About Steiner Homes, Serving Northwest Indiana

our team, here for you

our team, here for you

The construction of a home consists of many parts that equal the whole. An unorganized and careless approach can lead to nightmarish experience ending in a house with much to be desired. From the initial phases of your custom designs, through each unique selection, from day one of breaking ground to the final days of receiving the keys to your dream, Steiner Homes is here to serve as your chauffeur through the difficult course of the home-building process.

Sales Process

Meet with one of our Housing Specialists who will enjoy meeting with you to qualify your needs. This is the beginning of the sales process, and we want to clearly understand what is important to our customers in the selection of their home and lot.
Review Steiner Homes floor plans, we have many unique floor plans of our own, offering ranch, master-on-the-main, and 2-story designs. We will also build a custom floor plan that our customers bring to us.
Tour some of our homes, one of the favorite parts of our sales process! Visit our model and spec homes and enjoy the terrific standards and features that we offer in our homes.
Visit subdivisions and review potential lots, we have excellent relationships with developers all over Lake and Porter County in Northwest Indiana, and we can assist you in evaluating potential home sites or the one that you bring to us.
Meet with one of our partner banks, there are a number of banking institutions and mortgage brokers which we partner with that offer terrific service and professionalism.
Explore our website, you will be amazed at the amount of information offered on our website! You can down-load floor plans, get pricing, view pictures through a slide show, contact us, and much more.

Select a home that matches your lifestyle, whether it is one of our floor plans or your custom plan, we will focus on your lifestyle and the way that you live.
Choose a home site, select the home site, in the subdivision and city that you will call home.
Personalize your Steiner Homes floor plan, you can make some room size adjustments to our standard plans, add a third-car garage bay, or modify the front elevation. We do all of our design and CAD work in-house, so we can efficiently fine-tune your home to your needs.
Review additional options, we are proud of the standard features that we offer, but if you want to add more hardwood flooring, finished basement space, or special features to your new home, we will provide you with the options and pricing necessary.

Meet to review our contract in detail, our Director of Sales, David Gring, will review your contract, answering any questions, and outlining the building process to follow.
Obtain pre-approval letter from your bank, we require a pre-approval bank letter, outlining the specifics of your loan and the date.
Approve your contract, submit copy of pre-approval letter, and provide 10% down-payment – these three items are necessary to commence the building process.
Take copy of contract to your bank to obtain commitment letter, the commitment letter confirms the final amount of the loan, terms, and dates. Your financial institution can efficiently produce the commitment letter after approving the contract.

Building Process

This may be the most critical of all steps in the process, but for us, it’s also the most fun! Everyone’s wants and desires differ, and it is absolutely crucial to find out yours in order to arrive at our final destination, the home of your dreams! This is where we decide on a plan and tailor it to fit you. This could mean a room that needs to be a bit bigger or a ceiling that needs to become a trey or cathedral. Would you like a covered deck? How about a open living room turned into a office with beautiful French doors? This is where all of these questions are answered… and the creation of your dream begins.

During this phase, many things are happening behind the scenes in order for day one of construction to begin. Steiner Homes begins work your revised designs, land survey and home placement, subdivision developer and town approval of your home design, and working with you on initial home selections that will be needed earliest in construction, such as your tubs and showers and exterior colors for roofing, siding, brick and stone. The planning phase with initial selection process usually takes one month and overlaps with Step 3, Excavation.

The third phase marks the beginning of actual construction. During excavation, we break ground and dig out the site of your home. The phase includes the foundation, underground plumbing, and interior flooring of your home. While this phase is underway, usually taking three weeks, the initial selections started in step 2 are decided and ordered. Our second selections meeting begins approximately half-way through this timeframe, which consists of electrical and plumbing selections. We will go over each one, deciding items such as telephone and cable placement, exterior hose bib locations, and plumbing fixtures, just to name a few.

The fourth phase of our process turns your plans on paper into the beginnings of reality. Your house will take full shape, as all interior and exterior walls and roof are formed. While this 3-4 week process occurs, we finish the second selection meeting and begin the third and final one. This consists of all interior selections such as flooring, cabinetry and lighting. This final selection process, usually broken into two meetings, take place near the beginning of framing and is decided near the end of this step.

The fifth phase marks the beginning of the exterior finishes and interior mechanical rough-ins. Exterior finishes begin with roofing, and continue with siding, brick, stone and exterior concrete. This entire exterior process takes anywhere from 4-8 weeks, overlapping with the next few steps, and is very weather dependent. The interior mechanical rough-ins, which include HVAC, plumbing and electrical typically take 1-2 weeks and end with an inspection period before the walls are covered.

The sixth phase, lasting approximately 3-4 weeks, begins with the complete insulation and drywall of your home. Once this is complete, the house is cleaned and all walls and ceilings are primed. This phase ends with all hard surface (wood and tile) flooring and wall tile installed and protected.

The seventh phase marks the true beginning of a glimpse into what your future holds. Cabinetry and base is installed, doors and windows are cased, and stairways, columns and lockers are created. The beauty of the woodwork begins to show the gorgeous look your home will soon possess. This process typically takes 2 weeks and marks the beginning of the end of final construction.

The home stretch… excuse the pun! The last phase of construction, usually 3 weeks, sees the final touches, including final coating of paint and stain, installation of all finish hardware including doorknobs, mirrors, and cabinet pulls, and the final installation of all HVAC and electrical trim as well as all plumbing fixtures. Finally, carpet is laid, closet shelving is installed and professional cleaning occurs.

Once construction is complete, we walk your home and develop our final punch list prior to our completion. This is our final quality control inspection and your home checked carefully using a checklist of over 300 items! After this checklist is complete and the final punch list is made, we conduct a tour with our clients and introduce their new home!

When you decide to build a house, you want to work with a home builder that cares as much as you do about making it the perfect fit for you family.

As one of Northwest Indiana’s premier custom home builders, Steiner Homes brings decades of experience, a wealth of industry knowledge, and a mass of creativity to the table to help you design the perfect home. Owner and President Dan Steiner got into home building over 43 years ago. He worked with his Swedish father-in-law, who learned the business from his father. Now Steiner, his wife, four of his children and his son-in-law are part of the business, carrying on the work ethic and high standards that have brought high quality homes to Northwest Indiana for over four decades.

“People know our product and identify it and know we put extra thought and time into it,” said Steiner. “We’ve got a distinct look that people have come to know.” Though the style is recognizable, Steiner said that when he and his wife went into business on their own, they decided they didn’t want to build “cookie cutter” houses. Steiner and his family team work with buyers to make sure that the details are to their taste and the designs meet their needs. “We sit down with them and design the house in front of them instead of telling them they have to do this or that,” said Steiner. “We focus on making it affordable, but a really cool house.”

Two of Steiner’s sons are proficient in Auto CAD design and can do design remotely on a big screen for clients to view. “There are new things coming on the market, so we try to stay fresh and current, but make it affordable” said Steiner. We know you have your choice of custom home builders, so we try our best to offer industry leading technology and service. “Sitting down and hearing what clients want and putting that into a house really means a lot to people.” Each of the home designs is named for one of the Steiner grandchildren or kids of employees in the company, among them the Benjamin, a 1,700-square-foot ranch; the Emma, a master-on-the-main available in various sizes; and the Charlie, a two-story, four-bedroom, 2,550-square-foot home. You’ll find Steiner homes in several subdivisions in Lake, Porter and LaPorte Counties. Deer Ridge South in Crown Point, the Preserve and Sand Creek in Chesterton, West Lakes in Munster, Hawthorne North in Valparaiso and Marina Shores in Portage are just a few of the subdivisions.

Steiner noted that now is a good time to move to Northwest Indiana as the housing market is seeing large numbers of transplants from the Chicago area. “We’re getting a flood of people,” he said. “The interest rates are really good. The taxes are lower. The sooner you buy, the better since prices keep going up. There are a lot of good reasons to buy now versus waiting a year.” As with any business in this time, Steiner Homes is taking all necessary health and safety precautions while still providing full custom home-building services. Model homes are open on weekends and available for viewing by appointment during the week. The Eleanor model in Hawthorne North (Valparaiso) and the Gretchen model in The Preserve (Chesterton) are open from 1-4 p.m. on weekends. Social distancing is being practiced at open houses and when meeting with clients, sanitizing procedures are in place and hand sanitizer is available. Steiner Homes is open and operating during the pandemic to make your home-building dreams come true. Contact Steiner Homes today to learn more or to get in touch with our custom home builder team! When you’re ready to start your dream home, Steiner will be there every step of the way!