Bidding process - patient and detailed during initial home visit, educated us on details of the upcoming process (timing, materials used, special touches), detailed written quotation.
Pricing - reasonable, middle of the range in prices based on the various contractors we interviewed, out-of-scope billings were not surprises and discussed with us before work started but could have been priced a bit lower (not a major issue here as there few out-of-scope billings given the sufficient planning upfront)
Renovation process - general contractor kept good control of subcontractors and visited frequently to supervise work, timing to completion for about a 1,400 square foot complete basement renovation took about 3.5 months, listened and reacted to on-going feedback from us (one of us is at home during the days and that allowed us to probably keep closer tabs on what was happening throughout the process and in a more timely manner), the electrician that was hired did work that passed an independent inspector's inspection but there were areas that the inspector indicated could have been improved (if I had to do it again, I would have asked the general contractor to have kept a closer eye on the electrical contractor in this case and also insist on having an inspector come in before any of the paneling is put in -- a quarter of the drywall was installed by the time of the inspector's scheduled inspection)
Post-renovation - two year warranty, it is now 4.5 years after the renovation and we have found no problems
- Approximate cost of services:
- $51,000.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- As indicated above, closer and earlier oversight of the electrical contractor would be good, although the level of work that was done did pass the independent inspector's review.
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Plan in detail in advance. I bought an architectural drawing software to outline exactly what I wanted to see and provided it to the general contractor. This helped during the quotation process and the renovation process.