Kochana Construction

Michael was very gracious about coming out and doing this for us in between his very busy schedule. We hope he is available to hire in the future.

My Shoreline house inspector found deck support posts which were non-treated wood.  These needed to be replaced.  The posts were covered with post trim and it wasn't easy to see the damage.  Kochana Construction did a perfect job in replacing the posts and post trim.  It was somewhat complex due to the deck and the posts and the river rock on the bottom.  Good thing I got this done because the deck was sagging and I have peace of mind now.  Michael raised the deck to the appropriate height.  Awesome job.

Mike made an appointment to view the job and showed up as scheduled.  He said he prefers to work on a time and materials basis and we agreed that would be fine.  He specified the materials needed, including the new door assembly, in order that we could buy them and save a few bucks.  He said he would pick up the door as he had a truck.  On the day the job was scheduled he showed up promptly and completed the work as agreed.  Along the way he consulted with us regarding some minor issues that were discovered as the work progressed.  When his caulk gun would not fit into one of the areas where caulking was necessary he found another way to complete the job.  Mike is an extremely pleasant, communicative, helpful and friendly individual.  We had no surprises and are absolutely satisfied with the results.

This went better than I could have imagined. We spoke on the phone and agreed to meet at my place the following day at 12 noon. He was neither a minute early nor late ... at exactly 12 noon he arrived ;-) He looked at the job which was rather tricky as the original builder did not follow the drawings provided and I needed the piece to be correct. Michael immediately sized up the problem. He took a part of it to his shop and said he'd return with it in 1/2 along along with the tools he would need to finish the job. Sure enough, 1/2 hour later he was back. He estimated 2 hours and did it in 2 hours (actually he did it in 1:50). He was pleasant to work with and we had some nice discussions about our work, where we each grew up and other general stuff.
I am so happy with the work that Michael did and WILL call him in the future for any carpentry/woodworking work I need.

He gave an estimate for the repairs and came very close to his estimate. He was very attentive to detail, communicated well with me every step of the way, responded to questions quickly and completed the job. I totally agree with his pricing procedure which is to invoice based on time and materials instead of padding an estimate based on unknown variables. That said, his quote was right on so he is obviously very experienced and knows the variables.

I chose Mike because he had good ideas that enhanced the design of my deck. I could see that his time-and-materials approach would work better than a flat rate. My is a perfectionist in his carpentry. I felt consulted at every stage and am completely satisfied with the results. He showed up promptly every day until the job was done. He minimized inconvenience to me as homeowner. He cleaned up as he worked. Mike is an especially nice person to work with.

Went beautifully. Mike is responsive, punctual and honest. He's one of those folks who evaluates the situation then gives choices (for example, he was willing to try to fix my ancient bathroom fan, but after a discussion we decided it would be better to replace it with a quieter, more efficient new one). We ran into several challenges installing the new fan, as my house was built in 1917, the previous owners had a "non-licensed contractor" remodel in 1985, and nothing in it is standard size or shape, but each time he quickly figured out a work-around and did not charge me anything extra in labor.
He's also a very nice guy, and likes dogs.