Lone Star Contracting

unknown

unknown

We did a $ 8k kitchen remodeling work with Lone star contractors. They seemed pretty knowledgable in construction work. I like their cost conscious work. The part I did NOT like was late completion of work. The initial timeline was 4 weeks but it was completed in 10 weeks. The reason it was completed by the 10th week is, I only paid them 2/3 cost and not all. If I had paid 100% like they wanted me to, I m pretty sure they wouldn't have finished the work even in 10 weeks. If you decide to use them, be sure to not pay two 50% payments like they request. Make a four or three installment payment schedule so they have impetus to come back and finish your work. 

Lone Star remodeled our bathrooms in 2013 and did such a good job that we hired them to remodel our kitchen this year.  Steve and Eric were extremely helpful in providing design ideas and adapting to our changes.  Communication was always prompt.  Steve, Eric and the entire crew were courteous, professional and respectful of our home and property and minimized the inconvenience to us as much as possible, including cleaning up at the end of each day.  As always, the workmanship was excellent.  I would not hesitate to use Lone Star in the future or to recommend them to others.

unknown

unknown

Overall it went very well. The workers were very respectful and professional. Juan took extra time to lay out the tile pattern to ensure the pattern would be centered around the plumbing. He also offered other suggestions that were better than our plans. We went with his recommendations and are very pleased with the results. Communications were prompt and they always let me know of any schedule changes or if someone was going to be delayed which was appreciated. A couple of minor miscommunications on both our parts were quickly addressed and resolved fairly. We will certainly contact them again for our next renovation.

unknown

The Lone Star team took great care of my home and treated it like their own. They were extremely professional and also gave great advice on the updates I was making, helping to pick out tile and did a ton of custom designing and created both of my bathroom vanities. Eric and his team also took time to explain to me what they were doing and helped translate for me, since I have no idea what a flange is and had to be shown a "pony wall". The work they did was absolutely beautiful and they were also perfectionists, in fact fixing things where I didn't even see flaw. Eric and his team take great pride in their work and it shows up in the results. I am looking forward to having Lone Star come back later this year and replace my gutters and siding, and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a contractor for any room in their home.

Eric and Lone Star Contracting, have now remodeled 80% of my home.
First time they worked for me they updated my master bedroom from top to bottom and created a fantastic wetroom as my master bathroom.
Second time I had them round they updated my second and third bedrooms.
This last time they laid tile, painted through the main area of my house and also updated the whole main bathroom.
I?m so help with the service and pricing I?ve asked for a quote to do the kitchen too.
The service is second to none, all his employees are extremely curious and  helpful.
Eric?s advice and recommendations are great.

We actually let two contracts (a bathroom and patio contract) and 1 change order had essentially the same problems with all contracts:

First - let me say they GENERALLY have pretty good people to actually execute the work directed to do. The issues, and we believe they are all significant, are with understanding the project, amount of experience in estimating, listening to the customer, quoting low and everything is a change order and not contemplated in the contract and in directing their people in the actual execution of the work.

THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE DECK - WISH WE HAD THE OLD DECK BACK, A SIGNIFICANT, THOUGH SAFE INCONVENIENT ISSUE WITH THE ELECTRICAL AND THEY ATTEMPTED TO UP CHARGE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING WHICH WAS REFUSED. THEY DO NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR WORK IN OUR OPINION

The original quote was not low, but towards the bottom, we thought their book of results and recommendations were superior to the lowest quotes and went with them.

However, and perhaps we should have gone away when on the bathroom contract when we asked for a time is of the essence and penalty if the work takes too long clause the amount of time to complete significantly increased and doubled or almost doubled. They argued well we have to be very very conservative when quoting time to complete and don't take time is of the essence completion clauses. So we dickered a little and went to something very very small gave them the full time they needed, which was now a little shorter but not much than the competitors. They completed to the revised time quote - barely on time.

So when they started.... we had a snafu on the patio project which was to resurface the existing patio redirecting the flow of water, dirt and leaves away from the cooking deck where we also had numerous plants and overhead automated sprinklers. Yep it was winter and water needs down but of course the night of the pour was the night of watering - created some issues with the finish, but they reworked filling in material but the amount of dripping was not major to the slope and flow of the water more to the finish. THE REWORK DID NOT SUBSTANTIALLY CHANGE THE CHARCTER OR FLOW OF WATER ON THE DECK IT WAS MININMAL TO REPAIR AND WOULD HAVE DIRECTED WATER AWAY FROM THE CENTER OF THE DECK WHERE WATER AND DEBRIS ARE PONDING. Essentially the repair would have made our problem better rather than worse.  Additionally, the level of the cement is very high to the surrounding doors and the late summer cloudbursts I am convinced will flood the house. So anyway the middle of the deck is now very very low and all of the dirt and leaves go there and settle and do not essentially flow away from the house. They were advised when the cement was being poured that we thought it was too high and incorrectly sloped - they said lets see how it actually works we'll take care of you if there is a problem. Eric was using a Spanish only person to pour and finish the concrete, well after hearing them communicate I speak better Spanish than Eric but only speak bad boss Spanish and wonder if this straight forward but tricky pour would have gone better with better communications between Eric and the finisher. That said with the assurances of we'll take care of you I let them start the bathroom.

So we go to the bathroom project. Lonestar tried to say:

      didn't know the steam generator required 220 - I gave him a link to the instructions and all steam generators are 220

             they tried to change order upcharge for this

           they left a problematic but "safe" usable unless you want an additional room heater circuit in the bathroom

      didn't expect the walls to be out of plumb tried to upcharge change order for this

               its a remodel - all old houses are out of plumb - watch any home improvement show - It was no more than normal (have done many remodels)

       didn't expect the bathroom tub complex to require solder connections in the remodel. After checking 1/2 or more of the most popular brands require soldering. - He wanted an up charge for this he should have known or ....

      didn't listen to the paint color scheme properly - I bought some paint that didn't need now at cost - he wanted to upcharge me for it some more

       wanted to charge for enclosing the steam generator when the first choice was the attic, the second was a corner where it would probably not need to be enclosed and third where it was installed. We discussed all of it and he or his father (estimator) said we'll take care of it for you but tried to charge an upcharge for an enclosure when I provided the finish materials.

    

      they didn't give us their receipt for certain materials until it became a major problem , we had agreed to pay their cost plus 30%.... on those materials. How can we check the amount without seeing their bill?

        several other things like this

There is a contracting strategy..... take the business off of the street and then make everything an upcharge or change order. While projects do change, certain things should be considered part of the scope of work and included. Some contractors wheedle and talk there way through everything is a change order increasing the contract cost by 30-50% or more. Oddly when all of the "change orders" requested were added up the amount they wanted would have been the 2nd highest of the quotes received or about 40% or so higher than the original quotes. Funny about that! - Not really!

So in my opinion and experience these are nice personable guys with a set of sub-contractors that do pretty good work with some communication issues and a strategy of upcharging for everything and not standing behind their mistakes - rather they want to upcharge to fix them...... They have said they want to charge me to fix the electrical and the cooking deck!

They missed a couple of things - original construction one of the bathroom lights not centered over the sink. It had a long bar light that covered this up...... I'll give them a pass here, but a wall not square on a house originally built in the 1950's in Houston?, 220 required for a steam generator or a heater, or solder required for a roman tub setup, or, or or.......

Not happy the deck is a disaster and worse than before. I refused to pay some of the "upcharges" but am still not happy with the electrical. The paint well I'll use eventually but added a couple of hundred dollars of stuff I really did not want to buy and trip over til needed.......And they Missed the A or A plus things like the centering of the light fixture.

So would I use them again or recommend them... No.  Am I happy with the way they stood behind their work - No! Do I understand why they may have gotten a good Angie's review to date - sure..... they wheedled through the strategy of everything is a change order and not expected and did for the most part ok to good work with only occasional problems like my deck and electrical. while safe underpowered according to a third party electrician. Do I feel deceived YES!

SO:

THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THE DECK - WISH WE HAD THE OLD DECK BACK, A SIGNIFICANT, THOUGH SAFE INCONVENIENT ISSUE WITH THE ELECTRICAL AND THEY ATTEMPTED TO UP CHARGE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING WHICH WAS REFUSED. THEY DO NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR WORK IN OUR OPINION

 

.

Steve Schlosser and a painter arrived at the appointed time and toured my house to check all work that needed to be performed. Mr. Schlosser discussed some other work on my house that I may have performed at a later date. Then he left and the painter got to work. He was quick and professional. And very neat. Upon completion, he showed me all work done so that I could approve it. I was very happy with the work performed and I will definitely work with this company again. I will also recommend them for the quality and professionalism of their work.

Excellent experience. They were very professional and did excellent work. I would recommend them whole heartedly and will use them again.

Excellent! Everything was perfect.

did an excellent job, beautiful work. very professional customer service. called me or came by to answer every question I had. responded quickly to any of concerns. very friendly and easy to work with. will use them again and will recommend to friends.

They did an outstanding job. They were on time and kept us informed of what was being done.  They suggested ways to improve on what we asked them to do.  When we ran out of tile, they picked up more and when we bought the wrong fixtures, they replaced them with the correct ones.  When they left at night, all of their tools were neatly placed out of our way and everything was as tidy as it could be during a remodeling project.  Both Eric and Steve did everything possible to insure that we were happy with the work.  We could not be happier with Lone Star Contracting and would highly recommend them to others and would, of course, use them again.

Fine

I was pleased with his service & work.  He did everything that was promised & helped educate me with another project.

Professional, prompt, quality work

The painting went well and turned out awesome, my boy loves it.  
An issue did arise and the owner quickly stepped in and made things right.  Thank you Eric for coming through.

There were 2 workers who came to do the painting in my bedroom & bath.  I asked that they remove switch plate covers and other things like towel rods before painting.  One of the guys did that as asked (the Latino guy); the other painted around things anyway which meant that I had to take them off the next day, touch up the paint and replace them.  I had even told them that I had new plates that I could put on so they just had to remove – not replace and I would have been happy.  They also left some splotches of dark purple paint on several places on the ceiling (small but noticeable) and on the trim around the windows (not so small and included drips as well as sloppy painting).  I had to clean that up as well.  They didn’t mask anything so I’m not surprised there were places where paint ended up where it didn’t belong.  At the end of the day, they ran out of time (this was one of the ‘big deals’ for 8 hours of painting) and left me with quite a bit of painting to finish in addition to tidying up the problem areas they left. No one even offered to continue to work for an additional charge, although I’m not sure I would have done that given the quality.  On a more positive side, both guys were pleasant, the Latino guy did follow directions, worked hard the whole time he was there, and seemed to feel bad that he had to leave before the job was done.  I’m not sure who messed up the paint where there were splotches and drips. They did get the walls covered with new paint – which is a good thing – but I really hoped for a little more care and neatness.  I’ve done my own painting for years and I know I’m a bit of a perfectionist.  As I’ve gotten older it’s gotten harder for me to do big paint jobs (I’m almost 70! And I work full time) so I’ve had to hire others to help.  After this experience and a couple of others that weren’t much better, I think I will just plan on taking longer to get jobs done and do it myself.  It probably would have been less work in the long run since I still have to re-touch the ceiling and put another coat of paint on one of the walls where one coat wasn’t sufficient.  This is after spending a day taking care of drips, touching up under switch plates and towel racks that I had to remove and replace, and finishing up the parts of the job that the painters didn’t get to.

Master bathroom remodeling. Started on 8/15/13 - 11/7/13. Quality was mostly good except a few sloppy items at the end. Manager is capable and easy to talk to. Workers are polite and work hard. 4 week project became 10 week project. They did not tell me if certain items cost extra or how much they cost in advance.  Then we got $8000 over the original estimate. This was reduced later. If you use them, get them write down how much what they suggest costs in advance. Issues during the work: a worker almost fell through the ceiling, damage to ceiling; poor control of dust initially which led to more work of cleanup; a worker lied about some install processes. Overall: They are basically capable people and you could hire them, but make sure to get any add-on cost estimate IN ADVANCE. Also make sure getting work done by the estimated deadline.

It went very well. I was contacted the same day I purchased the deal and scheduled the service. The painter arrived with a supervisor and I showed them what I wanted done. The painter did an excellent job and left everything clean when he was done. He actually painted a lot more areas than I expected, which was a bonus. He was very polite and professional.

It was an excellent experience from start to finish.  Once they got started the whole job took a little over 2 weeks and was worth every minute.  The crew was courteous, hard working and did their best to minimize to dust, dirt and inconveniences . Excellent job on the cleanup.  Steve and Eric (owners) were immediately responsive to any calls or questions we had.  We are very pleased with the results and would recommend Lone Star Contractors to all.