Brad Cross

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Came out in advance to measure and suggest options. Told us what trim, etc to buy to keep costs low (Door was smaller than old one). NO CHARGE. Ordered door, called him when it came in. Scheduled installation. Arrived on time with crew of 2 (total 3). Meticulous to make sure everything clean, no mess, no damage. He had to run to town to get other trim. NO CHARGE. Finished and it looks AMAZING! Started at 8am Finished by noon. Final cost exactly what the estimate was. I tipped his crew $20 because I was so impressed. Am hiring him again to replace our front storm door ($100).

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We called Brad to move a treadmill from the garage into a bedroom in the house. He was able to fit us in within two days right at the holidays. He came on the day promised and brought two men to help with the move. They took a bed apart and moved it into the garage and then moved the treadmill into the bedroom. It was not an easy job because it is a large treadmill and they had to try it a few ways before it would fit through the bedroom door. They finished the job in just under an hour very professionally. We can't say enough good things about Brad. We plan to ask him to do two big jobs in the spring.

Brad was on time, professional, and did an excellent job. We will definitely hire him again.

IT WENT FABULOUSLY!! THEY NEED AN A+++++ rating. This was the most pleasant kitchen remodel I could possibly imagine, and it was entirely because of Brad. My husband and I began a kitchen remodel in October of 2012. I had done the original floor plan design, and we had found and purchased cabinets and a quartz countertop we loved. The cabinets did not come with installation, but the countertops did. We planned on doing the initial demolition of a wall and soffett ourselves, as well as all electrical work. We needed to find a contractor/handy man who could handle the bulk of the labor, but was willing to be flexible with us, the project schedule, and with other contractors & suppliers. We received Brad's name & contact information (along with two others) from the local building supply store where we purchased the cabinets from. He was one of five people/companies we called to get estimates from, immediately after purchasing the cabinets. First, Brad immediately set himself apart from the other people we contacted because of the promptness and professionalism with which he conducted himself. I left a message at the number given to me and he called me back almost immediately to tell me he was on a job currently, but thanked me for my interest and scheduled a specific time later that afternoon to speak with me. He called back later that same afternoon and we discussed the scope of the project and scheduled a time that evening for him to come out and give us an estimate. This pattern continued throughout the job. There was never a time we called or texted that we didn't have a response from him within an hour, even on weekends, evenings, or holidays. Sometimes it was only a response to say he was busy and an estimated time when we would hear back from him, but we always knew he'd seen the message and would respond. Second, Brad set himself apart from the other companies we received estimates from. The rest came, wrote down the scope of the work, then said they'd get back to us in about a week with a formal estimate. They would not even give ballpark estimates. Brad was able to say concretely, this is what I charge, per cabinet, per lineal foot of trim, per piece of hardware, etc etc. He had things he wasn't willing to give a firm price on during the initial estimate because he'd need to check with subcontractors or do some measuring, but we had a sense during the initial meeting of how much the project would cost, and that price did not change much between the rough estimate and the formal contract. Third, Brad set himself apart in that he immediately seemed to understand where we were going with the project, and in the areas where we had uncertainties he volunteered solutions and opinions. None of the other companies were willing to do that. We wanted to run the quart countertop seamlessly from one wall (sink wall), around and into a breakfast nook, and then across to a perpendicular wall. The sink wall and perpendicular wall had cabinets, but we needed a way to support the weight of the quartz in the breakfast nook. We were debating between posts, brackets, a wooden sash, but weren't happy with any of the options. Brad discussed a couple, then his eyes lit up and then proposed custom fabricated steel brackets that would be mounted into studs underneath the drywall that would be functionally invisible for a floating look. He acknowledged it would be a bit more expensive, both for the materials and his labor, but did give us an estimate and let us decide what we wanted to do. He also was the only person to ask us about getting proper permits for the project from the city, and offered to take care of that for us. He was willing to offer suggestions on the best places to shop for lighting, tile, or anything else we might need. Fourth, and the absolute bottom line, Brad was THE ONLY person we got an estimate from who quoted us what I considered to be a fair price. He didn't ask us how much we were hoping to spend, but rather what we needed done. [Background: My father was a general contractor who ran his own construction business for 25 of the nearly 50 years he was in the business. I spent many nights with him at the dinner table as he worked on bids for jobs. I know all about contractor profit margins and I believe 100% in paying good money for good labor (dad was union and used to tell me all the time about bids he'd lose out on because he wasn't the low bid, but then a couple years later he'd be called in to fix the problems from the initial work). Unlike many other remodeling projects where you can expect up to 50% of your costs to be in labor, a kitchen remodel tends to be no more than 10-20% of the total cost, because the material costs are so high. The nicer the materials, the lower the percentage (but not the total cost) the labor will be. We were going high-end on our materials, and the other estimates we received were double or triple Brad's estimate. Brad kept meticulous receipts and records, and only asked to paid every couple of weeks, when a big chunk of the work was done. Our only disputes over cost were a couple of times when I thought I ought to be paying him more! The arrival of our cabinets meshed nicely with Brad's schedule, so we wrote out a formal contract of work, signed it, and work began the last week of October. To my dismay (I'm type A and like to oversee all work in our home) I was going to be out of town for the entire first week of work. Brad tolerated my remote micro-managing like a saint. I left detailed plans for him that he followed to the letter. He got an amazing amount of work done in a short period of time, he kept the house as clean as can possibly be expected when there's drywall work being done (there is NO SUCH THING as clean drywall work) taping off all vents & closing doorways with a neat zippered enclosure, and even watched out carefully for my four cats, who decided his drop cloths were wonderful toys. The vast majority of the work - the demo, floor, plumbing, drywall and installation of the cabinets and appliances - was finished in 7 working days (spread out over two weeks), and we were ready for the countertop guys to come and do the final field measure. For the bulk of this work, Brad brought in a 2-3 man crew. Several days I stayed home to watch the work and to do some painting of the walls or other tasks to keep things moving on time and he and his crew were always amazingly polite, respectful to me, and more importantly, of my home. Brad won't even swear on site, and won't allow his crew to do so either (and I grew up on construction sites. I was swearing by age 3 :-). This was where the delays came in, and there are ALWAYS delays in any remodeling project. None of the delays were Brad's fault. In fact, he acted as our advocate in every possibly circumstance. First, a few of the cabinet doors arrived with material defects. Brad worked with his contacts at the cabinet company (he installs a lot of them) and got us new doors expedited within a couple of days. Additionally, we were short 3 inches of the crown moulding we purchased, a common problem. Brad handled the re-ordering for us - all we had to do was go to the desk and pay for it. The biggest problem & delay was with the fabrication of the metal brackets we needed to support the countertop in the breakfast nook. The fabrication company was short staff, and it was a small job, so it kept getting bumped in favor of larger jobs. Understandable, but frustrating. Brad was amazing, putting pressure as appropriate, and yet, when we still couldn't get the brackets in time for the countertop installation date, Brad developed a temporary wooden support system that he could take out one section at a time as he installed the brackets. The countertops were installed on time, so we essentially had a usable, "finished" kitchen in four weeks. The only things remaining were cosmetic. After the countertop went in, we asked Brad to handle the tile backsplash behind the stove. He did such a good job on the floor and we wanted it done right. We also asked him to build and install the custom shelves for one corner, when we had originally planned on making them ourselves. Again, even though we knew we "could" do it ourselves, we knew Brad could do it better. He was very gracious about these extra tasks, and got them done in very short order. Most of the "finishing" work Brad ended up doing on the weekends. He was very respectful of our time, always asking if we minded if he dropped by. As if him doing work on his weekends at no cost to us was doing him a favor! The there was a standard 4-6 week waiting period for the crown moulding, and unfortunately it was the wrong moulding the first time they sent it, so we ended up with a nearly 12 week waiting period on the one little 3 in segement. Again, not Brad's fault, and in our minds, not something which left the kitchen unfinished. We had a nice lull between late November and late December/early January when the last pieces finally came in after the holidays. We considered the kitchen done the second week of November when the brackets were installed, but the entire thing was "finished" the first week of January. We gave Brad a key to the house so he could let himself in if we had already left for work for the day, (we leave before 7) and he was great about always texting when he'd arrive. A couple of times when I stayed home without telling him, he was there exactly when he said he'd be. When the job was done and he gave the key back to us, we BEGGED him to keep it, since we have every intention of hiring Brad to reside our house the minute the kitchen it paid off, and to remodel our master bathroom once the siding is paid for. We absolutely cannot say enough good about our experience with Brad Cross, & have already given several referrals. We're just waiting for him to load our before and after pictures on his website!