MARSHALL BROTHERS CONSTRUCTION

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We had a great experience with the Marshall Brothers.  The house that they built for us is our second home, and we live some distance away, so we went into this project with some trepidation - it is always a bit worrying to build a house when you can't be on site to oversee the progress. But we soon realized that we didn't need to worry - Mike and Darrell did a great job of keeping us informed. The two brothers work very well together - Mike was our main contact, and Darrell came in to consult, as needed. We found them to be very smart and creative - when problems arose (as they always do), Mike and Darrell would present us with at least three or four solutions to choose from. In the end, we were completely happy with the house they built for us, and we hired them to do some additional projects - we added on a two-car garage, and a patio with a wooden pergola - they did a great job with the pergola.  They have added deer fencing around our garden/orchard, sidewalks - now they are making a wood-burning pizza oven for us.  There is nothing that these guys can't do, and they do it cheerfully and skillfully. I doubt that we will build another home any time soon, but it we do, we would use the Marshall Brothers again in a heartbeat.

It took Darrell about two weeks to come out, but in all fairness, we had a lot of rainy weather and few days he could do roofing work. But when he finally said he would come out, he was here, on time and bright and early. He quickly inspected the leaking area, correctly (it appears because the leaking stopped) found the reason for the leak (incorrectly installed ridge shingles), removed the shingles from the leaking area, fashioned a fix for the incorrect construction, and replaced the shingles with some new ones. He then did the same for two other areas that were also built incorrectly during the initial house construction. I was very happy with the result, and still am after 6 more weeks of a very rainy summer!
However, things didn't go quite as smoothly with the framing job. He got his men to work smartly, but quickly realized he didn't bring enough 10-foot studs, since the area where the wall and closet were to be built had 9-foot plus ceilings, as well as some areas with 8-foot ceilings. While he sent one of his crew to get more 10-foot studs, he instructed his framing lead to use the 8-foot studs to start the closet, the location of which I had already laid out on the floor with pencil marks. (Darrell went up on the roof to do the roof repair) His lead seemed to take care in the framing and checked the plumb of the work several times with the level.
While the crew took a lunch break, I checked the work and noticed that the location was not correct and did not line up with my marks on the floor. I pointed this out to the lead who immediately corrected the problem. When they were finished, I checked the dimensions and location, but I did not check the plumb of the walls or the squareness of the door openings. (big mistake on my part)
Later, when I had a finisher come in and put up sheetrock and frame and install the door, he pointed out how much difficulty he was having because the rough opening for the door, although wide enough, was not square and plumb. And to get the door to hang properly, he had to trim the door by 1/2 inch and reframe the door. (I hope to upload a photo)
Bottom line: Roof repair - great job. Framing: Have someone knowledgeable double check the work.

The experience went really good. He was real easy to work with. He had real good ideas. There were several things that we change. He wasn't hard to deal with. He has really good guys under him and he was just really good to work with. He is big in the community here.