
Blue Moon Construction
About us
WE WILL BE RELOCATING TO OUR NEW SHOWROOM IN APRIL 2013. Locally owned, operated and Supervised. Award winning Blue Moon Construction specializes in providing quality products and superb customer service for all your home improvement needs. From Finished Basements, Kitchen and Bath Remodel's, Decks, Patio's, or a simple room painting, we have the expertise to complete your project with customer satisfaction in mind. Additional email: [email protected]
Business highlights
Services we offer
Finished basements, additions, bathroom remodeling, decks, home theater, kitchen remodeling, paifnting & custom built in's., patios
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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77% | ||
9% | ||
3% | ||
6% | ||
6% |
Summary: The deck and the patio work was completed. In the process, I had to patiently endure a lack of timeliness, professionalism, courtesy, and out right being lied to. I told JK before he started on my project, "I already have enough stress in my life, don't need a patio to be another source of it". That is exactly what it turned out be. I would not use your money to do business with Blue Moon Construction again, let alone my own.
Kaleigh
The design phase of the project was literally ten minutes in the owner's basement with Home Depot catalog. That was it. They let me borrow it for one night. That was all the help we got with the entire design. My wife and I had to go from store to store researching materials, hunting down products, and learning what would work and what wouldn't. Justin had promised 10% off at Home Depot (many, many times). It turns out that just isn't the case for their customers. The truth is Blue Moon gets up to 10% off, but they mark up everything by 10%. The best price you can get is standard retail, the worst would be 10% over retail. They really misrepresented that on numerous occasions. Blue Moon offers a guarantee on anything purchased through them, though after dealing with them, I wouldn't trust that for a minute.
Justin gave us less than 17 hours notice of the start of the job. We had no choice, start the next morning or wait weeks. After the first day of demolition, my wife asked if the subcontractors if they were on target to finish in five days. They laughed and said there'd be no way they could finish the job in that time. They told us it was more like a three week job. My wife and I had made arrangements to take off work for the contractors because we have three cats and they can't be locked up during the day. Finding out it was going to take three weeks or longer was h****** us because we had no time to plan.
It became immediately apparent that Justin didn't understand how their business works and that he didn't know anything about working estimates for construction. He was a salesman, and that's it. He was there to tell us what we wanted to hear to get the job. I regret not seeing through that. It was only well into the project that we learned how far off he was on everything he told us in the beginning.
At this stage I had wanted to fire them and hire someone else. My wife convinced me they could still do a good job. I confronted JK, the owner, about our experience at that point. He told me he couldn't argue with any of my complaints. He offered to come over and apologize for Justin's and the company's mistakes. His "apology" to my wife (I hadn't made it home yet), turned out to be a backhanded way of accusing her of derailing the whole project. My wife did no such thing and coming into my house under the pretense of an apology only to accuse her (when I wasn't around) of wrongdoing was a sleazy thing to do. I confronted JK about it, but as with most of the conversations I had with him, he deflected it back on us.
The job took close to three months to finish, a far cry from the 3-5 days they estimated! It also required numerous calls for them to come back because of poor workmanship, substandard materials used, and hurried work. Overall, the bathroom turned out okay, but to this day, the grout is still cracking, I'm am still finding paint splattered all over everything, and numerous other issues I just didn't want them making worse by calling them back to fix it again. For example, we called them no less than three times to fix all the cracking grout in the bathroom. They used cheap grout and it continues to crack. I ended up having to buy my own (better quality) and doing it myself. There's a point where I had to say enough's enough! JK actually wrote me, in an email, and told me we should be thankful they were coming out to fix their mistakes! I am willing to pass on all my conversations with JK and co. to anyone who wants proof of all of this.
I really regret using them. While some of the subcontractors did excellent work, some did very lousy work. Blue Moon tries to set itself apart from others by promising the world and charging for it as well. One thing's true, you'll definitely pay more for them, but that's about it. At the end, I am left with a bathroom I don't trust to last, months of work missed, their work to finish, and a sour taste in my mouth from dealing with such a bad company.
**Update 5/14**
Based on the response here from Blue Moon, it's clear that what I wrote in my review is true. They didn't even have all the materials on site and had to walk away from the job for a week after demolition because of that. I can add up all the days Blue Moon's workers were here and it still took much longer than the revised estimate. Please don't blame that on my cats.
As for promptness to respond to our concerns and problems, it was laughable. Please log into the Co-construct site and see how many times we asked questions and voiced concerns MULTIPLE times with no answer. I can't count how many times we had to call Dave because no one would respond to Blue Moon's preferred method of communication.
Tiles were literally falling out of the wall, paint everywhere, gaping holes in the grout, illegally charging my credit card without telling me, telling me I'm lucky you'll fix it, and that makes me hard to please?!? How can that be my fault? As I mentioned in emails, I never expected perfection, but I also never expected an experience with a company that blames me for their mistakes. Again, I have emails with them backing up my version of this review. Other customers may have good experiences with them, but this one didn't.
"(member name removed), Thank you for taking the time to address your displeasure with our services. As we listen to any complaints from clients, and note there are not many, we like to respond to them all if possible. Your case is indeed not a normal circumstance and for your type of client, we do tread lightly. We cannot please everyone, and if we can't, not many contractors would be able to. For our promptness to concerns and issues are usually met very quickly, as we have record of these communications as well that I would be glad to share as well. Our new scheduling and communicaton system are in place to help ensure a smoother process for all involved with the project. You mentioned timing, Justin was incorrect in telling you 3-5 days, but, please keep in mind, you have a cat that cannot be around anyone besides you. Our crews were limited to access for certain days and on those days, sometimes limited amounts of time. That is no way to run a project. We try to be very effecient and we cannot do that when we are handcuffed with having to spend multiple trips for a days worth of work. Of course, this is not all your issues, for there are things we could have done on our teams end to possible squeeze in more work in those alloted times, so for that I appologize. Overall, you were simply a client that was and would never be easy to please, for something is always someone elses fault. To all possible clients reading this post, this is not an attack on (member name removed), simply my observation from dealing with over 1000 clients over the years of an expectation that could not be met. Please understand that construction in your home is not without issues and variables that come about, those companies that deal with them should be applauded, for many will simply dissapear and leave you out out in the cold as the consumer. We will always be here to back our work up as we are with (member name removed) project. We aim to please all of our clients, we can only give 100% on each and every job."
Alex (our PM) was amazing to work with. He was always available and very prompt in answering our questions. He and all the other Blue Moon employees and their subs were very courteous and professional. The finished projects look amazing. I would highly recommend Blue Moon, and look forward to having them work on our home again soon.
"Thanks for the kind words, we aim to please on each and every job and it never gets old when our clients show their appreciation through kind words. Our team takes great pride in your home and I am glad it showed."
Construction began July 24( about two months after initial payment in May). Alex was our project manager. The first 10 days or so went great and seemed to be proceeding quickly. Here is a summary of our experience. I will start out with the positives.
Tile floor - We were very happy with the installation of the tile. It looks great. The crown moulding in the kitchen was done well. We also have crown on the cabinets which I will address later. The tile backsplash looks great, but there is a lot of cracking already in the grout. We appreciated the suggestion to upgrade baseboards so that they would all be the same size on the main floor. They did a great job cleaning up each day and leaving things neat as possible with something like this.
Grout- We have two areas where the grout still looks awful. They have repaired at least 4 times. The area where the grout meets the landing going downstairs. The grout is no longer cracking which is great. However, there is grout on the baseboards, tile, and it is just messy. The other place where we have a grout problem is where the tile meets up with door to the garage.
Paint- Initially, they did not fill holes. I noticed this when they were painting and tried to communicate with the workers, but I quickly realized they did not understand a word I was saying as there was a language barrier. Alex would come in the mornings for an hour or so, and then the workers would be there all day completing the work. The next morning I let Alex know. I was there when he tried to explain to them. That day I was not at home. When I arrived home, holes were still not filled. They did fill them the next day. We had gone over all this with Justin when going over what we would like done with the painting.
They painted period. There was no sanding if there was a rough spot. There was paint on everything - hardwood, banisters, new tile, toilet and sink in bathroom, carpet, door knobs, towel racks, etc. They did not remove towel racks, door knobs, etc to paint, so there were white marks around that they could not reach that had to be redone. They washed their paint brushes in my guest room sink.
Cabinets- We have five drawers that all had to be reordered after installing cabinet pulls as they were all damaged by installation. There were drawers that had to be reordered a second time because they had difficulties installing the cups we had purchased. The panels for the side of the cabinets were in bad shape, knicked, etc. They were replaced. They finally ended up putting panels on the side. When they installed the panels the first time, a couple hours after they left they were coming apart from the cabinets. They did come back promptly to fix, but one panel has a crack in the finish now. We have one drawer that has been coming off the tracks since they were installed. They have been out to look at numerous times. New hardware was ordered and installed. The drawer continues to come off the track. They have shown us how to get the drawer back on track, but I don't think that I should be having a drawer in brand new cabinets that comes off the track more than once or week or ever for that matter. My 30 year old cabinets never had drawers that came off the track. In March, we asked them to order new clips which we are waiting to have installed. We have also requested that they lock this drawer in place in hopes that this will remedy our problem. The glass doors on the cabinets are not close enough together. I had JK(owner), Geoff (cabinet), and Alex (project manager) come out to look at it and they had come up with a way to get it closer. This never happened.
Granite- When they came to cut the holes for the faucet, they forgot to cut a hole for the soap dispenser. They came back and cut a hole for the dispenser. When we got home that night, we were looking at everything a found a nice sized knick in the granite. Of course, it was where the granite meets the sink. They did come and smooth it, but the sides are not even.
Toe kick (cabinets)- The size of the toe kick was not the same height all the way around. I had to point that out and they did repair.
Crown moulding on cabinets- Had to have repairs. Seams not straight. Chipped in one spot.
Appliances- we have had some sort of problem with all of the appliances they installed. All issues related to installation.
The refrigerator's water line was attached to the back of the refrigerator at the wrong place and was making a horrible sound. We had to pay to have Best Buy to come out and figure out what was wrong. We had to pay since Blue Moon installed not Best Buy.
The stove was originally protruding 3 inches from the wall. After we complained, they were able to move it back slightly. It is now only sticking out 1 inch. Still annoying. They had all measurements for appliances beforehand, so I do not understand why it has to be this way.
Dishwasher is not flush with cabinets. Everyone that comes into my kitchen tries to close the door and then realizes it is closed - just sticking out. Our NEW dishwasher started leaking last weekend. The repairman that came out checked the waterline. It had not been tightened. He said he had to turn it 12 times to make it tight. At first, he thought that it had been worn down which shouldn't happen this soon. He spoke to me about the installation of the dishwasher when he saw how far it protruded. I asked him if there was a reason that it should stick out that far. And, he said there is nothing else behind the dishwasher that would require them to leave it out that far.
Hardwood was scratched when moving furniture back. They slid it across floor rather than lifting.
My biggest complaint is that we had to point out all of these things. It was exhausting and constant. I could see them missing a couple things here or there, but this is a lot of details that were missed. They did respond when I reached out to them and attempted to make them right. Several things they were able to correct. There are a lot of things they were not able to make right. But, I think that they should do their best to fix these things before the client sees them or have the skills to do it right the first time. By the end we were so tired of it all, we let some things go because we just felt like they had worn us down.
Other than a few things ( grout, space between glass doors, damaged panel, dishwasher protruding, stove not back to the wall, etc), we like how the kitchen turned out. We are happy with our selections. It just did not need to be this painful or take this long to complete this project. It took away a lot of the excitement of the new kithcen. We need to remodel our master bath and were hoping that whoever we had do the kitchen could then do the bath, as well. Unfortunately, we will have to start the process over of trying to find someone.
Blue Moon came in from day one and really brought a lot of good ideas for how we could renovate this bathroom without spending too much money. For the materials, Dave helped us figure out how we could get the style we wanted in our budget, and we were able to get nicer tile by saving on other parts. He was able to price out the parts and labor for all of our ideas so we could narrow the list down to what we really wanted in the bathroom. That was all just part of the estimate.
Originally, they thought they could get the project done in two days. The demo guy came to rip out the old floor, and thankfully, there were no problems with the sub-floor. The next day, their tile guy didn't show up. Dave came over and apologized for that, even doing some of the work himself to get things ready. He found a new tile guy to come in, who worked really hard throughout the day and even came back on a Saturday to finish the job. The Blue Moon tile guy did really good work, even behind the toilet where no one can see it. Dave came back to do the final touches and make sure that we got the right caulk to match our paint color. (We did the painting)
I'm really pleased that the bathroom turned out as well as it did. We honestly didn't think it could look this nice. When you hire a contractor and everything goes right, you can't really know if you just got lucky that time. It's when something goes wrong, like the first tile guy not showing up, that you can get real insight into how they resolve problems. Based on the results I've seen here, I trust Blue Moon to handle the inevitable problems that come up in larger projects, like my future basement renovation.
what we asked for and offered good advice along the way. The quality of
the work was amazing. The work took a little longer than expected and
we had some issues with communication between the project manager and
the workers. Also we felt a little uninformed at times. There were a few surprise costs in the end that we weren't informed at the time that they would cost extra. We ended up $5000 over budget. It all worked
out in the end and we were very happy with the finished product.
I would recommend them to others for future remodeling work just be sure to keep on them and make sure to ask if there is additional cost when they suggest changes.
"Hi Member, Thank you for the review, we are thrilled you are happy with your Blue Moon project. We continue to strive to be better and better as a company and all feedback helps. As part of this, we no longer emply your project manager who did not live up to my expectations as an owner for keeping on track and doing things quickly and effeciently. He was good with quality, but we expect more at Blue Moon and don't want any "but...s" in our reviews. Enjoy your basement:)"
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Blue Moon finished my basement in late December 2012. I decided to use Blue Moon after talking to more than 5 other contractors because of their overall professionalism combined with a competitive price. We spent a lot of times working our way through getting the right plan and combination of materials. I appreciated the way that JK worked with me on price and that he had so many materials/selections on hand at his showroom.
Blue Moon finished my basement from top to bottom and did a great job. The bathroom in the basement is now the nicest one in the house. I love the little bar that we have in a nook that we otherwise wouldn't know what to do with. Overall, I found them highly responsive and professional. The job foreman came out daily or was accessible by phone. The subs were also all courteous and professional. Throughout the job they regularly kept the job site clean. Things that particularly impressed me - the finishing (tile work, cabinetry, granite countertop) in the bathroom and the carpet.
A couple of tips for success. Check the progress daily... Because it was a bit of a complex job, two of the smaller walls weren't framed quite where I expected them; because I caught it the same day, it was easy for Blue Moon to rectify. Lots of small things like that popped up that, because I stayed on top of the job, were easy to catch early. Over communicate about schedule. I was "surprised" around December 21-22 when I thought that we just had a few days left to go to finish the basement that the crew was taking the week between Christmas and New Years off. It was a genuine miscommunication and we talked our way through it but.... over communicating would help. These aren't tips specific to Blue Moon; I would recommend them for work with any contractor.
At the beginning of the review I noted that I chose Blue Moon because they seemed to be the best around. I still believe that and would happily recommend them to others.
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Justin stopped by and we walked through what I wanted. He seemed pretty on the ball but pretty uncertain on the below grade areaway I needed put in. He promised to get back to me in a week with a quote. It took a little while to get the bid but, since then they have been super responsive. I have narrowed down my search to just a couple of firms, Blue Moon and one other. I will update this review later If I go with them. Still trying to figure out what the areaway will cost.
From the beginning...We emailed them an initial design then the owner and their architect came out to walk the site and gave many helpful tips. Completed a total build out of an unfinished basement...their guys did everything from framing to flooring with a smile on their faces! We were so impressed by their professionalism that we also hired them right after we moved into our home to paint upstairs. I have submitted a separate report for this already as it was a completely different job. Very, very happy!!
They finished the basement this morning and it is amazing!! The 1700 square foot site includes a huge workout space, guest quarters, 3 piece bath, entertainment area and a beautiful kitchen plus an additional 300 square feet of storage. From design to finish its all the details that make me love Blue Moon. Love them so much they're going to be putting in a patio for us in the Spring! And a special note about Alex, our on site manager...his patience and energy were such a blessing for this 1st timer to the ends and outs of construction. He texted me back and forth from his beach vacation to get all the design elements into the contract so we could start on time. To the owner, JK; thank you for such quality workmanship at a price this family could afford!!
**One note for those that aren't used to working with an excellent and extremely detail oriented contractor and just want your basement done NOW...patience! Blue Moon made sure that EVERYTHING was in the contract and ordered before construction began ensuring timely completion and no problems. This wasted no time and none of my hard earned money during the build~out.
I received a design and proposal via email shortly thereafter. We went through a few iterations of the design before I was happy with the final version - white cabinets with cabinets on the bottom. Throughout the design process John was always easy to work with and responsive.
The day before the bookshelf installation (early December), the electrician contractor arrived at the house to install the recessed lights. The next day the bookshelf was supposed to be installed, however, there was a glitch. An error had been made in the measurements so the bookshelf had to be rebuilt. (They were able to install the cabinets on the bottom.) A week later the bookshelf contractor returned to finish the install.
A "B, Good" grade was given because the lack of attention to detail and the measurement error. There were several areas that needed to be touched up (nicks on the paint, screws were inserted crooked, paint/patch work to the drywall where the electrician made a small hole). I emailed Blue Moon with my punchlist and they returned promptly to touch up the areas.
The entire crew was very professional throughout the project and the workmanship was superior. Each time we had a question about the project, Blue Moon was very responsive and did a great job keeping us updated along the way. There are many contractors that do good work, but it is rare to find one who also manages the jobs effectively....we found the rare exception with Blue Moon. As anyone who has ever had work done knows, things don't go completely smoothly from start to finish, but what we appreciated was the communication and the effort to overcome the challenges that came our way. An example was on the counter tops. We originally chose Corian for our counters, but the supplier was experiencing delays. Although the delay was not Blue Moon's fault, they actively tried to find ways to expedite the delivery, and when it was clear that the supplier was not going to come through, JK recommended we use granite and did not charge us extra. After seeing the finished product, we were so happy with the switch!
The hardwood flooring that Blue Moon suggested was the perfect complement to the bar and the overall feel of the bar. The detailed woodwork on the bar itself is amazing and impresses our family and friends that have come over to enjoy the bar. The brick on the wall was another incredible addition that sets the bar apart from others. Blue Moon took care of every last detail on the bar, including the installation of the sink and fixtures, the microwave, beverage center and ice maker, the installation of the pendant lights, lights over the glass liquor shelves, mounting of the TV, hook-up of the entertainment centers, installation of speakers in the ceiling...I could go on and on. Although this was a large purchase, we feel strongly that we definitely got our money's worth and it ended being a great value for an amazing addition to our home. If you're in the market for any type of home project, I would definitely recommend calling Blue Moon!
I'm really happy with the way they handled this work! It just looks beautiful!! Blue Moon will be finishing our basement starting next week so I will be sure to post an update.
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