Castle Building & Remodeling

We hired castle for our kitchen remodel project. We contracted with them to complete a partial project up until finished drywall. Our biggest regret of the project was hiring Castle. We were skeptical from the beginning because their prices are very high. (For example, we hired a concrete crew to do floor demolition for plumbing lines and paid 1/3 Castle’s bid. We hired our own plumber which saved us 2,500 compared to castle’s bid for the same job.) However, we had heard good things from different sources and have also had “you get what you pay for” experiences when going with the lowest bid so were optimistic that the high prices were indicative of high quality work. They also were available to start soon while other contractors we spoke with were months to a year booking out just for estimates (in hindsight, there is a reason for that!) From start to finish there were mistakes, from smaller mistakes ordering large quantities of unneeded supplies, to glaringly large framing and window installation problems, to very visible mistakes like framing one of the entry doors into the kitchen 1.5” out of plumb from top to bottom. These mistakes were quite stressful to address/correct because we were the ones who noticed them and then had to alert project management vs the other way around. At first this was not a problem, but after a large framing problem which the project manager assured us was fixed but wasn't we lost a lot of trust in the company. We were made to feel like the problem for “whistle blowing” versus higher management taking responsibility or even being willing to have a conversation with us about it. Ultimately, I do not blame the carpenters for mistakes. There were many days a carpenter would show up with an assistant who would get called away early in the day leaving one person to complete a 2 person job and quality suffered. Our project manager was managing 6 jobs and quality control was almost non existent as a result. In summary: If we had to do it again, perhaps you can benefit from our top lessons learned from the experience. 1.) Do not sign the contract without aggressive and detailed look at every line item. We reviewed it before signing but not nearly thoroughly enough. We were under the impression we needed to sign to get the project scheduled and that things could be changed later. Not the case! This document is the holy grail of the project. Do not sign unless you are comfortable with every charge and job included. There were multiple mistakes in that document that we missed. For example, we had filled out paperwork saying we did not require a biff at the work site because workers could use our basement bathroom, but it made it into the contract and it was a $600 oops on our end. 2.) Do not sign contract without another thorough look through. Every change including refund for mistakenly ordered supplies on the part of castle (entire pallet of concrete and boxes of unused and unnecessary leveler supplies in our case) will cost you $125 change order fee and restocking fees. 3.) Aggressive management of project. Double check that work they say they will do in contract actually gets done how they say they will do it. Double check quality of work, and be prepared for pushback. ALL this being said, The experience was not all bad. The designer we worked with was very helpful and created a plan that neither of us had thought of that really transformed and worked well with our space. (She did retire mid project and is no longer with the company, so we can’t recommend her name.) We also had no issues with any of the work the sub contractors Castle used, the dry wall, HVAC, and electrical crews all did fine work and Castle’s project manager ensured they corrected mistakes if they did come up without issue. Overall Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Castle was great to work with. Emily, our designer, came up with a great design and really listened to what we wanted rather than push her own ideas on us. Construction was on schedule and very organized. General communication with the project manager could have been a little better, but he always responded to emails promptly. There were also a few minor issues with cleaning up that were promptly addressed. I will be using them again when we get around to our bathrooms. The price was comparable to other companies and the quality was excellent.

Overall work was fine - all contractors I came in contact with were very professional and respectful. Replies to emails were not very responsive. Never was given a timeline or estimate of what was supposed to be accomplished each week.

This project took nine weeks just as projected. They were able to keep almost perfectly to the master day by day schedule. All trades staff and subs were professional and did high quality work. Electrician Mitch was excellent. Designer Ashley H. and project manager Steve were great communicators and visited the site often enough to keep progress on track and anticipate and head off problems, of which there were very few. I liked the flexibility offered by the company to get some savings-self painting and self purchase of sink, backsplash tile, disposer, and cabinet handles, so I could research quality and price. I chose Castle because they had experience and a focus on homes of my era and I was not disappointed! I had heard enough horror stories of projects gone wrong to go with perhaps a little higher cost remodeler that was excellent-money well spent to eliminate hassles. Comprehensive, detailed plans, detailed bid, great workers, on time= a happy homeowner here. I would highly recommend them for any kitchen project!

We were so pleased with the work Castle did remodeling our first floor in 2016, that we contacted them for our unfinished basement remodeling project. Mark, our designer, spent a lot of time with us on the design, answering lots of questions, and helping us to use the space effectively, We were able to get a family room, laundry room, half bath, a large shop area, and plenty of storage. Castle was great to work with from start to finish. Both projects were completed on time, with excellent quality. Their project management staff were responsive to any concerns or changes we had during the project and we are very pleased with the results. I would definitely contact Castle again if we had future remodeling projects!

Castle was wonderful to work with. The designer (Ashley H) worked well with us to design a project that was satisfying and within our budget. Both the construction manager (Steve) and Ashley were very responsive, communicative, warm and friendly, and worked with us closely throughout the design and build process. We received regular updates about building schedules, advice on how to prepare for different phases of building and were helpful with advice on changes/choices we had to make re: plumbing, wall configurations, etc. Overall, we had a very satisfying experience and the finished work is high quality. They were on-time (almost always) and stayed on budget. Highly recommend.

The remodel went very well. This was the only bathroom in the house and no major problems were encountered. Everyone was very prompt in responding to questions/concerns, keeping me up to date on the project progress. Everyone I encountered was great to work with.

Everyone we worked with was extremely professional and knowledgeable. They came out to the house to measure and find out what we were interested in. About a week later we met at their showroom to go over the beautiful design they came up with. We decided against doing such a big project but will definitely call Castle when we're ready to go ahead.

Great. Our designer (Mark) was very easy to work with and had lots of great ideas. He listened to our ideas, and provided feedback. Through years of this type of work, Castle has lots of experience to bring to this type of project. When we got stuck on choices of finishes, Castle provided design help (Emily) with that as well. Our project manager, who we saw often at our home (Scott) was great to work with. The whole team we worked with was professional, friendly, attentive and responsive. Their goal was always complete customer satisfaction.

The new kitchen is beautiful. The project manager left great communication everyday. We always knew what to expect and they took care of our house, things and dog! The workmanship of the Castle team is exceptional and every little detail was attended to promptly. One word about pricing, Castle was not the lowest bid we received for our project. Even though we spent more than we wanted to, the value for our money was great and we would chose them again and again. Castle is an easy company to trust.

Project took 4 months from start to finish way too long. Designed lacked people-skills & quality of work was marginal.

From the first contact with the designer, through the final walk-through, I was extremely impressed with the quality and commitment to excellence that Castle provided. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Asked Castle for an electrician referral. Sierra Electric, Mitch arrived promptly and solved our issues, prize was very reasonable.

As planned. Minor issues came up, but castle was fast to address them. They communicated well, which I respected.

we were quite satisfied with the quality and timeliness of the work.

We wanted to go with our neighborhood contractors, but ultimately we ran in to so many issues with them that I am sorry to say I would not recommend them to anyone for the following reasons:

-  Terrible communication: we had three different contacts over the course of the project and there was no oversight of the people performing the work on our house. 
-  Inaccurate  estimates  and inflated costs: our original quote was $1500 because they miscalculated the size of the space. after all of their mistakes they wanted to charge us over $9000 to complete the work. 
-  Horrible planning: they did not check to see if the basement foundation went all the way down. They just started digging until they unearthed our 2' deep crawlspace foundation and had to put all of the dirt back in. Whenever they ran into another issue that they had not accounted for, they added more to the price.
-  Bad quality: one of their solutions was to build a cement wall to hold the dirt back... since I work from home I could hear the people working downstairs asking one another, "Have you ever done cement work? No, have you? No, I'm excited to learn." They were nice workers, but I didn't want my foundation to be the test area where they learned how to lay block.
-  Just plain not nice to work with: When we had finally had enough, we asked that Castle leave our property and refund our deposit. They agreed while they were onsite but later refused to refund us in full. In a heated and inappropriate email,  they refused to refund $750, and we ended up with nothing completed, not to mention a giant hole in our basement wall leading to the dirt crawl space, one of our basement windows removed and replaced with plywood (right before winter), our stucco around the removed window cracked, and one of our 6' hedge trees severely damaged. The hedge still has a big hole in it and we had to pay to get a larger window installed in order to cover the stucco cracks.

Don't even waste your time with an estimate. 

Superb from design, selections construction to completion. We shopped this project – price was not the costly conciliation – reputation, knowledge, local, Korma were key element.

I changed my mind about the number of colors in the backsplash, which slowed the project down, but Ashley and Dave were very helpful in finding a solution and making sure that the project continued in a timely manner. Communication was very good and I never waited more than a few hours for a response to a question or concern. It confirmed for me that being clear about what you want is critical to getting the results you want. I found Dave and Ashley open to feedback and the finished kitchen is wonderful.

They didn't directly order an oval sink but they cut a circle hole for our bathroom remodel so our toilet is oval and our sink is round. They probably would have gotten a piece of granite but that was one of a kind granite so we had to go with the circle sink. They built the a door in our closet. They actually built the door attached and it was falling out of the wall, and they had come back a few times and hadn't been able to fix it. Recently they said they are going to be done with that because it would take too many of their resources to fix that so they are not going to fix it. Our cabinets they used paint that we couldn't wipe it off so they had to redo all the front but we compromised and said it's alright if they don't do the sides and the bottom but we want the front to be done. There was a lot of compromising with them and things that weren't done right enough, and finally with this closet that they are not going to fix even if their website says they have a lifetime warranty on their workmanship. They built the door so it's their workmanship. Because they didn't do the work, the price makes it not worth it at all.

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We contracted with them for a new landing (previously the basement stairs deadened at the wall) and their subcontractor built a landing to our specifications and did some extra work fixing the railing on out basement stairs. That work was completed on time, very thoroughly and within the estimate. Then after a mild snafu about scheduling which was quickly corrected, they sent out a marmoleum installer for the steps and landing. He did a lovely job sealing off our existing ancient lineolum and covering it up with the marmoielum. He also finished the new landing and the existing landing on the stairs, as well as two of the small storage spaces off the stairs, including one that we forgot to ask him to do, which gave us a nice new storage space. It took about 2 days, came within the estimate and looks great. We also got a few extra pieces of the marmoleum which we used on a couple of other surfaces - looks almost like a new house back there now.

It started of okay, late, but okay. by the end it was bad we had to fight to get castle to fix its mistakes which it kept making over and over.

We first met with a designer in February of 2015 and started the process then.  In June, we were told someone would be coming by to look at the project to get things started within the next two weeks.  After a month, no one had been by and we contacted Castle.  It seems like we had basically been forgotten and the process had to be restarted.  Work finally began in October.  Demo and wallpaper removal in the bathroom went very well and the people who worked on these projects were great.  Then the trouble began.  The vanity was not ordered correctly and had to be completely redone - a 3 week process.  This slowed everything down and work had to be done around the lack of a vanity.  When the new vanity did arrived it was configured correctly but holes for plumbing didn't work and lots of cutting and shoving/banging/kicking had to be done in order to get the vanity into place and get it plumbing and faucet installed.  When the new faucets were finally installed one side was crooked.  The medicine cabinet arrived broken and a new one had to be gotten.  No height specs were given by the designer and the new lighting was installed too high up.  If I hadn't have said anything, the new tile floor would have been installed with a step up into the bathroom as the tile person was planning to overlay the existing subfloor with a new 1/2 subfloor and then lay the tile on top.  The project manager helped come up with a solution of using 1/4 subfloor and shaving the part by the door down a bit.  This resulted in a better look and just a little bit of a lip to the floor.  However, a piece of Corian was used as a transition between the hardwood living room floor and the tile in the bathroom and the mortar on this is already breaking and it is coming loose.  The new shower door was also installed crooked and had to be reinstalled, though that was partly because the existing tub is not quite level.  But the biggest headache of all with this project came when we were going to just have the existing tile in the shower steam cleaned.  The company we hired to clean them found that most of the tiles were loose, the backing behind the top half of them was not even a waterproof material and had black mold covering it, and the entire shower/tub area had to get new backing and be retiled entirely.  Castle completely missed this in the planning and design process AND in the process of removing and patching a portion of the tile in order to install new shower fixtures.  In fact, the tiles were actually cracked and broken in the process of installing the new fixtures and shower door because most of them had been loose.  Getting all new tile in the shower area added a lot of cost (with another company) and about three weeks to the project.  Eventually everything was completed to our satisfaction, but it was 11 months after beginning this process.  The porch project was a major headache as well.  Castle lead us to believe that they had done similar projects and could manage what we were asking.  But when it came down to it they really hadn't and didn't really know how to go about what needed to be done.  Luckily, my father has experience with straightening barns and came and helped them.  Together they got the porch raised up, leveled and re-supported, but they would not have been able to do it without my Dad helping.  Castle did give us a $500 credit for this and we were just happy that things turned out well in the end.  Our project manager, Steve, did do an amazing job.  He always kept me informed about what was going on and was very quick to deal with all the problems that came up and very patient.  It just seemed like there was one problem after another!  Also the demo and dry wall people were great.  The carpenters that worked on the porch were great too, they just hadn't worked on anything like that before.  But with the good employees came the bad, including a "clean up" guy who cleaned up for 5 minutes and then played with his dog in our front yard, without asking, for the next 15 minutes.  I cleaned up dry wall mud, dust, and other gunk in the bathroom after he finished.  Overall, we are just happy to have everything done and the work was eventually completed and everything done in a satisfactory manner, but we would not hire Castle again.

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