OUR FAMILY BUILDERS

I cannot stress enough, DO NOT HIRE PHIL COLLIER!!!!!! Four years later, and I'm still correcting HIS mistakes in my basement!!!!! He had an excuse for EVERYTHING!!!!! Even told me that I used the wrong type of paint, which is why the tape on the drywall was showing. The same paint is everywhere else in the house, and there is no visible dry wall tape. Very condescending!!!! He is only after as much money as he can milk from you!!! Just don't want anyone to go through what I did!!!!!! Lessons learned on my part!!!!!! He is very messy and damages stuff in your home in the process, and then tries to cover it up.

I contracted Phil Collier with our Family Bldrs. in July of 2011. He lined out everything, did drawings and worked with the county on permitting. It all seemed good to go. Once my contractors finished the dirt work and concrete, Phil took over. He showed up by himself to start framing. He later brought in three other guys to help. That's when the project seemed to fall apart in my book. Day after day I would come home from work and find hardly anything accomplished. There were bad weather days, but this went on for months. He was charging me hourly for all these people. He wanted to put in a ladder access to the ceiling in the garage. I said no. Came home the next day and he spent the day putting in this ceiling access; i.e. ladder with door and lighting up inside. No means no! He wanted to texture the garage. I again said, NO! Came home one day and he was about to do that. I said, no, Phil, please finish the new room. I noticed my furnace running and running when the rafters and roof were installed on the new room. I asked Phil about it. He actually admitted the peak was not closed and sealed. I was literally heating the county during winter. My propane bill each month is under $100. When the propane company came to fill the tank.....it was over $500. He never offered to reimburse me for his mistake. He had his sons roof the new garage. It came off three different times. I picked up and threw away dozens of shingles. The roof in the garage and new room leaked. Water ran down two walls in the new room taking the texture and paint with it. This happened twice. Phil installed two doors in the new room. One door I could hardly open and to close it, I had to really put my shoulder into it. The wind kicked up and it literally was blowing in the new room. I could have just as well been standing outside. The other entry door opens and closes fine, but I can see daylight between the door and frame. More wind blowing in. Phil left a huge pile of construction debris in my yard. The wind would blow it around. I was constantly picking up the mess. I finally said, you need to haul this trash away. His comment was, "You want ME to do that?" On Friday nights when I would get home from work, Phil would be sitting in my kitchen waiting for a check. Several times he would show up at my house after I got home from work and spend maybe an hour. He drove me nuts. The whole thing has been going on now for more than a year and a half. I stopped paying Phil a long time ago. I paid him more in wages then what he quoted me the whole job would cost. I was sick when I figured this all out. This was my fault. I should have fired him months and months ago. All I got was promises, but he didn't follow through. I would call and call....either he would not return my calls or he would tell me he would be out on a certain day, but would not show up or would call and say "something came up". He dragged this project out so long, codes changed and electrical outlets and breakers had to be re-done. I refused to pay for his time or materials as he should have finished his part of this project in three months max. Now the permit has expired. He said it would cost $300 to $400 to re-instate the permit. I refused to pay for this. I need inspections, but Phil won't finish as he told me he has no money. I have now fired Phil Collier and am dealing with the county and permitting people. This was suppose to a good thing, but it sure went sour. I am a 63 year old woman who is now hanging on extension ladders to caulk and paint the garage and new addition. My paint money wound up in Phil's pocket. Again, my fault, I should have fired him. But, I have to say, I think the paint job looks good. This is a MAJOR WARNING....steer clear of Phil Collier. This experience with him was so stressful.

I used this company if it is the same one that worked out of Colorado Springs. I knew the owner and he did some little things for me and did them well. I referred them to a friend, and the owner did some of her work but then sent his son to do tile work in her bathroom. He never did it to completion, to this day. The worker used the wrong color sealer or grout between the tub and the tiles and it looks terrible. They also left sharp tiles unfinished butting up to the doorway and didn't return calls when my friend tried to get him to come back and finish. I would not pay up front, but only after work is completed.

We changed plans a couple of time to be sure to get what we wanted. The reviewed or plans and changes, made many helpful suggestions. They could have had more people involved in the labor portion, perhaps the job would have been completed sooner. Very happy with the craftsmanship. We would have ended with the same remodel, but our planning could have been better. I would use this builder again.

Phil did a great job. He was hired before but we needed him to do a quick job as a result of a home inspection in order for us to sell our home. It involved electrical work, fixing some plumbing related to our dishwasher, installing hand rails on the porch decking, and installing lag blots to ensure the porch was properly connected to the house. We needed it done FAST. Our closing was only a week or so away. Phil arranged for it all. The work was done fast and right. We need documentation and he provided that in quick order as well. Just as with our major job last summer----he did great work and was VERY responsive. We sold our home---thanks in much to Phil and his company. Again, his honesty, integrity, and hard work are exceptional!

He is absolutely amazing. I would trust him with my first born. What he quotes is what he charges. He is very reasonable. He is very concise.

He was very friendly but the deck would not pass inspection because it was not level. We had to have him come back several times to fix his work. I would not recommend him at all.

It was the first time I had ever done a wood floor, and thanks to his clear step-by-step instruction, frequent input and feedback, it turned out wonderful! (We also learned how to watch for fridge hose leaks to avoid future problems!) He is attentive to detail, seeks to work out things around his and our schedules, and is very warm and personable.

All projects start with great expectations, but we own an older home, have had remodeling before, and were willing to have some unexpected surprises. Every day he was on the job, there were surprises so that nothing was completed but his hourly bill. No matter how we communicated with him, in person, on the phone or email, he failed to LISTEN to what we were saying or our budget. Finally his services were terminated in the middle of the project because we could not spend any more money, and he could not get the job done. Think of a taxi meter running, and you will understand our misery. We are left with serious problems that will have to be redone by another contractor. To anyone who is considering this company, please read our story so you do not suffer our experience. Get everything, and I do mean everything in writing down to the last screw, and be prepared for unprofessional behavior.

I am so disappointed with what I got in return for my money. I was also going to hire Phil to build a deck for me and replace the siding on my home. After this fiasco, I wouldn't hire him ever again. He seemed like such a nice guy but in the end after seeing work done by other companies and all the excuses/slow/sloppy job done, I realized I had been taken advantage of. I chose to hire him despite the 1 bad review left on here by another unhappy person because I figured someone's always going to complain no matter what. Now I can see why that woman was upset. It seems in that situation, he did the work different than requested by the homeowner because her father was paying for it so he did what the father wanted done. Hello!? The homeowner has to live with it not the father even if he is paying for it! Phil should have done the work she requested from the beginning! It was only recently that I found another bad review on here about a deck he built for someone. Took months just like my windows did! In my case, it took FOREVER for him to complete the job, he was messy, didn't show half the time, and wanted to get paid before the job was done. I started working with him in the beginning of April on what I wanted, hired him the 3rd week of April, and the work wasn't completed till the 3rd week of June. I live in Widefield and from what I understand, he lives in North CS. He would come to my house usually after 1pm, if he came at all, and would install 1 window at a time. Then, would have the nerve to ask for money because he was "running low on cash flow". Of course he was! How can you make any money doing this job if you drive 20+ miles roundtrip in a gas hog F-250 to install 1 window at a time? Now, after talking to friends/family members, I learned that they had this same kind of job done in less than 3 days total! What really gets me is that on top of this 1 window at a time installation job, he guilt tripped me into paying him in full, weeks before the work was finished. I had to hear many sad personal stories and also be understanding of him not showing up as promised in which he didn't even call to explain his absence most of the time. I know I'm a sucker for falling for this but I thought that surely my generosity would be rewarded. Unfortunately, it was not. He had a shop vac but never used it to clean up all the sawdust/trash left inside of my house. He would use my broom to push the stuff around on the floor and leave it there. He also left tons of broken glass on the ground where I or my dogs could step on it. I'm still picking it up. Besides everything else I experienced, two things really burned me up. One, he was supposed to discuss the move of my new kitchen window to integrate with the new cabinetry I was installing. He never did this other than call me and try to get me to explain it on the phone which I did the best I could. Phil ended up installing a ridiculous, huge window and placed it wrong spot. He also installed a exterior outlet that I didn't request and tried to charge me for it and proceeded to use it against me in the kitchen window screwup. In the end, I got talked into get the outlet for "free" for him to fix the kitchen window. Wow. What a good deal.... :( Then, he finally got my bathroom windows and installed them last. He never ordered them until after all the other windows were installed so it took weeks for them to come in. According to a family member, he showed up after 3pm to install these 2 windows and was too lazy to install them from the exterior as all the others ones were done. Therefore, the windows were inset past the old siding instead of being mounted to it as the others had been done. It looked awful and when I pointed it out, Phil apologized and " was glad I showed it to him because he would have never noticed.". WTH? :( He even had the nerve to ask my husband afterwards if we wanted him to do our siding! He was supposed to give me an estimate on it and never did! Why would I hire him to do any more work when he only does it when it's convenient for him and didn't give us a price on it in advance?? He sure had plenty of time to work up a bid but chose not to! I told Phil I would not give him a bad review on Angies List to avoid conflict but after much thought and the discovery of the horrible deck review, I realized I needed to do this so no one else would be subject to his poor business practices. I made sure to check every category so no one misses it like I did on the deck review which was under a different category the first time I looked him up. I'm sure he will see this and have some rebuke like he did on the one the woman but I don't care. I was ripped off and I am so p***** that I let him take advantage of me! Take your business elsewhere if you want quality work done in a timely manner without being made to feel bad for not paying before the job is done.

I was looking for someone who could repair the cracked mortar in a few spots on my front steps and porch rather than replacing the entire brick walkway and steps to the front door. I didn't even know what kind of services would be required, but after searching on Angie's List, I found Phil Collier of Our Family Builders who had experience with brick and mortar. He promptly responded to my inquiry and came out to assess what was needed. He was honest with me up front about the issues with repairing only the cracked areas because it would not be possible to match the existing mortar (which is at least 15 years old). Because he was uncertain as to how satisfied I would be with spot repairs, he proposed an hourly rate for the work so that we could adjust as needed. This seemed reasonable to me, and I asked him to go ahead and do the work. He scheduled a time when I would be home (on a Saturday) so I could see how things looked when the work was done. Between the estimate and when he came to do the repairs, he had done a lot of thinking and investigating, and he had a different plan to make sure what he did would look nice and coordinate all of the walkway as well as blend better with the rest of the house. This involved sealing the existing brick so that the new mortar would not stain the bricks, then essentially "regrouting" the walkway and steps. Phil selected a color that he thought would blend with the brick on the house (the walkway and the house use different brick - inherited from a previous owner), and it did match well and look good when finished. The process involved multiple days and multiple trips to the house to accomplish, but the end result looks great. Phil was easy to work with, polite, professional and showed up when he said he would. The only downside is that it cost a bit more than I expected based on the initial conversation about approaches. However, given the work involved and the number of hours Phil spent at the house, the final total was reasonable, and the results should last for a number of years. I am very happy with the outcome and would definitely use Phil and his company again.

I don’t want to disclose how much I spent. They did excellent work. They did better work than I expected to get. I paid more and I got excellent work. The people that came before them didn’t want to even touch my house especially one particular handyman guy. It was a good price for the work they did. It was a bit more but I got the best job done. I hope to use them again this year. I will absolutely use their services again in the future.

He did exceptional work. His price was fair. He was very friendly and professional. He's very knowledgeable on a wide range of home repair projects. He explains everything and stands behind what he does. If you aren't happy or something goes wrong--call him he will return and fix it! Again, for us he stood behind his work until we were satisfied. It was a major, major job. Phil is a man of honesty and integrity and I highly recommend his services. He can do it all. We appreciate his hard work and the fact he stands behind it. If you choose to use him by the hour, like we did, he keeps a daily log of what he does and it is detailed. This helps when you are on a budget. Again, the best part of working with Phil is he is HONEST and HE does the work like it were his own house. Many contractors bid the job---and you get who knows who shows up to do the work. Phil (or his sons) actually are the one's who do the work. You know up-front what you are getting and he communicates well.

I like the fact that he owned his own company and he was actually doing the work himself. He asked me if he could have another gentleman come and work along with him and I had no problem with that. So it was just him and one other guy and they got the work done. I even made changes to what we had originally planned and he was very flexible with that. He is very open door kind of person and I never felt like I was asking something above and beyond. I would ask him stuffs and he would talk about what we could do. I had 4 different bids and he was the cheapest and I felt that he was also the most flexible. Towards the end of the project, it took bit longer to complete the work than he had anticipated but I was not upset about that. The quality of the finished product is good. He was very responsive and when I had an issue afterwards, he came back promptly and was able to do the work.

The story is short and sweet. We had a plumbing situation that had the potential to become a full scale flood in our basement. I called Phil to recommend a plumber ( I didn't realize he also does plumbing). Instead he came right over, analyzed the problem, went and got the parts needed, and fixed it. Just like that. Not only that he was able to describe how to prevent a future problem in this area that probably would have been repeated again. Now this little story may not sound like much but have you ever tried to get a plumber to respond without a ration of crap. Except for Phil, I never have. AND while he was here, he tightened up a carpet that I had made loose with a walker. The cost to me was incredibly fair. Phil and company now have done just about every "house" job imaginable, plumbing, carpeting, electrical , painting, drywall, and etc,etc. at our home. And, my experience has been excellent in all cases. I could not have ask for anything better in all the work done.

This was a very strange experience, compared with other contractors who gave bids; seemed rather "off-the-cuff" and not very professional. Never gave me a plan or lay-out or written estimated, but gave me a verbal price $10,000 - $15,000 over other bids. I think perhaps this firm might be better for smaller projects, like decks.

I chose Our Family Builders because they had a 5-star rating on Angie’s List and an A- on the BBB website. I don’t usually say bad things about a company unless I’m extremely dissatisfied with their service. My house flooded this winter due to freezing pipes when the temperature got down to -16. The pipes in my upstairs bathroom burst causing water to leak clean through two floors of my house. My insurance company hired a team to come in and dry the house and also demolish anything that wasn’t salvageable so I had extensive dry wall repair and flooring to replace. I hired Our Family Builders to do the work. They did a fairly good job replacing the dry wall and texturing, although there is still a bubble in my ceiling from the water damage that they decided to just paint over and it still shows. There are also a few cracks by the windows that they just painted over instead of repairing and a dent in the wall that they also left and just painted over. Instead of putting carpet back in I wanted tile. Although they did a great job on the tiling it took them much longer than I would think was necessary. The job also involved replacing the baseboards, tiling and repainting the bathroom, and replacing the kickboards in the kitchen. My house is not large, I’m 28 years old and this house is a cozy starter house. It took them 5 months to do this job. At 3 months they told me they would be finished. I had to go on a trip when they said they would be finished so I paid them ahead of time and expected the work to be done like they said it would be when I returned. I came home and the work was not finished. After I had paid them I had nothing as far as incentive for them to finish the work. They kept telling me that they would be done next week, and this went on for another two months. When they finally finished the work they left me a note on my counter saying the work was completed with no walk through and left it at that. I was so tired of having them in my house I did not ask them to come and fix all the problems I had seen with their work. They ruined my sink by dumping something down the drain staining the stainless steel (I've tried scrubbing it but whatever it is won't come off). I came home to find the nozzle on the sink replaced which I thought was odd and also noticed that my dishwasher no longer worked correctly after that (it no longer dissolved the soap packets that I had been using with no problem before). I have no idea what happened. The mirror in my bathroom fell in the middle of the night. I’m not sure if it was their fault it fell but they left the pieces on the floor and even brought some pieces into the other room and left them on the floor in there also. They also left 3 oversized bags of construction trash in my garage for me to deal with. Their receipts for the work and quotes were very vague. This is something I have learned to not let slide in the future. I would tell these people what I wanted done and he gave me a very vague receipt in which he would say something like paint job and the price. I remember telling him I would like the living room walls painted, the ceiling in the living room and kitchen painted, the hallway and two upstairs bedrooms painted. He told me this would cost $800 and I said okay. Next thing you know he’s telling me he didn’t remember the hallway and two upstairs bedrooms being part of the deal but since the receipts were so vague I had nothing to stand on. I asked him to write a more consolidated receipt of all the work he had done and how much it cost so I could give it to my insurance company for reimbursement and he never did give that to me. I was relieved when they said they were finished thinking I feel screwed over but at least they’re out of my house. Then a few weeks later I bought some hanging plants and couldn’t find my ladder. I called them and told them as much and he said well we probably did grab your ladder on accident. I will look for it and if I can’t find it I will buy you a new ladder and get it to you no later than Monday. Monday came and went and I’ve heard nothing from him. This is the first time I’ve ever hired contractors to do work on my house and at the very least I’ve learned a great many lessons.

Excellent work and very courteous. Completely satisfied.

We had a negative experience with him. The contract was signed in May and the job was supposed to be completed in July. They were very cordial and knowledgeable. He was a small builder and made promises that he didn’t deliver. He took constant prodding to get the job completed. He had some reasonable delays that he let us know about when we insisted on getting an update. He kept telling that it would be another two weeks, but work would not commence. I had to track him down and ask what was going on. He had a lot of excuses about other commitments. We were expecting the deck to be completed in July, but we got him here only in the first week of October. I didn’t appreciate that I had to keep calling him constantly. It was a good product and his price was reasonable. However, it was a horrible schedule management. I would suggest using him only if you put specific penalties for going over deadlines. He was not responsive. He did a very good deck.

Due to surgical error, I became disabled while having back surgery. I could NOT be released from the hospital to come home until this work was not only completed but met the criteria and approval of my rehabilitation therapist. I was not given a great deal of time to get this completed as my release was eminent. Phil Collins stepped up to the plate and got it done. It is really that simple. As can be imagined, emotions within this household were running very,very high due to the situation. But Phil, much to his credit, was a calming and encouraging supporter to my wife during a couple of emotional meltdowns and through it all He(and his crew,of course) not only completed what was required on time but also provided many ideas and innovations that substantially improved on the requirements, making my life in dealing with this situation greatly improved. I personally, beyond this job, have nothing but thanks to give him for his attitude and innovation. My wife (and the therapist) were impressed with the structural safety of the project and it's beauty. As I noted above, this is actually the second project that Phil and his company have done for us. The first was a basement conversion, to a home theater and music studio, and I must say I was as pleased with that project as I am by this one. I will continue to use this company for all the projects of this kind for our home.

When I received the inspection report on a house I was planning to buy, I called several people to give me estimates on the cost of the repairs, as well as on the remodeling I planned to do. Phil came out on a Sunday -- the only day I could see him -- and looked over the report thoroughly before going around the house, checking everything off. Eventually he advised me that the house was overpriced as it was, that the remodeling would be a great deal more expensive than I had planned because of its age and current state, and even gave me some personal advice in dealing with my Realtor! His honesty and integrity -- he could have made a mint off me in remodeling fees -- is so rare and so welcome these days. Three others saw the same house and though two strongly hinted that it was overpriced and that repairs would be costly, Phil is the only one who gave his outright opinion and saved me from a many-thousand-dollar nightmare. And while I paid $75, $80, and $234 (!!) to the others, he charged me nothing for his hour. I will definitely hire him when I find the right house to remodel.

Everything looks wonderful. Our original idea was to expand the bedroom in order to accomodate additional floor space. However, after talking everything over we realized that we could make the most of our budget by simply relocating the laundry space to another place in the house. Phil and his team relocated a door and condtructed a new laundry space under our stairway with the side benefit of making our guest room much more usable. They ran plumbing, electrical, and vent lines to support the new location. His son, Joshua, laid tile in two nearby entryways to protect the floors, and it looks great! Later we reconstructed the previous laundry area to accomodate more floor space in the master bedroom. I was very pleased with the responsiveness of Phil and his family. They were accomodating of last minute changes and worked hard to do things right. They are scrupulously honest as well. I also appreciated the extensive consultations to ensure that we'd found the best solution to our design problems. The only down part of the execution was that we often only had one person at work, and since we were paying by the hour I suspect that it might have been cheaper in the long run to have paid a second wage to get things done quicker. Still, that's a minor complaint for a really professional job and a family team that makes you feel good to work with.

Phil took control and reassured us that we could get the red spray paint removed and he insisted on getting the painting done immeidately, even though it was a hot day and he'd requested no pay. We did pay him for his efforts which was only fair, but he contributed far more support than money could buy as a new-found friend and neighbor.

My experience with Phil was outstanding. He was professional, skilled, knowledgeable and preformed the work in a very timely manner. We were very pleased with the results and once the job was complete, you could not tell where the repair work was done. He is that good! Great work and we are very satisfied and will recommend him to our friends for service.

Overall I am very satisfied with the deck, would recommend OurFamilyBuilders to others, and plan to include his team on future projects.