Bartelt The Remodeling Resource

Overall they did a really high quality job. Their framing crew led by Ryan was top notch, willing to accommodate preferences on the fly and understood what good looks like. The one area I would say they may need to improve on was the project management execution. We had an admittedly tough stone tile "matching" challenge that was left too long to address that caused some delay near the end of the project. Other than at the finished product looks spectacular and we are pleased witH the result.

Bartelt started on time and stayed very close to the promised timeline. Weekly construction meetings were very helpful for keeping communication flowing and answering questions. The project manager and office manager were very responsive and helpful. The rough carpenters were fantastic-doing a great job and cleaning up every night. We had some additional costs because we decided to improve certain items as we uncovered hidden problems. Bartelt always did a good job of explaining our options. They had some very good subs that they worked with and we were happy with all of them with the exception of the painter. We did switch to another painter they suggested and were very happy. We had custom millwork and doors made that turned out beyond our expectations by D and D Millwork. The cabinetry by Louis Anthony really turned the rooms into something special. Bartelt's finish carpenter was a magician with the way that he installed the millwork and customized so many areas. The designer helped with suggestions for finishing touches that met our style preferences but also worked well with the style of the house. The overall experience was so much less stressful than we expected and actually very enjoyable. The entire staff was very professional and fun to work with. Would definitely use them again and recommend them to friends.

I was very satisfied work. They did wonderful. They sat down with us, and went over everything. I had no surprises which is was good. They was always on time. They cleaned up after themselves.

The project costed about $60,000. Overall, it went pretty well. The experience was pretty good on this project. However, they did not do any better on some of the same issues we had with them on our prior project like scheduling and having the materials ready to go in time. We got to the point where it was time for a particular job and then they ordered the material. The project wound up taking twice as long as it should have because of the logistics. They tend to want to optimize the scheduling and not send somebody to do something else. It makes sense to send somebody out for a full day instead of waiting around for enough to be ready to work with. I see that their job scheduling is probably not as good as it could be. They were willing to take the price at a lower margin because of the economic downturn. They wanted to keep their crew busy. We will use this company in the future.

Overall, it went very well. We started with the design team (Matt), who did a great job turning our ideas into the plans needed. Estimates were somewhat higher than we had hoped, but once the contract was signed, the only price change came from the agreed and requested change orders. No surprises at the end, which was nice. Matt also recommended some ideas to save cost overall on the partial basement excavation (leaving a shelf at the old depth so they would not have to prop up the house while putting the new wall in). They brought multiple subs in to do various parts of the job. Schedules were coordinated pretty well, with a few notable exceptions. One major gap was when they were ready to install the cabinets. The cabinet building had not been started yet, so we had to wait several weeks until they were ready. Another major gap was with the electrical sub (Leap Electric). They said they could handle the installation of phone, network, and cable wiring. They said they had done this many times before. When it was done, I found that it was not done right. NONE of the network cables worked properly. Some had nicked wires, some had reversed pairs, and none met the published standards for wiring high-speed jacks. They had also not installed the right wiring in the right place. I would have been just fine if they said "you can come in and put the wiring where you want it", but they didn't. As a result, I had to redo all of them myself. They also did not put in the wiring for phones and reroute the other low voltage wiring like they said they would. Don't trust these guys to do anything but power wiring! The third issue was with the plumbers. We asked them to redo some of the old plumbing to replace bad shutoff valves, but they did not do this work while the walls were open/partially finished. I put the reponsibility for this squarely on the project scheduler, Terri. I think she did not want to incur the trip costs for them to come out and do things when it would be easier and cheaper. Instead, they had to work around the new construction when they finally were scheduled to come out. The finish carpentry is spectacular. Duane is a real craftsman and takes pride in the outcome. Mitered corners fit perfectly. Everything is just right. Even things that had to be fixed were done perfectly. Finishes are immaculate also. The design is not very energy efficient. They use overhead cans with incandescent spotlights and dimmers to achieve the "look", which is nice. I put in a few CF lamps and plan to do more. We are really pleased with the outcome. Expensive but worth it.

The work was outstanding, and the people from their company who worked in our house were wonderful. Of five companies interviewed they were the best design, most matched what we were looking for. the person we worked with (ask for Jody Ryg) was amazing and we had a great designer to added lots of fun touches like storage for kids toys, a stage for the kids room. As you'd expect for a renovation this size there were issues that came up, and the company handled them extremely well, and worked hard to be very fair with the outcome. The only major negative was our interaction with the co-owner Rick Filo, who called us while we were waiting for the final steps to be complete and was very agitated. A surprise to us, he called and blamed us for their delay and then made a couple sexist remarks towards me. Other than that, we had a wonderful experience with the work and everyone else at the company. Not sure if we'd use again since the one bad interaction was with the co-owner.

We had used this company before. We were always treated so nice. We were pretty shocked with the service on this project. They had a new crew of guys doing some of the work. The guys who did the painting did a very nice job, with one exception. They actually painted the trim and the walls the wrong colors. We had each color of paint labeled for them and they still got it wrong. They had to redo the paint job. We thought it was actually quite funny. The main boss did not find it very amusing. They were very apologetic. There were a couple of days that they were more than an hour late. Their prices were still pretty reasonable. The final product ended up being very nice. We would still use this company again. We feel it was just the new young crew that still needed more experience that was most of the problem.

Bartelt-Filo Electric was a very professional cordial company to work with. The site was cleaned up after the electrician was finished each day. The installation of our kitchen lighting exceeded our expectations!

Extremely positive overall. Company was on time, courteous, and professional. Worked well with another contractor we had in simultaneously: they coordinated work schedules well. We are looking to have them back for additional work in the future.

THE WORK WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN DONE MONTHS AGO AND THEY FINISHED VERY LATE DUE TO LOTS OF SET BACKS. THEY DID OK COMMUNICATING THOSE PROBLEMS TO ME, BUT OTHERS WERE JUST NOT DEALT WITH. THE INDIVIDUAL WE INITIALLY WORKED WITH JUST "DISAPPEARED". ALL WORK WAS GREAT, JUST BAD WITH THEIR TIMING.

REALLY RESPONSIVE. MET THEIR COMMITMENTS, WORKERS WERE GOOD, AND COMMUNICATIVE, ENCOURAGED ME TO REVIEW THE WORK MYSELF.

IN ONE OF MANY DESIGN PROBLEMS, WE REPEATEDLY QUESTIONED WHETHER THE SKYLIGHTS PLANNED FOR THE KITCHEN COULD BE INSTALLED OR IF THEYD BE BLOCKED BY A HEAT DUCT. OUR CONCERNS WERE POOH-POOHED, UNTIL THEY WERE INSTALLED, ONLY THEN DID BF FINALLY RECOGNIZE and ADMIT THAT THERE WAS NO WAY TO AVOID THE HEAT DUCT. SO NOW, WE HAVE 2 SKYLIGHTS IN THE ATTIC. ANYONE WHO USES THEM NEEDS TO WATCH EVERY SINGLE DAY, and QUESTION EVERY SINGLE THING. THE PROJECT COMPLETION DATE WAS SCHEDULED FOR APRIL. W/ ANY COORDINATION, IT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN MARCH. WE HAD NO PROJECT EXPEDITOR FOR MOST OF THE PROJECT. USUALLY, BF WOULD GIVE OUR NUMBER TO SUBCONTRACTORS, and EXPECT US TO PROVIDE INSTRUCTION and COORDINATION. NO ONE FROM BF EVEN SHOWED UP TO MEET W/ THE BUILDING INSPECTOR AT THE TIME OF THE FINAL INSPECTION. IT WAS ASSUMED I WOULD TAKE CARE OF IT. THE WORK WAS FINISHED IN LATE JUNE, W/ A COUPLE OF ITEMS OPEN EVEN NOW. EVERY DRAW REQUEST WAS FILLED W/ ERRORS-MOST RECENTLY AN OVERBILLING BY 15%

KITCHEN JOB BEGUN IN MARCH OF 1999 AND WAS NOT COMPLETED TILL JUNE OF 2000