Better Built Companies, LLC.

It was a miserable experience. I needed a portion of my front porch rebricked. They sent me a temporary employee to my home that promised me the moon. When the repair cracked and separated from the body of the porch they blamed me for not compacting the ground underneath their repair. Should have been their job to do that. When I complained, they threatened to sue me instead of fixing it. Would not recommend them to anyone.

This is second big job using Better Built. not as good of an experience this time but a few redeeming things toward the end. Job was roof replacement for hail damage in 2016. Damage was in March/April 2016 and contract signed in August. Roof work finally started in April 2017. Todd Guice is a good guy but not as responsive as he should be and did not keep me updated on when the work was to start. I had to call routinely myself to get an update, work was being delayed stating their roof guys were in Houston and not available. I had observed a number of other houses being worked on and there usually 5-7 guys working on the roofs. Our house is the biggest in the neighborhood and my house only had usually 3 guys. When the roofers started tearing off the old roof, shingles were going everywhere and causing a lot damage to my bushes and shrubs. there was no protection placed the perimeter. I had to call several times to get them to be more careful. Initially I tried contacting Todd for this issue but ended up speaking to Penny Guice who was the bright spot in this entire episode. she is very responsive to texts and calls and was great to work with. However, I was not happy overall with the level of onsite supervision and addressing my concerns on site. As an aside, I did find damage to one of my air conditioner units as it had holes knocked out in the top from shingle damage but did not note this until after the job was completed. In addition, shingles being tossed into my driveway hit my garage door and the door had to be repainted. The quality of the roofing appears to be good but for the size of the roof, they should have sent many more roofers to complete the job in a more timely manner and likely would have prevented damage to my bushes. The best work done was a exterior door replacement which was well done. Gutters were also done and I have already reviewed them on Angie's list, quality of work was fair and many aspects were quite sloppy and I had to complain a number of times to get the work done correctly. I took some time in collating my thoughts at this job. the work done was good but getting there was loaded with frustrations.

Better Built does exceptional work, very punctual and great follow up. Would highly recommend Robert and his team for any remodeling you may need...

This company was not able to finish the job, because of issue with our insurance company and the lack of response from them returning phone calls. During the process, they lost their roofing crew. Finally have several attempts we gave up and had to use another contractor, which was able to come in and get the roof job repaired with a week of us signing a contract with them. Per emails, texts, and phone discussions, I worked with the, owner of Better Built and Todd regarding hail damage to our home, which occurred in March 2016. Todd came out to our residence on Monday, April 11, 2016, to access the damages. An agreement was signed to allow Better Built to discuss our claim on our behalf with our insurance company to repair the necessary damages. Todd was giving a check in the amount of $4,000 on May 11, 2016, to start repairs on the house. After several months of phone calls and text messages (usually that went unanswered with no response) to Todd, I began to have concerns that the work would not be completed. When Todd finally responded to us we were reassured that Better Built would be completing the repairs that several homes were being repaired and would get to us as soon as possible. Finally, the hardy plank was installed, the gutters were removed and the painting was completed. Another check was given to Todd for Better Built to begin working on the rest of the repairs, especially the roof, in the amount of $3,811 on July 29, 2016. Once again, after many unreturned, unanswered phone calls and texts messages, I finally contacted Mr. Guice. Who seemed really sincere over the phone and in his emails that the repairs would be completed in a timely manner and professionally. He reassured me that we would not be disappointed. I would worked directly with Mr. Guice, the owner. He assured me that a contract would be put in place with costs and estimated dates of completion. As many concerns and issues that we were having with his company, Better Built, I am disappointed he never once came out to our home and accessed the damages or the work that was completed by his company. Per his request, I made several, several phone calls and sent several emails to our claims adjusters, which the agreement that was signed by us authorized his company to work with our insurance company. After several months of calling and emailing the insurance company by Mr. Guice request and being told in emails that the work would be completed, it just was not happening. I have documented emails from Mr. Guice stating, there is no reason why the roof could not be completed whether whatever is happening with the insurance company, he even stated in the email that his company could complete it by October 5, 2016, which is in writing and it never happened. I sent pictures in myself to the insurance company because the front exterior door and shutters had hail damage which was not in the claim. The insurance added them to the claim and I later found out that they paid for a standard door instead of an 8” exterior door, which his company should have caught this mistake on our behalf. After countless phone calls, texts, and emails made by myself, I sent the owner an email on November 18, 2016, notifying him that we no longer wished to work with his company, the owner of Better Built Contractors Inc. and would be seeking another General Contractor to complete the repairs and requested a refund. I had spoken with some former customers in the neighborhood that have/had similar complaints and realized I did not have the faith in his company to complete the repairs in a timely and efficient manner. He responded by email stating he would revise the original itemize invoice, which was already sent to us, and add in his costs and then send it to me by email. I requested a status update over email on December 28, 2016 at 2:28 p.m., which was over 30 days from the original email that I sent to him. I waited for a response and finally tried contacting him by phone to speak with him regarding the status on the refund. He did not answer and I left a voicemail asking him to let me know if he would be sending a refund check and he never returned the call. He stated in his last email to me that he put in a lot of time and effort with no compensation. I think I spent a lot more valuable time on the phone with Mr. Guice, Todd, and the insurance company and other contractors trying to have our home repaired then you did on our behalf as the General Contractor. I sent two certified letters to the owner and both were returned. I emailed the letter to the owner and he responded saying he would look into getting us a refund. I have never heard back from him. The documentation received from Better Built shows they received a total of $7,811 and spent a total of $3,619 in labor and materials and if we add in an additional 30% for profit, that would come to a grand total of $4,704 leaving a total refund due in the amount of $3,107. However, no refund has been received from this company. This company is listed on the BBB Website under Better Built Siding & Window, LLC which has a Revoked accreditation and it is also listed on the BBB Website under the business name of Better-Built Contractors, Inc. The last email received from this company was on April 3, 2016 at 9:19 am from Mr. Guice stating he would review the letter that I sent him and send documentation back to discuss. Robert Guice, President-Manager, Better Built Companies, LLC. I have not heard anything back since that last email. Extremely disappointed with this company.

Perfect! Will hire them again. The neighbors are raving about my "new home" and will probably get a quote from Better Built!

Hardy board job looks great.

Work went according to plan.

They did a great job.

Great quality and price. Easy to work with. I highly recommend Better Built! My neighbors saw the work and asked me about it as well as contacting Better Built. The promises made to me were kept by Better Built.

Workers and management were very professional. Great workmanship. Very helpful in visualizing the final product and helping with decision-making.

Better Built did an excellent job and their follow up and attention to detail was spot on. The single biggest deciding factor to me was that the same same gentlemen (Todd Giese) had given me a quote a few years back and not only did he sell this job but also project managed it from start to finish to follow up.

It took several weeks for them to begin (because they are in high demand), but once they began, they did a great job from start to finish!

Project was completed on time, according to plan, and with an excellent attitude!

It went well. Only comment would be we had to ask several times about scheduling the roof job. We understand and can sympathize with labor shortages. However we just needed to know where we were at on the schedule. We will not let this stop us from using them again or recommending them to others.

The project was a complete success. The Better Built crews did a wonderful job. Every person that worked on the project was very professional and really cared about the finished product they were trying to complete. I would recommend Better Built, Mr. & Mrs. Guice or any person that worked on this project in a heartbeat to anybody looking for someone to complete this type of project. Sincerely, Jim and Michelle Ciancio

AAAAA+++++, Five Stars! Penny, Todd and the construction crew did a SUPER job! They all worked very well as a team! Communications were very consistent and schedules were realistic and on track!

I was introduced to Tom and his crews by my realtor after I bought a house that needed extensive work.  He has consistently provided high-quality service at a price that was lower than other bidders.  I will continue to use him and highly recommend him to others.  He has also consistently used high-quality, dependable workmen who are well-supervised.  

After asking for a quote Josh came by on time and gave me a quote in couple of days.  After all the shopping and evaluation, I decided to go with Better since the price is reasonable, Josh is not pushy and answered questions promptly,  the other providers often try to upsell their products, dooming other products, unsubstantiated pricing - it's really amazing to see others exaggerations.
The job is quickly scheduled and the crew is professional, cleaned up everything.  The "Pablo" team pays attention to details and finished the job on time. 
Thanks team Better.

In 2012 I contracted with Better Built to install Hardie Board siding on the backside of my garage and a stone veneer on the front side of the garage. In late June 2015, the garage yard light motion sensor failed requiring replacement of the fixture.  When I removed the old fixture, I discovered that the stone mason had covered one of the bolts which secured the fixture mounting bracket to the outlet box with a piece of stone.  I contacted Robert Guice, owner, about the issue.  Even though it was now three years after the original job, Robert came out to our house, cut the stone, removed some excess mortar, and installed the new light fixture.  Now, that's customer service plus!

The receptionist took my name and number both times and told me someone would be calling me back to get the details of my project. No one has ever called me back.

Overall positive experience..  Todd and his team completed all work on time and as scheduled - there were no suprises.  Todd was also able to recommend someone to help us replace some windows that needed repair, who did a great job for a very reasonable cost.

The Good:
Robert Guice (President of Better Built) worked directly with us to negotiate the contract and design the pergola.  Robert appears to have a grasp of construction techniques and the design he came up with seems sound.  During negotiation he was attentive to our requests and responded adequately to email and voice mail.

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The Bad:
I was present for much of the construction and asked questions of Robert (when he was present) and the crew foreman.  I pointed out anything that didn't look right.  As a result I uncovered several issues and brought them to Robert, or the crew foreman.  The following items were either a concern, or didn't get corrected.
 

1. 1.) Communication with Robert was good prior to contract signing and it began to suffer thereafter.  It became harder to reach him by voice, and his email responses were often incomplete.  Example: If I ask about three items in an email I expect a timely response, or at least acknowledgement of each issue or question.  Robert's practice of answering only one question (often with a limited and incomplete response) while ignoring the other items is not acceptable. This would irritate any customer.
    
   2.) Better Built did a poor job of selecting some of the cedar wood materials.  Natural wood products come in lots of grades and run the gamut relative to quality.  After determining the type and quality required the contractor should carefully select individual pieces to achieve the best result.  This selection process is called ?culling?.  In our project much of the cedar would be visible and have a medium stain.  The selected wood should be blemish free and without noticeable defect (aka, "stain-grade") because the final finish will show any damage or other man-caused imperfections.
    
   I was there when the wood arrived at my house and watched as they unloaded.  Robert identified several pieces that were splintered and sent them back to the lumbar yard.   But, there were other pieces with slight damage from strapping and unfortunate blemishes (I call them mill glazing, but whatever they are they were not natural to the wood).  Anyone concerned with producing a high quality product would not want these pieces.  Why take them?  It costs you nothing to return them.  When I pointed these out to Robert he said the painters would try to brush them out with a wire brush.  Why resort to that when you can return them for better quality product?
    
   So, now I have two vertical beams supporting the pergola with strap markings that the painters could not remove or hide.  The Better Built crew placed these so that the damage faces the interior of the pergola where my guests can enjoy it for years to come.  I also have a 20-foot main beam (12"x4") with heavy mill glazing running perpendicular to the grain and facing in the most prominent direction possible.  The painters could not hide these even with repeated wire brushing and a stain much darker than we had wanted to use.  It would have been so easy to face this beam towards the roof of the house where no one would see the markings.  Too late now.
2.  

3.) The foreman made a handyman mistake in how he braced the house roofing under the main pergola beam.  Robert himself pointed out the house roof deflection caused by the added weight of the pergola.  For added safety a wood brace would be cut and placed between the underside of the roof deck and the load-bearing outer wall of the house.  This is the correct way to address the sagging roof and allows any weight from the pergola beam to be transmitted through the brace to the house wall and the slab below.  The construction industry refers to this as ?point-load?.
 
After Robert left, the foreman made a potentially damaging mistake.  Instead of putting the brace over the load-bearing wall he put it directly over the outer framing of the kitchen window box.  This is improper and not what he was instructed to do.  In this configuration the weight of the pergola could be transferred to a single 2x4 stud framing the outer edge of the kitchen window.  The window box extends 10-12 inches out from the load bearing wall and its structure cannot support point-load.  If enough weight is transferred to the window framing it could damage the window box, the window itself, and perhaps even the roofing due to improper support of the pergola structure.
 
I came out to inspect progress and pointed out the mistake.  The foreman however saw nothing wrong with it.  At the speed they were working this was perhaps an hour from being hidden behind the Hardie Board siding.  It was, in my opinion, just a matter of time before something bad would come of this.  I had to insist that work stop until they spoke with Robert.  The incorrect bracing was then removed and placed in the proper location.
 
How is it that the crew foreman doesn't understand point load?  Where was the supervision of the supervisor? Unfortunately that responsibility fell to me; its a good thing I was there.
 
4.)  Another example of poor communication and supervision happened earlier when the crew was framing the pergola.  The plan called for two 12?x4? beams with one end of each beam resting on my house roof.  The ends of these 2 beams would be the only contact point of the pergola structure with the house structure.  Robert gave detailed instructions to the crew foreman, and then left the job site.  Within a few short hours the foreman was cutting the cross-beams for the pergola roof with the apparent intention of tying the house roofing directly into the pergola roofing.  Out of curiosity I asked him about the approach he was taking and discovered his mistake.  Good thing I was paying attention and ?supervising? the work or we might have a very different pergola today.
 
5.) My home has a window box that extends out and away from the house above the kitchen sink.  This window box is in the
middle of the project area beneath the pergola.   This kitchen window was originally framed in the center of the window box for aesthetics.  (I have pictures from over the years showing this window?s symmetry - If you have one of these on your house go outside and look at it.)  For some reason the foreman decided to add additional 2x4 framing to one side of the box causing the window to be noticeably off center.  The Hardie Board siding was already in place before we caught it.
 
Robert insisted that I had asked for it to be done that way.  Really?  Why would I do that and then call it out as a mistake?  I think the more likely explanation is that Robert doesn't take notes consistently; poorly explains himself; and tends to blame the customer first (put that one under "The Ugly" below).
 
6.) The Better Built crew added Hardie Board trim around several windows.  One of the windows is a half-circle with a
24? radius.   Because this window is a half-circle the upper trim needs to be rounded.  The Better Built solution is to take a length of Hardie Plank; cut it into three pieces; and shape the inner and outer edges to form a radius (like a three-piece