Max Leiber Design & Remodel

We hired Max to build and install a railing up a narrow staircase and also down to our basement. Both had to be removable. He did a great job in a difficult space.

I requested several bids before deciding to hire Max. Comparing them was a little difficult as they did not all give detailed itemization on their bids, and, in some cases, gave a price range on items such as flooring, wiring, etc. I would say, they were all within what I had expected.







I decided to go with Max for several reasons. First, I had looked at his website and found his reviews, and the quality and variety of his work very impressive. I liked the fact that his work (and words) showed much creativity. Before meeting Max, I thought that he might be a and quot;difficult artistic typeand quot; - which could not be further from the truth. Max is very down to earth, easy to work with, honest, and hardworking.







Coming into the job, Max found that I had just started the project. I'd had some friends begin the demolition on my upstairs bathroom and a small adjacent room. With the drawing of the basic layout I planned to use, Max completed the demolition, framed the room, installed a new shower, window, and tiling. In addition, he coordinated the electrician, plumber, and counter fabrication, and then completed the finish electrical and plumbing. The installation of the new window required the removal of 2 existing windows. completing this part of the project required Max to repair the siding on the house that had just been replaced the previous year. Looking at it today, you can't even see the and quot;repairand quot;.







Originally, I had planned to order cabinets and have the remodeler install them. Max designed and built the cabinets and they are beautiful! My 1926 cape cod has a sloped ceiling in the bathroom which Max was able to work around. I think the sink cabinet area turned out great. In addition he built a small linen cabinet in the bathroom (next to the shower), and a larger linen cabinet in the hallway outside the bath.







Max was very good at communicating during this whole process. What I particularly liked was that Max was flexible. Although I tried to be timely with decisions, there were changes and delays while I struggled with some of the many remodeling decisions - Max was always very patient and helpful in his suggestions.







About half way into the project, Max and I talked about finances. The cabinets were going to cost more than his original quote and his calculation on time was also coming up short. Although no one likes that kind of news, I really wasn't too surprised - my remodeling experiences have almost always come in over original estimates. In the end, I thought the pricing was fair. Probably my only disappointment/frustration was the time the project took to complete. Again, I think that is pretty normal. I also think that when you are working with only one person and not a crew, you are going to have more delays. So, I'd have to say that when you balance out the quality of the work, price, etc. this is not a and quot;deal breakerand quot;.







Bottom line, I highly recommend Max. Great design and quality, good fair pricing, and honest person to work with.

The project went very well overall. This is our only full bath, and so Max staged the work to minimize the inconvenience to us.
Rather than tearing out all fixtures at the same time, which would have been faster for him, he instead tore out and replaced the main fixtures (tub, sink, toilet) one by one. This, for example, left us without a bathtub and shower for less time than it otherwise would have. While he was working on the walls around the tub, he enclosed the tub area within plastic sheeting, which allowed us to use the shower and tub without getting the surrounding area wet.

Max was responsive to our needs. He reduced the height of the vanity at our request, after it had already been installed. When we found some transparent spots on the frosted glass on the door, he diagnosed it as bits of the finish that he'd applied to the wood - to find a way to remove it without damaging the frosting, he bought a piece of frosted glass, applied finish to it, and then experimented with various solutions. When he found the solution, he came and removed it from our door.

The main issue was that it took longer than originally anticipated, but anyone who's ever had remodeling done knows that it always takes longer than expected. Max did not attempt to bill more than the original bid for his labor, except for additional work that we agreed went beyond the original scope of work.

After having a different tile company do a somewhat sloppy install of backsplash in our bathrooms, we decided to go with another company for our kitchen. We chose Max because we wanted an artist, not just a contractor. Max has training in art and design in addition to construction, which gave him the skills required to competently execute our detailed backsplash design. He has an eye for detail, proportion and layout. We were concerned about the feasibility of some of the more difficult parts of the job, such as cutting holes out of large field tiles to accommodate the many outlets that occur in the kitchen, but Max was able to do it, using several auxiliary tools in addition to his tile saw. I had asked him if he thought it would be possible, and he said, and quot;Anything is possibleand quot;-- just the answer I was hoping for. And fortunately, he had the know-how to get it done right. We told him we wanted the finished job to be clean and professional, and he made the effort required to be as meticulous as was necessary. One of the best qualities he exhibited on the job was his willingness to ask our opinion when encountering decisions, such as what the edging should be aligned to. I gave him a and quot;Band quot; on price because, although his hourly rate was very reasonable, he seemed to lack efficiency in completing tasks. The time that the project took meant that the overall cost of the project was more than we thought it would be initially, even given that we chose a challenging design. Don't let it scare you away from hiring him though-- it is always worth it to pay more for excellent quality, and a and quot;Band quot; is still and quot;above average.and quot; He was also very forthright and honest about the cost, so no complaints there.

Max was also pleasant to be around, and we never felt uncomfortable having him in our house. He was willing to work around our schedule, arriving at 9:30 rather than the 7am most contractors seem to insist on. One day he even brought us a little box of scones and doughnuts from the coffee shop he stopped at on his way to our house each day.

I would recommend Max to anyone looking for kitchen tile work, as his skills are versatile and he is highly competent.

Please contact me directly if you require further information. The work completed was primarily cabinet work and wood work.

He was very thorough and he seemed to know what he was doing. He charged me about 45 dollars an hour and wouldn't use him again.

The job went very well. Max had to adapt to a variety of challenging situations including the size of the altar and its transport into the meditation hall. He was able to construct the altar while the meditation hall was in use without interrupting the use of the hall. Max is very creative and great at adapting to challenging situations. I strongly recommend Max for this type of work.

I personally find change and remodeling very stressful. Since I work at home, if things get crazy (messy or irritating) it's bad. Max was a joy to have around. He did his job, kept the site neat and clean, had interesting ideas, and brought his designers eye and skills to the process, which I think was of tremendous additional value. We highly recommend him!

The thing I appreciated most about Max was his nondefensive responsiveness when I got picky. When the trim wasn't just like I wanted, he came back and refinshed it right away. He is honest and we communicated very well. He was helpful in coming up with solutions to problems that needed to fixed at my house.

The altar is a beautiful piece that highlights the religious statues that it houses. It is very functional and is the perfect design for the room in which it sits. Max was very thoughtful and deliberate in his work. He was very easy to work with, accommodating all the requirements and requests that are part of such a specific and demanding project such as this. Max created a combination of art work and beautiful construction carpentry that is now housing statues that are over 500 lbs each in weight. Max is a very competent, artistic, and professional construction contractor.

Max remodeled my bathroom, putting in all new appliances except the bathtub. It was very narrow small bathroom, which had two layers of vinyl on the floor, laminate on the bathroom surround, an old built-in medicine cabinet and no other storage. I wanted to have tile on the surround and the floor, replace the sink and toilet, remove the medicine cabinet, move the wall sconces...and create more storage that somehow would not take up any more room in the small space. I had a lot of ideas about how to do this, including using only seconds tile from Pratt and Larson here in Portland, and not changing the size/footprint of the room itself. Max was happy to discuss the details of the project, and he was flexible at every point in the process of working on the remodel. I laid out the tile design for the surround and he followed it exactly. He is both quick and exacting at tilework. He is a whiz at demolition and he was careful about leaving the areas surrounding the room as neat and clean as possible. This is the only bathroom in the house, so I needed a working toilet at most times....and he graciously complied. An example of this is when he put in the new toilet---even though the floor was the last thing to be finished---he laid a new underfloor and tiled the small part of the room where the toilet sat---in order to put in the toilet and have it working for the rest of the project. His artistry and skill in woodworking are of high quality. He designed and made a countertop (attached to the wall with metal brackets) for the drop in sink that fits the narrowness of the room, the shape of the sink and is beautiful. He made a wall cabinet and designed a graceful unique door for it. Max was flexible in working with the electrician I hired to deal with the very old lighting system. Max did most of the plumbing himself, except removing and replacing the bathroom drain. The project had a number of fits and starts---for example, I was concerned with the possibility of not disturbing the underflooring because of a trace amount of asbestos---but Max's willingness to be very careful with removal...and his quick work removing the floor put my doubts to rest. Max is a careful, conscientious, hard worker---and an artist on top of that. He understands the importance of detail. He is flexible and sensitive to his clients' needs. I appreciated his openness towards designing the bathroom myself...and to his skill in following that design to the letter.

Max offered the idea of taking a more creative (and less costly approach) to renovating the bathroom, by choosing discontinued bath tiles in multiple colors. Max worked fast and efficiently, and the shower is a work of art, as well as being built to last. Max finished the job on time and under budget, and did a great job cleaning up and removing all the construction job. As well as doing a great job for me, I've seen some amazing cabinets he's built on other jobs, and I would definitely recommend him for carpentry work.

It went very well from start to finish. Max always answered the phone when I called, let me know when he was going to be there, watched the dog (and the dog watched him). He cleaned up every bit of material, came back to finish the last details, made sure I was happy and satisfied with the work before he went on to a new job at my friend's house. She is happy too.

Max is a good listener and asks appropriate questions about each project. He never steam-rolls. He maintains an admirable balance between design (his fine arts background is a bonus) and grounded practicality. Max encouraged us whenever possible to use recycled materials and wood/fixtures that we already had on hand. He joined us at the Rebuilding Center where we found a beautiful faucet and a great set of cabinets that Max configured in surprising ways to create an attractive and functional laundry room. We hoped to make our basement more cozy by adding some wood wainscoting, but had a limited amount of seasoned fir. Max did a great job in designing and installing varied height wainscoting that maximized every bit of available wood. We are very happy with the result. Our old casement windows in the front of the house were drafty and funky. The two new windows that Max installed now flank the original picture window; they look and work great. He re-used the old hardware and took care to stain the wood carefully to match new to old. Besides appreciating Max's competence and talent, we are also very comfortable with him personally. Max is friendly, calm, direct and reasonable. I enthusiastically recommend him to anyone that is searching for an excellent contractor.

Our 1940's bathroom was all original and in need of a complete remodel. From the beginning Mr. Leiber took his time talking to us, asking us questions and taking notes, never making us feel rushed or that we were taking too much of his time. We had the old tub removed and a new tub installed with tile work throughout. The old lath and plaster was removed in the areas needed and drywall was put up in its place. Electrical work was also needed and Mr. Leiber worked with a wonderful electrician (Joshua Hough) to get the job done. All new plumbing fixtures and pipes where put into place. Mr. Leiber took great care to keep the dust levels and mess to the minimum, worked in a timely manner, and was always sensitive to our families needs.