Critchfield Construction, Inc.

We would strongly recommend AGAINST working with Critchfield. I should point out that they have a sister company, Los Gatos Remodeler, which will become relevant in the points below. 1. They created a Google calendar, which was great, and kept it up to date ? until the last few months when things really slowed down. Then they stopped updating the calendar, stopped responding to our emails in a timely fashion, and then suddenly deleted the calendar. Then they moved to an in-house calendar system which held the data on their sister site, including messages, rather than previously allowing us direct email. 2. In the beginning they asked for payment as reasonable times, such as when 50% or 100% of certain trades or portions of the house were complete, per the contract payment schedule. However, near the last third of the project, they started requesting payments too early, e.g., the remaining half of the flooring payment even though flooring was nowhere near complete. 3. The contract had a penalty clause whereby they?d pay us for additional time they took to complete our project. They requested a change order to extend the period to avoid the penalty, despite the fact that most of the delays were their fault, and threatened to stop work if we didn?t sign to agree to such a change order. This seemed like a breach of contract. 4. Very slow to haul away large piles of debris. 5. Example A of avoidable mistakes: Installed the shower pan incorrectly. This confused so many subcontractors (the plumber, drywall installers, shower installers as well as the tile installer), that it caused yet more delays. 6. Example B of avoidable mistakes: Not leveling the kitchen subfloor, a requirement for the material we chose, even after several inquiries. The flooring installer showed up with the materials he had ordered for us, but had to leave because the subfloor had NOT BEEN FIXED. He was frustrated to the point where he asked us whether or not he was supposed to do the work. (We told him yes, and once again repeated the cycle of requesting the subfloor work from Critchfield and rescheduling the floor subcontractor.) 7. Bad-mouthing other contractors. We asked about going with a different roofer, and they ?advised? us not to use them because of apparent issues with not having a valid license, and supposedly being in and out of business. We checked the records at the Contractors State Licensing Board, and found that the roofer had valid licenses and bonding. In addition, we had excellent references from both Angie?s List and friends who worked with them ? contrary to what the people at Critchfield claimed. Spreading rumors and lies is downright unprofessional. 8. The owner Ricky Critchfield never visited our site ? until we needed to resolve points (2) and (3). Then he came over, and we negotiated: he honored what was agreed upon over email, didn?t delay construction any further, and gave us some credit for the time-over-projected-schedule. But wow, to have to wait that long (the project was 85% to 90% done at that point) to actually show up at our house merely exhibited where his priorities were not. 9. The stucco work by men hired by Critchfield failed to match the existing stucco style. They also dumped excess concrete into holes in our garden, rather than hauling it off. 10. The handymen Critchfield hired utterly failed to install the oven. We ended up doing that ourselves.

We are in the process of moving. They have been fabulous. They are working on the deck right now. There were very prompt in responding to our call. They actually started the work within the week. They have been here on every single day. The workmen are the most courteous and polite gentlemen that we have ever worked with. We are absolutely thrilled with them. We have had some duds.

Since the project involved the structural soundness of my house, I wanted to make sure it would be done right. And it pretty much is. I had cheaper bids, but my structural engineer had specified particular techniques and products, and some contractors didn't seem familiar with them. A year later, everything looks good and is performing as expected. But this company was not easy or pleasant to work with. For example, they gave me problems about reinstalling my sump pump, which they had to temporarily move to do the work. It worked fine before they began, but they claimed it was missing some parts and that I had to pay them for the parts. They also had to demolish a side porch in order to do the work, and the contract included rebuilding it, but they argued with me about the dimensions and tried to charge me extra. We were only talking about a couple of feet. In the end, I told them I would rather get someone else to rebuild it, but they still made me pay the full amount of the contract. The plumbing subcontractor actually turned off the pilot light on my furnace without shutting off the gas to it, and I came home to a house full of gas--fortunately it was summer and we had all of the windows open. They acted like this was no big deal.

Ricky Critchfield is an excellent salesman with a great story for how wonderful things will be. The execution, however, left much to be desired. The contract for the construction was reasonably priced, but there was no way for us to know that there were many necessary details that were not included in the contract that we had to pay for as change orders. Those changes were for such necessary items as insulation. The change orders seemed quite high in price, and there was no transparency as to how the price was arrived at. It was either take it or leave it, and leaving out these items wasn't a realistic option. In one case Critchfield bid a large work item (cabinetry) at what we believed to be a reasonable price, and we accepted, but he later withdrew the bid. We learned later than Critchfield basically bid out the work in these change orders and multiplied his price by between about 35% and 100%. That would almost be understandable if there were competent supervision of the job. There wasn't. There were many small and large errors made on the job, and in many cases Critchfield wanted us to either modify our plans to incorporate their error or pay for them to fix their errors. Construction would grind to a complete halt until we could negotiate a resolution. In many cases Critchfield's errors were blamed on subcontractors, resulting in very poor relations between Critchfield's staff and his subcontractors. The most compelling and beautiful features of our house were done entirely by contractors that we had to hire ourselves because Critchfield did not have contacts capable of doing the work. And yet they had a photographer take photos of those areas to be used as part of Critchfield's (and Ricky Critchfield's other company's) portfolio. Critchfield was quick to bill, often in advance of work being done, and slow to actually get the work done. Once he was paid for an item, he considered it finished until proven otherwise. The most egregious example of this followed Critchfield getting city sign-off of the occupancy permit for the house. At that point we were billed for the full remaining value of the contract, even though many of the finish items had not been done. Although we were told that there was only a week's worth of work left, it took us about two years of cajoling and threatening to get the work completed. I would not recommend or use Ricky Critchfield for future work.