BEACON REMODELING

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good work. On time

Both owners, Frank Fabens and Les McAuliffe, worked on the project, with Frank serving as the project manager. Beacon and their subs kept to the agreed-upon schedule and finished the project within the budget estimate (work was done on time and materials basis). As a cost-saving measure I wanted to do the painting; they were fine with that arrangement, and provided useful tips that improved the end result. There was good communication throughout the project, and we were impressed with their professionalism and commitment to quality work. We lived in the house during construction and appreciated their attention to cleanup and noise control. I’d definitely hire Beacon again.

They could have been faster. They were very nice and had very nice people. I thought that they could have worked for more hours during the day because it seemed like one of them, Mr. Frank, came in late and left early. There wasn’t a lot of work but it took way too long. The part of the problem was that I had to rent an apartment and it got to the point where I was running out of money. A part of it was because I had to pay the rent. There was a cost which was to be expected during the remodeling but it got too late. I had to cut it off. I had to do some things that were cheap because I could not afford it as I ran out of money and got turned out. Some of their work was very good but their communication was not always good although they were nice. The quality of their work was good.

We have used Beacon for two large projects in the past two years, and in each case the jobs were overseen by both owners, Les and Frank. The bulk of the work was done by superb carpenters Bill and Jordan. We want to emphasize that we had excellent communication at all times with them. Tip: As a couple, we designated one partner as the primary contact; otherwise it can be easy to introduce confusion. We made decisions jointly, but only the designated spouse conveyed the information to Beacon. In summer 2009 Beacon remodeled our master bedroom, which involved replacing a flat roof with a peaked roof and creating a cathedral ceiling. They also remodeled our laundry room. The subcontractors were uniformly excellent, including cabinet-maker, window supplier, tiler, electrician, plumber, drywall-installer, and painter. An anecdote to show how good Beacon is: Our architect's design specified three large beams over the bedroom. Les, Bill, and Jordan recommended that a single, ridge beam would do the job, look great, and save money. Our architect re-ran the structural calculations and found that Beacon's solution was 30 percent stronger than his original design. The ridge beam is a glue-lam boxed in gorgeous clear maple, an aesthetic solution suggested by Beacon. During construction, we lived in our guest room. They did an excellent job of sealing off the construction area, entering and leaving through zippered plastic sheeting. This was important as my wife has asthma. They also protected our maple floors with masonite for the duration of the job. At the end of every day, they did a thorough cleanup, which was highly appreciated. In short, we wholeheartedly recommend Beacon Remodeling.

We first met with Les and Frank in April, 2007 and signed a contract, including deposit, in May. Work was supposed to begin in July and we hoped to have it completed by September. In June, they let us know another project was running over and said our project would start in September, running through December. We moved out of our house Sept. 1, 2007. They obtained the permit October 20th. Some preliminary work had begun before permits were issued, including kitchen and bath demolition. We couldn't move home and the project was already several weeks behind. Communication continued to be challenging, and the budget and time line continued to balloon, until we fired them in February and moved back in to a very incomplete house. The quality of work individual carpenters and subcontractors performed was outstanding. Beacon hires some very skilled people who do a very good job. My dissatisfaction is with the communication style and lack of responsibility for some major budget and time line problems. I learned from this project to be very wary of jobs being billed per hour. I also learned hiring a General Contractor is no substitute for supervising every aspect of the job yourself. When things started going sour, Les and Frank had no ability to deal. They left some of the subcontractor's equipment here, buried under 2 tons of garbage. They did not have any sort of dispute resolution process and seemed to have no idea why I was unhappy. They took all the permit-related paperwork with them (though they did return it when asked).