STRAUGHN CONSTRUCTION INC

Job went great. Steve had great recommendations as to material and was competitive on price. Steve completed the work on time, as expected/represented, and cleaned up the job site well. Very responsive and easy to work with from initial bid to end of work.

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Right now there is an issue with my floor so the manufacturer is going to provide some materials and I was going to hire Straughn to do some of the repair work. I found his workmanship was good although I probably would have wanted him to be a little bit more forthcoming with suggestions and recommendations.

Steve Straughn. The name is synonymous with quality wood floors. Steve is a self-made, punctual craftsman with excellent work ethic and an eye for detail. Steve returned my call right away and set up a time to come in to do a free estimate. He showed up on time, listened carefully to my wishlist, offered suggestions on ideas I was unsure about, and prior to leaving, expressed with sincerity his wish to do the work. I had such a good feeling from my first impression of Steve that I did not waste my time getting any more bids. I wanted Steve to do the work. After seeing his estimate, my husband and I decided the price was fair and we hired him. He was punctual; he showed up at 8:00 a.m. and if he needed to pick up supplies first thing in the morning, he notified me beforehand. Perhaps more impressive, though, was the fact that he cleaned up the site and was finished by 5:00 p.m. The stairs are a masterpiece. We went back and forth on whether or not to do the stairs in wood or leave them carpet since we have a baby on the way and we were worried about the slippery factor of wood. Now that we’ve been walking on them a for a couple months, we realize that the wood is not slippery. We are so glad we did the stairs in wood because we cannot imagine removing the carpet from the rest of the house but leaving only the stairs. They’ve become a stunning focal point at the entry to our home.My husband and I contemplated doing the work ourselves. But it wasn’t until I witnessed Steve at work one day, installing baseboards, that we realized this was a job better left to the professionals. Steve is a true craftsman. The baseboards he removed had chamfered corners, so he could have just replaced with equal. But he gave me the option of using a curved corner joint which matched the curved wall corners above. It meant more labor for him as he had to sand the edges to be flush. We went with 5” baseboards that turned out beautiful and are proportionate to our 9’ ceilings.

Steve was there on time and worked until after 5 each day. The quality of the work was good. I just think he is young and maybe that had something to do with our downsides. He was very responsive to phone calls and emails. The downsides: it took much longer than planned. We did about 10 hours of demolition work for him because he was working entirely by himself. He said he would have someone working with him, but only his wife and her sister showed up for about 14 hours total. We were disappointed that he did not discount the price more because of all the work we did for him. We moved A LOT of the furniture out and back in, tore down the stairs, and all upstairs. He would eat and drink during the day and leave his stuff laying around the house after he left or us to clean up. He also did not pick things up like the air compressor left in the middle of the walkway. The first day he came, he pulled into the driveway and blocked my access to the garage. At one point he let out dog out and the air conditioning was on and he kept leaving the door open.