Bercow Construction

-We employed an architect and bid the remodel out to 6 general contractors. Ed Bercow's bid was once of the first, and we thought it was high, but it turned out to be in the middle. We really liked his knowledge and straightforwardness. After two tries with other contractors fell apart before we could draft a contract we went back to Ed and worked out a more affordable estimate. Ed never cut corners, was you get what you pay for about it, but was able to work something out. His estimate turned out to be on the money for what costs actually were. We are happy with the results and are glad we went with Ed. His subcontractors were all very high quality and their workmanship was top-notch. Working with his framer and Ed, we actually redesigned and improved upon the architectural plans with the agreement of the architect. The tricky elevator shaft was absolutely plumb and exactly to specified tolerances. Ed is very easy to work with, always pleasant, accommodating, and informative, and looks out for the customer's interests. He kept returning without complaint after the fi"punch list" had been completed when a few new issues, such as recaulking where settling had affected grout lines at the very end.In addition to a new elevator, the job involved new electrical system and plumbing, roof reframing and roofing, the addition of a large deck with cover and skylights, outdoor stairways, new windows and doors inside and out, complete new kitchen, new ceiling framing in kit chen and bathrooms, Addition of a guest bathroom, complete remodel of master bathroom, addition of master closet and home office over garage, new hallway, Caesarstone counters in kitchen and bathroom, new hardwood floors, new foundation work for outdoor stairs, deck, elevator and bathroom support, new cabinetry in kitchen, exterior restuccoing and re-siding, interior and exterior painting, outdoor hardscape, and coordination of other independent contractors who were not his subs.

It was dreadful experience. I had good interaction with him. The price was such a horrifying thing and we went well over $90000. I like him; he is a nice man and I think he has integrity. I just don't know that I would use him again. I'm a little baffled. We wanted to redo our kitchen and we tried to make things to possible. We had looked around at different cabinet places. We've gone into different showrooms for cabinetry and things. We went in our neck of the woods and to tall wood areas. I and my partner went there and we liked what we saw. It was a custom cabinet place. We liked that because we have very weird kitchen. It's not a weird kitchen, where you can move things around and make a difference. You can't reconfigure it; you kind of stuck with it. I told as we have already investigated other cabinet places that were further than not custom cabinets; but we did find that wasn't what we wanted to go with. So we went to Cabinetry Company to find information on their cabinets and we liked what we saw. The owner of that company by name Eric came and looked at our house. He is the cabinet maker. He looked at our house and kitchen, he said that we would need a contractor and recommended Ed Bercow. We met with Ed and we liked Ed. Eric was making the cabinet and Ed was doing the rest of the work. Everything came well off perfect for the first month. Then the cabinets were delivered, this was the first problem. We wanted wooden cabinets from the bottom and white cabinets above. When the cabinets arrived, the wooden cabinets at the bottom were the perfect cabinets but the ones at the top didn't have right finish and not the right style. It was $3300 to pay for the new upper cabinets out of my pockets. Part of the reason we ended up paying for this was no one had ever written it down and put in writing because they were three things. Any cabinet on the wall like hanging up high is white; anything below the countertop was wood and anything that was floor to ceiling was wood. We were very specific. We had a sample of cabinetry in his showroom. Kim, my partner literally walked up and hugged the sample which was huge; and said this is the kitchen I want and I want the upper cabinet in white. No one ever wrote that down and I never saw anybody write it down. When it came, the time we had Eric and Ed asked what happened with the cabinets. Eric pointed at me and said you liked this style and I told him you are right. At one point, I told him I liked this, but Kim entered and told no these are the cabinets I wanted. Somewhere there was lose in translation, nothing was really written down and double checked. That was the first mistake $3300 but he did a beautiful job when he was there. We had to wait until the new upper cabinets could be made. There was couple of glitches that we were confronting. Then we finally got things started to move forward. The cabinetry got done and cabinetry was moved in, windows were done, and windows were beautiful. We had little problem with the counter top. Kim had gone with the granite guy to pick up the granite. Kim and I had gone to check the granite and we decided on the granite that we liked. There were four counter; the Kitchen counter, the butler pantry counter and then the laundry room counter. All of things geared up and all of the things finished. Kim looked at the first installation of four counters and told me to that the countertop doesn't look like the one we ordered. I looked at it and it was not the finish and not the edging that we ordered. Evidently, what had happened was because of the nature of our kitchen, the stove and the oven that we chose, the countertop guy who does all the counters and the tiles backsplashes had to change what we wanted to what would work. We had to get the changes done quickly as the countertop could have got glued permanently to the counter and we would had to break it apart to get it out; so basically we were stuck. Few weeks later, the contractor came to us and told us that the edging that we wanted on the granite countertop is excruciating like stencil. Evidently we were charged for that, I never said Ed was not professional but it wasn't my favorite experience and I felt that we spent a lot which was almost $100000. For that instance, we had tile backsplash that we wanted and we installed. The painters were amazing. They were drop dead amazing. The plumber was drop dead amazing. Plasterers, dry wall guys, framers; all of them were amazing. The reason I?m giving to you because it cost money. We wanted to spend $50000 but we were willing to go for $80000 but by then we were sure that it was well over $1200000. So the back splash was put in and we found there was air in the tile. Then we had tile maker come back, shape out all the air by his hand from the tile and the reset everything.. The painter did the most amazing job. I can't wait to have him paint the whole house when I can afford it. The final thing that was really tested was cost of the money that really made me angry. I couldn't really talk to anyone of them anymore unless we had to deal with them which were bad. We had to cope with refrigerator set, which was x amount of inches wide, x amount of inches tall and x amount of inches deep and it couldn't be altered. We couldn't change any of the space and it's just what it is. We bought the appliances as we had to deal with it before they design the cabinetry. We bought counter deep refrigerator to get the similar look of the built-in. It wouldn't be quietest perfect but would be pretty close and we were happy with that. So we ordered the counter deep refrigerator and everybody knew which was all in the plans. It was the first appliance they had installed. The alcove for the refrigerator was going to be the cabinetry built in. They couldn't install the refrigerator as it stuck out by six inches. When they pushed all the way in, the doors couldn't open. Our contractor and cabinetry maker didn't realize that we didn't want just a refrigerator in that alcove but we wanted something to look like a cabinet. The only solution was to take out all of the cabinetry and buy the regular free standing refrigerator. The rest of the kitchen looks very fabulous. We spent $7000 for the refrigerator and there was only one refrigerator which could fit in this space that is built in. We had to wait for the new cabinetry to be made so we could put the built in refrigerator which was $5000 more. We had to pay for new cabinetry and new refrigerator. I was little angry paying for the cabinetry for the mistake and to get it redone. Then we had to cope up for another $5000 plus the new cabinetry in the alcove so it all together came up to $10000. Everyone was nice, everybody was civil, nobody was nasty, nobody was ugly, and nobody ever made threats so we made a point not to make threats. We were along everything because we were usually very busy with work and I told my partner we have been without our kitchen for so long, we cook a lot and we love being at home. I told Kim that if we get into discrepancy with these people, our kitchen is going to sit like this for months and we couldn't afford it. We wanted to just pay the money, get the kitchen done and move on with our life. I wanted to tell people, Ed Bercow is an okay guy but I didn't understand if I felt there was enough communication. Eric, the cabinet maker was the one who recommended the contractor. The Ed came highly recommended and worked on the high end homes; not that we have high end home but we have a nice house. We wanted really exquisite job done in the kitchen. I have to give that credit to him. He came in and did everything. He really did seal lock to dining room and he really did the seal lock to the living room. Every single day that they left, they cleaned up the mess behind them. We never walked into the kitchen even one time during the construction. It was always clean, they kept their thrash with them and they really cleaned up. One of their crews was always very congenial, very respectful of us and our privacy. It was nice and that part was all real good but the thing that really put the stake in my heart was the day I was locked in and the refrigerator didn't fit in the space. We have better taste than them. The quality of work was good. He was very punctual and professional. Everything we said about them is true and factual. All the guys Ed the contractor had were really good.