Bourke Construction Inc

After a window leak, wanted to replace windows. Turned out the leak was from rotten siding and dry rot (and termite damage). Ed was right there, gave an estimate and started work quickly. When the damage turned out to be more extensive than planned, Ed gave notification and additional funds were approved. The damage to the structure looked horrible - but Ed calms you down, tells it like it is, and makes repairs. Somehow he did all the work without damage to interior dry wall. Best about Ed: 1) Ed speaks civilian English, not construction contractor english - you know what you're getting 2) Ed has a workable schedule and notifies you if it needs to be changed 3) Ed is accurate in his estimates 4) Best of all, no surprise charges at the end of the project - came in on budget. I will use Bourke Construction again.

My home was still under warranty, so I didn't have to hire anyone. But I would consider them for future jobs.

Ed was very competent and responsive. He was not the least expensive, but the work was completed professionally.

Finding these buried lines could have involved tearing up a lot of floor and walls, but Ed's people were very good and minimized the collateral damage. A complication arose when the water lines to the area were disconnected elsewhere and new lines had to be run. With most crews, this would have been a major project, but Ed's crew found a clever way to get the new lines in without major disruption. When all of this was completed, they sealed up the open areas and even matched the skin coating texture on the replaced wallboard. Also, a job like this could create a mess throughout the house, particularly dust, but they masked off the area and avoided this. I am very satisfied with their work and have already contracted for another much larger task in the near future.

He was extremely pricy and I just didn't like it. He probably gets a lot of work from people who have money and throw around.

They seemed fine but we decided to go with a different company. They were punctual.

Eddie was punctual, professional and responsive in regards to the estimate. Was able to come out next day for the estimate. Has a cool truck, too! Very personable with good ideas. Am currently also taking other bids on work so have not made a decision yet.Price being about equal would choose to go with Bourke Construction.

He was very professional, polite, and attentive to my needs. I don’t have any hesitations about this company I am just waiting for some more estimates so I can come.

They did a pretty civil job and it went okay.

It took a little longer then expected but it was the city dragging there feet.

The deck off my master bedroom looked great on top, covered in travertine, but began growing mushrooms on the underside, after heavy rains in December. I sent Ed Bourke an email on a Sunday to ask for a bid to remove the travertine and any other materials on top of the deck joists, and replace them with Azek planks. I got a phone call reply from him within an hour and he was out to see the project within 2 hours. Mr. Bourke was low pressure, knowledgeable and professional. His price was a bit lower than other bids I got. The job turned out to be more work than Mr. Bourke expected because the deck had layers upon layers underneath the travertine that were a real pain to get up. He never complained or asked for more money. His men, Reggie and Alfonso, kept at it until the joists were cleared off after two days work. Extra support had to be added to support a few of the planks. They removed stucco down to the tar paper to install the flashing correctly, that had been put in wrong before, allowing water to get into the wall and come down inside my kitchen window, below. The wall was re-stuccoed and painted. The job took 7 days from start to finish. I emailed Mr. Bourke many times to ask questions and he was always extremely prompt answering me and was always professional. I always knew when the guys were going to show up and they always were prompt. The painters he used did a fine job and even did some extra caulking that I asked for, even though it wasn't part of the job. The deck looks very nice. I was happy with the low stress level I had with Bourke Construction since I hate having my house worked on. I did mark down professionalism from an "A" to a "B" for one reason. Although Ed Bourke was very professional, Reggie, who worked on the deck was not as professional, dancing to his headphones and singing. I understand that listening to music can make work more enjoyable but I did not find it very professional when I wanted to talk to him and he would sing in my face.

Eddie was very professional and friendly. He responded with fair quotes and was even willing to adjust his price to bet other bid. We were very excited to hire Eddie to work on our house. However, once we actually closed on the house we had some other unexpected costs that kept us from moving forward with our remodelling. We will use Eddie in the future with any construction needs.

Ed's crew replaced the roofing paper over a large section of our tiled roof. The recent heavy rains revealed a number of leaks. Ed's crew found other areas where the tile had loosened and slipped out of place, so we had them fix that problem too. Finally, there was a section where roof rats had accessed the house walls, so Ed's crew sealed the area, preventing further access. After the work was completed, they performed a leak test, opening a small section of the interior wall, verifying the leaks were eliminated. The wall was repaired after the test. Ed is obviously very experienced and his work is very professional. He was always on time, whether it was a consultation for an estimate, or executing the job. His crew is top notch. The work was performed with little impact on us, and no inconveniences. Ed responds to email in a very timely manner. I would recommend him, and I am considering him for other construction jobs at my home.

First of all, Eddie's company did a fantastic job. In the end we felt EVERYTHING turned out better than expected. After receiving four bids, all from AL companies, we went with Eddie because we felt his bid was more inclusive than the others. He was the only bidder that spelled out bathroom accommodations for the workers, included pulling permits, and making arrangements for haul-a-way service. We felt that he spent more time addressing issues that others just ignored or didn't think to address. Eddie discussed with us on who would be doing the work as well as in what order the work would be done. His workers (mainly Reggie and another worker) were ALWAYS punctual and always cleaned up at the end of the day. Not saying things did not get messy. One realizes that by nature stucco work is a messy business. Eddie did use a sub contractor for the stucco work. Again, messy business but in the end, flawless work! A shout out must also go to Eddie's painter, John from I.M. Painting. He is extremely knowledgeable about paints & staining. His suggestions always made sense and hit the mark. The project ran a bit longer than expected but that had more to do with weather than anything else. We realized that communication is extremely important in making sure one's project turns out the way one wants. Eddie was always good about returning calls and addressing any concerns that we had. As I stated at the beginning, we are extremely pleased on how things turned out. We would highly recommend Bourke Construction Inc. By the way, Eddie's bid was not the highest nor the lowest. In the end we felt we got more than our monies worth.

This job cost us around $2000. My favorite thing about Eddie is that he is very communicative. He sends a lot of communication by e-mail, which works well for me. He will usually get a response across to me within an hour and if not that, then certainly within the day. He is on his iPhone all day e-mailing people. We will use him in the future. We have a lot more work to do, so we look forward to having him back.

Eddie was very professional from start to finish. It was the first time I've ever had a good experience with a contractor. As the decks were torn apart, we found that more and more of the original wood had to be replaced because of water and termite damage, so basically he had to replace most of two decks and repaint one. Reggie and Alfonso were terrific. They were reliable, had a great attitude, cleaned up at night, and worked even in pouring rain (with their sweatshirt hoods pulled up over their heads). My biggest concern was the painting of the decks. We'd had a new deck built four years ago and the paint began to chip and peel after only one year! Eddie's paint contractors, John and Steve ,really knew the chemistry of paint and knew how to prepare the wood correctly before they painted so I won't have the same problem. I would use Eddie and his crew again in a heartbeat.

Water was dripping through the recessed light fixture in the upstairs bedroom. I contacted Bourke Construction (thanks to Angie's List) to arrange a review of the roof so as to discover the issue. I was late to the appointment and somewhat punished by Ed, the owner, as he didn't stay around more than 20 min. waiting for me. However, after that he visited twice to survey the roof; during the second visit, he worked with me in identifying the source of the leak through a vigorous water test. Ed was extremely polite and friendly once we got going on the project, and was determined to find the problem both on the roof and in the siding. He also explained the entire issue and what could be the potential causes. When he returned on a scheduled day with his worker, they were able to fix the two leak areas by caulking and sealing. In addition, they were nice enough to caulk a couple cracks in the skylights (which will be replaced later). They executed everything as promised and were completely trustworthy -- I couldn't have had a better result. Thank you Bourke team.

FOLLOW UP TO ED's COMMENTS. I just read Ed's response to my review. I am so disappointed in his negative tone and several times misrepresentation of the facts. I was very careful to stress the positives in this experience in my review, and never used personally degrading descriptions. So I am really sorry that his response was more attacking of me personally and my handling of the problems that did occur than just acknowledging that there were problems that had to be handled. I'd like to preface this report by stating that, though there were a few problems, the most important aspect of this job was the excellent and professional work. So the positives far outweigh the negatives. During all the actual work hours, Ed's crew (Reggie and Alfonso) worked efficiently and expertly. In this case, they had the problem of having to move and/or move around the hundreds of potted and hanging plants I have in our patio. They were able to move sections of plants to outer yard areas to perform each section of beams that needed replacing, so it turned out to be much less of a problem than I expected, and resulted in only a few damaged plants and/or identification labels that came out of pots during the move. Most importantly, Reggie had a nice calming effect on my very nervous state concerning stabilizing the patio while removing the large beams for replacement. His attitude throughout was "not to worry, no problem" and he was right. Great job well done. The negatives were mainly regarding the initial "contract". When Ed first came out, we pointed out all the work we needed to have done. Just to make sure we covered all the areas involved, I created a "Work to be Done" list and sent that to Ed. His response was a quote, with no details. When I asked that the quote include some specifics of the work to be done, he responded that it would be the work on my list. But, since my list just stated to replace/repair everything, with no limitations, I felt it only fair to update my Work List to limit the number of beams/repairs that would be done without possible additional expense. This addition only protected Ed, and not us. I also had to make sure that the list included the beams be replaced with Redwood. When we received the contract for approval, however, the only reference under "Description of the project and Significant Materials to be Used" was "as set out in my email 10/6/10." But that specific email did not mention any specifics at all, so I had him revise the contract and reference the specific work list he had approved. And, as it urned out, there were quite a few more beams that needed replacement than we expected. Had I not revised my Work List, Ed would have been responsible for replacing even the additional beams at no extra expense. So this comment is mainly to help Ed protect himself in the future by providing quotes and contracts with more specific information and materials used. When it was discovered that there were more beams to be replaced than we expected, Ed gave us the amount of the extra charges. He said it was high because he hadn't realized that the beam replacements would be Redwood ( which I specified in the Work List), and Redwood was more expensive so he needed to make up some difference from his original quote. Throughout my Work List, I state that ALL main support patio beams "would be sealed/waterproofed at weak areas (connections, top and bottom of beams)" due to the very high moisture level in the large covered patio. The Work List specifically stated that "either water-tight sleeves with extra waterproofing or cement bases on bases of all support beams" be included. However, when I saw that no sealing was being done and asked about it, Ed said there really is no treatment available that would seal the beams. I wish he had told us that at any point in our discussions of the work to be done as this was very important to me. And, though some of the new beams did have a small pre-made base and/or sleeve added, at least one of the new beams was installed under 2+ feet of soil (without any protection) that was watered regularly, NONE of the beams had any sealing or waterproofing done, and there was NO cement bases poured for any of the beams. We included that work in our approval of the estimate amount, but no reduction in the price was made for not doing that part of the work. As far as the actual work done, I did have to point out (twice) termite-infected boards that had not been replaced the first time. But Reggie, again, said "no problem" and promptly replaced the remaining two bad boards. When it came time to pay the down payment, we wanted to pay by credit card, which Ed showed he accepts on Angie's list. But Ed said he doesn't accept credit cards and should have removed that option. There was also no mention or note that the 10% discount he gives to Angie's List customers had been applied to our job. My "B" grades for Responsiveness and Punctuality, etc. mainly relate to the extended delay that occurred when additional beams had to be ordered. Though the new beams were available promptly, there were several days of delay before Ed sent his crew back. The only reason this was a problem was because of all my potted plants had had to be placed all over sprinkler areas and/or undesirable locations for the health of the plants, so every day was stressful. But once Ed really understood my stress after a week or so, he sent the crew out daily to finish the job. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Ed and his crew to someone needing work done as the end result is high quality work.

Ed sent two of his guys over to do the work. They arrived a little before 8 in the morning. I was pleased when one of the first things they did was cover my porcelain tile floor with a blanket. After several measurements and calculations, they determined that the new stainless sink we had purchased would fit. They removed the old faucet and garbage disposal. Then they encased the kitchen in plastic to minimize the dust from the cutting. It took a couple of more hours to cut out the old sink and prepare the granite for the new sink. They had no issues with the granite breaking or chipping. We had to use a top mount sink since we weren't replacing the granite. The clips on it didn't fit the granite and wood underneath, so it took awhile to customize a solution. Nevertheless, everything was finished by 4:30 in the afternoon. We were very pleased that they not only carted away the old sink and disposal, they also cut up all the boxes for the new ones and carted them away as well. The new sink looks great. The plumbing job underneath is top notch. They used up a minimum of space and we now have at least 50% more storage area under the sink.

After having some difficulty finding someone to do this job we were very happy to connect with Ed Bourke. Ed and his crew were alway very pleasant and helpful to work with.The project moved along smoothly, hampered only by a company we used for some materials completely unrelated to Ed's business. We were able to communicate with Ed easily through email. The site was always cleaned up at the end of each day. We are very pleased with the quality of the work and would not hesitate to use Ed in the future.

Initially, Mr. Bourke was very timely with responding to phone calls, emails, etc. He kept me informed of when and what was going to be done. He told me the job would take 3 weeks. They (hired contractors) did the sandblasting and texture coat in less than a week. Then I did not hear from Mr. Bourke for over a week. I emailed him to find out when they would do the trim on my house. He told me that because of the July holiday it would be later, others wanted their jobs done. But I wanted my house completed also. Then he had 2 different painting companies come over and give estimates for him. Finally they came and painted the trim and the job is done. I am please with the results but I felt like I was being put on the back burner around the holiday. Yes, I would recommend Bourke construction for any exterior work that needed to be done. I feel the price was fair considering I needed to have the house sandblasted in addition to the painting.

Mr. Bourke came out himself, he was prompt and responsive. He was able to save money on the panels for the eaves, and did a much better job than I anticipated. He found better panels at a reduced price. Great job! The patio doors were a little more problematic, didn't get upgraded properly. Mr. Bourke came out himself and corrected the problem. Not perfect, but he was very nice and everything was done to my standards.

He was punctual and knowledgable and I will consider in the future.

The project went very smoothly. Eddie ordered the siding after I explained to him what I wanted and he went with me to order the stone around the house. The house turned out really nice. The neighbors like the new look too and I have received many compliments. Now the house stays warm and I am not using the heater on these cold days we have had. I can't wait until next winter when we have the coldest days of the year to see how little I will use the heater.

The Good: - Eddie's bid was the lowest for many of the items on our shopping list, and he was willing to negotiate when I was considering using different contractors for the items he had bid high on. - Specifically, his bid for the tile flooring was the cheapest, yet had the best quality of materials, and his bid for the electric panel upgrade was the cheapest, but had more voltage than the other bids. - Eddie was always punctual, always polite, never patronizing. - The quality of work for scraping the ceiling, painting the walls and laying the tiles was excellent, and they worked very hard, arriving very early and even working on a Sunday to try and finish the job on time. The front door looks beautiful. - They rectified any issues we spotted during the work straight away, without complaint. - We had a problem with a couple of the doors expanding in the rain, or possibly moving due to foundation problems, and Eddie was more than happy to come back and fix them. The Bad: - I prefer to use email for communication, and was happy when Eddie seemed to be an emailer as well. However, we had a few crossed lines in the early days that led to confusion, and work being done incorrectly or unnecessarily. Once we moved to telephone, we were in better shape. - We made the mistake of trying to live in the house when they scraped the ceilings. The house was covered in plastic, and we lived in the kitchen for two days. Our bad. Eddie told us the painting would be less disruptive though, so we stuck with that plan for the painting phase, which turned out to be even more disruptive. We had to check into a hotel, scraping a few belongings together. I think Eddie was just being polite, but he should have advised us firmly to move out on "these dates". - After we agreed to work with Eddie, one of his men showed up the very next day to work on one of the doors. We didn't know he was coming, and hadn't therefore bought any hardware. I had to install the hardware myself at a later date. - He sent us to a store to buy a door. I rang him from the store to ask whether we need to buy one with a frame or not. He said it didn't matter - they would be able to hang it themselves if needed. We bought an unframed door. What he didn't say was that it would cost around $250 for them to build the frame. I guess we would have had to pay that amount somewhere in the process, but I would have liked to have known that when we bought the door, not when we paid the invoice. All the concerns above relate to communications, the one area Eddie was a little weak on. The quality and price of the work was excellent though, so I wouldn't have any hesitation in recommending him - just be proactive in keeping yourself in the loop and getting any questions you have answered.