Beluga Ventures LLC

We hired an architect to give us a basic design for our siding replacement.  We then hired another company to do the job.  We understood that changes would have to be made with the design but the first company ordered trim that was not agreed upon and significantly reduced the size of the trim.  We believe they underbid the job (as trim is $$$ to purchase materials and labor) and to make up for their costs decided this was the most efficient way to go about it.  We also had numerous other issues with them (the company would have done a good job for a basic siding job but that was not what wanted).   We stopped the project after the old siding was torn off and the foam board, tyvek and a trim pieces were installed.Dennis was working for Bethesda Bungalow's, who went out of business, as a general contractor coordinating every aspect of the homes that they built.  The homes are absolutely beautiful.  We were provided his name from our architect when we were calling new company's to finish the work.  I did not have the confidence that any of the top rated company's could do what we want.  Dennis came over immediately and after a few minutes of talking and showing him the plan said it was no problem and he could make it work.  He is good friends with the architect and gave him a call to get clarification - none of the other siding contractors were willing to take the time to do that.  He came back with a nice proposal, that was slightly more (because you are paying for his time as a GC and the siding company) as we ended up purchasing the Hardie Plank which had been special ordered prior to signing on with hime (he was more than willing to let us do that unlike other company's).  He then worked with us on changing the brand of materials for the trim, saving us over $1000.  We felt we were off to a good start.After that good start, things moved reasonably quickly except for a few rain delays.  He brought with him a wonderful siding company with two very hardworking men who clearly knew what they were doing.  They were warm, friendly and clearly took pride in what they were doing.  Dennis came by most days 1-2 times a day (often two but sometimes I would miss him) and the owner of the siding company came by usually once a day to help/check on progress.  It took two weeks (technically three but we had one week of rain delays) with a two man crew.  They offered us more men to speed things up, but the decision was made not to as more people may make things inconsistent (we just wanted it done by winter/snow).  We were often consulted on major issues and both Dennis and the siding owner often jumped in to work with the crew on the details and both clearly have done installs themselves/know how to use tools.  We very much appreciated that as except for the roof and siding, we have DIYed the inside of the house.  We were disappointed at how many company's came for estimates and the sales person/owner has clearly never used power tools.What I appreciated was everyone being willing to work with alternative materials.  We were going for very detailed trim and I had found a profile of fypron and they were happy to figure out how to make it work as the architect plan was not going to fit with our roof line.  They also worked with us to change the window trim using fypron vs. the original design and it looks amazing.  When we are outside we see people regularly stopping and looking and many of our friends and neighbors are impressed at the job they have done.  We got exactly what we were looking for.  Dennis on-site also make a few changes to the original design to make our house really stand out.  Normally I'd never use a GC as to me they are an extra unnecessary expense and prefer to deal with company's directly but Dennis was worth the extra cost, both for his design ideas/how to pull it off, but also managing such a large (for us) project that we are not doing ourselves/have less control over.

We are giving a raving review as we are that happy with Dennis and his siding crew/company.  (we are not affiliated with him in any way except happy customer).   The other thing we very much respected is we are 95% done and we tried to pay him so the crew can get paid and he refused our original check and requested a $1000 hold back until we are 100% done.  We had no doubt they'd be back so to us it was a non-issue (and if necessary the finish stuff is stuff we can do).