HOWARD LAMCKE

Howard and his crew are professional, reliable, and did a great job. We got exactly what we wanted, and he was very flexible as well. The vendors he worked with for custom cabinets and countertops were also a pleasure to deal with.

I appreciate Mr. Lamcke's prompt, courteous, and professional response and would be interested in working with him. At this time, we're still trying to make a decision on whether to remodel the bathroom. But if we choose to do so, we think Mr. Lamcke would be an excellent choice.

. I appreciated all the time he spent with me during the estimate process and all the work he did to prepare my quote. He was very professional.

Overall everything was extremely poor. The customer service, commitment, punctuality, and keeping to the budget was absolutely horrific. This review will be updated with specific and grand detail shortly.

I have nothing but praise for the work of Howard Lamcke. He has a staff of competent, qualified and ethical people as well as the companies with whom he works for the specialized portions, e.g., the granite installation and the painting. This was critical as I was not always available to see the day to day work, but we were always able to connect via phone or e-mail or notes and keep the project moving. Prior to linking with Howard Lamcke through Angie's List, I had great difficulty finding someone who would be proactive and move ahead with the kitchen and bathroom remodeling project in an effective, efficient manner and keep the costs reasonable. I owe my son for taking the initiative to sign me up on Angie's List and doing the research of the companies listed for this remodeling. Howard was so helpful as I wanted to open up the kitchen and he guided me in the process; he recommended a very helpful structural engineer to provide an evaluation and then took care of all the permits and inspections that needed to occur prior to and upon completion. He had an assigned foreman with whom I could regularly communicate on all details with Howard always involved as needed. They gave me excellent advice in all areas as this remodeling project was a complete new adventure for me. Howard and staff were so patient as we had some difficulties with the company where I had purchased the cabinets; when I needed a recommendation for the glazing that needed to be done, he put me in communication with just the right person. He also went the extra mile as I was out of town and there was an issue with an alarm system from a prior owner that the condominium manager needed me to solve; Howard and his foreman were so gracious as the foreman made a special trip to my place to resolve the situation. In summary, Howard Lamcke and his company are extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of remodeling and I would highly recommend them to all.

We bought our first house, a fixer upper duplex in pretty bad condition. It had two kitchens, four bathrooms and plenty of water damage from squatters having lived in it for two years. We wanted to move in and needed to get everything in working order ASAP. We went to three different contractors for bids. There were significant portions of the work I wanted to do myself, which didn't sit well with the other guys; they wanted to upsell. Howard was by far the most responsive, he listened carefully, submitted an easy to understand bid with exactly what we asked for, and delivered on it. They stayed neatly within budget, even when we had last minute changes/delays like switching from electric to gas stove or appliances arriving late. We also really liked that his sons (Leslie and Dave) were on site most of the time, rather than some random sub-contractors who we didn't know. Finishing the rest of the house has kept me very busy (LOTS of painting and trim work :), but it's exactly what we needed; someone to take care of critical fixes like bathrooms and kitchens while I take care of the simpler stuff. It's been very satisfying seeing the house take shape, and I have the Lamcke's to thank for a solid head start at a great price. My only regret is that we didn't have more $ to have them do all the other work!

The project went very well. The work crews were professional and easy to work with. The project had a several things that came up along the way (as projects of this type inevitably will) and the crew dealt with these items at the time. If there was a more major question, Howard always took care of the situation. He was very responsive on the project. We did not encounter any extra charges for these things that came up, although they were not in the original quote - which left me with a very favorable impression. This included wiring in a ceiling fan and light kit, and then taking out the light kit (although we picked it out - we didn't like it once we saw it installed), repair of a ciruit switch and outlet, finishing an area in the closet with some parquet flooring (we were going to do ourselves, but the crew offered to install it). There were several other things like this, I don't recall everything. I thought this was professional as they did the project beyond what was quoted, and were not nickled and dimed for these tasks. The crew clearly wanted to do a good and complete job, not just the minimum required. Also, Howard recommend the window and sliding door manufacturers, a higher grade than were recommended in other quotes. Having examined the increase in quality vs the marginal additional cost, this was good advice. Overall this is a contractor that worked hard to get the job done right, was very responsive, and was easy to work with. I would definitely recommend getting a quote and would not hesitate to use this contractor again or recommend him to a friend.

The two counter top installers did excellent work. They were friendly. They cleaned-up when they left. Howard replumbed everything-- the new faucet set, dishwasher, and garbage disposal. The project took two days. I am totally satisfied with the results of this project. Howard and his crew did excellent work. I'd gladly call upon Howard for other remodels.

The first job was quite small and completed in a single day. Kenny, the man doing the work, was knowledgable and skilled in all aspects of the work -- demolition, carpentry, masonry. The new doors open & close perfectly, despite the opening being somewhat out-of-square. Kenny cut out the rotten subfloor, treated it with a Copper Green to stop any lingering rot. The job was completed nicely and within a reasonable time frame. The second job, was done very well also. The work spanned a couple days because the patch to the stucco must be applied in several layers, and allowed to dry between layers. Matching the new baseboards to the existing base boards was no problem, despite the fact that the existing baseboard style is rarely used these days. The replacement window, suggested by Lamcke, is also of higher quality than the other replacement windows already put into the house by a previous owner. The third job, which just completed, was a complete kitchen remodel. I called Howard for an estimate, and he responded in a timely manner, set up an appointment and came over to see the work that was desired. After selecting Howard's company to do the work, he arranged for the cabinet maker to come and take measurements, and near the end he coordinated the interactions with the countertop maker. Howard's crew makes progress each day towards completion, and always cleans up the work areas at the end of the day. Howard's crew is amiable, and very knowledgable in their line of work. They don't cut corners, and fixed things that are wrong when they ran across them on my project. On the few occasions that I wanted to talk with Howard directly during the kitchen project, I found that he is generally quite busy and will not always answer his office phone, but he always called me back when I left a message. He also responded, with a return phone call, to every email I sent him; at no time did I feel out-of-touch with him. I will use Howard's company again.

Howard, the owner, was very responsive to my requests & everyone was on time. They were very very "quiet" and considerate of my and my two-months-old baby's privacy. I am very pleased with the work done.

It was disappointing. Howard came recommended and we selected him even though his price was substanially higher than other quotes thinking we would get a quality job. It was not the case. There was considerable water damage that needed to be repaired, this was expected. That repair seemed to go well and things started out all right. Problems: Shower pipes were reversed and when we questioned the person who did the work he stated that was how there were-we knew that was not true so we contacted Howard and he came out and corrected that error but then the pipes leaked so that had to be fixed not once but twice We had selected a Grohe Hand Held shower on a shower bar-this was in our house at least one month prior to installation. The first time we took a shower the bar was very wobbly. The installer had to have know this was wrong--did he think we wouldn't notice? Once again Howard came out to resolve the problem and he made some comments about this not being made to be used with the type of shower wall I had been very clear all along that I was relying on their expertise and if there was an issue with any product choice I would change if necessary-Howard finally purchased a new shower bar which so far has not fallen off the wall. Numerous drywall issues-buckling,sloppy texturing in general--in fact right now there is a crack above the bathroom door on the inside--I had contacted Howard about cracks above the door on the outside portion-he came and repaired the crack and allowed it to dry-then when the other person came out to texture he slopped the texture on the door jam and part of the ceiling then proceeded to paint the wet texture and left-no sanding, no smoothing , no blending so now I have different tones of paint this is particularly upsetting as I had hired someone to paint and the walls had looked lovely, during construction more than once tape and texturel had to be redone due to poor workmanship-we believe that in some instances the proper way would have been to put in new sheet rock- if in less than a month after completion we have three areas that are cracked what will it look like in 5 months? Holes drilled from inside to the outside wall, needed to fill and repaint Hardwood floors were cut-I pointed this out to Howard asked him to have workers pay attention and it happened again and in more places the second time-in fairness, he did send someone to replace the boards but he sent the same people that had created the damage to repair it and we had lost faith that it would be done correctly. Of 5 new closet doors we had to have 3 trimmed by an outside source indicating that carpet installation was taken into consideration on 2 of the doors but not the others. These were the major issues there are so many smaller issues all related to lack of attention to detail or pride in work. The electrical plug hole was cut too large so there is a gap between the edge of plate, the plug itself is crooked,even the screws of the heater vents are not straight. These would be minor but added to the other issues a daily reminder the remodel was not what we had hoped for. We did not pay for second rate work and that is what we often received. On the positive: Howard seems to be very honest. He did respond promptly to our phone calls and he did come out to resolve issues.

Overall, it went extremely well. The project took longer than expected but the quality of work is so high that I didn't mind the extra time. Special recognition needs to go to the tile guys who worked magic with difficult, brittle tile. Details and small additional requests along the way were handled without fuss. Price was a bit higher than other bids but I'm so satisfied with the work that I'm happy to have paid a little extra.

Never got started - they just weren't hungry for the business.

They did excellent work. All of his employees were very good. They were always on time, they cleaned up after everything, and they were just very nice people.

I emailed him and he responded quickly. Appeared at set date and time to check out the job. On the day the work was to be done, he hadn't appeared about a half-hour after the scheduled time, so I phoned him. He said he was running late and would be there within the hour. He arrived within the hour. He went quickly to work. Looks like a good sturdy job. I told him it was important to us that the bars be screwed into studs, and to adjust the placement of the bars to accommodate that.

We did a lot of planning prior to the project and overall everything went very smoothly. Everyone who worked on the project did a great job with quality workmanship. Any time a design or construction issue arose that needed to be figured out Howard was great at resolving it. Because we were changing walls and windows there was some construction in addition to the remoding and progress was always being made.

I have had an exceptional experience with Howard. I have a second story deck that has been leaking and he has been able to repair it so that it no longer works. I had no problems working with Howard.

Howard came out to look at the our house and discuss the work we wanted done. We interviewed 4 different contractors. This was the first contractor we have ever hired, so we were pretty cautious and not really sure what to expect. My husband and I both thought Howard had great ideas, and was professional and friendly. His estimate came with in a few weeks later and was about mid range compared with the other estimates we received. We decided to go with Howard because we knew he would be doing most of the work himself rather than having numerous different subcontractors which always delays the project. Additionally he was willing to work with our budget and make suggestions for minimizing costs. He stayed on track to the projected time line. We had originally intended to start with one bath, and then do the kitchen and other bath simultaneously, however, there was a delay in receiving our kitchen cabinets so we did each project back to back. This meant a delay in the time we thought all of the work would be completed, but that wasn't Howard's fault. There were a few issues along the way, hence the little bit lower score for quality, but everything was resolved promptly. And cleanliness wasn't necessarily a priority for them, when the bathrooms were "done" my husband and I had to clean dirt and other grime from the tub and remove stickers and clean. We were really hoping we'd have a sparkling clean brand new bathroom....but it looked & felt dirty. Of course with the quick cleaning it looked like a magazine!! Responsiveness and Punctuality I scored a little bit lower as well due to there being sometimes that I wasn't sure when the workers were planning to show up and sometimes I was told someone would be there and they didn't come, but it wasn't a major issue. Overall he was great!!! Finding a trustworthy contractor isn't easy, and Howard has to be the most trustworthy contractor out there. He's not out to take your money and run, he wants to be sure you are happy!

It went exceedingly well. The only small issue was he would neglect to tell us he was not coming at eight, I would get up and stand around. I explained that to him and he notified us on a regular basis-workers would be at house at 8 or 9:30. When there were difficult jobs,ie stucco around the new garden window, he would come in and do that himself. He would show up every few days to assess how things were going. He seemed to have several jobs going or more than that, He permanent,y had the cell phone attached to his ear and would be talking to other jobs in between talking to workers. All the subcontractors spoke highly of him .

CONTRACTED HOWARD LAMCKE TO REMODEL A BATHROOM MID APRIL-AFTER TWO EMAILS AND TWO PHONE CALLS WE ARE NO LONGER WAITING FOR A TIMELINE ON THE START OF THE JOB LET ALONE THE FINISH. WE WENT TO THE MARBLE MANUFACTURERS AS REQUESTED AND THEN NEVER HEARD FROM HIM AGAIN. REQUESTS FOR TIMELINES WENT UNANSWERED. AFTER TWO MONTHS I AM NOW LOOKING FOR A NEW CONTRACTOR FOR OUR BATHROOM JOB.

Howard's work is beautiful! I would definitely hire him again. He doesn't do the woodwork or granite himself, but coordinates that with other vendors. He was a little optimistic on the estimates as far as timing. What was originally estimated as a 2-3 week job actually took 2 months. To be fair, it was 2-3 weeks of HIS work, but the lag time and other vendor schedules were not factored into the estimate). He threw in a few items that were technically not in the estimate which more than made up for the delay. The cost met the estimate to the penny. During design, I stayed closely involved to make sure that no assumptions were made. Example; My intent was that no cords or wires would be seen. I almost ended up with the TV cord snaking down the wall and along the floor. A quick conversation with Howard and he selected a different design. I ended up thrilled, but if I hadn't stayed involved, it would have been too late to change.

The existing closet in the bathroom was essentially a coat closet with shelves, and was a massively inefficient use of the available space. I contacted Howard via email, he responded promptly, made an appointment to come to the house and take measurements based on the the space and what I wanted in a linen closet, and then put me in contact with the cabinet maker (Charlie). Charlie worked with me on style and material options, and to optimize the allocation of the space in the new cabinet with regard to drawer size and the height of the cabinets. Howard contacted me several weeks later and scheduled an installation date that worked with my schedule. The basic installation was completed in one day; there were some hiccups with the installation of some drawer pulls and hooks (standard screw sizes didn't work) that were quickly dealt with in the following days. Although the bathroom floor did get very slightly damaged during installation, the overall process went very well and I am very happy with my new linen closet.

Their timeliness was excellent, they had very quick response when I gave them a call. He was very thorough in checking things out and he was ready to go. Their prices were very fair and the quality of his work was above average and I was satisfied with it, I am very happy with the results. I am having them come back out and do other work because I am having trouble with something. There is room for improvement, they could be a little more detail oriented and improve communication, with them but I would consider calling them again a bid on other projects I needed to do.

Their timeliness was excellent, they had very quick response when I gave them a call. He was very thorough in checking things out and he was ready to go. Their prices were very fair and the quality of his work was above average and I was satisfied with it, I am very happy with the results. I am having them come back out and do other work because I am having trouble with something. There is room for improvement, they could be a little more detail oriented and improve communication, with them but I would consider calling them again a bid on other projects I needed to do.

Their timeliness was excellent and they had very quick response when I gave them a call. He was very thorough in checking things out and he was ready to go. Their prices were very fair and the quality of his work was above average and I was satisfied with it. I am very happy with the results. I am having them come back out and do other work because I am having trouble with something. There is room for improvement, they could be a little more detail oriented and improve communication, with them but I would consider calling them again a bid on other projects I needed to do.