Freewalt Builders Inc
Serving Rockport, AR and surrounding areas
In business since 1980
Free estimates
Emergency services offered
"What a project. I live in an OLD late 1800s brick masonry home. The home went through a major gut renovation back in the 70s by a previous owner. Before I bought the place a few years ago, it had sat empty for several years, so several things were in disrepair, and it had sustained some damage due to a leaking roof and such.
Contacted Art during Fall of 2014, with agreement to start the work about mid February 2015. I won't get into estimates vs actual, because in all honesty, once the project started I began having them do stuff that I hadn't originally mentioned during the estimation phase.
Mid february arrived and they were ready to roll, but some delays started happening due to late season snow storms. His crew had to travel from Hot Springs to downtown Little Rock every day. Art was very good about communicating days that he could and couldn't get there.
Jason and Blake were the main tradesmen on the job. They did all demo, framing, flooring, structural support, painting, sanding/staining, mortar tucking, and some tiling. Great to work with. Very trustworthy, respectful, and polite. Gave them keys so they could come and go as needed. Communicated very well and were always reachable. I was able to communicate with them directly so Art didn't always have to be a middle man. They did great work and cleaned up messes every day. This was nice because my fiancee and I were living in the house while all of this was going on.
Josh and John were the main guys working on the bathroom and plumbing. Bathroom layout was completely redone. They laid new plumbing for vanity, toilet, and shower. Custom work on almost all of it. Josh was the tile man...custom tile shower pan and walls, and about 75sqft of floored tile. Josh and John were as equally pleasurable to work with as Jason and Blake.
All the guys had to suffer through me trying to communicate my end vision, which wasn't always clear. This also involved me changing my mind on things a few times, which also caused them to do some re-work. They were very respectful of this, and all were willing to take things day-by-day as decisions needed to be made.
Of course, a project this big can't go perfectly. Overall, it took a bit longer than anticipated. Some of this was self-inflicted by my adding of work or asking for something to be redone. On Art's side, some delays occurred waiting for certain materials that had to be ordered. Also, I think Art got himself spread pretty thin at some point, so there were some gaps in work time that the guys couldn't show. A few other tradesmen came and went throughout the job to help keep progress going, but sometimes this could lead to a little confusion as to what would be getting worked on each day and who would be responsible for what. At one point Art assigned a new tradesman that spent a few days working at the house solo. I wound up having a couple of issues with this individual. I brought these issues to Art's attention and he immediately took care of them by removing this individual from the job and having some of the individual's work repaired on Art's dime. All other tradesmen I had a good experience with.
Art is old school. Don't expect emails and digital copies of bills / receipts for materials. I never had to pay for anything in advance. He would bill me weekly as work was completed. Because he had so many jobs going on and because my job was not "local" for him, there were a few times where we did not get to connect, which meant that I would have two or more weeks worth of invoices to pay when we would finally get to connect. This could sometimes make it difficult to keep tabs on which guys worked what week and about how many hours they were putting in total from a labor perspective. Could also make it difficult to wade through receipts for materials and match them up with which invoice they were charged on. In the end, I trusted that Art and his guys were being honest and had my best interest in mind, as keeping track of all the expenses and paperwork became too cumbersome at some point. If I ever had questions about an invoice, Art was easy to talk to about it.
In the end, I was very pleased overall, and I will definitely use Art again for some upcoming projects. He's one of the few contractors who will always call you back. The majority of his tradesmen did great work and were a pleasure to deal with. I'm just now getting to move everything back into the remodeled spaces, so I have yet to see how all of the new walls, floors, tile, and bath fixtures hold up with every day use, but I know that Art's a good man and will fix anything that might pop up. So far so good.
"
+6
Recommended by92%of homeowners
