Core Remodeling Group Inc

Like a mosquito in a nudist colony, I’m not sure where to begin. For those of you seeking a “quick and to-the-point” review, here it is: We are happy with the final product for our kitchen, bathrooms and fireplace remodeling. However, if the means toward achieving that end are of interest, read on. Getting to an acceptable conclusion of this project was disappointing if not painful experience. In short, our biggest error in judgement was to vacate our home for this 8 month long project (budgeted 3 months). By living elsewhere (about 1.5 hours away by car). By taking this approach, we effectively abdicated management of all subcontractors to CORE. This seemed reasonable as that is what their very high prices are represented to encompass. Not for us apparently. Garage doors left open with no one home (several times), mains power left off resulting in freezer/refrigerator leaking all over wood floors (twice!) and all contents being thrown away by the workers (even the dishes!), A/C vent covered by tiler (it’s easier that way), conditioned crawl space left open several times (our neighbor was our watchman and eventually started to visit daily), lights, A/C, etc. always left on, etc., etc. All of this was brought to the attention of CORE many times to no avail. Subcontractors, while well-meaning I’m sure, simply have to be managed or “policed” to be at their best. My wife’s favorite episode is the frequency that the plastic barriers were left open while workers sanded drywall. Indescribable mess. This was followed by a ~$600 cleaning bill and then more sanding of drywall obviating the value of the very high priced cleaning. Workmanship and attention to detail were disappointing and finally my wife took it upon herself to caulk and touch up painting on her own. Concurrently, and as a coincidence, we have also been in the midst of a very large building project on Lake Gaston. The project is orders of magnitude larger than the Cary remodeling job. What’s interesting is that the Gaston project has none, and I mean NONE of these issues. The contractor is on site each day. He expects and receives excellent service and craftsmanship from his subs. He actually MANAGES the project. The entire experience has been excellent with this project. Having said all this, I actually think that CORE will work well for you if you continue to reside in the house during the renovation. This way you become effectively co-managers of the work and you’ll not likely have any of the problems we experienced. You’ll be there to close doors, turn off lights, question sloppiness, remind them to remove shoes indoors, etc., etc. It’ll be fine I’m sure. My only real disappointment in this entire experience was that the owner took no responsibility/accountability for any of this when confronted about it. I never asked for any discount or token financial acknowledgement of poor service… I’m just much wiser now and want to share this with others.

Once contract signed and initial down payment was made the issues started: Tone of communication unprofessional on several occasions ("You have no business to look at the progress until we are finished") Lack of attention to detail (workmanship and project management) Presence of construction company owner during project pretty much non existing Left the garage doors open after leaving site with no owner at home Given the issues experienced we decided to reduce the original scoop of work and bring in other companies to complete flooring, paint, backsplash and countertops.

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They were innovative and very helpful.

Adrian provided needed assistance in design. Josh did a great job ram rodding things and ensured defective granite vanity top was replaced by subcontractor. The job took a while, but the results are excellent. I have the best bathroom in Cary!

I had a contractor come in to totally redo my landscaping and put in a deck. The contractor wanted to use Core because they are the best but they weren't available at the time as they were working on other projects. So the contractor chose another company to do the deck to meet the timetable. After two terrible experiences with two different companies, Core was called in to fix everything. Based on all the extra money I spent, and the time it took for the other companies to mess things up, it would have been cheaper and more time efficient to have waited for a slot in Core's time schedule to do the deck. Core came in and did a wonderful job, so much so that whenever I've had anything I want to change or add with the house, I just call up Adrian at Core. They get it done right the first time.

They were very professional paid a lot of attention to detail. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. They were very prompt and they did an excellent clean up job. When they were done, they hired someone to come clean the kitchen, which we though was great. They were very polite and you could tell that they cared about the job they were doing. That went to all levels of employees that came, from the cleanup crew; the trim carpenter was great and the guy that came out to give an estimate was great. I plan on using them in the future.

We met with business to discuss what we wanted, they came back with a complete price and explained how billing would occur.  Anything in addition to original bid would be invoiced separately.  All was completed to our satisfaction.  We have been extremely pleased.

Adrian and crew were prompt, courteous and professional. They kept up apprised all through the process; they were neat and took care to cover the traffic areas with drop cloth to avoid damage. The work was excellent and friends and family have enjoyed the new shower. We will use again when future needs arise.

This project did not go well. We regret hiring this contractor and would not recommend him to anyone. During the negotiation phase the contractor was very responsive and accommodating. He worked with us through several cost estimates and helped us adjust the scope of the project to suit our budget. This early experience with him was very encouraging, which was why we decided to enter into a contract. However, once the contract was signed things started going downhill.

Timing and Schedule:
Soon after we signed the contract, the contractor notified us that he would not be able to start our project for another two months because other jobs were running late. The contractor initially told us that our project should have taken 6-8 weeks at most - even including the unforeseen complications typical of a renovation - but it took more than four months to complete. Every time the schedule was updated, the new milestones would be missed within a few days.

Management:
During the negotiation phase the owner of the company repeatedly assured us that he would be on site every day, and that he would personally oversee all the work. This was not the case. Towards the beginning of the project he stopped by nearly every day, or checked in with his crew over the phone. He was not present most of the time, and was not present for many of the inspections. Towards the end of the project he told us that he had driven by the house and that things looked okay from the street. Since there was so little supervision and frequent mistakes, I dropped my work schedule to part-time in order to oversee the work at the house. On many of the days when I was home, the crew inexplicably did not show up. When mistakes were made on site, the owner of the company was quick to blame his subcontractors or employees. He did not take responsibility for supervision of the work.

Professionalism:
We were very disappointed in the level of professionalism. During demolition the crew took no precautions to protect the interior spaces, our furnishings and belongings or the HVAC system from dust and debris. The drywallers did not have drop cloths - we had to run out and buy some. The painters did not have respirators - we had to give them some. The site was always a mess both interior and exterior. About halfway through the project we found out that the contractor had been storing materials for another project in our yard. We also found out that he had been using the construction dumpster in our driveway for other jobs. His crew helped themselves to our guest bathroom and made an unmentionable mess. We asked him for months to clean the bathroom, but he never did. About two-thirds of the way through the project, we told the contractor that we were considering terminating the contract and hiring someone else to finish the job. Instead of asking what he could do to restore our confidence, the contractor immediately threatened arbitration. On several occasions during the project, the contractor told us that his crew had completed tasks that in fact had not been started (for example, installation of expanding foam at exterior door frames). Since the project has been completed we have been discovering that many things which are not easily verifiable were not done at all (for example, insulation was never installed in the exterior wall at the master bath). These were all things that we specifically asked about, and were told had been done. At the end of the project the contractor wrote us an e-mail telling us to send him a punchlist. He had not even set foot on the site and did not make any attempt to produce his own punchlist before turning the project over to us. Twice he claimed to have completed the punchlist items, but in fact many items were never addressed.

Communication:
We provided noted, dimensioned architectural drawings for this project. The contractor gave his crew verbal instructions that were inconsistent with the drawings, and that would have changed the design intent. When we instructed the crew to follow the drawings, the contractor told us not to interfere with his chain of command, since "he is the only boss on the jobsite". After an unpleasant conversation we all agreed that the design drawings would be followed. We gave very clear instructions to the contractor via phone and e-mail throughout the project. Consistently, these instructions were either not conveyed to the crew, or were disregarded by the crew. In either case, the work was not being adequately supervised and many of our instructions were not followed.

Cost:
While the initial estimate was very fair, the contractor did not make any provision for contingencies. Since this is an older house unforeseen conditions are almost inevitable, and we did have to make some adjustments during the course of the project. The cost for the added materials and labor seemed unreasonably high at times.

Quality of work:
In the end, the quality of the work ended up being mostly acceptable, although not great. However, much of the work had to be redone. We think that the primary reason for most of these mistakes was poor supervision and a lack of communication between the contractor and the crews. A few examples include the following:
* Flashing around the new windows was initially installed in a way that not only provided no protection for the framed opening, but also would have channeled water directly into the cavity between the exterior face brick and the bearing wall studs. In addition, sealant around the windows was installed in a way that would have trapped water inside the assembly. We required the contractor to reinstall several of the windows while we oversaw the work. In the process of removing and reinstalling the windows, material was wasted and the window flanges were damaged.
* All but one of the exterior doors had to be reinstalled at least once because they did not close and/or latch. We had to reinstall the front entry door ourselves because the crew could not figure out how to install the hardware.
* The housewrap installation was initially very sloppy. We had to point out unacceptable loose patches, puckers, cuts, tears and debris caught in the housewrap tape.
* Drywall patching around new utilities in the garage was exceptionally poor, with large gaps around all the penetrations. Since the wall in which the penetrations occur is a smoke partition, all penetrations need to be tightly sealed to comply with the building code. We required the contractor to redo the area, but when they did, they cut one of the new water lines and the plumber had to reinstall the line. We ended up reinstalling and finishing the drywall in that area ourselves.
* The exterior sealant crew generally did a very nice job with the cosmetic sealant on the siding and trim. However, they sealed up many flashing locations, which would have trapped moisture inside the wall. We exhaustively went over the sealant locations with the contractor, but since he did not oversee the work none of the instructions were conveyed to the crew.
* The contractor had his plumbers do the roofing work at two new penetrations for a vent stack and flue. The area was already leaking just months after the project was completed. We had to hire a professional roofer to repair the installation. It should be noted that the contractor offered to have his crew perform the repair, but as we had already lost confidence in his / their ability, this was not an acceptable solution.
* The window stools were installed incorrectly. We had specified wide stools at all windows, but the installer ripped them narrow during installation. This is directly a result of poor supervision and communication.

In general the contractor offered to repair these mistakes. However, every time a material or assembly is removed and reinstalled, damage to th

Core Remodeling did a fantastic job. Before the project, Adrian Harkey, owner, was very responsive. He provided detailed quotes and stuck with the quoted price on both projects. His work crew was very professional at all times. They cleaned up the work area at the end of each day. The quality of work was fantastic. There was only one minor issue with an access door that they corrected immediately. We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome and definitely plan to use Core Remodeling for future projects.