Welbilt Homes Inc, Leesport PA

TLDR; Weibilt makes a good home but could improve on their customer communication and interactions.
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Some of the things experienced during the build:

- We were assigned a project manager at the beginning (or that’s what we were told), but we never heard from them. When we were contacted it was always from different people, including the owner, the COO, the scheduler, or an assistant who would either call my wife or I randomly. It changed throughout the build, and didn’t seem to be linked to a reason. Sometimes they would call me, then return calls later to my wife. This led to confusion about who we should speak with about different questions and updates we had.

- There were unexpected bills sent to us during the build. We questioned all of them to their office and were told 3 of the bills were sent accidently and we should ignore them, and a 4th bill they “didn’t have time to inform us about it”. This left us wondering if a massive bill would arrive without any notice or explanation.

- Welbilt would not inform us about what was expected to happen in the build more than 1 week in advance. This made it hard to see how much work was left to be done in the overall schedule. Obviously, the appearance of the home was an indication of work to be completed, but knowing there was a lot of intangibles needed it was not always clear how close we were to the finish line.

- When we pushed for details about an issue that occurred, they obfuscated the conversation by saying how much experience they had in the industry. They also frequently interrupt and talk over you which was quite frustrating.

- Some of the options were not available during the same week that we were told they were being installed. It raised questions about why did no one realize these were not available until the same week they were going to be installed? There was an 11-month period for someone to realize that. This specifically occurred with our flooring choices. We had to scramble to make different choices and settled for things that we were not thrilled with.

- During the build we were supposed to have several on-site visits with Welbilt to review construction and answer any questions we had. None of these meetings happened and we were never told why. I presume it was because of COVID, but we definitely missed opportunity to question things on-site.

- There was trash underneath the bath tubs and a bird’s nest in the attic space. Based on where the drywall was already installed, it was clear that there was no intention about cleaning these things up before the walls were enclosed.

- The COO, Chris, repeatedly promised us in phone calls that he wanted to meet us and review the home after it was built. He told us this 5 times in various phone calls after we moved in. To this day he still has not scheduled his promised visit.

- When the build was completed we developed a punch list of items we wanted to have fixed in the home. This was part of the build schedule. The checklist items were never fully addressed. Welbilt chose which ones they wanted to cover, and ignored responses on the remaining ones. We still have paint splatter on the floors of some rooms in our home. We ended up scraping mud and washing the garage and basement floors they had so much dirt on them. Some spots you couldn’t even see the concrete floor.

After a year in the home we are impressed with how well the home can hold temperature. The details put into energy efficiency are definitely noticeable.
The interior finishing and aesthetic parts of the build were the most problematic. Paint was splattered on the floors all over. The wooden staircase has scratches, was a rough polyurethane, and even left a boot print in the finish that I get to look at every Winter morning. Some trim pieces have chipped edges from cutting.
In summary I do think that Welbilt makes a good home, but their process in how they communicate, plan, and interact with customers needs attention.