Commonwealth Heating & Remodeling

I was pleased with their work, they're professional and friendly.

The work was done in a timely manner but were not satisfied with the end result of our repair of our floor tiles or the structure of the faucet chosen by Commonwealth for the job.  If you decide to use them choose your own materials to insure quality.

Communication could be better

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Everything went well. The staff was great, very good. They were good with the cleanup.  The pricing was fair. One thing I will say was sometimes the communication with the person in charge was difficult he, wasn’t the best at communicating. Overall though, it was a good experience.

We inherited a property with lots of problems stemming from an inability of my husband's parents to maintain the home. As a final renovation to the small home (1100 sq. feet), we decided to convert an enclosed sun porch (500 sq ft) into a full addition. The addition added four rooms: A large bedroom, a full bath, an office and a pantry.

Please watch the video that I made of photos from the beginning to the end, along with a walk through: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V34TlqAypWQ


The sun porch, built in the 50's, was glass and aluminum frame, supporting a good roof. The structure would rattle when the wind blew. Windows fell out frequently, it was an eyesore. The aluminum structure was deteriorating to the point where the wrought iron supports were rusted out at the floor. It was unsafe.

We interviewed five builders. Three gave us quotes. One offered to draw plans for a fee, but did not quote us a price or give any documentation.

Commonwealth Construction ( http://pittsburghremodelingpro.com/ ) was the best of the lot by far. Les Dukehart came to the house within a day of my initial contact with their office. He was kind and helpful. NO pressure from Les. He made suggestions and told us, after our walk through and talk, that he would get a plan together with a quote.

The quote was written within three days -- none of the other contractors offered a written quote - only verbal. One of the other bidders yelled at me and said that he wanted us to "pull the trigger" and accept his bid. I never got that kind of  treatment from Commonwealth Construction and Les Dukehart.

We felt confident that Les would get the job done right, removing the walls without dropping the roof was my primary fear. There was simply no pressure. And they did NOT drop the roof.

Day one there were at least five guys here working. They started demolition and had the ceiling down and rafters exposed in two hours. Wall one came down within a couple of hours and was replaced by 2x6 constructed walls, they were supporting the walls as they were removing them. Then they started on wall two. By the end of the day, two sides of our structure was framed and this was in the beginning of February, 2013 -- the winter to end all winters!

Day two all three walls were down and re-framed and sheeting was two-thirds done. By the end of day five the structure was framed in and sheeted.

Ceiling,  flooring joists and interior partitions went up during the second week, we soon had plumbing and electrical roughed in. I was amazed at the flow of the work. It was orchestrated wonderfully. Les was on site every single day.  We always had a great crew here.  Carpenters, plumbers, heating professionals and electricians were very skilled and very nice people. I miss seeing their faces in the house.

I had questions from time to time. I had to call Les many times. He answered his phone each time and was able to talk me through my questions and give me advice. I never felt alone or left to dangle or worry.

Commonwealth passed each inspection required by our community code office and followed the code every step of the way. There was no question, Commonwealth knew the code. Several of the bidders we interviewed did not know the code and it varies from township to township.

At one point, we made a decision to move the main dividing partition a foot or so to make the bathroom larger. This resulted in them having to move and re-frame two windows. They did this without complaint and Les did not charge us for the change.
Les Dukehart met with me at Home Depot and helped me pick out fixtures for the bath. We opted for a 60 inch long standing shower with shower doors. The bath is so beautiful and is completely handicap accessible. This was a primary issue for us, since we have family visitors who use wheelchairs and walkers. We wanted them to be able to use our home without encountering barriers to their accessibility.

The workers were nice, friendly, they cleaned up after themselves every single day. They vacuumed away all of the dust and wood shavings. They organized their work tools every day.  Although it was freezing most days that February, they were here every day. They were courteous, even once rescuing my cat, after I had inadvertently forgotten to put him in the bedroom for the day.

The addition was beautifully sided and the construction is so square and plumb. Not a wrinkle or a mess anywhere. The walls were beautifully dry walled, mudded and primed. We never expected the result would be so wonderful.
The wiring was superb, they even added supports for us to mount a flat screen TV on the wall and helped me show them my plan to run the wiring so that all of the power and cables would be in the walls. They added improvements to my idea and reinforced the walls in two areas with 2x6 horizontal bracing in two areas so that we can hang the TV on either wall. If we ever want to add Ethernet or other cabling, they added conduit so that we simply have to put the wires through without fishing around in the walls.

The addition is insulated with R-19 in the walls and floors and R-38 (code for our area) in the ceiling. It is a warm, tight building. The windows are sealed and are so pretty!

What really tied it all together was the finish carpentry. The fellows sure can trim a room. They made archways, they matched the molding in the old part of the house and the trim in the new area is gorgeous. They created a beautiful walk in closet with a great rack system.  I am just overwhelmed.

They seamlessly used sheet vinyl (at our request) through the bath and office, and it looks so rich. They did not piece it, it is continuous in both rooms, creating flow in the areas. The feel is so good under foot.

Commonwealth created beautiful lighting. I am so pleased. The bathroom has a sensor which turns on the lights when the door is opened and then the lights shut off after a while. This is wonderful, because our children leave lights on all the time. There is also a switch within easy reach to keep the lights on until a person wants to turn them off.
We built this room so that our family could have more living space. Our home is now 1600 sq. feet. Each of our children have their own bedrooms and we no longer have a computer desk in our dining room. We now have an addition with a full bath, an office, a pantry to augment our small kitchen and a huge bedroom. That brings us to a bath on each level, including the basement.

I know we will have more projects and we will call on Les and Commonwealth Construction when our roof needs replaced and other work needs to be done. He is fast, efficient, and worth every penny. I can't say enough about their work ethic and level of expertise.

During our ownership of this home, we have had to have a lot of work done prior to the addition. Being new in the area, we tried a couple of different contractors (see my other reviews). We had a previous contractor do shoddy interior work. We were nervous about doing a project on this scale. We made the right decision with Les and Commonwealth. We will continue to use them as we need work done.

The quote was $25,000. We live in quite an old house and the gentleman that came out to quote it was very familiar with the bones of the house and how it was put together and what would need to be done to bring it up to date. We decided to wait until we have more money to put into the project but we would probably call them back.

Les promptly arrived for our scheduled estimate and was attentive to listening to our ideas, thorough and efficient in taking measurements and making calculations, and mailed us a written quote within the next few days. We hadn't moved in yet and Les was very flexible and accommodating of our schedules, able to meet us both at our old residence in Squirrel Hill and our new home in Etna.
Although it was a bit counter-intuitive, we asked for work on the floors to be done first so that they would be finished before we began to move our furniture. Our schedule was rather tight and Jim aka Mr. Sandman and his staff worked quickly and diligently. Our house is an older one without central air and it was especially impressive to see how hard everyone was working despite the 80-90 degree summer weather. Jim came to examine our floors and was very thorough in explaining the characteristics of our floor and how he was able to ascertain that it was white oak. We settled on a matte, light honey-colored finish to highlight the quality of the wood. The team removed our radiator covers and moved the piano that our house inherited (no small feat!) and was also able to patch in floor boards to fill in a gap where there had once been a banister. In all, a large living room, a large dining room, stair treads, small landing, and larger second floor landing were refinished flawlessly.
In the meantime, the crown molding that we had custom made to match the original molding was finished and Les offered to pick it up for us so that it would save us a trip out. Les' two employees worked quickly and thoroughly in removing the old, non-matching molding and cutting and installing the new pieces. The new pieces were indistinguishable from the old once we painted them and the workers took great care to not harm the new floor.
We thought that we would have to sister in some new floor beams to strengthen the floor under the bathroom but Les' workman informed us that structurally, the floor was sound, and there was no need to perform any repair. We certainly appreciated his honesty! Because we were able to save money by not doing that project. we asked Les to do some plaster repairs for us--we had a ceiling in the attic that needed to be mudded because of moisture coming in from the roof,several holes that we had inherited from the previous owner, and several more that were made by our electrician. All of these were fixed in a careful and efficient manner. We were especially impressed with the repairs on the ceiling where swirls in the plaster had to be matched. After a layer of primer and paint, those repairs too, were seamless.
Overall, we were very impressed with Commonwealth's professionalism and commitment to doing good work at a fair price. Les checked in regularly to ensure that the work was going well and that we were satisfied. He was easy to reach and all of his employees were pleasant, competent gentlemen. The scope and type of work we needed shifted during the project and I was most impressed with how Les was able to adapt to our changing needs. Our needs and budget were modest and I'm sure there are more lucrative projects out there, but Les always made us feel like our projects and our satisfaction was a priority to him and Commonwealth. It was our first experience working with a contractor and doing any home renovations and this was certainly a good one. We'll be happy to call on Commonwealth in the future for our next big projects.

It was a positive experience. We felt very comfortable with the company, but decided that the pricing was more than we expected.

the coming out and inspection of area was great and they sent the original quote in an agreeable, if not a little slow, time. however they missed one item of estimate which they corrected. however, when I requested they split the two room I was told they would but they never came at the agreed time. i called several times as i needed for the insurance, the price seemed reasonable and i was going to use, the person denied he agreed to re-quote each room on its own and told me unless i paid i was not receiving any quote. i am actually relieved, u think i dodged a horrible situation. i cannot recommend however it would not be fair to advise against using the company, as i think the paperwork and not the repair work is what they are lacking.

Commonwealth was very professional and did a great job with our bathroom.  It was only about a week from the time we first contacted them to the start of work.  The workers were courteous and did a great job of cleaning up after the work was finished.  The bathroom looks great and is exactly what we wanted.

We Interviewed several companies and felt Commomwealth was the best fit for our needs. We met with co. manager Les who has over 50+ years experience and knew what we needed besides the obvious. He took his time in assessing the bathroom, took measurements and sat down with us to make up a building plan. It was also comforting that he has experience with older houses with finicky outdated plumbing and odd architecture. Because our bathroom was worse then an outhouse and over run with mold, Les said he could get started immediately and finish up in about 7 days barring no complications. The initial estimate was one of the more reasonable ones we received and the time frame was reasonable.
The crew showed up the following Tuesday at about 9 am. Al and John were very nice and professional. They introduced themselves before spreading plastic down on the rug and apologized for the mess they were about to make, which for tearing down a room wasn't so bad. They were also pet tolerant which was good because of the two small house dogs that never stopped barking until it was time for them to leave. Les came everyday to see how things were progressing, answer questions, and let us know how things were going. Al and John would consult with Les about any problems they encountered and would ask us if before they did anything that was different from the work plan. On the 2nd day Les said the crew found extensive water damage and rot on the anterior (back) wall. There were also problems with the roof, venting and shingles also the wiring and plumbing. We expected problems to arise and had already braced ourselves for the worse. Les asked if he could bring a roofer out to look over the problems and fix what needed fixed. The extra work added 2 days to the job which was fine with us. We told Les we wanted a good job and weren't in a hurry.
The guys showed up around 8:30 and finished around 4:30 which was good timing with kids and school. I shopped and bought all the fixtures including the shower door. The only thing Les picked out was the tub and surround. He wanted to be sure we got a sturdy surround & tub that would last and wouldn't leak. Everyday after they were done Al and John would thoroughly clean up any dust and run the shop vac. They even asked to take any pics or clocks off the walls so that they wouldn't fall when the heavy banging started. They wouldn't leave until everything was done correctly. John even came back on Sat the day after they finished to fix something minor with the plumbing. Only one day was missed due to the weather.  On the last day all the debris and garbage was hauled away, the sidewalk swept.
We were dreading the whole experience of remodeling because our bathroom was so bad but Les and his guys made things bearable from start to finish even with the incessant barking of our little but very loud dogs. When Les gave me the final bill, he told me it was no more then 15,000. Before I fell over I peeked @ the bill and to my immense relief it was only 200 more then the original estimate. That included all the extra work on the roof, back wall, wiring, and plumbing. Les told me any problems with the work and they would come back and fix it. I will definitely use Commonwealth again because of the work they did and because they've earned my trust that I won't be cheated. I would also recommend them to anyone that needs work on their homes.
Commomwealth has a steady customer.

I thought he was a decent contractor. They were pretty good. The work was nicely done, but the budget went way over what I expected and they took way too long to do the work. They did not communicate that to us.

The workmen, were very pleasant and dog friendly. The workmanship was excellent and they made several helpful design suggestions.

See above. There were no do's and don'ts.

We only had a few weeks between closing and moving in our house & Commonwealth was able to complete the new bathroom so that we could move in without the inconvenience of remodeling. They were inventive in concealing the pipes going to this new 3rd floor bath.

The owner, Les Dukehart, managed all of the subcontractors efficiently. He oversaw the daily progress, and produced an excellent set of two new rooms. We are delighted with the value and the rapid completion of this large project.

Everything was done quickly and efficiently. The owner replaced the kitchen faucet that the crew accidently threw away with the old sink (it had been a fairly new faucet) with a similar one. Crews showed up when they were expected and were professional.

We are very pleased with the results, especially in the bathroom. Jimmy, the man who did the actual work, took great care to make everything look perfect. He minimized the inconvenience of his presence by cleaning up after himself on a daily basis and by being friendly and helpful to us. In addition to performing the contracted work, he also carried some old furniture to the curb for us, diagnosed a problem with our furnace, and recommended a repairman. Jimmy was often unable to work a full day because of family responsibilities, so the work took longer than it otherwise might have, but the quality was worth waiting for.

The workman showed up a little later than I expected, but he got right to work tearing out the old tub and prepared the site for the new one. No problems on day one. The next day, the new tub was installed without being hooked up to the plumbing. They had problems getting the tub correctly in place. The workmen then left the job at 2 PM on a friday. The tub was not usable. We have no other shower facilities.The original workman returned monday morning and made the final plumbing connections and installed the tile. The third days work took just three hours. I asked why it was not done on the previous friday so we could have used it over the weekend. The worker replied he was pulled off the job to replace a toilet at the owners home. Mr. Dukehart put his needs above his client. Rather unprofessional.

work was done by Jim a subcontractor . Les did all the ordering of fixtures and supply. work went well both Les & Jim did a great job. Jim was there around 9 am everyday . we told Jim everything we would like done. Jim would explain things to us and let us know of any problems .I was there everyday and talked to him about the job . I think both Jim & Les did a great job and I highly recommend them

We read great reviews about this company on Angie's List, and thought it would be a no-brainer. The owner Les, was great. The workers, were not. Both bathrooms got new medicine cabinets. The walls all around them still have holes from the old fixtures/etc. It took from April until July to get our radiators connected again. The painting done is AWFUL. Some of the bathroom fixtures (such as the toilet paper holders, towel bars) are already pealing away from the walls because they weren't installed correctly. We had our kitchen done by another company - Commonwealth gave us a better estimate. Looking back, we should of stuck with the company that did our kitchen - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

I haven't been up on the roof to inspect, but this company has done work for us before and always do quality work at a very reasonable price.

I had them come over and do a price on a rental property basement. The house is worth about 80k and I explained to him that as an appt I didn't want to invest a lot of money. Tenants do not usually care for things the same way the homeowner would. He came back with a price of 15 to 20k. For simply drywall and plaster. I asked him to break down the PLASTER only price...and was quoted 5k. I had my 1st floor done last year...full kitchen and dining area and a large stairway with 20 foot ceilings. I was charged just over 700 for the work through my contractor. I would have had them working again but they are tied up for 6 months and I couldn't wait. After telling him I thought the price was awfully high for the small area. He then made me fell like I was a total CHEAPSKATE. In tough economic times and with all his great reviews I was very disappointed in his attitude. I think the man was a sales rep for the company. But was a bit of a smart*expletive*. Which just wasn't the attitude I would want from anyone doing work for me. BTW I own 4 rental properties...and I put 25k into the upper floor remodel. So I really don't consider myself CHEAP. But I'll keep my 20k in my pocket and spend 8 with another contractor.

It was a fine experience overall. The owner handled the business side of the projects, and the work has been done by his subcontractor. The only issue I had was with the subcontractor being less detail oriented than I would have wished. Some of his work was a bit too rough. But, still overall, they did a good job.