AL BENNER HOMES

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All went beautifully. Larry Benner, one of Al Benner's agents, was our agent, (this company has several) and was superb. Never felt pressured, and he was ALWAYS personable, always available, and responded immediately to every question or visit we made. His patience was remarkable. In building a house (which is basically what we were submitting to Excel to follow as our specs), patience and a light touch is invaluable, since this is a nerve-racking process. The price was very fair - we have a two story colonial, with three baths, three bedrooms for this price. The quality is excellent. We did not purchase the most expensive options, but instead chose almost all the standard options they offer at the basic cost, all of which are good quality, but maybe not high end designer bells and whistles, and are certainly high enough quality for most folks. (Everything can be upgraded if one wishes, to "top of the line", but it will cost additional.) Keep in mind as well that the price of the house itself does NOT include the basement (which is required with Excel modular homes - no slabs), furnace, plumbing in basement hookup, and electrical hookup, nor land, nor preparation of the land. (Total of that is anywhere starting at minimum $50,000 - land and land prep will be an additional cost as well.). Construction of this home is better than average - with 16" centers, 2x6's, plywood, Andersen windows, well insulated, fully conformed to Maine code, and so forth. (Conformed to Maine code got us through building permit without any hassle, since CEO did not have to inspect everything - that had already been done in the factory - this was a HUGE plus, in time and energy. ) Excel, we feel, was really a good choice of company, at Larry Benner's suggestion. (They are agents for various companies.) Excel was very adaptable to our needs as well - we insisted on easy stairs throughout, with rise far lower than normal - they did it without charging extra, for example. One suggestion: that as you make changes, make certain those changes are reflected in the updated specifications - we had to catch that a number of times. The only frustration was waiting for the delivery of the units. Once there, it went up within a day. Then took about two weeks to fully finish the inside and outside. (The finisher was a terrific team, provided by Benner. This is all done as part of the base price.) Due to weather, there were delays in the delivery beyond what we had hoped. Moving the modules cannot be done in inclement weather, and as this is an act of God, there was little Benner could do about that. A couple of missing items, but those were ordered subsequently and sent to Benner from Excel and then installed by Benner. We had a missing stair rail, for instance, that they have since installed, and which is beautiful. Not a whole lot of missing items, however. Building itself is almost soundproof, so tightly built. Standard windows are huge! Doors are tight, building is firm. However, building is still "drying out" so occasionally at night one hears a crack as it either settles or dries out. A little unnerving. Benner had to add additional insulation in attic, because Excel failed to fill it to the 38 RU specification - this was done at Benner's expense. But be sure to check the level, since we had a friend who suggested it was not high enough. The personal choices in this kind of house are almost infinite - you can upgrade everything, change configuration of rooms, or remove, walls, ceilings, etc., leave floors bare, for instance, for later self-finishing. We did that just in the hall, and installed flooring ourselves later on - but Excel will do that as well. (We found their wood flooring costs a bit higher than doing it later on our own.) The rest was carpeted with standard carpet, which is holding up well. Kitchen was faux stone, and people think it is real! Bathroom faux marble. All standard appliances are great, Whirlpool manufacturer - but you can change/upgrade/ etc., all of that if you wish as well. Our kitchen has more than enough cabinets - not at extra charge either! We designed the kitchen, they filled in with appropriate cabinets. You can change anything prior to finalizing the specs. Just remember that almost all upgrades will increase the cost of the final building from its base price, and quite frankly, most of the standard options are really quite nice. My only "complaint", and it is not really that, is that the gypsum walls and ceilings are double primed and in a matte finish, which requires additional painting. Why couldn't Excel make the second prime coat a finish coat, in whatever color was chosen,as long as it was close to the prime color, if it was done throughout the house in the same color, and thus avoid the need to hire a painter who put the final coat on after closing the sale, and thus delaying moving in, and costing a bit. We put on an eggshell off white which was almost identical to the prime, and thus could easily have sufficed as the second coat prime instead. Just a thought. Had I known, I would have made that request. Presumably one could leave the prime as the final coat, but the matte makes it hard to keep clean. FOLLOW UP VISITS: After we moved in, there were several followups, all included in the purchase of this house. Barry,an employee of Benner, a fine, friendly and very professional contractor came to the house recently, for the final check up, looked throughout for settling cracks, etc., which were not many, and fixed them all up, spackling, mudding, priming and painting so that when he left, the repairs were fixed, and none visible. We did not have much settling, thanks to the quality of the house itself as well as the excellent foundation on which it sat. Needed some caulking where the finishing frames for the windows had pulled away, or shrunk over the past period. A couple of missed ceiling paint spots, and one joint crack, and a few edges that he caught and fixed. All of this done in a day and a half time. Understand, this was all done at no cost to us. Also, about 6 months after we moved in, we had a leak in a bath ceiling, which they fixed, at their cost, which may have been due to the plumber we hired who failed to connect a vent in the attic, though this might have been a job that the original installation crew should have checked when finishing up the attic, but they did the repairs pleasantly and in a timely manner. And in the interim, there were some bad shingles on the vent cap which needed replacing, and they again, fixed it in a timely and pleasant manner. I don't know many contractors who would be so forthcoming and accommodating. In sum, this company is everything we had hoped it would be, and then some. It is an old Maine company, founded by Al Benner, who has since passed away, but his reputation has remained intact, and in my view, probably even improved, thanks to the quality customer service and their going the extra mile with their service, quality, honesty and responsiveness. I would not hesitate to use them again if I were to build another modular home. In other words, we are very pleased with our choice of home, and with the service provided by Benner Homes. I must add that Larry Benner himself, Al Benner;s son, instilled trust, affection and loyalty, which served each of us very well throughout the process.