We take great pride in our experience, expertise, quality, and customer service that we provide to meet the consumer's needs. It is our mission to provide excellent workmanship and complete customer satisfaction from start to completion of a project. In order to understand the needs and expectations of our customers, we take great care to work and communicate with every customer in a professional manner. Our reputation is based on service, safety, and quality, regardless of how large or small the job.
"Well, what can I say about Colony Builders? Well, this will be kind of long... but they get full marks from us. We were looking for an enclosed patio for our backyard that joins onto the house. Mainly due to the breaker box being outside and the royal pain of going outside in the pouring rain to flip the breakers every time the power goes off. We also wanted a nice place where we could make the area look nice with potted hanging plants and planter beds. We searched online at various sites including Amazon for what we wanted. The pricing of such a patio online was around the $5,000 range and the reviews were just awful due to the bad workmanship and lack of instructions, so it was there I decided to look up local building companies, and that's when Colony Builders popped onto my screen. We made an appointment online, and within a couple of days we were paid a visit by business owner Ali, who politely sat with us and from there we discussed our ideas of our vision of what we wanted. He worked with us and offered suggestions of his own for an enclosed patio. When we were done, he quoted the price, which was 4 times the amount of the shoddy kit patios we were researching earlier. Unfortunately it was out of our price range, so after he left, we thought about it for awhile before deciding we didn't need it enclosed. After contacting them again, Ali's nephew Mahdi came out to meet with us to discuss this different route. Mahdi is a born people-person and was wonderful to talk things through with. He was respectful and treated us like good friends instead of potential clients. He also understood perfectly of the changes we wanted and offered suggestions to help us save more money on the project. For instance, we have a concrete slab outside our back door. It is standard for townhomes in our area. We also wanted a tile floor on the patio which would be expensive. He offered the faux-tile stamping option, which was much cheaper. Basically stamping tile patterns into the freshly-laid concrete with different powdered colors to give the perfect illusion of tiles, which was perfect for us on a budget. From there we were certain we wanted to go ahead with the project. We decided on an open design patio on sturdy posts with a roof to match our existing roof tiles. All this on a new slab of concrete, much longer than the existing slab with a beautiful rustic mosaic tile-stamp pattern. They could even leave the existing slab in place. A deposit was asked upon agreement of a few thousand dollars up front. Our patio would cost $14,380 all up with no more to pay. Still more expensive than I would like but the craftmanship would be much better. They offer finance through Medallion which gave us the lowest interest rates, and we can even set up automatic payments online. We financed for 144 months to reduce the monthly payments but we have the option of paying more without penalties. Next step after our ideas were laid out was having the architect come over and draw up plans several days later. Madhi was also present for this. He literally was with us for every step of the way which was awesome. Plans were submitted to the HOA. Of course, they were rejected (I hate HOA's!). Apparently our HOA won't allow any structure to be built directly on to the house. So, ok. Mahdi came back over and we discussed further options for approval. The architect came out again... We planned it 3 feet from the wall instead, leaving a nice gap for the rain to fall through, but we'll figure something out later to stay dry. Also 4 posts instead of 2, as it was now free-standing. This time our second HOA rejection. We were getting frustrated at this point and were seriously thinking of scrapping the entire idea. The HOA's newest reason? The entire structure had to be at least 3 feet from the wall. Well, we thought it was! What they were talking about was the roof overhang, it would protrude closer than 3 feet to the wall. Once we redid the plans a 3rd time and kept the roof overhand 3 feet away from the wall, the project was finally approved. Within a few days the concrete guys came out to start the project, it was all happening now! They did a great job and had the slab laid within a day with the tile-stamp pattern already embossed into the concrete, it looked great! They also dug out the corners where the posts were to go, to 2 feet deep. They filled them with rebar and completely filled them with cement, these were for structural support to balance the posts. The second day, they power washed the new patio floor and weather-sealed it. Job done, and we were very happy with it. So were they, as they were often caught dancing away on our security cameras while they worked. They love their job also! A couple of days later, the framers arrived to start on the actual patio. Very quickly they put up our patio and roof tiles and did a great job. The posts themselves were fixed in place by hurricane straps, so it would withstand hurricane-force winds in a storm. The posts were sealed with James Hardy seal. Basically, the wood posts were encased in a super-strong material that protects it from the weather and rotting. It kind of resembles drywall, but much stronger. We were also told this in the planning stage, that we couldn't hang hooks or anything on it because it would crack the seal if we did. The builders would hang them for us using James Hardy nails and hardware. which they did with no worries. It turns out there was a slight miscommunication between us there. You can use normal screws in the wood after it has been sealed, it won't crack it, but can only use the James Hardy nails as they are stronger. They gave us some nails for future use if we want to add more hooks or a trellis. The builders did put a hole in our window screen, which we reported. Mahdi came out right away with a screen he had lying around the office to see if it would fit and replace the damaged one, which it didn't. A nice gesture. The next day the framers/builders finished the job and painted it to the colors of the house and it looked amazing! They also replaced our screen with a new one with no problems. Mahdi and Ali came out that day to see the final result and to make sure we were happy with it, which we were. Mahdi in particular was so helpful throughout this entire (ordeal) project, he was always there for questions and suggestions. He even showed us many ideas of designs for the patio and also the tile-stamp patterns. At no stage was there any doubt of where we all stood on the project, we were always on the same page at all times for every step of the way, and that was exactly what we needed, as this was our first real costly project, so many thanks to you Madhi, you made our life much easier! Your pleasant attitude, extreme patience and kind nature was so appreciated by us so much we can't express. Thank you to Ali too for making this project happen and for offering improvement suggestions along the way. To sum up, this was our first project and we are glad we chose Colony Builders, they work with you every step of the way and never once did they make us feel like they were pressuring us into "selling us something". I would highly recommend them for any project, they get top marks from us. By the way, they offer a 5 year warranty on the patio and base, then a 30 year manufacturers warranty on the roof. We can't argue with that, any hopefully will never need it. This patio is sturdy! Now, all we need is to find a good quality rain guard for the back door and breaker box... We will be using them again to build a small kitchen window box in the future, but that's another review for another day. Thanks again guys, you all did a great job! I have included some pictures of the finished patio, the progress with the concrete base, tile pattern and the color brand used."
Lonestar Elite Contracting is committed to providing dependable, high-quality home improvement and general contracting services. We specialize in roofing, fencing, flooring, painting, concrete, drywall, texture, remodeling, and more. Our mission is to deliver exceptional workmanship, honest service, and lasting results that our customers can trust.
We specialize in both remodeling and new construction projects. Our team is dedicated to building strong, lasting relationships with our clients. We understand that financing can be a crucial part of any project, so we offer various financing options to suit your needs. To help you get started, we provide complimentary estimates for all our services. Our commitment is to deliver exceptional quality and service throughout your project. We aim to make your building or renovation experience smooth and enjoyable. We are here to bring your vision to life with professionalism and care. Let us help you create the space you've always dreamed of.
I owned a construction company for 32 years and I retired a couple of years ago and I have done all the repairs around my house and got kinda board so I have started doing handyman jobs and I can do just about anything that has to do with construction. Remodeling and new construction . I have a fairly new Ford f-250 and a 16 ft trailer for carrying materials for jobs if needed. I take pride in the work that I do and strive to do a professional job.
"We were sick and tired of the lousy customer service and extremely high pricing of ADT so we started looking around for a more local company. We found Smith Thompson and decided to give them a shot. Their monitoring center is in Plano, which is a lot closer than ADT (Florida, I think). Smith Thompson sent out a tech to switch our existing ADT Safewatch (Honewell Vista) system over to them. The tech was courteous and on time. I test the system monthly by setting it off and they are always calling to verify within about 30-45 seconds, which is amazing. With ADT we would usually be waiting at least 3-5 minutes if not longer. One thing we were not aware of until the system went off one day was that the cellular communicator Smith Thompson installs by default only transmits to them that there is a burglar or fire alarm going off. It does not transmit zone info, silent panic/duress, battery status, system trouble, etc. We were kind of surprised that when they called they could not tell us what had set it off since when we had ADT they could. Thankfully it turned out just to be a bad storm that set off one of the really old glass breaks. I ended up ordering a new one online and replaced it myself. The rep on the phone told us if you want to be able to know the specific zones, duress, system trouble, etc the system must either be connected to a phone line or you must have the upgraded cell transmitter installed. We were not too happy about that, but thankfully the rep agreed to send a tech back out at no charge to connect it to our phone line in addition to leaving the cell transmitter as back-up. They said they typically require that you have a traditional POTS line from At&t, Verizon, Windstream, or whoever is the local phone company in your area, but they will also connect it to U-Verse phone lines and cable company phone services such as Comcast. They said they will not connect to services such as Magic Jack or Vonage. We have U-Verse so that was fine. They came out and connected it and now it transmits everything, including zone info and duress. The cell transmitter is still connected as a backup incase the U-Verse goes out for some reason (which is extremely rare) or someone cuts the phone line outside. One other issue I have noticed is that if you do not have an existing system or you do but it is extremely old is that they only install basic DSC brand equipment. They are lower quality and do not have as many features. Its more of a personal preference thing, but I tend to prefer higher quality equipment such as the Honeywell vista systems as they have more features and capabilities. Thankfully Smith Thompson will monitor Honeywell equipment that has been installed by other companies. They said they will not monitor GE/UTC. Overall, Smith Thompson has excellent customer service and response time, but when it comes to equipment, find someone else to get stuff installed and maintained and have Smith Thompson just set up the monitoring stuff. "
"Technician arrived on time. I showed him the two doors and an example window. We have storm windows in place all around the home. I went to my office and asked him to have my son get me if he had any questions. Later when I came to check on the technician, he was gone. The technician had told my son he would communicate with me via Angie's List. I went and checked the two doors and they were re-weather stripped as I had expected. I have not seen anything from the vendor in the Angie's List messages. I am not sure there is anything the technician could do with my windows but I do not even know if he looked at any more than the one I showed him. If he could not do anything with the windows, I was going to ask him to do one interior door that leads to the work shop instead of the 15 windows he was supposed to check. I thought the communications was very poor. "
The material was supposed to be delivered the day before the scheduled job, it arrived the morning the job was to start. The crew was scheduled to arrive early in the morning, they arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon. I took at day off work to be home and they were not here for the whole day. A courtesy call to let me know the estimated new time schedule would have been respectful. Returning my call in a timely manner, would have made a big difference in my opinion. They started the tear off when they arrived and completed the job the next day.
The sales rep told me I would see him throughout the job overseeing the crew, he came by for inspection the day after they finished. No rep stopped by to check the job in progress. The crew was polite but they didn't speak English. Therefore, I couldn't talk to them about concerns or issues encountered during the job.
The quote said install GAF shingles, storm guard, pan chimney, and vent cap flashings as needed. They didn't replace or inspect the chimney pan as this is not a service they provide. I asked them to take pictures of the chimney pan so I could see if it needed repair or replacement. They agreed to take the pictures and paint the trim on the chimney, but they didn't do either one. They offered a gift card for the trouble, but they haven't sent it to me.
They installed new drip edge, but it was bent and wavey (not flat), I had to ask them to replace it again. They did provide this service.
The salesman was very nice and polite. He said what he thought I wanted to hear, but didn't follow through with promises made. I prefer contractors to be honest and follow through with agreements they make. The quote says they will register the roof with the manufacturer for a lifetime warranty. I asked for a copy of that warranty, but have not yet received it.
The roof looks nice and I haven't noticed any leaks. It could have been less stressful and a more positive experience with the right communications.
Outdoor kitchens enhance entertainment space, increase home value, and provide convenient cooking in outdoor settings.
It’s better to build a garage than buy and install a prefabricated one. You can save money by purchasing a prefabricated metal garage kit for between $4,000 and $11,000. However, this does not include the price of labor and permits, which can account for more than half of the project cost. Building a new garage over buying a prefab garage will add more value to your home and will last longer, so it’s more cost-effective over time to build a new garage.
Whether it’s more affordable to gut a house than build a new one depends on the markets where you'd be buying and selling. However, it’s usually less expensive to renovate a home than to build new construction.
Most homeowners pay between $100,000 and $200,000 for demolition and remodeling costs, whereas the average cost to build a new home is between $139,000 and $531,300.
Stone houses used to be much more practical, but with the advent of stronger and cheaper materials like concrete, they aren’t seen as much anymore. There are some parts of the world where it makes sense to build with stone, and they are usually next to a stone quarry. Stone is, however, very weather-resistant, which is why many homes near the sea and on mountains are still built with local stone.
Complex plumbing is tricky and expensive in an off-the-ground dwelling like this. By considering options like composting toilets, rainwater collection, and gray-water sinks, you save money and help the environment.
The Ames, TX homeowners’ guide to storm shelter services
From average costs to expert advice, get all the answers you need to get your job done.
When you’re looking to make a safer space for your family during storms, tornado shelter costs may come to mind. See how much you can expect to pay here.
The cost to build a root cellar depends on size, location, materials, and other variables. Our guide will help you decide which option is best for you.
What is a storm shelter? It can keep you safe during a tornado, hurricane, or other weather event. This guide will introduce you to the different types.
