"If I could summarize my experience with Chriswell Home Improvements in three words, it would be "pride in workmanship.""
If I could summarize my experience with Chriswell Home Improvements in three words, it would be "pride in workmanship." This is not my first experience with a remodeling contractor but it is by far my best. My last foray into this type of project was a kitchen remodel in 2015. I will not detract from this positive review to talk about that experience other than saying I wish I had used Chriswell rather than "the Kmart of Kitchen renovations." You can always look up that review on Yelp. Our bathroom renovation was by no means a standard project. We were combining a half bath with a full bath to create a single bathroom. The half bath was original to the house (1954) while the full bath that shared a wall with the half bath, was built, by the prior owners as part of a remodel in the 1970s. Let's just say the full bath had its quirks,including the 21" wide entry door located behind the kitchen table. No guest ever wanted to use it. When we decided to remodel, I had serious reservations about using another generic remodeling company found at a home show rather than a general contractor who would bring in subcontractors where needed. We ended up talking to Chriswell at a home show to get an idea of what we would be facing and due to the uncertainty of the times/economy, we decided to lock in with them. I will say now that it was one of the best decisions we could have made. It started with meeting Eric, the superintendent who walked through the project with me but continued through the entire crew beginning with Gil, the foreman and Derek, the point person and main guy on the job along with Gil. Now that the description of the project is finished, let me get back to my first statement about Chriswell's employees, that is "pride in workmanship. I'll start with Derek. He handled most of the demolition and with Gil, the installation of the new sheetrock, moving the heater duct, installing the vent fan and the patching of the paneling on the dining room side. Several times, beginning with Derek's insistence that he had to complete the taping and texturing of the new sheetrock because he was concerned that the switch in the middle of the job would be evident in the difference in technique. A better example, however, was after the new recessed lights were installed by Daniel, the electrician. I had noticed that they were connected to the wrong switch (hooked in with the vanity lights instead of the ceiling fan light). Before I could even say anything, when Derek came in the next morning, he had removed a section of the ceiling to rewire the lights because it did not seem right to him. When it came to the paneling, both Gil and Derek said that they did not like the options to patch the door opening. There was no way to match the 1970s (as it turned out made in Japan) paneling. They said it just would not look right and they would prefer to replace the entire wall. We discussed it and decided to match the bead board that is on the kitchen side of the dining room. These are just two examples of many. I'll continue with Gil. As he was finishing the bead board, he did not like how the last piece would look because he would have to patch two pieces together. Instead, he bought a second sheet so I would not have a horizontal seam in the center of the piece even though it was in the corner and only about two feet wide. When they installed my vanity and sink, the stopper provided with the faucet would not work so Gil purchased one that worked but it was a push button style, making the pull bar on faucet non-functional. Isaiah, the plumber added a nut to the underside of the pull stop so it could not be accidentally pulled out. Again, because it would not have looked right if that piece was removed. As long as I'm talking about Isaiah, I wanted to mention that his first day on the job, he noticed I had paint brushes drying by my utility sink in the garage. He made a point of telling my wife that I shouldn' not wash my brushes in the sink because he's seen plumbing issues from that. The other two workers who stood out with their commitment to their jobs were Matt, the tile installer and Luis, the texturer . When I was looking at the shower, Matt said, "when I finish the job, I don't want anyone to have to come back to fix something." That stood out to me. Luis came in to finish the texturing. He didn't have time to finish the Friday he came so he asked if he could come Saturday to finish. It reflected the whole company's commitment to finish the job without cutting corners. I will end the final walkthrough and the finish work. Eric came over for the final. I pointed out that I was not satisfied with the height of the light fixture and the location of the mirror. They were a little low and off-center. I said if there was an issue with moving the fixture, I could live with it, but I wanted the mirror raised and centered on the sink instead of the fixture. Eric said I shouldn't settle for anything, they'll fix it.