Shining Hammer Construction and Remodeling

Everything went well, no downsides. Jamie Kerns and associates were fantastic and produced a marvelous deck within the time frame promised while proving again and again that quality was important to them. All of the members/attenders are thrilled by our new deck.

After a two year search, our religious organization selected Shining Hammer Construction to perform a long overdue deck demolition, building repairs to a 100 year old cottage, and installation of a new large TREX deck between our two buildings. We selected Shining Hammer after receiving four credible bids, based on their responsiveness, customer interest, and after meeting with them on a personal basis. We are THRILLED !! During the three week construction period, Jamie and Emile met or exceeded our expectations and made the very disruptive process go smoothly. All work was done to the highest standards, they stayed in touch daily, and brought in excellent co-workers to our property. There were no issues, problems, or concerns whatsoever. As church property manager, I am already talking with my wife about hiring them to do some needed improvements (kitchen, baths, etc.) around our home. Hire them .... you will be pleased.

Emil Nagy and his partner Jaime Kerns did a complete renovation of my two-bedroom, two-bath, 1100 square foot condo. Emil did the bathrooms and Jaime, the carpenter, handled the painting, crown moulding, and baseboard. I am very pleased with their work for several reasons. First, they are reliable. Emil was at our front door at 9:00 a.m. every morning and worked a full day. Jaime always showed up as promised or had his assistant Michael working and they completed all of the work according to schedule. At no time did I suffer the contractor disappearing act. Second, their pricing was reasonable. I feel like we got a fair deal for the work that they did. Third, the quality of the work was exemplary. Emil is great at tiling in particular. Jaime and his assistant Michael also did a great job with their part of the work. The condo looked great after they finished. Fourth, they are very easy to work with. No sales jobs, no sudden "extras", and they listen. They were true to their word. Emil and Jaime did all of the work that they promised. During the renovation, my wife and I were living at the condo and Emil and Jaime were conscious of this and got the work done efficiently and scheduled the work in a way that allowed my wife and I to move back into a normal home living situation as soon as possible. Jaime and Emil are honest and trustworthy. I had no hesitation in leaving them alone in my condo. Finally, they are professional and responsive. I could also tell that they had pride in their work. It took me a while to find a contractor. During that time, I had to deal with all of the typical contractor flakiness, cancellations, sales pitches, not showing up for appointments, failure to respond to calls and emails. I didn't get any of that with Emil or Jaime. They did as they promised, showed up for work, responded to my inquiries, answered my questions, and solved problems that arose during the work. I highly recommend Emil and Jaime.

I couldn't have been happier with Emil Nagy from Shining Hammer Construction. Firstly, he quoted the job accurately and stayed on budget. I was not the easiest customer, in that I had many "add on" requests and additional tasks related to our house being 100+ years old and Emil accommodated my add ons (with appropriate pricing for additional requests). Additionally, I was pleased that he and his sub-contractors were neat and cleaned up daily, with no unnecessary dust. He was punctual in his own work and in oversight of the sub-contracted workers. I appreciated that he got the work done in timely manner, especially considering I had been adding on additional tasks that extended the time of the project. I also was very pleased with his response when I expressed concern about a particular glass utilized for the door (not exactly the style I wanted) he willingly and quickly changed out glass with no added cost. Finally there was a minor problem at end of the job, Emil immediately returned to the job site as soon as I noticed the issue and contacted him and he repaired the concern - the bathroom works perfectly now. As an aside, I was semi-perfectionistic in my requests about caulking/grout lining up exactly, he came back several times to make it "just right" to my requests. I will be using his company again when we decide to do a significant remodel on the downstairs bathroom.

First, Emil is one of the most reliable contractors I have ever worked with. The trait that is hardest to find in a contractor is their ability to FINISH a job, and continue to show up and do quality work right up until the end. Most contractors seem to get bored and start to cut corners in the end. But Emil does have the ability to finish, and he completed high quality work both times, on schedule and on budget. The first project he did for me was to lay over 1000sq/ft of saultillo tile on my outdoor back patio and my entire front porch and walkway. He knows his materials, and has a great artistic eye. He handled tricky odd sized stairs, combining Mexican tiles and Saltillo in beautifully balanced patterns. He also laid the Mexican tile for a custom outdoor BBQ countertop with a sink and backsplash, and followed my directions on the design perfectly. When part if it didn't come out level (not due to him, but due to the framework of the cabinets) he took the time to redo his work and find a way to make it look even again, and seemed happy to do it without charging me more. For the entire project, he was very good at asking my opinion and what I wanted. He showed up very regularly for three weeks in a row, and always did what he promised. His price for the work was excellent and fair. It was not the lowest, but much lower than the highest bidder - who actually gave me bad advice that Emil helped correct. I felt the quality of the work was well worth the cost. So I hired him again, this time to do my custom tile work for our new high-end kitchen remodel. This was a very delicate job, and needed an artistic eye. We had ordered custom molded tiles for some center pieces, and wanted to have the highest quality look in the end. Emil was efficient, showed up on time every time, and did a beautiful job. His price was very reasonable, and he even helped us fix some really bad work another contractor (who my general contractor had hired) had done on the floor. I actually asked my general if I could replace his guy with Emil, and was glad I did. Obviously, my experience with Emil was very positive both times. He is a genuinely nice man, and very trustworthy. Highly recommended.