Starcom Design Build

I hired Starcom Design Build to enclose a carport to build a sunroom/plant room for my tropical plants in October 2018. This project cost over $40,000, It was suppose to take 8 weeks. They started the project behind schedule and ended up taking 4 months-twice the original timeline to complete this project. They often didn't show up for weeks at a time. They did substandard work and they did not follow the modified blueprint as we agreed to and issues came up along the way and project cost more than the original contract. Once the work was completed there were issues that I made the foreman aware of. He told me the electrical issues would be too difficult to fix, even though the owner had agreed to the modified lighting in an email. The material used to construct the walls and ceiling is not suitable for a sunroom that houses plants and is now moldy. Starcom Design Build knew this room would house plants, as I made the owner aware of this and they installed a water spigot. I have made the president (owner Bob Weickgenannt) in writing of other major issues that I had within the warranty period several times and they still have not been fixed. When there is heavy rain, there are three sliding glass doors that have rain pour in under them, a step they installed to enclose a dryer vent they created is warping. They actually made this step out of the same material one would use to create shelves and not pressure treated wood. This step can't even hold the weight of a child. When they jackhammered to lay the footers for the sunroom they cut through the cement in the middle of the winter through the existing carport and poured cement in winter. It appears it did not set properly and it crumbling I have been emailing for Starcom Design Build to come out since last November when I realized this was an issue. Now Starcom Design Build's owner and president Bob Weickgenannt says the cement work was "not in the contract" even though laying the footers and repairing the damage from cutting the footers is part of the contract. Also when laying the footers and pouring the cement, his contractors left footprints in cement in the sunroom just another part of their substandard work. So please, do not go with this company. They do substandard work work and will not fix their mistakes. This has been dragging on for way too long. The owner, Bob of Starcom Design Build finally came out to my property and saw the cement damage (this is after over a year and a half of emails of Bob simply stating he wasn't contracted to do cement work). He is correct he wasn't contracted to do cement work. His contractors spilled cement all over my sidewalks and driveway around the perimeter of my sunroom and caused damage to my sidewalks while laying footers. Bob came and saw the cracks all of around foundation, again this damage was caused by his company. I had to send photos to the BBB and Bob FINALLY agreed that his company was at fault and would fix it! So this has been going on since March 2019. Think about it. Would a reputable company drag this out for a year and half? I should also note, not only is there cracked cement, some areas are lumpy, but other areas have been smoothed out and are so smooth they are have no texture and I pointed this out to Bob. The cement is so smooth it is a slip hazard. Bob just blew me off and said "anything can be slippery." The contractors tried to smooth out the cement they spilled on my asphalt driveway by feathering it. This smooth cement is actually dangerous. Bob's contractors feathered the entire 24 inch surface so as you walk out of the sunroom, so the areas that are not cracked have no texture. This is very dangerous and when it's wet, it's like walking on ice. I was shocked and how much damage can be done with contractors spill cement on your property! I uploaded the blueprint Bob sent showing what he would fix on Yelp. Now here is the catch! Look at the last line of the document/contract Bob wanted me to sign, there would be no warranty to these repairs and it would void remaining 3.5 warranty I have left on the sunroom. When I asked him about it and told him this was unethical to make me sign this form for him to make repairs for damage his company caused, he told me if I wouldn't sign it then he wouldn't make the repairs. Again, think twice if this is the type of person you want to go into business with. And what happens now... I have to file an MHIC bond complaint and I have to pay for mediation because even though Bob admitted this was at fault and his company won't do the right thing. If you PM me, I would be happy to show you all of the BBB documents and our email communications before you decide to hire this company. Please make an informed decision.

I really wanted this experience to be a good one and was very hopeful after reading reviews and looking at rating on multiple sites. Unfortunately, the whole experience ended up being more of a hassle than anything else and a disappointment since the project manager and designer ended up being a lot of the problem. All very nice people and everyone tells you want you want to hear but the actions to do not follow the words. A project that was estimated to take 7.5 - 9.5 weeks ended up taking 14 weeks to complete (after almost 3 weeks of no work in the middle) and is only complete now because I had to stay on top of everyone every single day and take leave from work to babysit the workers and make sure they actually did the work. Multiple problems throughout construction because the designer didn't measure correctly, didn't know that when you put in 12 feet of windows, you need stronger headers, ordered the wrong sizes of items (3 different cabinets, 2 of which they completely destroyed and threw in the dumpster), didn't order enough of some items (hardware) , didn't order some products at all (ledger stone, back-splash) until very late in the process and almost caused even more of a delay if I hadn't intervened and worked with the companies. They bring in people to do the work that either don't know or don't care about the work they are doing (installed 9 feet of windows crooked by almost 2 inches, spilled stain on new blue stone hearth and tried to "fix" by putting paint thinner on it, dumpster placed w/o wood under the rollers, dry wall installers that covered over lights, vents, numerous wires and cables, no regulator installed on gas line). From the very beginning, I told everyone that I wanted communications, updates, status reports either by phone, text, email or in person and if they kept me in the loop, I wouldn't end up bothering them. I got nothing. I either had to call, text, and email the project manager or wait for him to show up to actually have a conversation with him. The designer responded to emails with one word responses. In the end, I would receive an email from the project manager, respond with question and receive no response. In the beginning of this project I recommended Starcom to 3 different people looking to get work done. 1 contacted the company, waited several weeks for the designer to get back to her and then went with another company because of the price and communications issues and the other two I have changed my recommendation to a NO. All very frustrating and a disappointment.

It went well. I am very happy with the finished product. Starcom took care of all the designs and the permits and completed the installation to my satisfaction.