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 "designer" really didn't listen to what we wanted and we ended up not really getting what we wanted, we got what he wanted to give us. I felt very rushed into choosing standard fixtures when I was looking for something a little more custom. (you'd think, paying that much, we could get what we wanted, but not really)

Some items are still not done (Fireplace) and not done correctly (deck, see PIX)

and overall I really wish we had not done this- or, rather, I wish we had chosen a company that cared about us rather than just getting those regular checks into their pocket according to their schedule. My brother chose Lars construction and was quite happy with their work.

I think the job was just barely adequate -but for the money I feel I should have gotten exactly what I wanted. All I got was disappointed.

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.

looks fairly good.

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.

They did exactly what they said they would. They even tried to finish the project early for our road trip to my daughter’s wedding at the east coast. They did not finish before we left and they told us not to worry. They reassured us that they would call if they had any problems. We even extended our trip because we were confident in their abilities.  When we returned the project was complete.  I was ready to start phase two but they were not and se did the work on our own. However, they did a fabulous job and completed the work on time. Majority of the people were very nice. I did complain about a sub-contractor and he no longer works for this provider. I took it to the supervisor and the supervisor took the issue to his manager. The job supervisor was wonderful throughout the process and very knowledgeable. He was on top of it throughout the entire process and fixed anything if needed. They left no mess behind and cleaned up well. They even offered to come the next day after I called for the initial estimate. They picked good people and we were quite pleased with the work.

They were wonderful.. The experience was excellent. I have a chemical condition and everyone was very considerate. They were mindful with the materials and concerned about what to use because of my condition. They stand by their work and that is why they are excellent.

They went above and beyond with courtesy and friendliness. They never left a mess behind.  Everything was clean as it first was when they started.  You do not have to worry about the house getting dirty because they had it covered and secured so well.  They were neat as could be. The process was phenomenal and I was happy with the service.

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.

We provided our budget parameters to the design consultant/salesperson, who subsequently invited us in to review the architectural plan for which we had paid $1,500. During our first meeting at Marrokal's offices, we were presented plans that were approximately 20% more than our stated budget. At our second meeting, the design consultant showed us revised plans that met the higher end of our budget. The design consultant then employed a pressure sales tactic. He presented an extremely detailed, multi-page agreement to us, spelling out the work to done. We asked to take the agreement home to review it more carefully and were told that we could not take the agreement from their office. We were told that we would have to read and sign it in their office. We also asked to see a proposed budget cost breakdown, which they refused to provide.  Based on Marrokal's purported reputation and their A+ rating with the BBB of San Diego, we reluctantly agreed to initial each section and sign the proposed agreement in their office. We also gave them a $1,000 construction deposit.Their construction proposal included estimated material costs that Marrokal would be responsible for as well as the owner's estimated budget costs for necessary materials. During the meeting when we initialed/signed the proposed agreement, the design consultant was adamant that the document could not be finalized until it was reviewed and signed by an officer of the company. We then went shopping for the materials required for us to purchase, only to discover that all of Marrokal's cost estimates for same were ridiculously low and misleading.  By that point, we realized that, while they planned to demo our bathroom floor, they had not included the cost to install a new one despite our having discussed the floor tile material and pattern with them! That led to several other similar discoveries of costly, yet completely unnecessary work and further omissions in their proposed agreement. We tried to resolve our issues with Marrokal first by phone, then via emails. Fortunately for us, after six weeks, Marrokal had still not provided a fully signed and executed agreement. Realizing that he had not provided a fully executed agreement, the design consultant tried to get us back into their offices "so we could work things out," but we knew their intent was to then hand us a fully executed agreement, which would have legally bound us, completely eliminating our ability to negotiate a realistic, proper proposal. We refused to come to their offices and told them that the issues could just as easily be discussed over the phone. After a series of emails to the salesperson and COO noting our issues, all we received was an evasive email from Marrokal's COO that we would receive her response to our numerous emails by US Mail.  She did not even have the courtesy to contact us by phone to personally understand the situation. Instead, the COO attempted to deliver the signed/fully executed agreement to us by certified mail. We refused to sign for the certified mail delivery, since we suspected that, instead of returning our $1,000 construction deposit as we had requested, they were actually trying to get us legally bound by finally providing the fully executed documents. Absurdly enough, Marrokal told us that in order to receive our $1,000 deposit we were expected to accept their fully executed contract !?! As a result, we were compelled to file a formal complaint with the BBB, not only to receive our $1,000 deposit, but to attempt to protect other people from experiencing what we went through -- potentially at a point where they did not figure out the scam until their agreement was fully executed and binding. This company lacks honesty, ethics and integrity.  We strongly recommend not even considering Marrokal, despite their design reputation and A+ rating.

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.