John Erwin Remodeling Inc

I will start by saying that the finished product is beautiful and everyone in the family is very pleased with the new kitchen, but there were many issues along the way that left a bad impression of this company. Simply put, the project took twice as long as their own original timeline. Some of the delays were due to poor scheduling on their part. As a result there were weeks with nothing happening on the project. There were also times when the workers made blatant errors such as not following the drawings or mis-laying the tile so some of it had to be torn up and replaced. I will say that most of the workers were friendly and seemed competent. Our lead carpenter, Ryan, was very good .We have no doubts about the structural integrity of the work and are pleased that we remodeled, but when you finish so late, there is bound to be some disappointment. I hope that the company can improve their workflow so that projects proceed more closely to the estimated timeline. Also, when we raised concerns we did not feel they were taken seriously.

Excellent quality job. Fast and efficient. A bit pricey.

Fifty percent over budget and five months late with more than a half-dozen change orders that we were essentially forced to concede to. 

Lack of attention to detail and poor oversight of process.  Owner has very poor conflict resolution skills and didn't take ownership for the many failings of the project. 

The laborers who did the carpentry work on the decking and some of the minor interior work did great. 

Major failings occurred by the leadership included:

- Replaced one window that was not requested to be replaced then, didn't perform any work on the bedroom window that was originally identified as being the problem

- Replaced wrong cadet heater

- Didn't account for many additional costs for installing a septic system (electrical work, tree removal, concrete patching) which should've been expected. 

- Required me to cut my vacation off early to submit paperwork to front cash from the bank before they started work on the septic.  Work had been at a standstill for many months prior to that event (pending a permit) and no effort was made to inform me that they needed the cash before starting.

- Significantly underbid cost of roof replacement

- Started roofing job on a Friday before biggest storm of the season resulting in multiple water leaks into house.  Positive note - the field supervisor came out multiple times to deal with the leaking roof.  If we had been out of town, I have no faith that the company would've repaired the resulting water damage.

- Failed to inform me of cheaper alternative to replacing a leaky sky light

They were excellent. We decided to use them because of neighbors' recommendations. We also looked them up and interviewed a couple of different contractors. Their craftsmanship was excellent. Their cleanup was excellent. Their professionalism was excellent. I certainly would use them in the future.

We were told it would take one week to do a partial remodel of our bathroom and it took over a month. The worker was slow and smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, which then made our home smell of cigarette smoke. We had to work hard to get what we wanted, and even then some of the tiling was done in a way I asked not to have it done, but was easier for the worker to figure out.
Overall, the bathroom is fine, but I would not use them again due to the slowness of the work and the frustration of trying to communicate with the main office.

This is a very well run and professional business; however on our job there was a lack of communication and failure to follow established protocol. The bidding process, the payment/signing of the contract, the pre-walk thru were all done well and professionally. The work began, the crew were respectful and professional and kept things as neat and tidy as possible. However, 1 employee failed to measure or layout the wiring for the heating correctly resulting in an area of our floor not being heated. Rather than call his boss, he had another employee mud over the top and when I entered the room he said he ran out of wire and there wouldn't be heat in this area. Having never done a remodel, I was stunned and didn't know how to respond. I take responsibility for not stopping the work and demanding his boss be called. After the tile was laid there were several tiles that were uneven; I questioned the same employee who said he did the best he could. I then learned that his boss would not be doing the final walk thru but he would instead. This makes it quite difficult to bring up issues. Later that day I rec'd the final bill and discovered the cost of the electrical for the heating/wiring portion of the job was $1000 over bid. I was eventually visited by the boss; he did not offer to re-do the job as I had said the area that isn't wired (approx 4X10') is at a cutout area that we don't spend a lot of time in and it isn't worth having the entire floor ripped up to redo that. He did offer to redo the tiles that were in fact uneven and out of industry standard. They were re-done, then the grout cracked and that had to be re-done. A final warranty was supposed to be given to us for the work, we have yet to receive it. He apologized for the wiring error and said he would have had the employee re-do it then had he known. He admitted the employee knows better than to just keep going when something like that happens. As far as the overage, he had no reasonable explanation for me but offered to reduce the bill by $500.00. The owner came to our home after I submitted my review of the job to his office. He was pleasant and admitted communication did not happen the way he has set things up. However, he offered no other recourse. He understood that I wouldn't want to rip up the entire floor for that area but he didn't even offer that as a possibility. I was a bit disappointed in not hearing from him until I submitted my review...did his employees not tell him of the screw ups that happened prior to my letter or was it not an issue to him until I wrote my letter? I do not know. I love the tile floor and the heating, I'm pleased we decided to have it done. But I honestly do not believe we would chose to use this company again for any further work we decide to do on our house. We usually use the Costco Customer Service as a gold standard. They are an amazing company when things go wrong; it would have meant more to us had John Erwin behaved as I believe Costco would have and done more to make this right (take responsibility for the electrical overage - it was for labor to install the wiring - especially in light of the fact that the wiring was insufficient to complete the job as originally bid. That would have been a reasonable gesture)

The project was completed on a time scale we were happy with. Troy and Julio were very professional and helped with sugetions when any problems came up. Their finish work and attention to detail was impressive. They did all the work on the job. They were very courteous. They cleaned up after every days work and never left a mess. We would not hesitate to recommend them to others and will use them again.

The experience was great. Not the cheapest guys in town, but not the most expensive either. Great quality workmanship. I'm going to have them remodel one of my rentals (a cool but neglected old bungalow) this summer. Went on the Angie's list website to see how they were rated and was sad to see just one unhappy customer who gave them an F. This is a top-notch professional company. They came highly recommended to me and I would pass that recommendation on to anyone.

The quality of work was adequate but the company philosphy is apparently to get as much money out of the customer as possible. I am ending up going to court because I refused to pay for cost over runs that I never approved.