Kent Shaffer Builders Inc

Over The Top! Spectacular! Kent Shaffer is by far the best of the best. He just started building our new home in Carmel Indiana six weeks ago, so I will update this review when it is completed, but I want to go ahead and submit an “interim review” now, since some folks may currently be looking for a good builder on the north side of Indianapolis. In a nutshell, from what I have heard from other reputable sources and have experienced myself so far, Kent is the most honest, meticulous and knowledgeable builder you will ever run across. He has over 35 years of first-hand experience in the custom home construction industry. By every metric, he is superior. He insists on personally being on every job site himself, instead of hiring a superintendent to manage his projects, to ensure the utmost in quality. This in itself guarantees great project management/oversight as well as reducing cost. All of his subs are exceptional as well, which is obviously of most importance when building a new home. Everyone that has ever dealt with Kent has the same opinion of him, which I find very rare … there is usually at least one person that won’t feel the same way about someone. Very unusual to have 100% agreement on someone. In addition, all of his subs praise him, his past customers are all extremely satisfied and his follow up after the home is completed, if needed, is second to none. I think the best measure of how good he really is stems from the fact that during the recent construction downturn, which began in 2004 or so, he remained very busy while so many other home builders were going out of business. Kent’s daughter, Kristen Hale, has recently joined her Dad in his construction business. She has worked several years in the real estate industry and is a recent graduate of Purdue University's renowned Construction Management Program. Her combined breadth of experience and training brings additional attributes to the construction process.   Kent builds primarily on the north side of Indy (Zionsville/Carmel/Noblesville/Westfield/Fishers) but is willing to build most anywhere in the Indianapolis area. Kent is such a gem to deal with. You can tell that it is extremely important to him to exceed your expectations and build the best quality home that you could ever imagine. No exaggeration. :)

We bought a house that was nearly completed in the Village of West Clay. The house is well built, is nicely designed and contains many little extra touches. There are some changes that we would make in the house if we had custom built. Even when minor issues have occurred in the house after the purchase Kent Shaffer worked with us to troubleshoot and resolve them.

Kent did this because he believes in and takes great pride in the quality of his work.  He helped us without charging us for his time.  We paid the handyman directly for small repairs.  There was an issue with venting in the attic and he had the roofer come out and correct the problem without charge.  I would recommend Kent for any home building or remodeling project.

 His work is high quality and his work ethic and professionalism is inpecable.   His subcontractors are great to work with and know that Kent has high expectations they have to meet.  His trim carpenters are great! We had built-in's added in several rooms and they turned out as envisioned.  We can't say enough about Kent's quality and professionalism. We would go to him for any further work.

We provided the plans to Kent, in about a week, he came up with an all inclusive price.  We spent about a week negotiating nits on his standard contract which he was very flexible about.  Once the contract was signed, we were given a 7 month build timeline from the point when ground was broken.  I believe that they started digging the basement on November 11, 2010.  There are a number of little things that Kent did to ensure the best possible experience for the homeowner.  For example, since our house was framed in the winter, there would normally be a propensity for the floors to expand when the weather was warmer which might create squeaky floors.  Kent upgraded the flooring materials on his own dime to prevent this problem from occuring.  We also had to redesign the master bathroom after it was framed as we noticed the door configuration on the plan did not work with actual usage.  We reframed the bathroom 3 times, Kent just passed the cost on to us instead of including a markup.  Kent had suggested vendors for various items like flooring, lighting, counters, but he was very flexible with any vendor we chose, even if not on his list.  Additionally, we had a pool house built and we had to coordinate the pool builder with Kent and he worked around the cast of characters with minimal input required from us.  We moved in almost exactly 7 months after the basement was dug as contracted, despite having some unforseeable bumps along the way.  Once we were moved in, Kent has never stopped being responsive to anything that comes up that may or may not be tied to the homebuilding process.  Overall, Kent Shaffer has been a pleasure to work with, a down to earth guy that is really trustworthy and reasonable.  We would wholeheartedly recommend Kent Shaffer to anyone looking to build a new home!

I've worked with him in the past & he sees issues through to completion. He doesn't just walk away after he gets paid - if there are any problems he corrects them. His punctuality has also really improved since I first started working with him.

KSB stayed on schedule and delivered what was promised, all the while keeping us informed. Words to describe KSB based on our experiences: value, integrity, professional, quality, safety and neighborly. We were impressed with KSB among sub-contractors.