Neil Kelly Company

BEWARE. It has been nine months since we engaged Neil Kelly, our project has slipped to December. Neil Kelly's most recent activity was the May completion of an overly expensive demolition. It took over five months to receive design renderings and pricing. The summer was filled with poor communication and missed commitments. A myriad of mistakes were made in almost all components related to our scope of work, it was filled with errors. We had to find and ask for corrections, as Michael Johnsons work was incredibly sloppy. Work done on exterior staircase/handrail was shoddy, as the rail fell off when a person weighing 145 pounds used it to access the area. (We paid $9,000+ for a rough stair structure.)We paid a deposit to start Phase 2 of 3 to build-back in June, last week we got an email from NK after reaching out again for an update, saying that our job might begin in December they are spread thin! To date no permits have been pulled; no vendors were contacted. We have asked for our deposit back Ironically, it was one of the first times their response was prompt with a NO!

We hired Neil Kelly to do a kitchen refresh last year, starting in March 2022. It involved replacing countertops, backsplash, faucet, sink, 4 light fixtures and adding a hood. It was quoted as a 2-3 week job. We had purchased all the materials in advance so there would be no delay in the process. It started well; taping off and demo went quickly. But we kept waiting for people to show up to do the work. Appointments were missed without a call. We waited for weeks sometimes for people to show up to work. A lot of that time, we had no working kitchen. This of course, caused extra stress and expenses for us. I called the office on occasion to see if someone was coming to work at the scheduled time. Once they were there, most of the work was done well. HOWEVER, some work was sub-par. When the contractor could not find a tile person, he installed it himself. He admitted he was ‘not a tile guy’ and the straight section is fine, especially after I asked another worker to replace the two tiles he cracked. The angled section looks quite amateurish. There is a toaster oven in front of it which helps. The bigger problem was with the countertops. Originally, I had selected a fabricator/installer for the job. They were a company that had numerous great references, and I had seen their work at a friend’s house. The contractor would not work with them because he did not know them. He assured me that the people he chose were consummate professionals and would do an incredible job. I was already worried when they used thin cardboard for templates, rather than lasers. One was cut so badly that they had to use one of my remnants to re cut it. This prevented us from using it in our bath or returning it for credit. Two of the seams do not meet at the point the counters are joined. They rounded off the edges and said we would get used to it. They did give a small credit for those 2 mismatched seams. The workers were great, really tried hard, but this job was way out of their scope of work/ability. And that is the contractor’s fault; for choosing them. He also should have instructed them to center the openings for the sink and cooktop, he was designing the job. The faucet does not fully open because the sink is too far back. The contractor shopped with me for the faucet so he was aware of the style and the room it needed. The cooktop has a very large dead space behind it. It is of no use, and looks awkward. These are the things he should have addressed. And he was well aware of my dissatisfaction from the day they were installed. After several months, the contractor quit working for Neil Kelly. No one contacted us about someone taking over the still uncompleted job. I called the office on several occasions with no response. Finally, another person came by and said all the right things, but I never saw him again. There was a mistake made installing the faucet, breaking it, so I ordered another. I was instructed to order another but I was told the wrong kind. The third faucet sat in the garage for months. This is where we took over. In the beginning of July, in a fit of frustration I hired a plumber to install the faucet. At last, a working faucet. Washing dishes in the laundry room was getting very old. We also installed all the light fixtures ourselves, with the help of a neighbor. We did the painting and installed the outlet covers and switch plates. After much back and forth, we just paid the bill today (February 23, 2023). We did receive a ‘customer satisfaction credit’ but that really didn’t help with our frustration, disappointment and opinion of Neil Kelly. Beware.

I have had the worst experience with Neil Kelly. I started my addition on my garage in November 2020 and they still have not completed the project. Our original project manager quit and the construction manager got fired all in one week. Neil Kelly then tried to repair the damages that those employees had done. Things were done without permits, they had to redo the walls of my garage which weren’t even in the original scope of work. The worst is that they dug 11 foot trenches digging up my grass all along the side of my house to connect the water line. The excess water from the digging caused concrete issues in my driveway and they refused to repair the grass that they destroyed leaving my yard a mud pit. It has taken countless hours to get in contact with anyone to give us a punch list and I don’t know if my project wi ever be completed because they have lied to me about deadlines so often. They are a nightmare to work with and I would NEVER use them again. Highly recommend you avoid this company at all costs. They will destroy your home.

Excellent. High quality, attention to detail.

Basement reconstruction project. Lifted house, dugout 2 feet or so of basement, poured new foundation slab and walls, constructed egress stairwary and windows, replumbed, installed new furnace and ducts. Horrible experience. DO NOT USE NEIL KELLY (NK). 1-The contract is supposed to be a NTE contract for the designed project. FALSE-this is only if all of the project components are thought out, clear, and end up on the scope of work. As industry outsiders we have to put trust in professionals to scope a project correctly. In our case, although the design was what we hoped (we thought at the time) the scope was vague and did not include all of the project components and small details to carry the project to completion. It turns out that the devil is in the details. Further, I've come to believe NK knew the project would end up at a higher cost, but they failed to tell us at the onset until those portions of the project revealed themselves--i.e., the front and back porches needed to be rebuilt due to lifting the house (not in scope of work [SOW]). The porches were known as a scope issue internally at NK and two of their more experience project managers refused to take on the project because of this (this was only recently revealed to me by senior staff at NK, roughly 1 year after we signed the contract). 2-They are a Design/Build company, but it would be well worth it for anyone that can afford NK to hire an architect for the design and another company for the build. NK's design was FLAWED. They failed to measure the grade around the house correctly, which caused the egress stairway to be to short by 2 steps. Rather than checking with me prior to changing the design, NK formed up the stairway in an adhoc (unappealing) way that we did not approve prior to pouring the concrete. They also failed to measure the grade for the sewer pipe correctly and had to replace it, last minute. They did not charge us for the replacement, but NK did ruin our landscaping in the process of replacing the pipe and have failed to restore it back to its original condition. 3-Used a substandard concrete subcontractor and provided poor oversite and project managment. The foundation walls were not braced properly for the pour and they buckled inward rougly 1.75 inches along the length of our house. The concrete subcontractor formed the egress window wells incorrectly (did not follow the design) and the project manager for NK either failed to notice or did not revise based on the plans. We had to bring it to the attention of NK, who used the same subcontractor to demolish and replace one of the window wells. The replaced window well now has (sub)angles on it like a surrealist sculpture. The other window well still does not match the design and there are major cracks in the stairway and landing. 4-FAILED to provide a written project schedule even though I requested it at the start a number of times. When I pressed about it again later in the project, NK said it was not industry standard to provide a schedule. I was TOLD our house would be lifted and unliveable for 8 weeks. We were told at week 7 that there was a delay, and we weren't able to move back in until Week 12. We have two small children and this delay was very difficult to manage last minute. Further, the project manager rarely checked with me regarding project details that I should have been informed about, leading to a number of errors that needed to be corrected. We've spent so much of our own time and energy correcting errors and making sure tasks are done properly and according to the design. Several times we've been told by the project manager that tasks were out of scope and would not be performed by NK even though they were clearly stated in the SOW. After pointing out the exact place in the SOW the tasks were indicated, they would schedule the work. 5-FAILED permit final inspection. NK submitted engineering designs to the city that did not reflect the scope of work, apparent upon my later inspection that there would be items required to meed code that were unaccounted for in NK's SOW. These things include: a smoke detector in the basement (standard City code) and a railing around the egress stairway (among other things). I noticed after my own inspection that the permit designs are different from the designs in the SOW in that they DO include a railing at the stairway. NK refuses to take responsibility for passing the final inspection. We've been asked to take out a separate permit under our own names to pass inspection. 6-SENIOR LEADERSHIP has threatened mediation/arbitration twice when we've aked them to address the design flaws/errors or requested status updates for the remaining/incomplete tasks. Once the project is deemed "substantially complete," whether it is or is not, NK requires final payment. Many of the above-mentioned errors/incomplete tasks, including passing final inspection, are unresolved and haven't been acknowledged by NK as something on which they will follow through; however, NK has deemed the project "substantially complete" and are demanding final payment. When I brought up the remaining tasks and asked for an update, senior leadership at NK ignored our concerns, threatened mediation, and said they would be exercising their lien rights in the meantime. In sum, there are plenty of high-quality companies out there in the Portland area that are personable, care about their work, take responsibility/corrective actions for mistakes, use high-quality subs, and are hands-on regarding project managment and communication. All while charging much less. If we could do it again, we would hire an architect for the design and contract directly with a builder. If we could do it again, we would hire another design/build company. If we could do it again, we would hire ANYONE BUT Neil Kelly. Don't think like we did, we thought: if they cost the most, advertise on NPR, and have been working in the region for a long time, they should be the best. We learned the hard way that they are far from the best.

Very poorly. We regret hiring them for a deck project last year. What should have been a 2-3 week job lasted ten months. We needed constant vigilance to correct their shoddy work. They substituted inferior material in place of what was contracted for, and refused to acknowledge the difference (more detail at bottom). We couldn’t believe anything our project manager told us. When we wrote to Neill Kelly management about our complaints, a VP came out to inspect. We hoped then that we would get some resolution, and the minor problems were slowly fixed over a period of months. But when we pointed out the obvious difference between the material underfoot to what was exposed to sight in trim, this VP told us how long he'd been in the business, and that we were too inexperienced to understand the materials were the same. We were never able to get a satisfactory solution to this problem. The grooves ("kerfing") visible in the photo are necessary to reduce the likelihood of warping in this type of cedar — known as "cedar one" or "pro deck" — milled from very fast-growing cedar trees where the roots have been injected with growth hormones to make them grow even faster. Fast-grow cedar is flat grained, as the photo shows, and prone to warping. Our contract called for tight-knot cedar; that material was only used as trim where the kerfing would have been more noticeable.

In 10 weeks time, the team gutted our kitchen and did a full remodel (redesign of appliance locations, new cabinets, new counters, new appliances, upgraded electrical, plumbing, hood venting, new lighting, floor refinishing, etc.) Also, made some cosmetic and electrical updates in family room. Our Designer, Fabian, the Project Manager, Paul, and Lead, Cale, did a fantastic job keeping everything on schedule. All the subcontractors used by Neil Kelly are top notch professionals. We had no issues and no delays. We were impressed by how well this went. The quality of work is excellent. We are very pleased with our new kitchen. We are so glad we worked with the Neil Kelly team. (We had heard horror stories of friends' remodels done by other companies. Delays, cost overruns, etc.)

Neil Kelly is very respectful. I trust them. The workers are very polite, and good at what they do. I have used him twice now, and he has been great.

? they were stellar. Highly recommend

Initial consult went ok, but then took us calling a couple times to get to next phase. Preliminary design and quote came back with a range of $23k - $45k. We liked the initial design, so we signed a $1700 design retainer. They did the detailed design but came back and said it would actually cost $75k!!! Ugg, that was outside our budget for the project!! We are now out the $1700. So, apparently they didn't correctly estimate the preliminary design. Isn't that their business? How were the so far off? They were completely unwilling to own up to their mistake and refund anything. If they would of more correctly estimated we all would have saved time and money.

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Smoothly. 1st class all the way. EXCELLENT

We took the bathroom down to the studs and are SO PLEASED with the results! This 1979 bathroom was transformed! Loved working with Barbara Miller the designer and Heather Steele the project manager. The bathroom is small and we did not change the footprint. The best thing we did was replace the door with a pocket door. Yes, it meant moving some electrical, but well worth the added cost. We were very impressed with the service we received from the crew at Neil Kelly.

Great! The melamine I chose was cut and fitted into the spot and moulding trimmed the outer edge out to finish it off. Looks nice and is more sturdy.

Took longer than expected, but the work was good.

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One thing they did, didn't last, but everything else was pretty much dead on. They were fine. They just said, "This is going to work perfectly. Don't worry about it," and it didn't. It wasn't a big thing at all.

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