Admiration Builders

Admiration Homes is perhaps the worst run operation I have ever encountered. While they boast of flexibility and such, their management is horrible and their product is built as cheaply as they can possibly build it.

I was a builder in the Kentucky area and decided to use Admiration and help them establish a name here. I had a customer who desired a modular home so we sat down and designed a home to their liking. I submitted this to Admiration who told me that they could build this without hesitation.

My nightmare began.

As a builder, time tables are extremely important. If I sign a contract, I am bound to be finished by a certain date of I can face consequences. Admiration failed to put my house into production and delivered the home two months late. When I asked them why this happened, I got no response. Nor did I EVER get an apology. I did, however, get screwed.

The house arrived in poor condition. This was a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar house and I had vent pipes coming out the front of the home, a roof line that you would not line up, a back module that was so far out of square I had to shim up over 5 inches to try to make it work and this created havoc with the roof line as well. I was assured by Admiration that the cost would be reimbursed. When it came time to get reimbursed, they began a negotiation phase. Some of the items we had to repair were denied.

As we entered the final phase of finished the project, we noticed that the floor in the living room was sinking down about 3 inches. It was where the stairway was located. We crawled up under the house and found that the stairway had absolutely no support under it. I spoke with the President of Admiration and he said his engineers had informed him that no support was needed. I had never encountered such rank ignorance in my life.

After jacking up the floor and leveling the floors, we had to replace a great deal of sheetrock. Admiration was adamant in their denials and their engineers were sure. Well, they sent one of their factor men up. Once he saw what was going on, he rolled his eyes and knew what had to be done. HE agreed that was a serious problem and stated that the truss system was at fault as well. Well that got us looking at the floor system. Good grief. All the floors were sagging. They were using an I-joist system with a utility cut out located almost in the center of the truss. The floors were all sagging where that cut out was located. Admiration was adamant about this being acceptable.

Customers have very little idea about what they are buying when they purchase a Modular home. Builders are in the same boat. Closed panel construction allows the manufacturers to get away with a great deal of short cutting. The quality they brag about is seldom what is produced. The concept is good but the application, particularly by Admiration, is greatly lacking and of the poorest quality.

Oh, during the ordering process, I had gone through four salesmen. One was fired, one quit, one was temporary and I ended up with the Sales Manager. It was a complete nightmare.

I would recommend that if you can, stay away from Admiration Builders. Stick build...then you can SEE what is going on. Use a local builder. The modular concept, while good, has yet to be mastered. Too many problems come up and the manufacturer, more often than not, are unwilling to stand behind their products.

My wife and I looked at a lot of homes and decided on a modular. We liked The Laurel by Admiration. It fit our needs and budget.

We particularly liked the (so we thought) short build time of the house. We were so wrong. We signed the paperwork to have the house built in October of 2007. Here it is, June 18, 2008, and our home is STILL not finished. We are missing carpeting, no door frame and missing trim in the master bedroom, our basement window leaks, our basement floor is wet and filthy throughout with dried clay and water, the garage leaks, the landscaping was washed out because straw overlay was not used, etc... There is more, believe it or not.

Because of this experience, I will NEVER build another home again. I will buy existing. I will use word of mouth to persuade anyone looking at building a modular to either buy existing, or go with a stick built house.