CORNELL'S QUALITY CONSTRUCTION INC.

We were pleasantly surprised with how fast the work was completed and the quality of the workmanship. Cornell's guys were here promptly every morning and worked hard throughout the day. One of the impressive things to watch was the way they cleaned up their tools and equipment at the end of the day--neatly stacked to one side and they always vacuumed up any dust. The guys were unfailingly polite and were true craftsmen at their jobs. Cornell Petrisor's company provided excellent quality and we are very happy with the work that was done for us. We would recommend them for any high quality home remodeling work for a fair price.

These guys did an absolutely fantastic job. The old location of the door was nicely patched and it is impossible to say that it had a door there. They re-used the existing door and door frame which drastically reduced our cost. Overall they did an excellent job and I definitely recommend them.

Responsiveness. When you have an issue and when we follow up on it they're very responsive. The cost was about $32,000 complete replacement.

Cornell has always been highly responsive and easy to communicate with. And when he promises something he delivers it, on time, on budget and to a high standard of craftsmanship. The guys he employs are unfailingly courteous and make a real effort to minimize the disruption that goes with their presence. We've owned a couple of houses and worked with many different contractors. Cornell has far and away provided our best experience. We sincerely recommend him.

unknown

As I begin this review into just the second day of my remodeling project, and before I finish, all readers will have a clear picture of this company, its? owner and his various crews ~ each carefully orchestrated to come in a timely manner and complete their individual specialties.  I decided to keep a daily journal, so that with the passage of time I would not miss mentioning things that I deemed to be important issues in today?s difficult job of finding a good contractor.

At the age of 84 I now needed doors wide enough that would allow me use of my walker.  That required my bathroom door to be widened, and reconfigured somewhat, along with several other modifications to my home.  After a very long process of researching, interviewing both by telephone or in person, and feeling great frustration that so many had various negative issues ~ not licensed by the State, negative reviews by other homeowners, not returning emails, telephone messages, etc. ~ I made one more (and possibly my last before giving up altogether!) telephone call.  This one would be the one ~ I knew from his telephone conversation.

The time was set for meeting, to look at the project, and discuss my needs.  Following a most pleasant meeting Cornell was receptive to being able to work my small project in before next spring (!) and assured me that it would not take more than a couple of weeks for my now modified project (several suggested up to 3-4 months!)  Cornell said he would have a proposal to me by the end of that week.  He followed up on that, sending a proposal by the end of the week!  I did not have to prompt him with a phone call, as I did with at least one other contractor (who could not bother to return any call or submit his proposal without my urgent calls to him.)  (Needless to say, that contractor did not have a chance!)

Cornell?s proposal was acceptable, we signed, and he wrote on my calendar the ?Start Date? (which he kept!)  That was yesterday!  As my project progresses I will continue my daily log of notes, but as it stands now this group is a special group of workers.  I will continue to critique each of them.

I would learn of the ?daily routine? starting with the first day ~ Cornell coming in with the daily crew, giving them instructions, and checking back in generally at the end of the day ? asking if I had any questions.  The crew of the day would do a final clean-up before leaving.  A good routine!

First day ~ Cornell with his demo crew (Joe and Santo) in - gave them instructions.  The crew worked quietly, methodically, efficient, and pleasant.  Full cleanup at the end of their work day.  Cornell returned at the end of the day, checked progress, and asked if I had any questions. 

Second day ~ Same daily routine.  Plumber (Ben) in, with one additional crew member part day.  I am not a plumber, but through many years of hiring plumbers I felt this one was a bit slow in getting done what he did.  However, he did do his job well, finished what he needed to accomplish, and cleaned up, and left for the day.

Third day ~ Same daily routine.  Electrician (Paul) in, with one additional crew member part day.  Paul was methodical in mapping out what he needed to do, where to run electrical wires, where to most efficiently have switches, outlets, etc. placed.  He worked well through the day to accomplish his duties and did the usual full cleanup at the end of the day.

Fourth day (Thanksgiving Day) ~ Cornell in, gave instructions, and with my permission a crew of three worked half day+ finishing sheetrock, working the ?mudding? process, and did the usual full clean-up at the end of their work.

Fifth day ~ Cornell in, reviewed work to be done with electrician (Paul), who continued his methodical, efficient job.  Two more crew members, Joe (returning member) and John to work in the pocket door and framing.

Sixth day ~ Drywall/?mudding? process with crew member (another John) with full cleanup at end of his time.

Reviewing my notes as the days passed there was a definite pattern for the success of this company ~ Planning, Organization, Instructing his excellent crew, Execution ~ and Cornell?s personal contact with his customer with almost daily frequency.  He and his entire crew were always on time, worked quietly, efficiently, all knew their specific trade or profession without question, and always left for the day with my home in neat order. 

There were a few times I was frustrated ~ when I had no workers here until mid-afternoon, but that soon was resolved.  I had two different crews show up and a great deal was accomplished in a short period of time ~ again leaving with full cleanup at the end of the day.  All electrical ~ new light fixtures, switches, receptacles, all new flooring ~ vinyl and carpet, new vanities in place, all plumbing, painting, and various other small jobs were completed in rapid order.   The time to complete?  Two weeks and one day (with Thanksgiving in the middle!)

I will now enjoy my beautiful remodeled areas thanks to Cornell and his special crew.  AND I would not hesitate to recommend Cornell, his company and crew, CORNELL?S QUALITY CONSTRUCTION for any job.

Peggy L

Kirkland, WA

unknown

It went great. Cornell provided the most complete and detailed bid of the 4 I received. With his expert guidance we had no need to employ a designer as his extensive experience was all we required. The Master was gutted, bathtub removed, shower and toilet relocated and it all turned out beautiful. He was very focused on our complete satisfaction. His crew was awesome. They worked extremely hard and did top notch work. They kept the site as neat as possible.

Tile work - excellent
Electrical - perfect
Painting - great.

It was all good. We couldn't be more pleased. He did a kitchen remodel for a close friend and he provided me excellent reviews so I was confident going in.

Cornell is awesome and so is his crew!!!

unknown

Cornell has done a great job and we will use him again if we have any other projects in the future.

We hired Cornell’s Quality Construction to remodel our 20 year old kitchen based on the glowing recommendation of a friend. We were not disappointed! Cornell had some great ideas regarding the layout of our kitchen which resulted in more counter space and room for a larger oven. He is an excellent listener and communicator. Cornell was always available to answer my calls or would call me right back. He kept me aware of any work schedule changes instead of leaving me hanging like other contractors we have worked with.

Cornell’s crew is highly skilled – they did a beautiful job! Not only that, they were polite, professional and respectful of our home. They show up in the morning and work long days, 6 days a week so that projects are finished quickly. We LOVE our new kitchen, and will definitely have CQC back for future remodels!

Couldn't Have Asked For A Better Kitchen Remodel Experience: Although we interviewed several contractors, Cornell won our trust and confidence not only through the strength of his professional knowledge and experience, but particularly by listening to us with a and quot;can-doand quot; attitude, respecting our desire to implement and quot;universal designand quot; concepts that will allow us to age in our own home, and advising us regarding all the hidden needs we would never have anticipated in the remodel of the 34-plus year old kitchen in our 1928 Maple Leaf home. His team of experienced craftsmen always showed up when expected, demonstrated a tremendous work ethic on the job, and were uniformly polite and a pleasure to have in our house. I would use CQC again for future projects and have already recommended him to a close friend as a candidate to do his bathroom remodel.

The project started out fine but went south as soon as the old countertop was removed. We discovered that the counter top support for our garden window is higher than the kitchen cabinets. Neither the contractor nor we foresaw this issue. They gave us three options to remedy the problem, which involved raising or lowering the cabinets or having a very obvious "shelf" higher than the rest of the counters where the garden window is. Estimates ranged from $1,500 to $1,800. We thought the quotes were outrageous. My husband decided to level the counter tops himself. It cost $30 in plywood and about four hours of his time including going back and forth to the lumber store. The employee making the templates for the countertops and bar top did not have the measurements from the original counters. This surprised me, as I wanted the new counter to match the dimensions of the old one. This was only really a problem with the bar top so I told the employee I would make a template out of cardboard for the bar top so there would be no question what I wanted. I gave the template to him the next day. One particular detail that I wanted, which showed on the template that I provided and discussed with the employee, was that one end of the bar counter was to wrap around the wall about 2". When they installed the bar counter, that detail was missing. To compensate for forgetting it, the installer jammed the end of the bar counter into the wall without telling us, to make it look like they did what we has asked. The mistake was noticeable to us but it was too late to do anything about it. Once the slab had been cut there was no way to correct the mistake. The contractor was scheduled to install the counters at 9:00 on a Friday morning. I called when they hadn't arrived by 9:40 to see what was going on. The owner said, "Oh, I should have called you. They won't be there until 11:00". At 11:12 he called to say they would be at the house within an hour. The crew didn't arrive until 1:00PM. At 7:00PM, while the crew was still working, my husband noticed that the hole for the sink had been cut too large to under mount the sink and asked what had happened. The employee said that he had been told by the owner to install it that way. The owner insisted he had called and told me that they could not under mount our existing sink. I keep detailed notes when we are having projects done in our house. The contractor did not provide a change order for us to sign to verify any conversation about the sink. If he had called to discuss the sink I would remember it, as the main reason my husband and I decided to do the project was to under mount the sink, since that is what is expected in kitchen remodels by potential home buyers. The kitchen had been out of commission for two weeks and we couldn't afford the $1,600 or the time it would take to have a custom sink made now that the hole size was so unusual. We had no choice but to have them go ahead and top mount the sink. (We did make one change during the project, which was to use the leftover slab to make a counter top for our main floor powder room. I got a verbal estimate for the additional work and sent a confirmation email to the owner.) Once the counters were installed, we also noticed that the seam joints are rough and noticeable. We didn?t think they should look like that. We went to the Home Depot showroom to compare the look of their seams. They were much smoother than the ones on our counters. Our counters look like the contractor used a dull blade to cut the slab. Considering all of the issues, our preference would have been to start over with a new slab. The contractor would not do this although he did negotiate a lower price because of our dissatisfaction with the work.