CASA CONSTRUCTION

Terrible experience. This "3 week job" took over 4 months to complete! Demo began Feb. 11, 2013. We were without an upstairs toilet for nearly 3 months; especially tough in the middle of the night. Mr. Tola (Hernan? Camillo? he uses different names with different folks) is an absentee general contractor. He rarely appeared himself on the job and was out of touch; when reached by phone, repeatedly promised to address the project, but sent workers intermittently; he repeatedly promised to come by himself, but mostly did not. His page on Angie's List says "no subs", but he sub-contracted with a plumber and electrician he had never worked with before. He prepared no plan, no specs, no direction for his own workers or the subs.. everything was verbal.. "just do it". Plumbing and tiling had to be ripped out and redone because the toilet was installed right up next to the vanity.. impossible to sit or move on the toilet.. ridiculous!! The original demo was conducted in such a manner that ceilings below cracked and fell in the living room, entrance hall and dining room; repositioning of plumbing to accommodate the reinstall of the toilet involved holes in walls in the downstairs entrance hall and dining room, requiring more patching and taping of walls and ceilings downstairs. We still have unfinished walls and will remove wallpaper and simply paint the entrance hall and upstairs hall at some point. The only saving grace was Mr. Tola's primary "hands on" employee who, despite his employer's lack of caring, is a knowledgeable, skilled and dedicated craftsman: his carpentry and tile work were excellent and we were grateful for his judgment and suggestions, We wish we could hire him directly to do other work in our home. He completed the rip-out, retiling and sealing of the downstairs shower stall in 3 days. Within weeks, faucets and fixtures became loose. Tub spigot pulled away from wall, revealing flexible hosing behind. Very shoddy, unprofessional work. What was supposed to be a beautiful new bathroom feels like a cheap motel bathroom. My rating of "D" is generous.

The CASA Crew was here everyday at 8AM. They worked so hard and paid attention to every detail we brought to them. Camillo is just a pleasure to work with, always there when you needed him and works hard to get what you want done how you want it. His guys were just the same. I am so TRILLED with our new dining room and Camillo has restored my faith that there are GOOD contractors out there willing to work and treat you with respect and honesty. I can assure you he/they will we doing a lot more work in my home.

I cannot say enough great things about Camilo and their spectacular workmanship! It was well worth calling them to remodel my home. All of our neighbors have complimented us on the work and we feel great about our new home! Since the first day that I met Camilo, he was a very nice gentlemen, very professional who took the time to listen to everything that I wanted to do to my home, they also showed me around so that I could pick everything exactly as I want it. Camilo is an excellent contractor who has enough experience to know what works best and his vision for my home was excellent, I am really grateful for his insight. I have had work done before and I have to say the pricing was just right and for the quality of work it was completely worth it. I heard about this company through a very close friend of mine who recommended them and her house looked spectacular. I really enjoyed working with this company, they are definitely a great team. I am a very picky person because I love to pay exaclty for I want and camilo listened to all my last minute details and was very compliant. The job was done as stated in the contract and although the project was not done by our projected date, due to a few number of things I added, the short delay was definitely worth it. The workers were very quiet and respectful, and they made sure to cover everything and take care of my belongings on the days they were doing the work. We communicated effectively on the days we weren’t going to be home so that they could finish the bathrooms before we came back and this was done on time so we did not have to feel the burdens of the construction as much. This company is definitely worth calling! I have recommended them to my friends and family and I will call them again in their near future.

From the 1st day workers arrived .the work was done as promised in a timely fashion, no surprises took a little longer than expected .

The job took a while longer that expected due to the excessive rain this summer and the contractor did not use tents to try and get some work in on some of those days, however the workmanship is spectacular! It was well worth the delay. All of our neighbors have complimented us on the work and our house has been transformed from a drab to fab!

I had explained that I was moving to Westchester from Boston and had only time on 2 days to meet with contractors, and I needed work done before I moved to NY. I explained this to Johan and he said he would show up. The first time he called minutes before the meeting and said he could not come. I tried again since they were highly rated on AL (their AL ratings have gone down since I first checked). A month later he was a no-show at our scheduled meeting, and this time he did not even call. Their no shows were a real pain, since I only had time to talk with one contractor. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get the work done.

We had a simple written contract that stated very simply what we wanted done, as written above. The ramp is not portable & it is too heavy for me to put up. We had to buy dolleys which were $20 each to transport the ramp. We also had to replace the 16 bolts that they used because they were too short. We purchased 16 longer bolts & washers at about $2 each to secure the ramp together. I am here most of the time & one of my specifications was that someone who speaks English fluently be present at all times & no one was except for once for about 5 minutes. The shelf they did in my daughters closet is great, that took them all of 5 minutes & is the only thing they did right. Our house is a 1912 Colonial & we have the original molding around all the doors & windows. Their instructions were to leave that part of the frame, replace everything newer than the 1912 molding, including the door & the door had to be similar to the one they were taking out. They didn't replace any of the molding. We went back & forth about the door. Our requirement for the door was to have a window in the door so we could see our dog in the backyard. They kept telling us there were no doors to our specifications & we showed them at least 5 at the local hardware store. They then told us it would take 3 weeks to order, when the ones we pulled up were in stock & the store is less than 5 minutes from our home. They got the door & agreed to come do it. The son spoke with my husband & said he would call before he came. He called, I was unable to answer, he showed up 25 minutes later, I let him know that day was not good for me & he said he would be doing it anyway. He had his crew & tools with him & replaced the door with a door that he told us was exactly like the door he was replacing. While it was close to our specifications it was not the exact door. They finished by about 3 & no one spoke English. They showed me the door & that it opened & closed. They said they would be back to paint the door, which they were supposed to stain not paint. I didn't think to check to make sure the door locked & it didn't. As soon as I realized this I called Johan. I got no response from him or his father. We continued to call them throughout the weekend because our door would not lock. We debated calling a locksmith, instead we had a friend show us how to make it unopenable from the outside. They did not return our calls all weekend from Thursday night on, we also emailed Johan because we noticed that the they had planed one side of the door & not the other. In doing that the side with the lock was so narrow you couldn't fit it on the wood, it went on the glass which is not good workmanship or an appropriate solution. They also forgot to replace the frame in all of this. We have a door with a handle & lock in the wrong place, it won't lock & there is no replaced frame. We took pictures of everything. We finally got a hold of Johan's father who told us that Johan is just too busy to answer & return phone calls. Johan finally contacted us. We gave him the option to pay for the dolleys, bolts & to replace the frame & back door & he said no. We paid him 1/2 up front & when he said no we told him he wouldn't be getting the rest of the money. He called back & told us that we could not pay him the money & he wouldn't do the work, but we couldn't file a negative report on Angie's List. He said if we filed a negative report on Angie's List without paying him he would file a $1,200 lien on our house. If he does we will take him to small claims court for the money we've already paid him. We have had to pay an outside party to fix his errors. I would absolutely not hire this company again.

They provided extremely prompt service. They came to give an estimate within a day of calling. They completed the project in under a week. They were very responsive and even did some extra, minor trim work for no additional charge. Would definitely use them again.

Just as planned

The results were excellent. Miscommunication caused work to take longer than planned (used wrong combination of paint colors). The nature of this job though relatively small required about five visits -- compounding, drying, sanding twice and priming/painting drying twice). Contractor should try to provide a schedule in advance and stick to it. I do appreciate that they came in the evening and on a Saturday and were willing to work around my schedule.

Both jobs were handled very professionally -- on time and on budget. Although repairing the hole was a small job, it required several visits (waiting for two coats of spackling to dry for sanding, then painting). John (the owner) coordinated the schedule to meet my needs and his workers were prompt each time. His employees were neat and courteous. Casa Construction was $200 below the nearest estimate I had for these jobs, but there was no reduction in the quality of the finished project. As a result, I have several larger jobs, that I am asking John to bid on.

Worked consistently, fast and good quality.

They did quality and detailed work. The crew was very pleasant to work with. They were exceptionally good at cleaning up after themselves everyday. They gave a sense of confidence in that you could tell they knew exactly what they were doing.