Kuhn Construction

Turned out that he lived 3 blocks away.  Excellent work and a great quote.

Most of the story is noted above. Gunther Kuhn was precise in his estimates, on time, on budget and very responsive. He was honest and matter of fact. Very knowledgable.

Kuhn construction is essentially a very small outfit comprised of Gunther Kuhn as general contractor and a crew of two who essentially work on everything in one way or another. Most of the specifics are subcontracted out. When obtaining bids for this rather large renovation, we were quite impressed by Kuhn Construction bringing over most of the major subcontractors on the first day to review the planned project. This gave a sense that the bid was a compilation of more realistic costs rather than a guess. Other general contractors just provided a number without their subcontractors knowing what they were getting themselves into. The multiple subs also provided immediate feedback about the project and provided some suggestions too. After obtaining 4 bids, this one come in somewhere in the middle. However, the range of pricing between the different bids was not very large. Demolition and framing occurred quickly and painlessly. The primary crew was very friendly and great at working through the usual problems that arose during the renovation of an old home. They usually asked our opinion of how we would like things to look. The project went smoothly 95% of the time. It expanded in a few areas that we did not originally plan or expect. For example, where we planned on keeping original windows, they accidentally got broken during demo and we ended up replacing them. Where we planned on keeping the original main bath intact, the tile got demo'd by communication error so that got renovated too. And due to need to meet code, electrical wiring got replaced which involved tearing down ceiling and walls in areas that we didn't think would be touched. But overall, things went well. Plus even with these unexpected additional costs, we still came in basically ON BUDGET with some significant upgrades thrown in. The entire project also ended essentially ON TIME too. We would recommend paying attention in the bid to what quality level is or is not included. The bid seemed to include standard quality items and anything above that cost more. Also, there was not a lot of options offered for things like heating/AC or window efficiency. For those who are attempting to be "green" or obtain tax deductions for selections this needs to be discussed beforehand as it was not a part of the standard offering and unfortunately we did not catch this and missed out on refunds and some energy efficiency options. Since you are hiring a general contractor, you are also secondarily hiring the subs. They overall were very good and easy to deal with. Our only real problem company seemed to be Heating/AC and we don't think they will be used again in the future. As a small company, communication is easily accomplished by phone or email. Keep the communication going constantly otherwise decisions are made without you and you may not be happy with that decision. Overall, good experience and we are very happy with the way our house turned out!

My wife and I had been talking about this project since we first purchased our house in 2002. After several years, we finally got an architect and got the ball rolling. We had bids from 4 different contractors, one of which was Kuhn Construction. Even before all the bids were in, we knew Gunther Kuhn was the one for the job. We were extremely impressed by his construction knowledge, design ideas, attention to detail and enthusiasm. Work started on time. All floors, counters, cabinets and fixtures that were being kept were protected. Work progressed much faster than we ever expected. Gunther had his crews there consistently. Gunther was on site regularly and always instantly available by phone or e-mail. During the project, one of the aspects that came out is that Gunther knows and understands the jobs of each subcontractor (including a master electrician and plumber) as good or better than they do. This allowed him to handle any issues very quickly and efficiently as well a make recommendations on how to proceed with some of the changes we made along the way. The project was completed one month early, within our budget and there were no surprises along the way. We are thrilled with the outcome to say the least. I cannot say enough positive things about our experience with Kuhn Construction.

Gunther Kuhn is someone I trust completely to handle any project I can come up with. Anyone that has done work on older homes knows that there is always something unexpected that comes up in every project. His ability to troubleshoot projects and come up with a creative and cost effective solution is the best I've ever seen. He started doing smaller projects for us in our 1896 victorian and as our finances progressed so did our home projects. He completely renovated one of our bathrooms and did a beautiful job. He always had great ideas that were often better than my own. His style of communicating with me was low key but always informed. If there was something that he couldn't figure out right away he would come back soon after with a well thought out plan of action. As we finished up on our old home we purchased a new home (new to us) that was built in 1966. What could go wrong? It was almost 100 years younger than our old home! Well, we soon found out. Once again we called in Gunther and he not only figured out what the problems were but fixed them for us. One situation was that our sewer line was going uphill. We couldn't figure out why our toilet kept backing up. You would have thought our building inspector would have caught this. Gunther came in, crawled around in our dirty crawl space and figured it out in very short order, than fixed it. No more backed up toilet! He went on to do several more projects like a partial kitchen remodel, a bedroom remodel, a lot of plumbing redo's, and a very large landscaping project. He's always completed the projects with 100% satisfaction. We have several more projects to do and I would'nt use anyone else but Gunther. I can leave the house and feel confident in my home's security. Bye the way, Gunther is a dog person. I have two dogs that like to inspect everything that's going on and I can trust that gates will get closed and most importantly he will be good to my pets.

Kuhn Construction completed the project on time and on budget ? a big accomplishment given the size of the project, weather, and amount of unknowns that can pop up during the journey. I am writing this recommendation almost 7 months after the completion of the project. Why? Well, I am writing it because Kuhn Construction (and their sub-contractors) has stood behind their work the entire time. I have called Kuhn Construction on a number of occasions for follow up work (very normal on a project this size) and also for advice on work that falls outside the scope of the contacted project (probably not that normal). Kuhn Construction has ALWAYS picked up the phone and been responsive to our needs ? ALWAYS. This is in contrast to some of the past experiences where companies have basically taken our money and not stood behind their work. I want to recommend Kuhn Construction because they are honest, professional, quality focused, experienced, and act as a consultant through the entire process. If anyone would like to see the quality of work they did with our remodel then please let us know ? we can send before/after pictures or you can take a tour of the house.