BEST. CONTRACTOR. EVER! (We base this opinion upon our experiences with prior bathrooms and kitchen renovations, two barns constructed, and a house constructed). We found NRG on Angie's List.
This project was simple enough: Add a 7x10 on-slab laundry room onto the back of our existing mudroom, and then replace the small deck that had to come down to make room for the laundry room foot print. A new laundry room addition, built on the main floor of the house where we'd lived for nineteen years, would eliminate having to navigate stairs to use the dark, remote original laundry area in the unfinished side of the basement.
We first met David Gordon, NRG Project Manager, at our home just a few days after our initial contact. We provided David with some basic ideas of what we wanted. He listened carefully, made some suggestions, and said he understood the general scope of the project. He took measurements and photos at that first meeting, and then went back to the office to work with his designer. Within a few days, he came back to us with several alternative plans. We picked the one that most closely matched what we thought would work the best for us, and then we all worked together to tweak the design a few more times until it seemed right. Then we plugged-in basic fixtures and materials so David could present us with the NRG contract and pricing.
We were a bit taken back by the price, but we agreed to the contract as written, realizing this tiny 7x10 addition would require pretty much all of the trades (excavation, concrete, framing/carpentry, electrical, plumbing, siding, cedar shake roofing, spray foam insulation, counter top fabrication, painting, tile setting, and HVAC). Once the contract was signed, and we gave NRG our deposit, detailed preliminary design plans were created.
As the final designs took shape, we all realized there were several existing building code deficiencies adjacent to where the new addition would be tied into the house. David identified what needed to be done to bring these problems up to code, and we added a few additional-cost change orders to the original contract even before the final project plans were approved. Better to be safe than worrying whether the new project won't pass inspections because of something wrong with the original structure.
Due to the Christmas holidays, we chose to delay ground breaking until the second week of January 2014. (What were we thinking?) David had already applied for all of the building permits, so everything was ready to begin as planned. Even though January and February had some of the longest duration cold nights and days plus snow/ice storms in more than four years, work progressed daily except on the few days when it was actively snowing or too cold to pour concrete. David's two-man crew and/or subs were on site usually eight hours every weekday, and sometimes on weekends if weather prevented working on a weekday. On several days, once the project was under roof, there were so many subs on site at the same time someone might have thought there was a whole house being built. David was on-site part of every workday, usually early in the morning, and always when a building inspection was scheduled. He was very responsive to all of our questions and issues along the way, either communicating by email, phone, text message, or making additional on-site visits. There was never a time when we didn't feel like we were the most important NRG project that day.
David and each member of his crew, plus every sub, was friendly, hard-working, competent, and respectful of our home and property. The project site was tidied-up at the end of every workday, and we always felt our outdoor pets were safe to wander around outside after the work day was done. During the two months of this project, we never once felt unsure whether we could safely leave any of the workers alone in our home when we couldn't be around.
Everything didn't go perfectly. On most projects we've done, that's the norm. It's how the contractor reacts to these challenges that demonstrates to us how good the contractor really is/isn't. Every time there was a hiccup, David resolved the issue, and got everything back on track in short order. In every instance, David resolved the issue with ideas better than we could ever have come up with on our own. For example: space was so tight in such a small room addition, once the split-system ductless heat pump air handler was installed high on its wall, it partially blocked the adjacent hanging cabinet door from fully opening. David offered several alternatives, and we all eventually agreed to take the cabinet door off. David re-fabricated the inside of the cabinet and shelves with identical-material laminate. The result was a custom-look open cabinet that perfectly matched the rest of the room's cabinetry.
We really like the finished project. It's functional, aesthetically pleasing, and quite an upgrade over what we'd had for almost twenty years in our house. We can't imagine why we didn't do this addition project sooner.
We certainly plan to use NRG on our next project, especially if David Gordon is project manager.