SLS CUSTOM HOMES

This is a hard review to write however I feel like I need to share my experience to warn those who choose to contract with SLS Custom Homes and Remodel, Inc. I used this contractor to put a second-story addition and remodel on my home and was very excited with the beginning prospects of the project. To be fair, the actual crew of SLS were great and very respectful and helpful. I will also say that they were on time for the most part. But when it came to the budget and the financial part of the encounter it was a complete disaster! As with most projects, there were add-ons as the project moved along, but no paperwork was ever presented with a concrete budget of the add-ons until the project was about a month from completion. At that point I got an enormous bill of &40,000 for “extras”! When I went through each item in detail, there was no paperwork to back up the amounts being charged, and I found that some items double dipped into items that were in the original contract, which had been paid in full. When I asked Steve for paperwork to back this up he got very angry and dismissed my requests multiple times. He blamed the project manager for miscommunicating... which only involved putting up finishing trim and replacing one pocket door in the game room of my home. I was able to get copies of my paid invoices from the subcontractors showing the supplies that were ordered and paid for, but Steve only became more angry that I got the invoices. I found out he verbally went off on one of the other subcontractors for supplying me with the proof and I felt extremely bullied by him as well. All I wanted was to sit down with a mediator with all of the back up so that we could finish the project and pay him what he was truly owed but not only did he refuse, his responses in his certified letters were completely unprofessional. The work has still never been completed and the outstanding amount I held back until the work was complete was only $5,000. I would hate to see how a larger discrepancy would make this man react. I felt threatened and bullied by his behavior and this was hard for me to deal with being a single mother of two children. I do love the addition and the work that was completed, they did great work but the way the financial portion of the project was handled was completely unacceptable. I would suggest if you use this contractor to get signed paperwork for EVERYTHING, itemized billing and make sure your original contract is written out in great detail so that you (and they) can avoid “miscommunication”. I am posting this review because I got a warning from a friend who also used SLS and had the same issue with the enormous extras invoice at close to completion of her remodel. I have heard from multiple neighbors with the same experiences as mine with SLS since then as well. Hopefully this will help someone else because it shouldn’t have ended this way and although I love the work done on my remodel, the ending experience ruined it for me, and I would never refer anyone to SLS.

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It went good. There were a few issues along the way but they were ironed out and resolved. The kitchen looks really nice.

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Whenever one does a remodel of this magnitude you never know what you'll find when you start ripping walls apart. With any huge remodel, something unexpected is bound to come up. that's the nature of remodeling. One should expect the unexpected. The measure a a master builder and quality contractor is how he/she responds to those challenges. Some things did come up with my remodel, and Steve handled them quickly and with professionalism. In ripping out an exterior wall, a surprise vertical post was found spanning two floors. Immediately he had an engineer out to assess the situation and was able to add a new large support beam/header to carry the load. I had s a concern over the location of some of the new plumbing rough in, which was corrected right away. Near the end there was an issue with the vanity doors not closing quite as expected, and once I let Steve know, they were on it the next day. I'll admit I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I'm very happy with the remodel. Steve says his goal is for customers to be happy with the job. I believe him because he made sure everything was to our satisfaction. They did an amazing job cleaning the job site every day. We lived in the house during the remodel and hardly noticed they were here. Everyone was very friendly and professional. The job actually came in a bit under budget and after final accounting, I got a refund check! I was shocked to see that another Angie's list reviewer gave SLS a bad grade. We had a great experience. I can't wait until we save enough money to use SLS to do the same to our kitchen.

Overall pretty well but I think the job should have been completed as specified in contract. I did install some lights but was not credited for money paid for service I performed.

Work overall was pretty good and price seemed reasonable, but since money was tight we would have appreciated more detailed accounting and more flexibility in where/what we could purchase for finishing details. For example, I never knew the cost of bathroom fixtures, they were just included in the lump sum invoice from SLS - so I wasn't sure if choosing cheaper fixtures benefited me or SLS. Also, when I found a shower door I preferred at Home Depot, SLS said we had to install it ourselves. Overall Steve and his crew were pleasant to work with, Steve even lent us his router for one of our pet projects. Pros: Steve, his foreman and the contractors were punctual, pleasant, and seemed very competent. We liked the designer who drew up the plans and the permitting process with the city went smoothly. The minor workmanship problems were fixed promptly. The work was completed on schedule and we are happy with the final result. Cons: As mentioned, I never knew what we were paying for. I wished they'd have put down something to protect the wood floor on the main part of the house - although it didn't seem to be damaged after all. Some of the contractors seemed a little flaky (had to keep asking when the drywaller was coming to do final touch-up work, we had a minor leak in the plumbing, the electrical work was adequate but wasn't the most logical).

Steve wasn't able to the job I was looking for but I look forward to calling him to bid on my next project.

Came to home for consult...very nice and professional. Had some handy work done by a nice guy, who went out of his way to look for the items needed to replace mini blind brackets that had been discarded by previous workers from a different company during the restoration of my home. I feel he went out of his way to help me and it was very heartwarming to know such nice people are out there.

We trusted them for the quality of the work. We were happy with what they did. The sub-contractors were all good. If we had any questions, they took care of it. We were completely happy with the kitchen job, so we decided to use them a second time. We felt very comfortable dealing with them. He also gave us a calendar of what would happen on what days, and he stuck to the calendar.

Highly recommend SLS. Only problem (due to subcontractor "accident") was quickly brought to my attention and then resolved (no cost to me) and still finished job in estimated time. Looks great, thrilled we decided to update. The kitchen is beautiful!

Steve met with us to review our request for an expansion to the bedrooms on the end of our house. He was very throughtful and thorough in his questions. He provided a detailed estimate and many references. He was always on time, and followed up quickly to answer our questions. SLS was in our top 2 for a general contractor - after interviewing 4 others that we found on Angie's list. We decided to use the other company, but only because of a slight difference in the price. All other things being equal, we opted for the lower estimate. Steve's was not too expensive, but was a bit more than the other. Based on meeting with SLS and reviewing references, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for an initial estimate.

Very professional team, easy to reach. Vacuumed EVERY day and kept the rest of the house usable, and comfortable.

The job went smoothly from start to finish. Steve was very accessible via phone and email. His team enclosed a living/dining room great room that had vaulted ceilings. On the new second floor they created 2 more bedrooms that increased the house from the original 2 to 4. The addition added 300 more square feet to the house. Steve's team were very professional, always on time and did what they had to when it was needed. They even finished a week sooner than expected.