RJR CONSTRUCTION

There were a few minor hiccups but they did okay. I would probably recommend them because I think he is generally honest and tries to do a good job. He can be a little slow on things but the work he does is good.

It went incredibly well and very fast. All the work was completed in a matter of a few days, I could not believe it. Also, the team discovered an additional drainage issue at the front of the house on the final day and immediately constructed a french drain to remedy the problem. Randy is a warm, down-to-earth person who goes out of his way to explain everything. I also had the pleasure of meeting a team member, Tye, who also was very accommodating, walked around the house with me to show me all the work that was done and patiently answered all the questions I had. Randy goes out of his way to work with you...in fact, he made a special trip to the house to check on a concern I had regarding a gas smell (turned out to be nothing) which was not even included in the work quote. I am so lucky to have found Randy and will use him again, gladly!

Apparently our siding was cut very close to the windows, so the poor guy had to take all the siding off the back side of the house to adequately replace these two windows. It took a lot longer than I'm sure anybody expected it to (3 days but not full days each time), yet Randy stuck to his "not to exceed bid." They removed all the siding, replaced the windows, had somebody make new exterior molding to match the house since you can't buy this aluminum siding anymore, and color matched everything. They did a great job putting everything back together. I think they might be a little expensive all things considered, but the quality of their workmanship and general trustworthiness and likeability means something. Randy has a great sense of humor and that's important during a stressful remodel.

Overall the project went well. Randy, the owner was great to work with and easy to talk to.

We had a great time working with RJR and we are very pleased with the finished building. Advantages to hiring RJR: in-house design crew (we didn't have to hire an architect); they participate in the City of Portland's FIRS program which saved us time and money (described below); good communication (we knew which subcontractors were coming each day and what decisions we had to make); good materials (for example, tar paper instead of Tyvek) and "green" materials and practices as much as possible. We had a free-standing single-car garage with a dirt floor on our back property line which was rotting and slowly falling over onto our neighbor's property. We wanted to explore whether we could build something on the same footprint. It was very complicated to figure out for a number of reasons. Ideally we wanted to build a new garage on the old footprint, but the property line was an issue. RJR called in a city inspector and their subcontractors to have a look at it. The research took awhile, but we appreciated that they put in the time to get us a bid that would be as accurate as possible. We ended up being able to build a new structure on the old footprint. We were not required to apply for adjustments or variances. RJR is one of a select group of contractors who participates in Portland's FIRS program, whereby an inspector is assigned to each job site who sees the project through from beginning to end. Contractors in the program have an established positive track record with the City and with their customers. RJR would schedule several inspections for each visit, which kept our costs down and kept the project moving along quickly. We were particularly pleased with RJR's attention to style detail. They matched the style of the new garage to the old one and to the house, in several cases using materials from the old garage or from the house and incorporating them into the new building. All subcontractors were skilled and they showed up when they were supposed to. RJR always alerted us about decisions that we had to make, and they gave us a time frame within to make them. This prevented the project from stalling. All in all, we enjoyed working with this company. We highly recommend them.

CONSISTENTLY OVER BUDGET, DOES NOT STAND BEHIND WORK AND UNWILLING TO FIX MISTAKES.