McLean Home Improvement LLC

The laundry room was the last unfinished room in my house. Lester Garcia was the only contractor who came for an estimate that seemed to really care about my project and put in the time to give me an accurate estimate. The other 4 companies seemed to just gloss over what we wanted and give a ballpark estimate. We felt that Lester really listened and gave us an accurate fair quote. The last thing anyone would want would be to be surprised as to the final bill! His workers were hard working and very professional and went out of their way to ensure that we were satisfied. My biggest complaint was that we were never sure if they were going to show up on what day. They would say the "electrician" or another worker would stop by on Tuesday and then wouldn't show up until Wednesday. This happened on several occasions. I would recommend that the company could communicate better with their customers. A phone call in the morning or the night before would go along way to set expectations. However they did quality work and we are very pleased with the room!

First let me say that MHI is a very large company in the area, and they have different crews, so your mileage will vary. The crew that I had was very professional and super-quiet, which was good. However, I happened to have another contractor working in the house at the same time, for painting and some other handyman work. We split the work between the two contractors, for cost and timing reasons. What I noticed was that the other contractor was much more consultative (helping us make decisions and choices along the way), whereas MHI basically just did whatever we told them. The other contractor had the foreman for the crew come by twice a day to inspect the work, and make sure we were happy, where as MHI's foreman came by on sporadically. If I hadn't had another contractor at my home to compare MHI to, I would have been OK with the work that they did, but not "Happy." MHI just did the basics and in some areas they did just enough to get by from a quality perspective. I ended up having (paying for) the other contractor come back and redo some of the work that MHI did, because the other contractor CORRECTLY pointed out how we could have had a better quality job in certain respects. When they showed me the difference (on their own dime), I was happy to then pay them for the work that they did. I've since given the other contractor another $20k+ in project work at my primary home and a different home that we are about to put on the market. MHI is OK, and they will do an "OK" job. So, although I would not use them again haven found another/better option, they will do what you tell them/pay them to do without failure.

The project took approximately three weeks and looks better than it did new. MHI is a hard working, well organized team and is great to work with.

Great. Lester was great to work with and provided several good ideas about how to best reconfigure the basement, and accommodated changes along the way.

They were prompt and thorough at a very fair price.

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It went very well. We needed a wide range of things to be done. Gave a lot of thought to using a painting contractor for the paint work, electrical contractor for the electrical work, etc., etc. or just going with a single all-purpose company to do everything. We decided to go with McLean Home Improvement to do everything and are glad we did. Work was done in Fall 2014. We had no complaints or problems when the work was done and we still feel the same way. MCI owner Lester Garcia was on site frequently and kept everything moving. His foreman, Antonio, was tireless (as was the entire crew) and it became quickly evident that he could do whatever needed to be done. On their final day, Lester did a walk-thru and discovered a minor water leak downstairs. Even though they had largely packed everything up and the leak was not part of the project, they replaced the section of copper pipe and fixed the problem. It would have been easy and convenient for them to say they would be back at a later date but they took care of it right then and there. Don't know if many other companies would have done that.

Lester did a great job of providing us with a reasonable quote and a complete list of all of the items that he would accomplish. They were on time, did a great job and selected quality products. I would definitely recommend them.

MHI's work was exceptional as always. The deck turned out better than we imagined. It transformed our backyard. This is the fourth home improvement project MHI has done for me. Owner Lester Garcia and his team do great quality work at a fair price. Lester always invests the time to ensure every project is done to standard. I am at the point where I don't even call anyone else for estimates.

It went great! Lester and his crew at McLean Home Improvement do wonderful work. We first hired McLean Home Improvement back in 2014 for a bathroom install. They completed the entire install which included moving the rough ins in 8 days. We love our 3 pieces full bathroom. So when it came time to do our basement we knew who to call. Again Lester and the crew at McLean Home Improvement did a wonderful job in the time they said they would. They are very easy to communicate with and addressed any questions we had quickly. For both projects they always left the place clean and organized. We never felt like we were living in a construction zone. The crew has a great work ethic and work an entire day. We love our basement it turned out better then we pictured and our friends were blown away at the transformation. Will we call McLean Home Improvement in the future? Absolutely!

We love our new bathroom! We wanted to keep the bathroom layout the same to save money but replace everything since it was dated. The bathroom is approximately 10 X 11 feet. MHI demolished the space then installed: stand alone tub with floor faucet vanity which had to be custom fit for a non-standard space granite countertop, sinks, faucets, mirrors, lighting, and toilet an additional electrical outlet Also, MHI rebuilt the shower stall, bathroom floor, and wall area around new tub and tiled everything so beautifully!!! The precision of the tile work shows true craftsmanship and attention to detail. They started the job the Monday after Thanksgiving and it was finished as promised in 3 weeks. I couldn't be happier and I recommend them highly!

Excellent work.

They have worked for me several times. Very meticulous. Generally did an excellent job with all projects. Recommend by a large local tile shop. When a problem arose from a plumbing mistake, Lester immediately took responsibility and fixed at no charge. I've used them since then as well and would again.

perfect and we love it

This review is long overdue. From end of December 2015 to mid February 2016, Lester and his team worked on a complete kitchen renovation for our townhome. He did an EXCELLENT job and I am going to have him back to do our bathroom. I did my best to detail our experience below, but in a nutshell: we highly recommend. There were many events that came up during the course of our reno. I'll provide a detailed review below of everything that they did, and how helpful they were along the way, because with probably most big renos, there were definitely unexpected things that came up. The initial reason for calling Lester was because we had a closed floor plan, with a wall separating our kitchen from both our dining and living room. We wanted to tear the wall down, and ultimately have an island to have more counter space, and of course that open floor plan. Because we have been burned by contractors in the past, we wanted to take the entire reno in phases to make sure we were happy with the progress every step away. The crew started the reno and tore down our wall, opening it up as much as possible. We had no load bearing walls. We also had a popcorn ceiling in our kitchen which we wanted out, so they gutted that out too. During that, we found out that there was a rotten beam (past water damage apparently occurred before we moved in). The found issue didn't set the time frame back. It was an additional cost to fix, but we went over the pros and cons of fixing the issue now, and Lester has a team skilled to reinforce the beam so we would not detrimental issues in the event we have a leak that we can't identify right away. The quick refocus that the team did demonstrated their effective ability to do our kitchen. At the wall tear down progressed, we worked with Lester on the kitchen of our dreams. In a nutshell, we showed Lester a picture of the kitchen we wanted on Pinterest, and he delivered EXACTLY what we showed him. Truly amasing work. They gutted everything and put in a new ceiling with 5 recessed lights. A certain crew did the demo and installation, and Lester used his electrician to do the lighting. They installed new cabinets, and hooked us up with the place to get the counter. We already had the design in our mind - we new we wanted white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a whiteish grayish counter. We picked the counter out ourselves (it was in Chantilly), gave them Lesters info, and he worked out the rest. The guy who measured our space for the counter was great too. He wasn't part of Lester's direct crew, but that's his contact, which to me is a reflection of Lester and we were very happy with that whole process. Lester gave us three different options for cabinets, so we went with one of those. Installation of the counter went great. We also had Lesters team do a subway tile backsplash. We were really worried about how that would turn out because we had another company do our bathroom and they did a horrible job. Lester's tile work was FLAWLESS. We will have him back to do our bathroom. The cuts, details, finishes, everything about it was highly skilled work. In hindsight I should have went with the gray grout, but that was my design flaw. We bought our appliances from Sears (that cost was not part of the kitchen reno cost). We worked with Lester very specifically on measuraments with this aspects, because I was so worried we'd buy appliances and they wouldnt fit in the already installed cabinets/counter. Once we got the measurements, we got our Kenmore appliances delivered. Lester's team did the installation, and went above and beyond by coming by very late on a Friday night to install our fridge so our food wouldn't spoil, and that was a nice work around that we really appreciated. Our main floor is all hardwood, except for the kitchen. We really wanted to have hardwood floor throughout the entire first floor, but a challenge with matching. We had some hardwood left over when we did our upstairs floor a few years back, and Lester was able to use the rest of that hardwood (saving us a little bit of money) and ordered more of the same. We talked a lot about the transition from "old" hardwood to the "new" kitchen hardwood, and thought about adding a transition strip. One of the many things that made Lester great was his decision making and keen eye for design. He made the decision to not do the transition strip, and stagger the hardwood, creating a flawless, seamless transition from living/dining room to kitchen. It looks wonderful. We've been burned by contractors before, and I let Lester know right off the bat that I wanted to be in contact with one person the whole time. I do not want to work out funding with him, then talk to someone else during the process, etc. etc. etc. Lester and his assistant Melvin were very responsive - I never had to wait more than a few hours to get any little question I had answered. That was part of what I think made this entire process so much more pleasant. If Lester in the beginning made all these promises and wasn't there to talk to and hold accountable, it would have been a nightmare. But commutation makes everything better, and that is one of the main reasons I'd love to have him back. They are a trustworthy team too. This entire process took about 7 weeks - which is actually REALLY good for a kitchen reno! We work full time, so they used a lock box and they came and went as they pleased, and we had no issues. It's worth mentioning something else about Lester's and the business he runs. During this time, we were working on an issue we had with our attic. We were getting a new roof and new insulation. We had an outside company come and we were going to get the spray foam insulation. That contractor said that he couldn't do it because our ceiling upstairs was literally falling. If we put that heavy weight of foam on our dry wall in the attic, the entire ceiling would collapse. (Apparently in 1975 they used nails, instead of screws, to attach the dry wall to the beams in the attic). We had a cold house, and no kitchen. We asked Lester if his crew could stop what they were doing mid way through our kitchen, unexpectedly, and secure our ceiling. And they did! Of course at extra cost, but we were in a dire situation with our roof, and once again, Lester fixed our issue and they did a great job. We appreciated his and his crew's diverse expertise and flexibility with all of our issues. I cant wait for the. To do their tile work on our bathroom one day, and paint again for us. I hope sharing my experience will help you in making a decision to choose this team to get your work done by.

Fantastic. I had used them for a major garage renovation and they did such a great job that I hired them for the bar. As with the garage, they stated in the contract they would finish within three weeks and from the day they started they were done in three weeks. This included a week's delay as some cabinets were on back order and the granite was delayed, both due to suppliers. The quality of the workmanship was superb, even including some custom cabinet fabrication for corner angles that we have. Bar turned out perfect. I cannot recommend them enough and will hire them for any projects I have in the future.

This is the best renovation company I have ever dealt with. The price was good, about the same as other quotes I received. The work was far and above the best. Unlike other construction/renovation companies, they began the project as scheduled, their guys showed up 6 days a week as long as weather allowed and worked until night to get it done. They even showed up on a Sunday as the garage doors were being installed on Monday by a garage door company and some work needed to be finished before that. 
The contracted time frame was 6 weeks, over Thanksgiving and they would have had it done in 4. I decided to make the garage doors wider, which involved new engineering plans and also had them paint the entire garage, which has built in cabinets and epoxy the floor, which was not part of the original contract. They still got everything done within 6 weeks, except the epoxy because the weather got too cold. As soon as it was warm enough in spring they came back and finished the epoxy.
We were extremely concerned about matching the brick and mortar on the exterior wall. We were able to locate the original brick and Lester and his crew matched the mortar perfectly. You cannot even tell that wall is new.
I am so impressed that I hired them to build a bar in my basement as well and will hire them for any other projects I have.

work finished  properly and on time.

We completely remodeled the master bath. Most estimates from the design companies came in between $30-40K. Since we knew what ?look? we were going for, we opted to work with a general contractor instead of designers. It was a great experience. We will definitely call Lester for any future work that we do in our home. Lester and his guys were professional, reasonably priced, and did
excellent work.

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We had two small dark bathrooms on the bedroom level of our house.  We weren't sure what needed to be done but we knew we wanted to at least make the master bath larger.  We interviewed several contractors to see what they suggested and to get quotes.  We knew this was not going to be cheap unless we wanted it to look cheap.
Our initial meeting with Lester Garcia lasted two hours, which may sound like a long time but was actually a very comfortable two-way conversation from which we came away feeling that our concerns were thoroughly addressed.  Lester had a lot of ideas to improve upon our initial concept and impressed us as very knowledgeable and experienced,
The plan involved moving walls and enlarging two very small bathrooms while having one bathroom available for us to get ready for work each day.
Lester's quote was very detailed and he was always prompt to update his quote as needed.  He also met us at the store to help us pick out the products and colors.
Lester and his crew worked hard and stuck to the schedule, even though we added a window, a heated floor, and a half wall to the project.
We had the same craftsman and his apprentice throughout the project.  Their workmanship reflected a lot of pride.  Fairfax has updated the electrical requirements since the house was built.  Lester had an electrician come in to do all the new wiring and to rearrange our circuit breaker box so we would meet code.
His crew always put down drop cloths when they arrived and cleaned up each night, removing all construction debris and vacuuming.  We wish more could have been done to prevent dust from traveling throughout much of the house, but that's the nature of a renovation.  He did have a cleaning crew come over after construction to vacuum and dust and make sure our new bathrooms were free of any residual construction mess.  They found a cracked tile shelf in one shower which was replaced immediately.
Throughout construction we contacted Lester frequently for updates, usually by phone rather than email, and he was always very patient in answering our questions.
All in all, working with Lester and his crew was a very positive experience and we would recommend them again.  We did have one followup issue with insulation, which was given prompt attention.

The service was great. The work was terrific.