DUSTIN HARDGROVE TRIM & REMODEL

I'm restoring my 80 year old condo and wanted to restore my painted over picture rail to it's wood finish and originally contacted Dustin hoping to have him strip and restain the wood. He believed it would be easier to replace the rail. Dustin arranged for a new rail to be custom milled and stain-matched to the existing woodwork in my home. Dustin was on time, straight-forward, enthusiastic and always happy to answer questions. Since he's self employed he was able to work around my 9-5 job schedule.

I was initially impressed with Dustin's ability to work quickly during the destruction phase of the stairway rebuild. I was further encouraged by his experience at conceptualizing the new construction, which was not a simple matter because the stairway made a 90-degree turn at the place where he started. Quite fortuitously, as it turned out. He also noticed a major leak in my sewer line, which ran right under the old stairs, the old cast iron must have long been cracked, near through for 3 feet and perhaps his stepping on it opened this "nightmare waiting to happen" at just the opportune moment to get it repaired before continuing on. A less-thoughtful craftsman might have just let this go unnoticed and I'd be rebuilding the stairs again right now. I was thankful for his candor throughout both projects. It saved me several missteps along the way and also clarified several necessary "extras" that made each job more complex than I had envisioned it, but more completely stable in the end. This was especially true with the banister project. I had expected to simply undo enough roofing along the edge of my semicircular porch to allow posts to be set into the underlayment for strength. Upon examination, however, it was clear that the supporting joists were not in the best shape and needed to be reinforced with new lumber. It was also clear that there were too many layers of old roofing to successfully patch-in around posts and that the entire roof should be removed and all the joists examined and fortified. This was done without complaint or hesitation from Dustin, who seemed entirely confident throughout and rightfully so. He tore off all the old roof in a day by himself (he's a big strong 28-year-old fellow who needs little assistance in any aspect of his work), protected the entire opened roof with tarp on that evening (when it did happen to snow and sleet) and had the remainder of the job done in about five days. I am very pleased with the results on both these projects and found Dustin to be hardworking, professional, courteous, amiable and conscientious. He showed up for work every day on time, worked a couple of Saturdays at his usual rate just to get things done and finished each job with great attention to detail and pride of craftsmanship. Hard to find people like that anymore, as we all know and I would recommend him highly to anyone looking for the best. He is also reasonably priced at $29/hour plus materials and will give bids on request.