Indiana Building Systems

I'd like to choose an option "no stars". The workmanship on the roof is terrible. Our house is four years old and needs to be re-roofed. There were 14 leaks in the roof, nails were not put in. Because they're out of business we are left holding the bag for a new roof and to fix all the damage to the ceilings inside the home. I have no doubt at all about why they are out of business. Terrible company.

I totally disagree with the editor that IBS is (or was since now out of business) a 3-star manufacturer of modular homes. We experienced several issues as warranty work which they did not stand behind. There were two feeble attempts made at our home to fix items, but they either forgot to bring items, brought the wrong items, and then later promised to be back in January 2011 to install backordered items when they arrive. In hindsight, it was apparent they were stringing us along until they went out of business so they were not responsible for repairs/replacements of damaged items. Not once did we (or our general contractor) receive notification that their doors were closing.

I also thought it interesting that HiTech (another modular home builder) bought their equipment and heard from area residents that many of IBS' former employees moved over to HiTech. This news made me wonder whether a mutual owner or relationship existed between the two companies.

2/1/2011

We signed a contract with Pinnacle on a Pinnacle Home about three weeks before IBS bought them out in 2007. As a result our house was one of the first (if not the first) Pinnacle house that IBS built. We visited the factory and saw our house under construction. It was early in the process so what we saw was rough. The manage team was very friendly and appeared to be concerned about our satisfaction. At that time we saw no warning signs.

Our house was to be a two story - four modules - house with a full basement and garage. The basement and garage were of course built by a separate company but had to be built to IBS measurements. We signed the contract in February of 2007 and the house was set in July. Then the problems (sorry, issues) started to appear. One of the second floor modules wouldn't line up correctly with the stairway coming up from the first floor. Something was off one inch and the module had to be removed so that a one inch strip could be cut off part of a first floor roof allowing the module to line up with the stairway.

The copper plumbing to every sink in the house leaked and had to be redone in one way or another. Two of the three shower valves had to be reinstalled and one of them had to eventually be replaced. The drain on one of the two tubs didn't work properly and never was fixed or replaced. The outside faucets were put into the soft water line and IBS wasn't going to correct it until the county house inspector told them that it had to be changed.

We special ordered 26 Great akes windows which are triple pane vinyl windows with all the extras and are supposed to come with a 50 year warranty. They weren't all installed properly and about half of them leak very badly. The warranty goes to the distributor but IBS does the installing. The distributor won't warranty them since he didn't install them. So...we have no warranty and will have to pay to have someone else reinstall them. (They still won't be warranted but at least maybe we can get them to seal.) Right now we are having near blizzard conditions and there is a very fine snow blowing in through the front door sidelight frame and around the door. We can see the snow coming in and the rug at the inside of the door is wet.

We had at least two issues with the electrical wiring and they were satisfactorily fixed.

The contract called for an outside-vented hood for above the kitchen stove. The house came with a hood that wasn't vented. After we insisted that it be vented the set grew simply cut a hole in the top of the cabinet and laid a heat duct across the cabinet to the outside wall, cut another hole and put a tin vent on the outside. We complained to the site foreman and he agreed the it was not acceptable and re-did it himself. We had to replace the hood ourselves after moving in because there no longer was a baffle in the hood to stop the cold air from coming in from the vent pipe. Even with a new hood we still get cold air coming in from outside. Every bathroom vent (3)leaks cold air into the bathrooms, with the damper on the outside going clunk, clunk, clunk with each gust of wind.

The siding on the second floor had to be completely redone because it didn't line up with the siding on the first floor. The question I have is why is any of the second floor siding installed at the factory??? It sure doesn't save them any money when they have to tear in off and then reinstall new siding on site. We have had the siding on the facia boards nailed on by another company because it kept blowing off.

In January, 2008, we had the closing, eleven months after signing the purchase order, the house was now ours and was finished except for six issues that still needed fixed. The week after the closing a water pipe between the first and second floor froze then burst. The reason that it froze was the set grew did not join a vent pipe from the basement to the part that came down from the outside through the roof. The two were supposed to be joined between the first floor ceiling and second floor flooring. The part from outside was open and freezing air poured in right beside the water pipe. $27,000 worth of damage and the house went into restoration.

The master bedroom in on the first floor and about 20 feet from the thermostat in the living room, yet our bedroom is 9 - 10 degrees colder than the living room, about 59 degrees in the winter. The master bath is too cold to use the bath tub in the winter.

We have had to reattach roofing, outside trim and siding. General workmanship is poor to fair. I would guess that most of the workers that built this house were poorly trained and not supervised.

One good thing I can say about the house is it appears to be solid and structurally sound.

Thank goodness for the county building inspector.

We would NOT recommend IBS as a possible builder.

I am giving IBS 2 Stars. We are pleased with our home BUT this is a huge BUT we HATE the kitchen. It was cheaply made. We loved the floor plan of this home. This was the only floor plan that we found where the bedrooms were all on one side. This is no pun intended to the company we bought from. They have been wonderful about fixing problems that they shouldn't have to. I feel so bad even calling them which to me,seems like all the time. We bought our almost $90,000 house and moved in almost 9 months(September 2009). We had furnace troubles from the first day we turned it on and the company that we bought off of were so troubled and couldn't figure it out. I felt so bad for them. I think that they were out here 4 or 5 times and finally got it to run right. We had to go winter of 2009-2010(November-March) running space heaters in our home because the furnace would blow hot air half the time. Never knowing when it would start blowing cold air. The drawers in our kitchen were literally falling off the rollers. The pantry that we have has roll out shelves,would fall off. Leaving a crashing sound and food everywhere. They are claimed to be "fixed" but we still limit the amount of food that we put on the pantry shelves for the fear of the shelves falling. I can actually move the side of the island cabinet and wiggle it a good inch .. cheaply made and poorly constructed. The cabinet doors keep falling off the hinges. We have bought stock of screws so when they do,we can do a quick "fix." That just means the the original holes are "boreing out." The kitchen countertops have bubbles in them and we are still waiting on a reply from IBS. We are already talking about changing the cabinets out after 9 months of living here. I hate having to think about weight in the cabinets in fear of them crashing. It's awful that I have to do that in a home that is just 9 months old. While waiting on them for that reply,the kids bathroom countertop is also starting to bubble. The carpet .. oh the carpet. We have had people comment on the carpet since day one. The carpet is not plush at all and in fact it does look like it was used LOL!. It's just flat .. but we have throw rugs to cover some of it up. Once again,we are already talking about replacing carpet in the next couple of years. It is coming from the walls but the dealer will be out to stretch it. I am sure that that will be a quick fix. Remind you the house is only 9 months old. We do not walk with our shoes on or eat in the living room. Even though the kiddos have snuck a few drinks in there:)! There was no caulking around the shower,garden tub,tub in the kids bathroom. My father in law did that. The shingles on the roof are starting to bubble now,just 2-3 of them. This was supposed to be a home that we would live in for years. We are now worried how long this house is going to last. I just want to add that we got Anderson windows and they are great. We also went with a basement,drywall and crown molding and that has been great. This is not a cheap home but there are days that we think that we should of bought a cheapo. That way once the warranty runs out,we would be able to afford to fix the problems. Once again,this is no pun against the dealer where we bought the home. They are super nice people and are doing their best to fix the problems... Thanks Joe :)!

We purchased 4 Indiana building system modular home's, we are extremely distraut with the lack of quality control and workmanship. We purchased our home's for a small subdivision we were building close by, it was our intent to try to control cost by using factory built verses stick built. Dove Precision Homes of watford,Ont,Canada was the distributor of these homes for all of Ontario,looking after sales and service including all warranty related issues.Dove Precision Homes has since ceased their relationship with IBS as well as their obligation to " Us ".We have many issues with these homes, and the most important in my opinion is the lack of 6 mil vapour barrier. with our climate and fluctuating temperatures, these houses are condensating in the wall cavity and litterly buldging at the seams. The most prominent area's are the washrooms/fireplace and every partition wall. We are working very closely with CSA, We are out several thousand dollars in these repairs alone, without getting into quality issues. I would highly recommend contacting CSA if you are experiencing this condition.

My wife and I purchased our new mobile home through Sask West Homes in Moose Jaw, Sask, Canada in July 2008. I have recently built a one car garage with an entryway beside the trailer. I wired in some lights in the entryway and had to cut a hole in the exterior wall to do so. Upon doing so I noticed there was no vapour barrier on this exterior wall and I was wondering if the whole trailer has no vapour barrier on any exterior walls ? I have'nt gone as far as looking behind the drywall to check this out but I'm very concerned about the one exterior wall I discovered with no vapour barrier. I also looked at some pictures online from your factory and noticed one where the sheathing was being installed on the floor and I see no vapour barrier on the warm side of the insulation. We have a Y06 model and are pleased with it, but it is a cold trailer for being built in 2008 and if I'm correct in thinking there is NO vapour barrier in the complete trailer how and why was this trailer CSA certified. And also if this is the case I was just wondering on who the certification was done by and a contact email address.
Thank You
Ron Hoffart