Advance Concept Construction

One word for this contractor...unprofessional.  I purchased a deal through Angie's list for 4 hours of electrical work for $149.00 based on their reviews on Angie’s List.  I contacted the company prior to the purchase to confirm if they would be able to perform the work I needed.  The person I spoke to was Kurt Bowker, the owner.  I sent him an email detailing the work I needed performed.  Below is the exact text of the email I sent him.

“ On your Angie's list special, would 4 hours be enough time to install 3 ceiling fan braces and one exterior security light?  For the fans, there are light boxes there now and I've purchased the braces that get installed between the ceiling joists.  For the security light, I have an external conduit at the roof line feeding other outlets and lights on the exterior of the house, I was hoping to tap off of that for the additional light, I've already purchased the new light, box and wiring for that. “

Here is his exact response:

“A couple of questions

1. Is the drywall open to install the ceiling all braces or did you get the remodel braces?

2. The security light is going to be installed how far away from the end of the current conduit?  Is it flex conduit or rigid?

Depending on how far we would need to run the conduit the 4 hours might be a little on the light side but would not be more than an 1 hour more I think.”

The conduit he referred to in his question did not have to be run at all.  The electricians simply opened the existing junction box and installed the light in its location. 

So here is what happened.  Mr. Bowker sent two gentlemen to my home, they arrived 30 minutes late.  They each started in different locations.  The first one did the outside security light and that took about 30 minutes.  The other started taking down the ceiling fan in the living room.  By the time he got it down the first gentlemen came in from outside to help.  In this room they discovered that the box was already attached to a stud and they said it just needed a screw added on the other side to make it more stable.  They added three screws and reinstalled the fan.  They went on to the master bedroom and removed the fan, added the brace and put the fan back up.  At this point they had been there for just over one hour.

My thoughts at this point were that they should have no issue completing the last fan within the 50 minutes remaining.  Boy was I wrong.  They took the fan down and started to install the brace.  At this point they damaged the drywall in the ceiling leaving a big hole.  While I understand that accidents happen I offered to purchase a medallion to cover the hole if they would deduct the cost to which they agreed.  I felt this was a fair compromise.  So I proceeded to leave and make the purchase.  What I didn’t realize was that they were charging me to sit there and wait, which is ridiculous as the delay was due to their damage.  When I got back they started to replace the fan and while one gentleman sat there trying to figure out how to rewire it the other just watched.  When they left they told me that the owner would get in touch with me regarding what had happened.

On December 17th I received an invoice for $655.38.  I was shocked.  They billed me for an additional 8 hours at $76.57 per hour.  I contacted him right way by email questioning the excessive amount.  Then I followed up with a phone call when I didn’t get a response.  When I spoke to Kurt he apologized and said that he had incorrectly billed me and not to worry about it. 

On May 6, 2014 a year and a half later he sent me an invoice for $484.18 where he took off $20.00 for the medallion and two hours of labor at $70.00 per hour.

I explained to him that he had billed me in error and that this was resolved a year and a half ago and he is now threatening me with legal action.  

To top it all off, the first ceiling fan in the living room that they claimed to have secured dropped out of the ceiling.  I had a qualified electrician come out and he stated that the screws used by Advance Concept Group were too short and that I’m lucky this fan didn’t fall on my head!

I would never use this contractor again, nor would I recommend them to anyone.  They claimed they were sending two journeyman electricians, but it is clear from what I observed that these men lacked training and had difficulty wiring a simple ceiling fan.

Chris was on time and great to work with.  He installed hardware to all our kitchen cabinets and replaced the kick board under the kitchen cabinets.  Chris fixed some loose boards in the upstairs bathroom and also reinforced one of the closets.  I will use Advance Concept Construction again.  Thank you.

The owner was friendly and guided us through picking out the right doors. His crew was friendly, patient with my schedule. We're happy with our doors and we plan to use this company again on future projects.

Bless their hearts. These guys got in way over their heads. The project manager, Kurt, will promise the moon and make you believe it. Unfortunately, much of his equipment is in need of repair and with the exception of his electricians, his people lack the experience to deliver. His big selling point is having licensed HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other people all working for him so no subcontractors to worry about. Great theory I bought into it. So how could things be such a mess? Well I finally realized that my daughter was "licensed" to drive a car but that didn't mean she was qualified to drive professionally without supervision.

Licensed Plumber - Ran 1/2" flex water line through the ceiling instead of hard lining through the foundation or walls. Forgot to put the outdoor spigot in until after I reminded him. Sink drain leaking onto brand new vanity. Catching drips in a pan for now, will hire plumber to repair.

Concrete - Fail. Total disaster! wish I could post pics for ya. Foundation slab was poured in freezing temp and covered with tarps and dirt, followed by lumber and rocks. The lumber and rocks along with boot prints left large divots as deep as 2 inches and raised nearly as high next to the divots. While they did put lot of effort trying to correct this, it is still not level. The poured patio is horrible. Crooked wavy lines, unfinished edges, slopped concrete dried on existing concrete and of course cracks within a week beyond what would be considered "normal. Not to mention the paint stains from where they attempted to paint the patio ceiling.

 Roof - Fail. Did not have professional roofer so they used whoever was available. Failed final inspection but they did come back and make corrections.

Construction - Fail. Comedy of errors. Like watching an episode of keystone cops. Truss snapped in half during installation. No communications between team members. Window placed in wrong location. Truss hit with BobCat tractor bucket. Holes drilled thru walls by mistake. Pallet of OSB lumber dropped on block wall. Chain link gate destroyed during truss delivery which they bent back enough to make closable and called it good. I could go on and on

Communication with customer - fail. These guys lied every chance they got. In fact I once commented to them that they had blown so much smoke up my rear that I had to schedule a colonoscopy.  

Electrical - excellent. Professional.

Stucco - excellent. Even though half way through the job I had to front I had to front the stucco sub-contractor thousands of dollars to finish the job because he didn't trust the contractor to pay him. Heck at one point Kurt emailed me to ask for an advance because he couldn't make payroll. I happily advanced him 20k to keep people working. I pretty much kicked them off the sight toward the end because I thought they were doing more damage than good.  I'm not saying that you shouldn't hire them, but I would speak personally with recent clients. It is my understanding that my case was similar to other recent jobs. Just hear say from the crew. (none of which seemed happy with their boss. Again I believe this job was more than they could handle and hopefully was a wake up call for them to reconsider what they are getting into. I wish them well in the future.

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they did the job without needing anything from me, which helped; the office people were polite and helpful with scheduling and helping working around children's nap times

Advance Concept Construction called me ahead of time to ask me what my list was so that they could send out the right person and my list was varied so they sent the right person. I was very happy with them. The man they sent completed the jobs quite quickly so that he could move on to another one.  He was versatile with what he could do. He came ready to work and got to the job and was very professional.  He was slightly delayed but he called me.

Kurt Bowker, the "owner" is an absolute clown! He's a smooth talker and was able to convince me the work he did on my front yard would result in drainage for the heavy rains. Even his father-in-law (who was working with Kurt) told me and Kurt he didn't think the work they completed would work. However, Kurt over-ruled him and convinced me the work was good. During our first heavy rain (within a week of the work), my yard flooded worse than before Kurt tore up my yard. I called Kurt, and he agreed to come over and work on my yard again. However, my yard continued to flood severely. I called Kurt again, but he would not answer his phone or return calls. I finally called his father (animal veterinarian in Edgewood) to find out where Kurt was. Apparently I'm not the only one to have to call Kurt's parents. All in all, Kurt Bowker is an incompetent businessman, and I will NEVER use his "services" again.

,Very positive  fellow and anxious to be of help.  I would have liked for him to bring the sealant for the roof flashing and do the job on the spot but that might not have been possible.

When I went out to the house to see the job I realized the were re-stuccoing the whole house. They did a good job for cheap since the did the whole house. In the end they went above and beyond for what they did. I should have gotten more clarification in the beginning as to what was being done. They did not finish the job in the time they said they would.

Everything went well, and he did a good job with the cleaning.

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We bought an old house in Los Alamos that had not been updated since it was built in 1968. KTM completely gutted the kitchen took out a wall between the kitchen and the living room. We also expanded a 7'x25' area just off the kitchen into the garage area for additional pantry storage and relocation of the washer and dryer from downstairs. We reconfigured the cooking area and moved the appliances around. We added a large window over the sink and counter top area and a sliding glass door just off the dining area. KTM custom built all the cabinetry from alder wood. We contracted out the granite counter tops separately. We had a lot of trouble with counter tops because the contractor we contracted through Home Depot went bankrupt during the process. KTM worked with us and installed temporary plywood counter tops and sinks and drains for no extra charge. KTM came back and finished the plumbing after the granite counter tops were installed.
KTM does beautiful work and they are willing to work with the customer so that the customer can do some of the work to save money. We did most of the demolition (tearing things out is the easy part), all of the flooring and painting. Kurt is easy to work with and his crew are hardworking and clean. No bad language and they clean up after themselves as they go. People should realize that they have to live with the construction crews for a while when they undertake large interior remodels.  I found KTM to be very professional and conscientious about their work.
KTM may not seem like the cheapest contractor around and their estimates seem high at first but what I discovered was that Kurt does not low-ball his estimates and there are no change orders unless you want to change the original scope of work. Other contractors low-ball the original estimate and then they play dumb about things you thought were included in the estimate and then they get you with change orders. Overall the costs are reasonable and commensurate with the quality you get.  I also like the fact that when KTM starts a job they stay on the job until it is finished. Finally, and most importantly, I found Kurt to be completely honest, up-front and a man of his word.

The company wasn't prompt.  They had little to no customer service.  All they were concerned about was getting their money and making sure we knew there wasn't any warranty for the work.  Now I know why.

Very professional. very thorough and easy to work with!

He does excellent work I recommend to anyone I know. I hand his cards out like candy. He's done electrical, plumbing, and roofing work for me. He's always been excellent and on time. He's clean, friendly, and nice. I haven't used somebody like him in years.

I could not be more pleased with a company, I have recommended him to several other people and will continue to do sol