Stewart Remodeling

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I was very pleased with Tom and Darrin in the design and recommendations for constructing a new deck at my home.  Their attention to detail and price were the real clincher in hiring Stewart Remodeling.  They handled all of the permits, and were very attentive in what I was looking for and assisting in designing a fantastic deck.
Initially I was very pleased with the entire process and finished product.  Then several months after the install I noticed warping in the deck.  Stewart Remodeling did send another crew to repair the deck and do stand behind their work.  I did have to pay an additional $400 for the repair work.  I've also had to have several repairs on one piece of decking which has came loose every year since the deck was built.
Overall I'm happy with the deck, not thrilled about the repairs needed so soon after construction or the extra money spent on those repairs.

Couldn't ask for a better job.  Prompt and courteous.  Cleaned up well after the job.
Tom was able to save us some $$ due to the fact that he already had a dumpster in the neighborhood for another job.
We've worked with Tom before and he is top notch.  Professional and very honest.
Highly recommended!!!!

The workmanship is excellent and the communication was average. The end result was really quite excellent though.

We worked with Russ, who was great.  We got quotes from a variety of kitchen remodelers, some full-service, others more al a carte.  I rated Stewart Remodeling a "B" for price but that applies only when comparing to more do-it-yourself options.  When we compared them to other "design-build" contractors they were very competitive.  We are very happy we went this route, by the way; there are a lot of nuances and details in a kitchen and we wanted things done right, not necessarily cheaply.
Russ was able to find a very close match to our existing living room hardwood floors, and had some good suggestions for a kitchen layout.  Stewart Remodeling also has an interior designer on staff that helped us with some of our material choices.  Russ also recommended which types of drawers/doors/accessories to use in various locations.  Stewart uses Kraftmaid cabinetry--they seem to be a mid to upper range cabinet company.  Kraftmaid is sold at big box hardware stores but they tailor different product lines to different places to it's not a one to one comparison.  All cabinets came standard with the fancy soft close drawers and doors, dovetail joints, and generally the quality seems to be quite good.  One "issue" we had was that Stewart had recently switched to using Kraftmaid and didn't have any door samples.  We selected our doors based on a catalog picture and unfortunately didn't notice some detailing in the doors until they showed up at our house.  It turns out we're happy with the cabinets, but it would have been nice to see an actual door sample before ordering, since once they show up the only way to get different doors is to repurchase them.  We went with "honey spice" stained maple, which we absolutely love.  
We weren't living in our house yet, so the demolition and remodeling work didn't have too much impact on us.  For the most part, Stewart's crews cleaned up well and there was very minimal damage to the walls and doorways that saw the most construction traffic.  We definitely trusted Russ and most of his crews in our house, although a few times we'd head over to inspect the progress and find an unlocked door.  One of Stewart's selected vendors, the drywall guy, did good work but made a huge stink afterwards about not getting paid--he gave us a little scare by sending us a threatening letter.  It turns out he was not a very stable guy and he did finally receive payment in the mail, but it would have been nice if this silliness was entirely hidden from us.  There was a bit of drywall damage when the countertops came in, and some holes made by the electricians, but this was all taken care of by Russ' team.
Russ provided a schedule early on in the project, and ended up finishing a bit early.  We moved into the house about 80% of the way through the project and Russ was very accommodating to that.  We had one change order--some of the electrical work was a little more costly than Russ estimated.  It would have been nice to have foreseen this, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect absolutely perfect estimating (I am quite sure that all of the remodeling companies we looked at would also have missed this).  With this the project exceeded our original quote by about $800.  I would recommend that anybody doing a remodel budget an extra 10% beyond the quotes they receive.
We performed the painting work ourselves, and this was worked into the schedule so we'd have a weekend to do this.  We also purchased appliances on our own per Russ' suggestion, since they would only mark the appliances up and didn't have much value to add in that respect.
Overall we are very happy with our new kitchen and how the project progressed.  We would definitely use Stewart Remodeling again--they are trustworthy, do good work, and are priced competitively as far as we could tell.  There were a few little challenges along the way but we saw these as a normal part of the construction process.

Overall, it turned out very well.
The staircase is beautiful, just what we wanted, and Russ Holler was a fabulous rep to deal with ? nice personality, no-nonsense and very communicative. Had it not been for him, in fact, we might be writing a much more negative review. His crew took more than a week longer than we were told to complete the project, and in its rush to finish even that soon, made some serious measuring and alignment mistakes in the final stages. We didn't even need to complain, though; Russ took one look at it when he arrived for a walk-through and made plans to have his guys come and rip up the problem areas ? basically, the lower third of the staircase ? and do it again.
Yes, this made the project take even longer, and we'd have been annoyed by that if we didn't wind up with such a wonderful result. It also showed that Stewart takes its work and reputation very seriously, and that we respect very much. We definitely plan to use them for several future projects we have in mind, as opposed to another company that's currently struggling to finish a much smaller job whose completion date is now weeks past due.
The only reason we gave an overall "B" is because of the initial delay and problems; otherwise, this is an A company all the way. Sure, you'd like for them not to make mistakes in the first place. But not everything works out perfectly, and it says a lot about a company that it can make the kind of mistakes it did in our case, yet still wind up with a basically glowing review like this one. Hire these guys.

Let me begin by saying that Tom Stewart, the owner of Stewart Remodeling, is a great guy to work with!  We found him to be honest, a good listener, responsive, and knowledgeable.  He operated on a ?cost-plus? basis and we found his bookkeeping to be beyond reproach.  

By and large, Tom?s sub-contractors were good folks to work with.  We did, however, experience a few problems, which resulted in downgrading the ?OVERALL Experience? rating (see above) from an ?A? to a ?B?:

1.  When the plumber installed the rough valve for the shower?s new mixer cartridge, he left (this being a Friday afternoon) without installing any kind of "blocker" (e.g. a ?filler? cartridge) in said rough valve.  Subsequently, that evening, when we attempted to use a shower in another bathroom, we could not get a reliable flow of hot water.  The unblocked rough valve the plumber had installed was allowing cross-flow between our hot and cold water pipes.  So, we were without hot water in our house until said plumber was able to rectify the situation late the afternoon of the following day.  

2.  After the drywall and tiled (interior to the shower enclosure) walls went in, the plan was to install two heavy-duty grab-rails on the interior walls of the shower enclosure.  The team had some difficulty locating the studs that were to be used to mount said grab rails, as nobody could remember where they were.  This process escape was the result of a communication breakdown.  As a result, there was an extra pilot hole drilled in the grout between tiles while said studs were being located.  

3.  At some point after the team installed our beautiful new acrylic-block exterior window, the interior of said window became contaminated by an unidentified, construction-related substance.  This ruined said window and required that said window be replaced (at no added expense to us).  It turned out that said window had been shipped with a protective coating that was subsequently removed before it should have been, thus removing any future protection against construction-related contamination events.  

4.  Upon the first attempt at laying the tile floor in our new master bath shower pan, the grout was mottled and discolored.  Said grout needed to be subsequently removed and replaced, a noisy and extremely dusty and messy job.  

5.  It is fair to point out at this time that the shower pan that was installed in the master bath was quite large.  In addition, the drain was located in a position that was not centered in the pan.  These two characteristics increased the technical difficulty of achieving proper drainage, I believe.  After the first round of grout repair (see above), we noted that the water drainage was sub-standard, leaving a sizable puddle.  This required that a section of the tile in the pan be removed and replaced, a noisy and extremely dusty and messy job.  

6.  After the above attempt at achieving proper drainage (see above), we noted that the water drainage was still sub-standard, this time leaving two smaller puddles.  This required that an even larger section of the tile in the pan be removed and replaced, again, a noisy and extremely dusty and messy job.    

I?d like to point out, however, that the end result was fantastic!  We are extremely pleased with the work we had done and were satisfied with the price (Tom knocked a few hundred dollars off of the final bill as a good will gesture).  In particular, the extensive tile work we had done ended up being very beautiful, with several artistic touches that reflect the work of a passionate craftsman.  

Bottom line:  we would hire Tom again in a heartbeat!