Stone Creek Builders

Duke,

Our apologies for not being able to get the proposal submitted to you in time for consideration. We are glad you found a contractor to work with and good luck with the project.

Kristin & Anthony Romeo,

Thank you for your time in putting together this review. I wasn’t aware that you were unsatisfied with our performance. I spoke with Anthony a few months ago asking him for a recommendation for a hardware specialist at his company and he graciously responded with a contact person. At that time he didn’t mention that either of you were unhappy. Honestly I was shocked when I saw the review so I immediately called Anthony to discuss it. He said he was unaware of the review and would get back to me. Although I haven’t heard from him regarding the review we completely stand behind our work and workmanship warranty if there was anything that needed to be taken care of.
Addressing the issues you outlined I have added my comments:
Electrical- during the initial estimate Anthony mentioned that he would like to reuse the existing recessed lights to save money. In our proposal I detailed that the existing lights were to be reused. It became apparent that when the electrician showed up to perform the rough electrical the lights previously installed were not to code and installed without a permit. The lights previously installed were remodeling housings not new construction housings which are required when performing new construction work. At that time the electrician removed the incorrect lights and installed the new lights to meet code and pass inspection. He sent us a bill for the additional work which we passed on to you without mark-up. I’m not sure why you were not able to contact us for over a week but I do see on Co-Construct that you posted a question on 1/27/15 at 12:44 pm and I responded 15 minutes later at 12:59pm. I posted a photo of the communication. Understandably you were upset to have to spend more money on the recessed lights and after spending a considerable amount of time on the phone with Anthony discussing/debating the lights I said “don’t pay me for the lights”. At that point I didn’t know what else to say or do since the lights needed to be changed to meet code requirements. I figured the least I could do is give you the lights for free and maybe that would put it to rest. The electrician thought he was doing the right thing by changing the lights to maintain the schedule and in most cases clients appreciate that approach. To help the situation he billed $65.00 per recessed light instead of the market rate of $100 per recessed light. I realize now we should have stopped the project, cancelled the inspection, scheduled a meeting to discuss the lights and you could have decided at that time whether or not to move forward with the lights or cancel the whole project.
Tile- I had the measurements of the basement from the initial estimate and from measuring for other materials. I simply made a calculation error when I told you the tile quantity- I did a 20x20 calculation instead of including the closet. I didn’t miscalculate the tile because I didn’t care- it was simply a mistake- Let me clarify that we are not a change order driven company and simply ask to be paid for work that is not in the scope and or uncovered due to conditions we could not see. For example – when we removed the existing floor framing that was done over the basement slab we discovered that the existing basement floor was severely out of level. In the spirit of continuing with the project and not submitting an additional change order we paid for over $500 for floor leveler plus labor to level the floor for tile install and never charged you for it.
Regarding delays I went back through our daily job log- which is a detailed report of everything that happens on our projects each day. We started the project on January 15th and the final inspection was completed March 5th. I noted some highlights below:
January 15th – existing basement demo
January 20th – basement waterproofing company (by client)
January 21st – basement framing
January 22nd – electrical rough
January 23rd- electrical inspection
January 30th – framing inspection

February 2nd framing was completed, hvac completed
February 3rd – insulation inspection was passed and we started sheetrock
February 4th – sheetrock install
February 5th – spackle
February 6th – started tile
February 9th – spackle
February 11th – 16th – spackle, trim work, painting
February 17th- had electrical inspection scheduled – bad weather 5-8”of snow electrician could not make it to job. We called town to reschedule inspection but they would not reschedule so inspection failed-
February 18th -19th – electrical, painting and misc. carpentry- earliest the town would reschedule the electrical and plumbing inspection is 26th.
February 26th- inspectors never showed up
February 27th – painting
Thursday March 5th final building inspection.
All in all we ran a tight schedule and despite typical construction delays, inspection delays, weather delays etc. the project was completed within a reasonable time period.
Regarding the employees in your home I reviewed the time sheet logs and again the daily job report and we had a total of 6 different employees in your home not including the subcontractors and their employees- Each of our employees has a specialty which is why they were there at different time’s through-out the project. Naturally in a production environment we always have the next job to get to, and our employees understand that, additionally they know that they are only to perform work that is agreed upon.
I thank you for providing us with this learning experience, it’s an invaluable lesson in helping us choose clients that appreciate what we do to help them realize their renovation and remodeling goals.
Thanks again and please let me know if anything comes up in the future.

Schedule. Due to permit delays with the township- the permits were eventually approved on August 14th, 2015- (Permit Number 15-00281- Fair Haven) Due to the permit delays and in order to obtain the permit sooner- you made the judgment call to reduce the scope of the project and remove the addition over the garage. The other contractors you hired to perform other work was not in our original scope and not part of our original permit submittal. The fact that the other contractors were able to start their work after the 14th was due to the fact that they had not obtained permits to remodel the basement & install siding on the house. Since permits were not obtained by the other contractors we had problems obtaining our inspections.

We started the project on August 14th the day the permits were obtained and did an extensive remodel which included the following work: floor framing, structural framing, installing a new header and new sliding door, electrical, second zone of heating and air conditioning in attic including duct work, gas piping, main bathroom remodel, plumbing work, obtained rough electrical, plumbing and framing inspections, installed new oak flooring through-out the entire home, sanded stained and refinished the floors , installed sheetrock, tiled the main bathroom and painted the entire home in 19 working days- I was there with a crew of men on Labor Day so you could move in that same day. After you moved into the home we remained in constant communication and completed other items including a master bathroom.

Poor Financial Management: we provide all of our clients with estimates and invoices generated through our accounting system. We established a budget and maintained that budget unless there were changes deviating from the original scope. We communicated all costs via email to you and your husband and obtained approvals prior to ordering any special order materials and doing work. The fireplace was a change order and we presented 2 different options to you neither of which included stone surround. After discussing the options with you, we sent you to our stone fabricator to select the stone and told you to pay him directly for the stone and the install. Similarly the shower door is an allowance since the final price cannot be obtained until selections are made and the shower is templated.

The plumbing leak was due to an existing condition on the second lavatory vent that remained after we removed the sink in the dressing room. The plumber noticed the leak, opened the ceiling, repaired the pipe, we patched the ceiling within several hours. I was not aware of any additional repair work that other contractors performed because I was not made aware of it.

Quality: of course I care about the quality of our work and the experience of our clients. My comment to you was in the context of explaining that the expectations you had were not possible given the amount of work to complete.

In closing I am sorry that you are not satisfied with your experience. Despite the efforts of our team, office staff, subcontractors & vendors we could not meet your expectations of completing a 2-3 month remodel in 19 days.

As you know I have emailed you several times this week requesting that you remove this review because it is a misrepresentation of the facts and service you received. We stand behind our work and would welcome a meeting to discuss any open issues you have.