Hogan Builders Inc.

10 out of ten or 100 out of 99

This was an increasingly frustrating experience. After ignoring my instincts that perhaps his company was either too busy or too disorganized to handle the project well we ended up going ahead. My husband worked in the trades with him about 10 years ago and thought he seemed like a stand up guy. If I had just asked for some word of mouth reviews from people in Athens we would have heard enough to deter us, but we didn't do it because of time constraints. He and his project manager were constantly vague or delayed providing information. Many important processes were skipped, including pulling a permit to repair a wall which required structural, electrical, and plumbing oversight. It was agreed that the back wall needed to be repaired before starting the porch, but then his crew went ahead and started the porch before even putting windows back in. This was when it was starting to get cold, mind you. When they added not the back porch they pulled back about 8" of the roof line all the way across the back porch about 16'. After the porch roof was built it was left exposed with no tar paper for at least a month during which time we noticed water pouring in at the porch ends and through the wall onto our brand new door. When I finally reported this it took them about 20 days to get the roof covered with tar paper. I thought the issue was fixed at this point. While there were many small details of the project that went wrong, either through their inability to effectively communicate with their crew or our needs being ignored, the biggest issue we encountered is the lack of professionalism and bullying that transgressed because of the water leakage issue. The week before they "finished up" we started to demo inside for a bathroom renovation we planned on doing. The inside of the wall, right under post for the new porch, was sopping. The brand new lumber and insulation we had them put in was soaking wet and a great deal of mold was growing. The owner said he would come and view the problem at the start of the next week. After we did not hear from him or his project manager, who had come to look and said they would remove the affected drywall and insulation, by Tuesday of that week, and after repeated instances where they didn't do what they said. We removed it ourselves and started drying it out. Unfortunately, the span of the the porch wall where moisture was getting included our kitchen and only working bathroom. Even though we have only asked that he deduct the labor for taking out the drywall and replacing the insulation ourselves, he has refused to take any responsibility for the leaking, saying that because we had a hole in our house that there is no way he caused further damage. He has even blatantly lied about why he did not come look at the problem. Prior to his work we did not have a closed wall system that was taking on water and while parts of our rafter system were and are currently exposed, our roof was not leaking into our home. Even after we took out the wall and were trying to dry it out, moisture was still coming into our home under the west side of the porch. The project manager said they would flash and repair that section, but it was not done. In addition, when opening up that wall we noticed places where the wall framing was not attached to the sill and even scarier, places where there were no supports added to hold up the subfloor and floor which had previously been attached to the sill or damaged. Places where several feet of flooring where just hanging off the nearest floor joist. Needless to say it has gotten ugly. His information is so disorganized that his final bid did not include the most recent change order and was about $1200 higher than it should have been. His communications about money have been bullying and he either does not respond reasonably to any critique or he ignores information. We have been working to reach a compromise to find a fair amount to pay him, deducting the work we have had to do to fix dangerous, damaging, or incomplete work, but he refuses to negotiate the amount he is demanding and is threatening and lien on our home and court. So, we have had a pretty bad experience.

We contacted them in Fall 2015 to get an estimate for a bathroom and closet addition to our house. After a few back and forth emails/calls, we scheduled a date and someone came. Nice guy, seemed professional, talked us through their process, we told him what we wanted, etc. He took measurements and told us he would send us an estimate a few weeks later. That was about 4 months ago. Never heard from them since. Obviously, that's a failing grade. Maybe they do a good job for the projects they actually do, but if they can't even keep their initial promise to return an estimate I'm not further interested in working with them. Too big a red flag right there. Strangely, we had that happen with 2 out of the 4 companies we contacted for an estimate (the other non-responder was Hodge Design). Not sure why that is. If they don't want to do the job, at least they could send a quick email or call to let us know that they can't/don't want the job. Obviously I can't recommend them.

unknown

HBI finished my bonus room beautifully. They did everything: walls, closet, carpet, ceiling fans, paint, lighting and paint. They were so good I had them build my screened porch later.

Sean Hogan is 100% professional. What I like is that , as a grandmother with no construction experience, I was always able to trust Sean to manage everything. His team built my "dream" screen porch and brick patio on the back of my home. They did everything from laying the foundation to screening, painting and adding ceiling fans to the porch.

unknown

Very professional. They spent a good deal of time trying to find the right door to match the theme of our unique house. We were thrilled with the result. As a matter of fact, we recently moved and considered taking the door with us!

Construction of a detached, 2-story garage. The project went well and was completed for the approximate budget that was given. We have no complaints about those who worked on the project or the quality of the final product. The design of the garage suited the current design of the home and provided exactly what we were looking for.

I contacted HBI for an estimate for construction of a 2,000 sq ft home. I was impressed initially because Mr. Hogan responded so quickly. I later found out that quick response was just a part of his personality in that he called and/or texted or e-mailed me practically everyday from about mid October until near the end of November. I was waiting on bids from other contractors during the time for comparison. I ended up signing a contract with HBI because out of about 6 companies, HBI and one other company followed up with me or I felt like they were qualified for the job and my construction loan was getting close to its expiration date. 4 days after signing the contract with HBI I received the bid from the other contractor( which came in about $8,000 lower) that I felt more comfortable with and tried to rescind the contract with HBI but HBI would not allow me to. Upon signing the contract with HBI, I wrote a check for 10% of the the construction cost because contruction was supposed to begin the following week (11/21/12). Construction didn't actually begin until 1/7/13 and I always had to follow up with HBI to try to see what was going on. Each time I contacted Mr. Hogan, he would say that construction was going to start next week or in 1 to 2 weeks. Once construction finally started several items that were discussed in the preliminary planning were omitted from the actual construction.One example was a request for wood stairs, which means that I wanted the stairs to be uncovered wood- stained stairs. I didn't find out until after the stairs were in place that he had chosen to use pine which has to be covered by carpet or paint. His response to me when I questioned him about this was I didn't request oak stairs so that's why the wrong type of wood was used...There were other similar situations like this throughout the project, but since I live out of time, I didn't have the time or energy to invest in a lawsuit for a breach of contract.In an effort to try to minimize the length of this review, overall I was not happy with the quality of the work performed. If you decide to go with this company make sure you get every specific detail in writing, just be prepared to be harassed daily with phone calls until a contract is signed and immediately after invoices are sent (before the bank can even respond) and know that you are probably paying more for this company without getting a better end product.

The job was completed promptly with high quality workmanship. The contractor and his subs were very responsive to concerns throughout the process. We had a few changes along the way that were handled easily. They even helped move our furniture and belongings prior to the start of the job and then again once the work was completed. I've had a few questions after the job was finished and I was able to contact them easily and got an immediate response. These contractors aren't going anywhere and stand by thier work; I would hire them again if I needed work done.

They were very professional and creative with their approach. Still waiting on their bid.

Sean was very professional and personable. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks to actually get the estimate and when we did, the rendering/floor plan for the renovations did not match what we had talked about, or for that matter the layout of our house. This was attributed to some sort of miscommunication between Sean who visited our house and the person who actually created the proposed floor plan. We did ask them to redo it and they were much more timely the second time around. Cost was much higher for HBI than the other estimates we received. This may be due in part to the number of office staff HBI supports. I'm sure the quality of work would have been great. They were just too much above our budget for this project.

Sean and his group were very professional in all their work. I conveyed to Sean what I wanted and his team put together the plan, drawings, and details. They were very good in working as they indicated they would. The project was completed in a couple of months and everyone who has seen it has been very impressed with the structure, which was designed also to fit in with the neighborhood association requirements. They were responsive to the handful of issues that sprang up during any construction project and we are very happy to have worked with them on the construction project.