VanDam & Krusinga Building & Restoration

This project dragged on and on and on. Finally finished after 7 months! Should have taken less than half the time! Very poor communication. Would show up unannounced. Did not return phone calls. The interior paint job was exceptional. Hard to believe that he was part of same company! Do yourself a favor and keep looking!

Pretty well once details were nailed down between VDK and insurance claim

Even after receiving a $20k plus bill, the job was not done, workers managed to kick holes in our garage drywall, and they never came back to fix (still waiting Sept, 2017). This is merely an example of our woes with them. They started the job when it was convenient to them. They would work a day, and skip two. When they restructured our garage, the eaves were done completely different than they were before, when I had even told the project manager to look in our backyard, as we have the exact same structure off of our sunporch. They came back to fix, but was told it would have looked better they way they did it. The fascia that was replaced was done very sloppy. They had a young boy with them all the time, he was doing work too. They charged us for work that was NEVER done: peg board, paneling in the garage and storage containers that were never ordered or used. Work crew would take very long lunches. They had a job site down the street and our neighbor said that one day, they took lunch... went to her house (as they were doing work there too), took a microwave in her basement and stayed for three hours. Also, I at one point walked into our garage while they were there to get something, and the project manager was CHANGING HIS PANTS IN MY GARAGE, very awkward/uncomfortable especially since I was home alone with these guys. Still waiting on final work to be completed, and have not yet paid final bill (only a small charge for emergency coverage of our garage from the elements), and I will not be paying for said services that were never rendered.

We had a broken pipe in the upstairs kitchen on 6/15/15 and subsequent flood of upper and lower level of home; we own a bi-level home. Van Dam & Krusinga came out to assess the damage and give a quote on 6/26/15.  Insurance approved them to start working.  It was agreed with insurance that they would clean up the flood mess, tear out specific walls and cabinets and restore the home; mainly the kitchen and lower level grate room.  We visited their showroom on 7/9/2015 to choose flooring and cabinets.  We were given a simple drawing of the cabinets on 7/28/15, only after we begged them three times for something from them.  We met with their "kitchen guy" Steve on 7/30/15 in order to understand the drawing and hopefully get some ideas from him.  He worked the computer and the 3D pictures, but refused to offer up any ideas, even after I stated, my husband and I have never done this and we are not creative.  He just stared at me when I said that.  They ordered the cabinets finally on 8/7/15.  Let me say, the guy in charge of our project, Scott, was not very good at all in returning emails or phone calls.  After awhile, all he would do is text.  Four of us are living in one half of the living room at this point; the only rooms not affected were the bathroom and three bedrooms.  The cabinets took 4 weeks to come in.  During those 4 weeks, the guys sporadically came and tore out cabinets and flooring and did the drywall.  The drywall was not done very well, especially the ceiling. You can still see many imperfections to this day.  The cabinets came in and were installed on 9/8/15.The refridgerator casing was not installed properly, two cabinets had been ordered at 30 inches when we needed 27 inch cabinets, the 9 inch end cabinet was misordered, needed to be larger, they installed the lazy susan cabinet door upside down.  Now new cabinets had to be ordered.   Meanwhile, we are still living out of the living room, 3 months later.  The flooring started to be installed on 9/11/15; starting downstairs first. The installer obviously didn't know how to do this and my husband spent several days asking them to start over.  My husband has continuously been asking Scott for completion dates on all phases and Scott does not answer or give him one.  Electrical outlets had to be repositioned after we made mention of errors.  They put up wall trim before we had finished painting so we had to paint after it was placed.  No professionalism at all or attention to finishing touches.  The flooring was put down and numerous places(at edges) were so not perfect.  Throughout all of this process, people just showed up at our house, NEVER any communication from Scott unless we called him.  This is not an exaggeration, he never communicated with us.  There is no attention to detail with this group.  The second set of cabinets arrived on 10/5/15.  Two cabinets were the wrong shade.  No sense of urgency with this group; we are still leaving out of our living room.  They dented our slider door downstairs, they dented our refrigerator, they gouged the painted walls; no attention to detail.  We haven't heard from Scott in weeks, now it is 10/20/15.crown molding never ordered properly, took weeks to arrive after this.  Scott never called us to tell us things had arrived.  We always had to wait and wait and then call him.  They last came out for finishing touches on 10/28/15 and we haven't heard from anyone since.  No one walked through our house when they were finished to see how the project ended.  No one called to say they were done.  No one called us to ask our opinion of the job.  The people at Van Dam & Krusinga, particularly Steve and Scott, are so unprofessional.  The worksmanship is horrible.   Use them to clean a mess, but nothing more.    p.s. they did the same poor job to our neighbor two houses away after he had a flood in 2015 as well.   I would NEVER recommend them.

When they finished the work, they hadn't done everything they said they would do. I got something in the mail from them that was different from our original agreement. They didn't put everything back the way it was supposed to be put back and they won't respond to any of my calls. Overall their work was decent - but they didn't finish and only did about 2/3rds of the job.

unknown

The quality of their work is excellent, but their response time is a little lacking.

I know that a common problem with contractors is that they are sometimes unresponsive. So far, this service provider has been very responsive and I am happy with their level of communication. They even called me back at 9 PM one evening. I'm looking forward to working with them.

Responded promptly, which was important since water damage occurred in wine]ter. Pipes were frozen.
Very professional, thorough approach. Identified all issues and remediated them thoroughly.
Personnel were courteous and business-like.
Cleanup was thorough and tidy. They left the rooms in excellent shape.

A great job. Everyone we dealt with was friendly ,helpful and professional. Joel, who did our estimates, took a lot of time with us to make sure we knew all that was going on and what would be paid by our insurance and what we would owe. He even pointed out that the insurance payment had not included work my husband and I had done ourselves and straightened that out for us!

Kathy in the flooring department was very helpful and checked in with me often

to make sure everything was going as planned.

All the work crews were on time, got everything done quickly and left a clean house. They were polite and friendly and nice people to have in our home.

I am very pleased with the service and advice I received. My doors look beautiful and match the style of my home so well that it would be hard to tell that they are not original to the home.

After making me wait a full year to do the painting (insurance work),(they were too busy to schedule prior to weather changes), VDK outsourced job to another company without my permission.
I had to carefully inspect work daily and point to areas needing attention. VDK supervision was absent.

It went fine. My experience with them was good and I would use them again.

All work was completed in a timely manner (a rare event in my experience
with builders) and was satisfactory in almost all aspects. In
retrospect, however, I should have used someone else for this particular
job. I am very picky about finish; the person who did the finish work
on the cherry rail was not. It is rough to the touch for the full length
and several blobs of poly can be felt and seen, but only if you look
carefully. Structurally and visually it is satisfactory, but fine finish
carpentry it is not.

great

This was a large project from picking out cabinets, matching existing wood and color, designing a functional kitchen workspace, etc. They had extremely knowledgeable staff who listened to our needs and specific ideas before moving into the design phase. We have everything we wanted, plus some functional items we had not thought of prior to working with them. The carpenter installers made adjustments and customizations on the spot to make the install all the better. They had to endure a daily pontoon ride in wind, rain and cold from October 8th to November 18th to do their amazing work. Top notch professionals.

We had a flood in the basement due to a broken water pipe under the front porch. There was damaged dry wall, ceilings, water soaked carpet, pipes, a collapsed concrete front porch and collapsed sidewalk. When they were done, you could not tell we had had a disaster. The added benefit was the work they did replaced work that was not done properly. Great quality and done right!
Every person who came out from Joel Newton, the estimator, to the craftsmen who did the work were professional, above average in their area of expertise and efficient in the repairs. All were professional, polite, and considerate of family needs. They made sound recommendations based on years of experience. They treat your home like it was theirs. You cannot find a better contractor to work on your home.

They're very professsional, they clean up afterwards. They are here when they say they're going to be here, and didn't take very long to do. The people they send out are very knowledgeable, and know what they're doing.

In 2010, we hired VanDam and Krusiga to repair a leak in our roof and the subsequent interior damage. Things were fine until the leak returned in early 2012. We called them and upon inspection, they admitted that they installed the flashing incorrectly and said that the repairs would be covered under warranty. Once the exterior repairs were re-done, water testing revealed that the leak was still there. They determined the cause (not sure if it was the only cause or secondary to the incorrect flashing) and we agreed that they would proceed with the repairs for $300. We felt that this was a fair price, considering that there was a chance that this cause existed two years ago and should have been identified and fixed then.
Their communication and responsiveness was poor from the start. For example, after the first inspection, we were told we'd hear from them by the end of the week, but instead we had to contact them at the beginning of the following week. On they day they were to begin the interior work, the workers couldn't figure out how to use our pin-accessed door (we were worried it was our error, but determined that it was not). Obviously this caused them to lose a day of work, but apparently this threw off their entire week's schedule. Instead of telling us this, they just didn't show up when we were expecting them to and offered no explanation until we called to ask. On the day the work was to be completed, we came home to find some things not as we expected. Since we didn't hear otherwise, we assumed they thought they were done, but it turns out they weren't - but again, we had to contact them to find this out instead of them contacting us.
The restoration work turned out beautifully. The drywaller did an outstanding job protecting our house from dust and debris, he matched the texture of our ceiling perfectly (much better than the first time it was re-done by VanDam and Krusinga two years ago), and he cleaned up after himself thoroughly. We are also very happy with the replaced window sill and crown molding.
Based on our customer service experience, I wouldn't use VanDam and Krusinga again, but I wouldn't necessarily not recommend them. They admitted their original mistake, upheld their warranty, and the completed repairs look great.


Bottom Line: We hired them to fix a leak, they told us they fixed it, and it turns out that not only did they not fix it, but the and quot;fixand quot; they installed was done so incorrectly by their own admission. We appreciate that they stood by their warranty and completed the repairs at a high level of quality for a fair price, which is why we wouldn't recommend against using them. The low grades in the review are based on the poor communication, which we are obviously not the only customers to experience. Offering a discounted price doesn't excuse this. If we had felt that the quality or price of the work was poor or that they didn't stand up to their warranty (none of which were the case), then this review would have been an F.

We were in the final stages of selling our home, when we discovered significant mold in the attic. We had remediation done when we first moved in 5 years ago and found out the company went out of business. We had a number of companies come through with quotes at the same price or higher to just do remediation. Our buyers were skittish about the situation and needed reassurance. Working with VanDam they offered a better solution than anyone else. For a similar price they suggested doing it right by taking off the roof completely in the attic and putting down a new roof, fixing the ventilation, the skylight seals, and then remediating the remaining wood. They did it under a short time frame, did what they said they would do, and at the price they quoted. They took pictures during the process to show what we they found and what they were doing, including pictures with arrows indicating the corrections made that we sent to the buyer. They were very happy with the process and result. We sold the house.
They were great to work with, courteous, professional, and innovative in finding a solution to the broader challenge we had of fixing the issue and reassuring the buyer. They did an excellent job. I would highly recommend them.

I would recommend Van Dam for any remodel or repair work on your home.

The work that was completed was performed very well, and I am completely satisfied with it. However, it was extremely difficult to make arrangements for the work to be done. Attempted contacts were left unanswered. Estimates were delayed despite repeated requests. Though the company representative promised to complete the siding repair before winter, it was never done despite.

They showed up on time, explained exactly what they were going to do. Then did the job.

Really well - kept their promises, called us back when we called. Overall very satisfied.

They ended up having to replace all the siding on the house. There were more than 20 pieces that needed to be replaced on the siding. They were a little slow, but they did a good job. Their interactions were always very professional and positive. They kept us up-to-date on what was going on. I appreciated that a lot. The work was done within a couple of weeks, and they did an excellent job. My interaction with them was a positive one. The price wasn’t a concern as insurance covered the cost. We only had to pay the deductible.