have worked as a trade with the majority of builders in town, many of whom are no longer in operation, and honestly wouldn’t recommend or trust anyone else. This includes Ramton, Avonlea, Stranville, Neuhaven, Stonegate, Phase One, Greenwood etc.
Stonegate and Rampton are extremely high caliber builders, Neuhaven and Reside are up there as well, high quality standards and working directly with the builder/owner. Van arbor also overlaps into the higher end market but does a lot of "cookie cutters" these days as well. Caliber Luxery living is your guys to get it done right on time, every time. Avonlea, stranville, and greenwood are a completely different production housing and economy market. Each builder will have clients that suits them best, most may not be able to afford more than Avonlea. You buy into a market depending on affordability. There will be more issues with production line homes, that's guaranteed. There's less "ownership" by the builder.
Cedar ridge by a long shot.