ADDITIONS & REMODELING, REMODELING KITCHEN, REMODLEING BATHROOM, WINDOWS, DOORS, DOORS GARAGE & GARAGE DOORS, BUILDER HOMES, GENERAL CONTRACTOR.
ADDITIONS & REMODELING, BUILDER HOMES, DOORS, DOORS GARAGE & GARAGE DOORS, GENERAL CONTRACTOR., REMODELING KITCHEN, REMODLEING BATHROOM, WINDOWS
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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57% | ||
0% | ||
0% | ||
14% | ||
29% |
We found Caraway by seeing his salesman at the Home Show at the Tropicana in St Pete, about 3 miles from our home. When we expressed concern that they were based in Lutz, quite a distance away, the salesman Robert assured us that they have a construction "Lead" who is dedicated and responsible for our part of Pinellas county. We were told that Alan Caraway, the owner, and the Lead would personally walk through the entire project one more time after contract signing and before work began. The "Lead" did not appear for this walk through. On the day of start the "Lead" was a subcontracted labor foreman with his own crew. They left our house a complete mess that we had to clean ourselves, including dirt in rooms they weren't working in, floor adhesive on the walls, dirty hand prints in the bathroom and even blood on one wall. This construction Lead had no jurisdiction over any of the other trade subs. No one directly employed by Caraway was here to oversee and supervise the project. Here are just some of the issues we encountered:
Labor Crew - Did not install kitchen cabinets according to the Cabinetry Plan rendering and upper cabinets were screwed into unsupported wallboard, not studs; did not check for proper wall framing so that once the tile was installed it caused a bow in the wall; swore so loudly and constantly that our neighbors reported it to us,
Flooring - gaps were left along the walls that had to be pieced in later by the carpenter, adhesive wasn't completely cleaned off the surfaces and we just found some on the bedroom doorknob.
Plumber - installed the kitchen sink with a leak, then took 2 weeks to correct. Then in the 3rd week a plumber came by to fix the leak and didn't know who came in to fix it the week before.
Electrician - was sloppy in his installation; we had to fight to get him to install our lighting system per specs; left outlets hanging from the wall that we had to screw in ourselves.
Tile - 1st crew was clearly inexperienced, they installed pencil trim crooked and with chipped corners, left holes between the tiles where grout was skipped, left our kitchen a complete mess and didn't properly clean the grout off the tile surface (we have asked Caraway to correct, but after one half-hearted attempt, he has not done anything further); the second tile crew were often no-shows and we had to be available repeatedly for them.
We were told the job should take about 6 weeks, but the contract wasn't wrapped up until week 13. We are still looking for help on how to get the grout off our tile.
All these problems were caused by what we had said at the outset that we were trying to avoid. We told them we wanted a contractor onsite, supervising and leading his crew and subs. Instead we got nothing but unsupervised subs. It was left to us to check up on the work provide Caraway with photographs of progress and issues. Alan was slow to respond and although for the most part made corrections the project took more than twice as long as originally quoted.
The only thing that stopped us from giving this experience an F rating is that Alan put us in touch with Chris from Cab-Net cabinetry in Largo who was great every step of the way!
Caraway Construction was very professional from the get-go. I sent an email inquiry, and I was called the next day. We had an appointment to review our project the following week.
I met with the owner, Alan Caraway. He went over all of our options and brought samples available for our preview.
Once we chose our flooring, we were set up for tear out and installation. Everything was scheduled very timely within about 3 weeks, once our materials arrived.
We were very pleased with the pricing as it was below our projected budget.
The crew was fantastic and very tidy. Our project was complete in 2 and frac12; days. Our wood floors are amazing and my wife is so happy!!! We have gotten so many compliments, just about weekly, we get compliments from our neighbors and visitors.
I would recommend Caraway Construction without hesitation!!!
I plan to use them again in the near future for a larger project when we add on to our current residence.
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