When I look at the reviews previously left for Art custom, I feel like I didn't even work with the same company. Things have definitely changed at art custom since the previous reviews were posted. I am gonna leave some examples at the bottom, but here is the tl;dr:
1) You no longer get to work directly with the owner Arman unless you complain about something.
2) Instead, the staff that have been brought on board to guide you through the process are inexperienced, poor communicators at best, and outright misrepresent facts at worst.
3) the site supervisor will not catch problems early on in the construction phases. Their lack of experience means problems will not be prevented or fixed, sometimes even after possession. This results in work being done, then redone and incredible wastage as a result.
4) Expect to pay a whole lot more after you sign the papers, as a result of poor explanations, poor communication, and outright misrepresentation.
5) Even when their staff admits wrongdoing, you will always be left holding the bag.
6) The work will be sloppy. Do you enjoy crooked subway tile? Outlets cut into your baseboards? silicone every where. Cabinets finished poorly. Then you should build with Art custom.
7) The house will be dirty when you get it. Look, everyone expects to clean their home before they move in. However this builder will leave things that are very difficult to clean such as 15 foot high windows, and 20 foot high chandeliers.
8) This company does not care if you are unhappy. 2 of my close friends built their houses with different builders this year and took possession within months of us. The attitude of those builders and the level of service received by our friends was far superior on both counts. When our friends were truly unhappy with an outcome, their builders did what was needed to be done to ensure that their clients were satisfied. That was not our experience at all.
I would never work with this company again. They are not the people you want to build your home. There are so many other builders in Edmonton, with a longer history of good service and workmanship.
If you made it this far and want specifics:
2) Communication with "the office" is horrendous. The staff seem brand new, have no idea about the different options offered by Art custom and then just plain do not care to respond to emails. Yes it was during covid, and I understood some suppliers delayed responses, but honestly it seemed like they took advantage of the situation to just ignore us all together. A couple times after complaints and finally bring able to talk to Arman directly, he found a solution in minutes. When the office was asked to cost these options out, it took weeks and multiple reminder emails. This lead to delays, or sometimes the work just being done without our final decision being made.
Prior to signing your contract, when you ask about different options at the design center, such as matte black countertops, a staff member might say yeah yeah thats no problem, only for a different staff member to tell you later that matte black countertops are always, and have always been an upgrade. That upgrade was quoted at $5000 after the contract was signed.
When you decide to do different upgrades like changing the shower to a rain shower, or upgrading all floors to wood, they won't mention that the rain shower is completely different than in the show home and they never show you what it is. Our rain shower is only a fixture on the ceiling, and there is no handheld shower part at all.
We asked for both floors to be upgraded to hardwood since there is a dust allergy in the family. They told us much later, after contract was signed, that the extra we paid for second floor hardwood didn't include the stairs. Quoted us an almost $2000 extra for that.
3) The kitchen window was put in the wrong spot, we noticed immediately at framing but it wasn't addressed until 3 months later when insulation, drywall, and the exterior siding had already been done. They sloppily moved the window, and all of those things had to to redone. The tile in the kitchen backsplash underneath is all crooked. Is is because the window is crooked? I can't see that much because of the casing, but it hasn't been fixed. All of this was pointed out well before our final walk-through. They wanted to me to take possession early and I said no because I wanted these issues to be fixed. They didn't even touch the tile. Now, if they decide to fix the crooked tile, I won't have access to my kitchen sink while they do it.
The site supervisor didn't catch that our large bedroom window pushed a planned outlet downward into the space where the baseboard should be. They have the same size window in their showhome but managed to avoid an outlet in the baseboard with proper planning and foresight. When we protested because it looks terrible, they said that they couldn't move it due to "code". If it could be done without breaching code in the showhome, it should have been done in my home.
4) Everyone budgets extra when building a house because extra costs come up, and we budgeted what we thought was a healthy amount. However once they realize you have a budget you are sticking to, they seem to lose interest in you as a customer.
5) misinformation. We wanted our backyard concrete pad to be extended to the full size instead of a small pad. It was missed by their "office" and wasn't planned for. We were quoted under $2000 for the expansion during those discussions. Before possession when we inquired about when the pad was going in they informed us that it was too late to do the addition and pour it all as full size because the permits were sent in as such. It was too late because the office staff didn't confirm with us before sending the plans in, and they readily admitted that.
Here is the thing, you don't need a permit for a concrete pad at ground level. Outright misinformation designed to make us stop asking.
We asked them not to begin work on the concrete pad until they we could finalize a solution to the situation. They sent people in and framed the 10x10 smaller pad. In the meantime our neighbour's driveways (also art custom) were completed, but our pad was not filled in with cement.
When we asked what the status of our full size concrete pad was, they came back with a close to $4000 estimate. They said we need to pay for the concrete truck to come back because the concrete work on the neighbour's is done.
They would need to bring that truck anyway to pour our 10x10 pad, but they would like to charge us the extra now for it. Unbelievable.
7) The house will be dirty. Our matte black tile high ceiling fireplace feature was left dirty all the way up. The great room chandelier has fingerprints and mud? On it somehow. The insides of our big windows in our great room that are more than 15 feet high were left completely smudged and not clean. These are places I cannot reach myself without a 15 foot ladder. All of this was pointed out at the walkthough, and written down. Then on possession day, it was exactly the same. They assured us that it would be cleaned and months later, no one has come. Jokes on them, every single guest we have at our house notices it, and is disgusted at the builder.
Once again, there are so many other builders to chose from... there is no reason to pick this one.
