BRIAN GREAM RENOVATIONS

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The work went smoothly and was a fair price.  When the job was finished, everything looked attractive.
However, everything that they did needed to be re-done within 3 to 5 years.  
They painted the exterior of the house when it was too humid/wet outside, so much of the paint has since flaked off, leaving the wood siding underneath bare.  
They painted our front porch with only a single thin coat, so I've had to manually touch it up repeatedly, and eventually had another company repaint it entirely.  
The "repair" of the pillar footers on our front porch, the frame of our back door, and on our roof eaves consisted of simply applying bond-o over the rotted wood and repainting.  Soon enough the wood rot progressed and each of these needed to be replaced in their entirety.

I had a good experience with them.

I recently bought and moved into a home built in the 1930's.  Brain Gream was recommended to me by The Color Lady.  She said he was very familiar with the homes in my neighborhood and did meticulous work.  I had my kitchen cabinets sanded and painted, the backsplash removed and replaced, the kitchen drywall and ceiling repaired, 4 rooms and 2 hallways including ceilings painted as well as trim, doors, and  miscellaneous cabinets.  Brain did the original estimate and was very good about making recommendations on what to keep or change to stay within the period of the house.  The paint crew boss, Romiro was awesome.  He helped with some paint color selection and went above and beyond as far as doing some minor dry wall repair and touch up in the rooms he was not painting as well as reinstalling new air exchanges, can lights, light fixtures, and wall plates that I had purchased to replace the ones he had removed to paint.  His crew was very respectful and did a great job cleaning up after the job was done.  I plan on using Brain Gream Renovations to do a bathroom remodel in the near future and highly recommend him and his crew.

I contacted Brian late spring to get an estimate for exterior painting on my house.  Before I signed a contract with him my house was hit by a large hail storm and sustained quite a bit of damage.  I again contacted Brian to get an updated estimate which would include repairing damage caused by the storm.  Brian offered to give me a separate estimate for the storm damage repairs so I could turn it in to my insurance company.  I did not receive this estimate prior to the beginning of the work (which was ok at the time).  Upon almost full completion of the work, which was late October, I asked Brian for this estimate and he told me he would have it for me "next week."  I did not receive the estimate and the work was for the most part completed shortly thereafter.  I received my final bill and pointed out to Brian that the final bit of work was not satisfactory (there was a huge gap between my window and bricks).  He said he was not aware additional work would have to be done to the window and would send someone out.  This tells me he did not come by to inspect his crew's work.  He did send someone out for the final repair and told me this would be an additional cost.  I did not argue this point.  On November 30th I received the updated bill and I again asked him for the supplemental estimate.  He said he would have it "next week".  On December 6th I received a sarastic e-mail that said "do you plan on paying this week??????"  I again reminded him of the estimate and offered to pay when I received the estimate and was told he would not allow me to hold his payment "hostage" for something that was not part of the contract and he was giving me for free.  I told him I was disappointed in his response and pointed out that I was capable of sending referrals his way but was disappointed in his attitude.  I was then told he has been in business for almost 20 years and did not need my referrals.  He also mentioned I added things to the original list as he was trying to go out of town but he managed to get them done.  I wasn't aware that additional work was a bother to a contractor, especially when he wasn't the person actually doing the work.  I am not the type of person to write reviews, but was VERY disappointed in the attitude and lack of customer service exhibited by Brian.

Overall, we're very happy with the job that Brian Gream did.  I'd hire him again because his subs are so good; but I would do it with caution. UPDATE: A few days after the work was completed, we found 4 utility knife blades and numerous rusty nails all over the perimeter of the house. This is very disturbing because of pets and children. Be cautious.

They were very good. They were reasonably priced. They provided good service and they did good work.

We are so happy that we finally got this done. The house was in dire need of a paint job, from the previous owner's bad paint job and general neglect. There were plenty of other issues, too, that we didn't really know what to do about (the ones mentioned in "services performed"). Brian turned out to be the right guy to take care of things, because he is very knowledgeable about older homes in our neighborhood and because he can get the subcontractors for anything that needs to be done. We had gotten competing quotes from paint companies, one of which showed very little interest in dealing with an older home, and another one who was kind of stumped by the condition of our home, especially the trim. The owner of the second paint company looked at other houses in our street that had recently been painted, and expressed admiration about how nicely they were done, and mentioned that he could not promise that our house would turn out equally nice. What this guy didn't know was that two of these houses had been painted by Brian Gream... and then he gave us a quote that was 50% higher than Brian's! Needless to say whom we hired. Brian was very responsive about getting in touch with us, looking at our house and providing a quote. It was great to finally be able to talk to someone who could answer all our questions and who gave us useful suggestions. The work was started on time and took two weeks to complete. We are very happy with the result, it almost feels like we got a new house. We were pleased to be informed that the gable siding is very high quality wood and that none of it had to be replaced. A few pieces of trim were rotted and were replaced with similar new pieces to preserve the look. The brick repair was great quality - Brian went a long way to find bricks with a texture that matched the existing brick. The front door got a new lock set, replacing the original one from 1940. This was a pleasant surprise, because when we had bought the house, the inspector had told us that it would not be possible to replace the lock set, due to different size of current locks, and that we would instead have to replace the entire door. Brian's lead painter was very helpful with choosing a color scheme, and the end result is beautiful. He also suggested to replace the old, dirty porch lights with new ones, and to add shutters to a bay window. When the work was completed, the only flaw in the picture was a rain gutter that had gotten visibly bent and dented by a ladder. We were going to point that out to Brian and ask for a replacement gutter, but Brian beat us to it and had it replaced before we could bring it up. We are very happy with Brian and his crew, and I think a guy like Brian should come with an older house like ours when you buy it! Update: In the days after completion of the job, I found two sharp utility knife blades lying open in the grass just outside the house. That's two too many; I don't need a family member or the dog stepping into one of these. So check your property accordingly, some of Brian's subs are definitely not a cleaning crew.

The job went fairly smooth with some quality issues. Some of his subs are better than others. Some trimwork had to be torn down and redone as well as some drywall work. Overall, he is very easy to work with, responsive, and knowledgable. Painting was done well.

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They did a good job. The price was good. Overall, I had a great experience with them. I?ll definitely use them again.

Brian is extremely responsive and especially knowledgeable with regard to older homes and historically accurate restoration and/or renovation. He is so passionate about his work that he enthralls you with how he visualizes your home as a finished product. He does major general contracting work; all the way down to painting work, which is the area for which he is most well known. I cannot say enough about how pleased we are with the work that he performed for us. Although we took what seemed like an eternity to finally follow through with hiring him-obtaining three, separate bids on three, separate dates from him-he came out each time, wrote us a comprehensive bid, and followed up with us. His work reflects the fact that he cares about making an old home shine again. There is certainly no better painter in the Dallas area than Brian, although we will hire him for absolutely any type of work in or out of our home. We will recommend him to all of our friends and family, without exception.