PEKEL CONSTRUCTION & REMODEL

I contacted David Pekel and three other General Contractors in the area.? David by far stood out from the rest from the first day, he is first class and does what he says he's going to do. He provides great documentation from day one!? He's quick, responsive and communicates in a very straight forward and honest way.? My first contact with him was in March 2015 and my remodel project finished in September 2015.? It's been a long summer of construction around my home, but I cannot imagine having a better experience remodeling a home that was?built in 1937. When you rip out walls you find things and my home was no different.? During the process many things came up where I?asked for?David's advice, sometimes I questioned his advice and did a little research on my own, every time the advice David gave turned out to be the best course of action, every time!? If you want the best, you hire David?Pekel, PERIOD!

In the quoting process, they verbally sold us on pre-fab columns, award winning designed trimwork arches would be done, etc. A quote was given that had a cost with 20% tolerance on it, it seemed to incorporate a mason quote ahead of time, contained details about planning and design phases, and costs to be paid at each phase which was all good.  We were pretty excited we found a detail oriented group.

Then the planning deliverables as they were executed at each phase seemed to be very light on content. Before digging a hole, the costs increased to ~50% above the original mean quote.  There were a few general changes and costing errors.  This was a relatively small project with few elements.  We started asking alot more questions as it was creating frustration and confusion as there seemed few options for budget discussion, exiting the contract without extensive relative cost, etc. On a positive note, emails were always answered with a response.  And we had hoped that the work would make up for the planning issues.

Once the execution of the work started, the subcontracted masons were nice and did good work.  A portion of the sidewalk was removed and put back in a different shape than the rest of it making us feel that the masons weren't given any proper directions from the contractor.  When we got to the trimwork, initial arch templates were not approved because we didn't feel it looked like the contract sketch.  The contractor's carpenters were nice but seemed like they were trying to figure it out on the fly and ran into ratio problems on arches and general layout issues visible from the street. Some of the areas needed improvement.  They didn't convey to us much experience with the expensive materials they were using for trimwork.

Conversations got unprofessional on their side one time when we pointed out appearance problems. We also had friends running parallel home improvement projects of similar levels with different contractors. Upon comparisons felt we couldn't recommend the company we had used.

They were excellent.  They did a great job.  Everything went well.

When embarking on a project of this magnitude, we definitely took our time and did our homework in choosing Pekel.  We were immediately impressed with David (Pekel)'s attention to detail and knowledge of what it would take to make our renovation happen.  Getting the project off the ground took longer than anticipated because of some dealings with the city of West Allis/inspectors/engineers, etc., but fortunately all we had to do was wait because Pekel went to the city on our behalf to take care of all the details.  That is one of the reasons we liked Pekel's approach: they used reliable staff members for the main body of work, and then trusted subcontractors for the specialty areas so that we never had to coordinate schedules and timing - they took care of all of it.  We had a communication log that was kept in our back hallway so that we could write notes back and forth from us to the lead man on the job (thanks Dan!), and we were able to get our questions answered and things coordinated well that way.
Pekel worked with us to hear what we wanted for our space while keeping our expectations reasonable, and we are thrilled with the result.  They gave us a good, honest estimate of time needed for completion and were right on the money.  They came up with some changes to the plan as we went along that have served us even better in the long run than we originally expected (i.e., moving a storage room door to a different spot so that it could be full height and more usable).  Whenever changes were made that affected our budget, there was an easy to follow paper trail so that we were all on the same page.  When we had some minor issues with choosing things from suppliers, Pekel worked with us to help us understand the nature of the business while also helping us find other suitable options.
To sum up, we are very happy that we chose Pekel Construction for this job and would definitely hire them back in the future.  Dan, the lead man on site, was an extremely hard worker (even in protective gear in the attic in the 100s last summer!) and friendly to our four young children, which was a huge relief to us.  David and Mona in the office were, as mentioned, extremely communicative via email, phone, and in person when questions arose from our end.  During one of our first meetings David told us "when we are done you will never know that this wasn't always here", and that is truly the case. People are amazed at the quality of workmanship and how well it blends in with the rest of our bungalow.  Thank you!!

It went very well.  I am very happy with the work, and working with Pekel Construction was great.
There are only a couple of minor things I would do differently - 1) I would not just say "I need a medicine cabinet over the sink" - I would measure and make sure the one I was getting was the right size.  The medicine cabinet that was installed was way too small, and I had to reorder another one (and bear the expense of the first one I can't use as well as the new one, plus the labor to make the change.  2) I would order all my interior doors pre-finished to save money.

Pekel Construction's finished product was outstanding and we are extremely pleased with our new living space. Getting started was a bit bumpy, but once the ball was rolling the team did a great job and worked very hard to finish on time, which of course can be a challenge in construction/contracting. The owner David assigned a construction manager to our job and a journal was kept by that manager during the project to keep us updated on the daily work, which was very helpful and reassuring. Though there were a couple of mishaps during the project (issue with furnace exhaust and location of the water heater), the team handled the problems in a professional manner and fixed them without hesitation. We will be going back to Pekel for a quote when finishing our bathroom, and I will recommend them to friends.

Sorry, it's been several years since the work was done. Overall the experience was a good one, though it did seem to take longer than anticipated. The design worked out as well as hoped. We wanted it to be somewhat modular so we could easily remove part of the counter-top and replace it with a bed. This now allows us to use the room as a bed room and an occasional office.

Overall: Excellent. David (owner) came out to give us ideas, which was the prime reason we hired someone with experience. He planned the room to look like it fit the house (built in 1920's) with modern day function. One of the closets the pip ran thru, we have plans for in the future. He addressed that in his plans, and it worked perfectly. He was polite, professional, and did a final walk thru that was prompt. His subcontractors were a pleasure to work with and came out on time and gave us plenty of updates as they went. There was a few week hiatus as we were waiting for cabinets to be finished, which was unpreventable. The only 1 gripe we had were the following: 1. The plumber used the wrong diameter PVC for the drain, and we did not hear from the company to see what was going to happen until we called. Immediately thereafter, we received prompt updates. The plumber, of course, covered the mix up, but it did take some time to get is all corrected. But as an added bonus: Pekel even offered to take money OFF of the final price (which we refused to do as long as it was corrected with added cost). I would absolutely recommend Pekel to the List.

We would call them again for an estimate if we do another project.

VERY, VERY CLEAN, CONSIDERATE AND PROFESSIONAL.

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