Royal Crest Builders

The cement work went ok however was much slower and much more costly than the bid. The bid was 16k and the end price of the spalling work was 45k. They drastically under-quoted the size of the gray beam (40% under). I offered to send them the engineering drawings for the quote but they said they were not necessary. They charged by the cubic foot on the gray beam, I asked how much that was per linear foot and they said that one cubic foot was equal to one linear foot, the beam assumption was 8"X16"X12". They could have looked at the engineering drawings and bid the correct size beam since our beam is 12"X20"X12" making a very significant difference in pricing. I was very stressed the whole time as the owner was very difficult to deal with, he would constantly tell lies, i.e. "we were getting a deal because usually a slab is only 4" thick", well not one with rebar through it, a 6" slab is required to properly place the rebar 1.5" from the surface of the cement. He pulled the guys working on our project before our work was completed so at the end no work was done on our place for days at a time. The second part of our work was a bathroom remodel, we had to basically buy everything for the bathroom. The finish work was bad, the tile in the shower has hollows behind it as the tiler just put piles of thinset on the back of the tiles and didn't spread it properly, the grout was not through all the joints, our glass decorative tile has a couple cracked pieces that they cracked during install and the porcelain tiles are not flush to one another. We had them come back three times for the drywall work and although it's much better we are still going to fix the rest of the bad spots and repaint. The owner will only send one or two guys up for a day to repair drywall, paint, and fix all the other bathroom problems, it is never enough time to properly fix the items, the guys sent are always rushed to get the job done and do not have time to do it correctly. If you are in Marathon they may do a better job however if you are 20 or more minutes away they will always be bringing up the distance as a reason for not coming, being late, not being there for building inspections, etc... I would never recommend them to a friend.

Anyone thinking of hiring Royal Crest Builders in the Florida needs to know the President was arrested and penalized by the State of Florida for Worker's Compensation Fraud.  You can see the details on the State's website by searching on Case No: 11-002941.  Here you will see the State of Florida shut his company down (while working in Ft. Myers by issuing a Stop Work Order,  The State also fined the company over $35,000 in penalties for their fraud.  You can see the actual gullty order here:  https://www.doah.state.fl.us/DocDoc/2011/002941/11002941FOR-041012-14250225.PDF

I point this out because homeowners need to be careful in being sure each of their contractors carries the appropriate Worker's Comp Coverage.  If they don't (like Royal Crest) you could be held legally responsible for any injuries workers might have on the job. 

The other reason to point this out is to warn everyone here in Marathon that this company cuts corners in everything they do.  They lied to their insurance companies, their employees and the State of Florida.  How are they going to treat you as a customer?

Personally I was disgusted with the work they did.  They get in and get out as fast as they can.  They used cheap materials and unskilled labor.  There was never anyone supervising the job who I could ask questions about what they were doing.  My project was a mess and I was not happy with anything they did.  Royal Crest brought in an electrician from out of town without being licensed in the County (can't do that in Marathon) and the building inspector blamed me for it.  I had a huge list of things they didn't finish and the owner just smiled and handed me the bill saying sorry but we're done here.

There are so many honest, skilled guys down here who do a great job.  I made the mistake of hiring the cheapest bid and regret it.  Please, if you are going to hire Royal Crest, make sure they SHOW YOU all their insurance paperwork to prove they are covered for Worker's Comp.  But I just can't recommend their work at all.  Sloppy and careless.

This is a vacation home for our family that we trusted Royal Crest Builders to renovate in a timely fashion with work that met the codes and building standards of Monroe County and the State of Florida.  When our Hurricaen Impact windows and sliders failed inspection due to short cuts in the installation, we realized we had made a big mistake in hiring this company.  We were forced to pull them off the permit and hire new contractors to complete the job.  The owner of Royal Crest Builders seems to have all kinds of legal tricks to compound his billing and pressure homeowners (thank goodness we have lawyers in the family).  We made a very unfortunate mistake in hiring them.
Our renovation ended up being completed by wonderful, professional, honest contractors including Ernie Rhodes Plumbing, Superior Electric, Overseas Refridgeration and others that we can highly recommend.  But working with Royal Crest was the biggest and costliest mistake we made.  Again, fair warning to anyone who hires this company (that has only been in the Keys for a short time) you will most certainly have more trouble than you bargained for.