Marrokal Design & Remodeling

Took far longer than promised and any additional work after the contract was signed was very expensive. Quite often no one was on the job. The job took 6 months and they were here only 68% of the time. They were busy working on other jobs and left us in limbo waiting for them to return. Make sure you write a penalty clause in the contract for when they go over schedule! Watch out for their AWA's (Addition Work Authorizations), that's where they get you.

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The service was great. They were very responsible and communicative. We did have some problems with the sub contractors but they took care of all of our problems. They cleaned up well and we are pleased with the work.

Fantastic job.

Great!

Went through several design modifications working with kitchen/bath design team and interior designers before deciding to knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, it was a good decision.  They made several trips to the house to evaluate the new layouts and plans before finalizing the design.
Contractor supervisor was always on the job and kept in constant contact with me; subcontractors (electrical, plumbing, flooring, tile, painting, trim finishing) were all excellent and very personable.  Did not hesitate to re-do something if it did not measure up, and they did it without my asking.  For example, when adding a tile accent strip to the steam shower they discovered the placement of the shower controls by the plumber came into the accent tile strip location.  They stopped, opened up the wall again, brought the plumber back to relocate the shower fixtures, resealed the wall and finished the tile.  they did this without my asking them  to, the job supervisor and tile folks did this on their own.
I lived in house while vconstruction was underway.  They blocked off work areas to minimize dust and worked with me to minimize impact on my staying in the house.
Excellent follow through on all aspects of project. Projecf took 4-5 months and was well worth the time and money.  I knew they were high end, but so many friends have horror stories of working with contractors, I felt this was a good way to go.  I was not disappointed and would recommend them to anyone and use them again.
Marrokal works as a team and integration of company, design, subcontractors and supporting folks was excellent.  They made it look easy, but it was a very complex job.  After watching all the TV shows on remodel doing it yourself and seeing them in action I now realize what is left out on those TV shows.  The TV shows make it look easy, but in actuality it is like juggling five chain saws.
 
Getting Marrokal was the best decision I ever made in doing a project of this scope and magnitude.

Being in the military, we have lived in lots of houses and have done work on all of them, but this was the best and least stressful of any of the jobs we have encountered.

It went okay but we were constantly making lists for corrections to the various sub contractors' work. If you are dealing with any room addition or work where sub contractors are involved, you need to have a good project manager who is aware of what needs to be done.We had a nice guy but he needed a lot of coaching to get the job done correctly. We felt like we were telling him what needed to be done and thus working for them instead of the other way around.

It took them approximately four months.  It was a huge job.  I didn't have any problems with them.  They were totally professional across the board.  They were definitely an A-rated company.

Please enter any additional comments you would like to add to your report: We were quite happy with their work.  They were actually done 2 weeks early!  Any problem was resolved immediately.

They were spectacular and did beautiful work. They were superior. I can not say enough good things about this provider.  They were a little more expensive but I feel we got our moneys worth. I have recommended them to a lot of my neighbors and they have used their services.

They are a wonderful company. They were very customer focused and wanted to make sure we were pleased throughout the process. Every one was very congeal and bent over backwards to ensure we were pleased. We have recommended them to several people and will continue to recommend their services.  They had a project manager working closely to ensure they were on budget.  If we have any problems with the home or questions, they will come out right away to address them.

We felt that certain aspects of the company worked very well for us.  Great Project Manager who listened and addressed our concerns.  Very good Architectural services, again understanding our needs.  Almost all of Marrokal's  subs were excellent.  Work was done quickly and professionally.  Two years out from the project we still appreciate the quality of their workmanship with two exceptions.  First was the tile contractors sloppy work that has not held up as it should (regrouting shouldn't be an issue 2 yrs. out).  Second, the quality of the paint.  The painters were excellent but the actual quality of the paint seems to be the problem.  The paint doesn't clean off, after 2 years it still sticks of flat surfaces like shelves. 

We felt our hands were tied in terms of understanding the budget for this job.  While we knew (and approved) the bottom line figure we never saw a breakdown of each part.  When we wanted to make changes it took days to get an answer about what we'd be saving if we cut "x" and put the budget toward "y".  For that reason we would prefer to deal with one contractor and have the itemized budget as part of our working arrangement in any future work we do.  

Marrokal is a great company if you have no experience in building or remodeling and do not plan to be involved in the project.  They will professionally take care of it all for you.  Just be aware that they will rush you through the plan phase and press you to make the commitment so do your due diligence carefully.  This is a big company where you interact with different people for different things.

From the first meeting with the designer to the final walk through, Marrokal was a pleasure to work with.  They were on time, professional, and cleaned up each day before they left.  They gave wonderful suggestions but more importantly, they listened to what I wanted.  Having dealt with another local company for an earlier remodel and having an awful experience, I was a little leery of being "burned" again.  Those fears were quickly put to rest by everyone I came in contact with at Marrokal.   I would recommend them to everyone.  LOVED them.

They were the lead contractors on the work. However, there was a contract on the work that they provided and there were subcontractors as well. It was a very positive experience with them. The response of the company stood out to me. The supervisor took care of the things and it worked perfectly. We lived in the house when the work was being done and they did a great job. It was very overwhelming but at that point of time I could not have expected anything to have gone better. There were no problems that occurred that weren’t dealt with immediately. They did the work in a very responsive way for as much work as was being done. I was very happy with their price. It has been six months and we have not had any problems. Everything has gone well in the past six months and it has been good so far.  

 Our goal was to take an old kitchen (probably last updated in the 40's) without electrical wiring to fit today's needs, limited counter space and very little usable storage and morph it into something that retained the historical integrity but was functional for modern day use.

Marrokal came up with two design options for us to consider and we were very involved in all the aspects of the project (perhaps, more than they would have cared for).  We had some specific ideas about design and how we would use the kitchen and they worked to incorporate our needs and desires into the design.

The project included ripping out a wall to open the kitchen to the dining room, adding additional foundation supports, redoing all the electrical and plumbing and making a replacing the existing dining room French doors going to the backyard.

We were budget conscious, so we offered to do some work ourselves, but due to their warranty, they weren't really excited about that.  We ended up only doing insulation installation and painting.  We also lived in the house during the project which as anyone will tell you, is hellish.

One note - because the house is historic, we had to go through San Diego's Historical Resource Board's review which was very problematic and time consuming.  The original design was something City refused to approve and Marrokal had to go back and revise the plans to meet the historic guidelines.

Most of their subcontractors were great.  The plumbing sub was honest, on time and professional.  Their drywall team was amazing - they were fast, professional and did better than I expected in matching the new drywall texture to the old lath and plaster texture.  Unless you know where one ends and the other begins, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  Their electrical guy, though surly and always trying to find ways to charge more money, did a great job. Their cabinet builder did an amazing job creating custom cabinets to match the space required in our oddly shaped kitchen, making sure we didn't lose any space.  And the cabinet opening for the oven, it fits like a glove!  The counter fabricator team came out to take templates for the Ceasarstone counter and installed our farmers sink perfectly into the counter.

The stucco guys not quite as good.  The work eventually got finished correctly, but only after they would show up at 6:30 am and start hammering (p****** off the neighbors), then when we called them on working before the legally allowed time they drove off honking their horn and peeling away.  They started work before the Marrokal project manger told them to, and improperly measured the wire for the stucco and wanted to cut window screens down to size to fit rather than correct their error -- all after they were told not to start the project yet.  When they did the final coat, they left out huge chunks of the stucco and had to come back two times to get it right. (In my opinion, it was either just a total lack of attention to detail, cutting corners or laziness.)

Our project was estimated to take 3 months, and ended up taking almost 7.  Some of this was their fault, some of it was the hold up with Historical reviews and some of it was our delay.  (In fairness, to "save" money, we bought windows and doors ourselves to avoid a markup on cost from Marrokal.  Unfortunately, some of the measurements were wrong on the plans so the windows purchased were smaller than what they should have been.  For the doors - well, those were a disaster.  Some how, the company we got the doors and windows from to "save us money" ordered doors that were 6' 4" doors instead of a standard 6' 8" -- so there was a lengthy delay while they were reordered (and yes, any money savings disappeared when we had to reorder new doors).  Marrokal wasn't really helpful in this process as they seemed to have a "we didn't order it" type perspective.

One of my few complaints was that in the initial estimate process, I was asking for how many lights, electrical outlets etc were included and we were told that would be covered at the "dusty shoe" walk through (after the whole estimate/proposal is finished and signed off on).  We could never get a commitment on how many of what was included and of course, when we started asking for outlets or lights in certain spots, suddenly change orders starting coming up.  Just keep in mind - aside from things that go in the walls/ceilings, you'll pay for all the lighting figures and stuff and you need to incorporate that into the budget.

Overall, we're very happy with the end product.  Having gone through it, we certainly know what to do differently next time on any new projects.

It went well.

This is a "stand-up" company that does top quality work. They will take you from the very beginning design to the very end construction of your remodeling project. We would no hesitate to recommend him.

I bought a standard tract home last fall and knew I wanted to re-do the kitchen immediately. And I did not want to serve as my own general contractor. I did get one other bid for the total job, but that plan would have basically just replaced everything in the same configuration. Marrakol stresses that it is a design firm, and the designers did find ways to increase the storage space significantly, which was important to me. They added some other features that make the kitchen more attractive as well and their designer made suggestions for refacing the fireplace in the family room part of the room that made it match the rest of the space. The people from Marrakol have all been professional and nice to work with. The trades people they brought in as subcontractors were great. I was told by some of them that there is a lot of competition to get subcontracting jobs with Marrakol because they are a good firm with which to work. I lived in the house during the process, which was stressful, but they made it as easy as possible. They go "by the book" in terms of permits. No cutting corners. It cost me more than I was planning to spend, partly because I did not pay enough attention to the fact that some things were not included in the contract (such as floors and some light fixtures, etc. that I had assumed would be), and partly because I kept agreeing to ideas the designers suggested that increased costs. But I liked the ideas. Marrakol does charge up-front for design work. If you sign with them, then that is deducted from the over-all cost. But if you are not serious about using them, then that is a cost consideration. If you just want to replace cabinets and appliances, you could probably get it done less expensively with another contractor. However, once the price was agreed upon, there have no cost over-runs or things like that. They came in on time and on budget. All little details have been taken care of. I would recommend them.

Extremely professional, good quality and attention to detail. Very responsive and supportive. We're very pleased.

Very professional and attentive to our needs. Completed project 6 weeks before projected date. We love our remodel.

We feel that there allowance should be better explained such as materials and quality. Also feel that some of there sub-contractors should be re-evaluated. We still do and will recommend them to anyone, these are just some suggestions we feel should be addressed. We also would like to mention that George the mgr. of this project was wonderful, this project has some challenges and he was very professional and patient. Also we would like to thank Kelly (designer) for all the beautiful ideas and creations, she really knew my taste and everything you recommend blended really well.

1st part of a major fixer upper designed and built by Marrokal resulted in work wonderfully above my all ready high expectations. My project manager, Mark Gaus, was key to my high satisfaction. Always attentive to my renovation, he provided me with easy to digest information on the work to be done, options to consider to improve cost effectiveness, functionality and aesthetics even beyond what was initially planned, resulting in my great satisfaction in the 1st half and eager to persue the remaining house renovation without delay.

We were very impressed with the design for our new facade, it was way beyond our expectations, but encompassed everything we really wanted. Our designer really listened to us and who we are and incorporated a lot of great details we never would have thought of. We were very involved in the whole design process and it went relatively smoothly. The actual work did start a month late due to a hold-up on some permits, but they took care of everything so we didn't have to worry. All of their subcontractors were very professional, friendly, and did not leave any giant messes. The one problem we had was with the interior designer, who did not seem to listen to us at all, and did not tell us that a lot of the items she picked out for us were upgrades with additional charges. We did sort this out later without getting over charged in the end. Our project manager was especially helpful, attentive, friendly, and communicative. There were a few more delays once the process started, but we expected this from the beginning. In the end, our house looks absolutely beautiful and we are extremely pleased with the work done by Marrokal. We do plan to use them again in the future for additional remodeling.

They did everything just the way we wanted it. They were very professional and they knew what they were doing. We had no problems with them what so ever throughout the whole process.