US KITCHENS & BATHS

Overall, it went very well. Our saleswoman, Chris, handled the project coordination well and was good about communicating with us. The primary installer, Lincoln, is multi-talented, fanatically neat and a pleasure to work with. The project proceeded in timely manner -- no unreasonable delays in starting, progress, or completion. In addition to Lincoln, several other subcontractors were excellent: electrician, counter installer, shower door installer. The tilers did a very nice job, though one of them inexplicably dumped grout on our lawn and on a neighbor's lawn (Lincoln cleaned it up). There were some plumber issues: the first plumber went incommunicado at the last minute and had to be replaced, which necessitated refiling of permits, which the company doesn't handle - we had to do it. The second plumber seemed competent and easy to work with at the start of the job, but botched several tasks at the end. One was major. The company was very responsive and the error did not cost us anything. The company reports that they are not using this subcontractor for bathrooms any more. We are happy with the final product and had intended to use this company for the renovation of the main bathroom. However, we had concerns about the contract and payment terms. Their contract is a boilerplate document almost entirely in the contractor's favor. With some trepidation, we signed it anyway for this project and in the end, there were no unhappy consequences for us. We had to ask repeatedly to have the contract signed by an officer of the company, as required by law -- and by their contract! The company's initial requirement was for payment of 50% on contract signing, 40% on completion of sheetrock, and 10% on completion. We objected, and they agreed to 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3 for this project. We paid promptly. But for the proposed main bath project, they insisted on 50/40/10. We felt that this left us with too little leverage if something went wrong near the end of the project (as it did with the plumber on the first project) so ultimately we could not come to an agreement with them. Another, lesser negative turned out to be their distance from our home. While they have a showroom very near us (which is what attracted us to them) that showroom turns out to be limited, and we had to make three 75-mile round trips to their main showroom to discuss design and selections. Since their subcontractors are from that area, this also meant that often they arrived later in the day and left earlier than they would have if they lived nearer us -- some workdays could have been more efficient. The contract/payment issues are the only reason we checked "No" on the question "Would you use this company again?"