Get matched with top glass block pros in Vandergrift, PA

"They were prompt and consulted with me before work
"

"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."

"A great guy, reliable, neat, friendly and reasonable pricing. Highly recommended!"

"The bathroom went great! We got a custom floor and shower. Vaulted ceilings. I'm so excited to show friends and family! Sl contractors are currently working on my dressing room and I cant wait to see!"

"Mr. Novak did quality work on my house while I was 500 miles away. Although I was a little nervous about not being there for the renovation, he came through by doing a great job, on time and very reasonable. He kept me informed all through the process. I will be hiring him again in the near future."

"An email I sent Pittsburgh Exteriors last week: Pittsburgh Exteriors: Over 8 months ago I completed payment on a roof replacement and venting per a contract between Pittsburgh Exteriors and me. This represented one job for Pittsburgh Exteriors, and almost an entire summer's wages for me. I believe I did all I was supposed to: I got three bids; I read many recommendations from Angie's List, I contracted local. I even fed the roofers. 8 months later, I look at my roof and in my attic and I see unfinished and sub-standard work that Kevin promised would be corrected over six months ago. The flashing on the side roof does not meet at all points; the front porch roof is bowed (and worsening with the weight of snow); the gutter on the front roof is sagging on one side; and the bathroom venting in the attic looks like a second-grade science project. I was patient with the initial service when, after being sold on the idea that the company uses an appropriate number of fully vetted roofers, only two were hired (and one laborer worked a half day). I cooperated when the corrections did not occur at first because of workers' injuries, workloads, etc. I chose not to complain on Angie's List. But after many phone calls and empty promises, I would like some action. I intend to hire a roof inspector to point out any and all repair and replacement issues that should have been covered under the contract, some of which were pointed out to Kevin on the final walk through, and to the office staff after Kevin's notes apparently didn't get communicated to them. It's time to finish the work I paid for, before the spring and summer new contracts take precedence. There can be no question this is what Pittsburgh Exteriors owes me."

"Mike knows his stuff I’d recommend him any day"

"I had a water leak with my roof causing some interior damage. I had placed a inquirey through servicemagic and received a call back from Vito at Four Brothers Contracting with 20 seconds and he came to look at the job within 3 hrs. - gave me a bid and promised to get to my repair as soon as we had a break in the winter weather. As a result the only opportunity to complete the job was on a sunday. Vito came sunday afternoon so I would have the repair done before the following week of bad weather. I would recommend to anyone - nice to deal with and very professional."

"They were good. They were pretty fast and came on time. My overall experience with them has been good."

"The owner had good communications skills and seemed very knowledgeable about floor refinishing and wood in general."