J Sitko Construction

The job was performed as promised, despite the bone chilling cold. The structure is well-built with fine materials. Miichael was, and is, very responsive to all of my questions or concerns. I will use them again in the future.

At first it was great. Mike from J. Sitko was very helpful and punctual in providing quotes for our sidewalk project. He was very accommodating when I asked him to make revisions to the proposal and he followed up every two weeks for several months while our condo association took it's time making a decision. However, once we did make a decision to move forward using the concrete contractor that he recommended to us, he completely flaked out as we were reviewing the contract together one final time before signing the agreement. I think in the end he was uncomfortable in the price his concrete contractor had provided us, however instead of explaining the situation he basically stated that he was refusing to business with us. When pressed for an explanation about why he was retracting the proposal, he became very defensive and his demeanor was very unprofessional. The one explanation he did offer was that he didn't want there to be any issues with the concrete contractor and for those issues to be written up on Angie's List. Well, here we are... we obviously did not proceed with the work.

Unfortunately, Mike could not provide the services I was in need of. MIike was very friendly, very responsive, and extremely helpful. He inquired about what I needed and provided me with several references for other people that could help me out. I don't have any input on his services, but his professionalism and responsiveness was impressive.

After experiencing difficulty with another builder, Sitko handled my project professionally. Michael Fredman was easy to work with and attentive to my needs. Architect Ricardo Garcia drew up perfect plans and worked with the Park Ridge building department to execute the project. Jack Sitko has assembled a fantastic crew, who worked hard, and was meticulous in their craftmanship. My deck would survive a Midwest hurricane and it looks fantastic!

I reached out to several companies, was looking for something to be done sooner rather than later. I received a very prompt response the next day letting me know that the company was booked with projects for the next several months, so if I wanted to get something done soon I would be better off reaching out to someone else. Unfortunate, as I appreciate the great response time. If I end up not getting something scheduled soon I may wait and see when they would be available to work on this project.

OVERALL EVERYTHING WENT GREAT THEY DID AND EXCELLENT JOB IN AN SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. WE HAD A MINOR PROBLEM AT THE INSPECTION. BUT THAT WAS CORRECTED QUICKLY AND I REALLY LOVE MY GARAGE THIS WAS THE 2ND JOB THAT J. SITKO CONSTRUCTON DID FOR ME AND I THINK THAT THEY HAVE ABD AWESOME CREW. THANKS AGAIN GUYS!

The work was poorly done. It looks shoddy and very unprofessional. Sitko farmed it out to Greg Gruba of The Smart Houses or whatever name they are going by now. When they want you to make the check payable to an individual, not his company or even the company you contracted with, it raises a red flag. The whole job was haphazard. Gaps everywhere, major cracks in the treated lumber, cracks in the existing sidewalk from placing the new anchors for supports. Splinters on almost every screw/bolt inset. I asked that three things be fixed - affix a junction box cover that was left off, replace a stair that was completed cracked, and anchor the outer edge of a porch. They only fixed the first two items. The biggest disappointment of all is how the porch and deck on the second floor are at different angles. The structure passed inspection, but if this was my property, and not one which we are anxious to sell, I would not have paid for this mess.

J. Sitko was very professional and easy to work with throughout the project.

We went with them primarily for price and flexibility. We were in the process of thinking of what we wanted and changed things a couple of times. They were very flexible. They came out and remeasured a couple of times. They had really competitive pricing.

J Sitko Construction is a fantastic company. Beginning with the first phone call to Mike, we have been thrilled with the service, work, and professionalism of this company. The front porch and stairs were in bad shape; the stairs were starting to crumble and with every rain water pooled around the bottom step, making it impossible to leave the house without wearing rubber boots. With family moving in for the summer, we needed them replaced -- and quickly. Jack, the owner, came out on a Thursday afternoon and by that night Mike had emailed with a quote. We signed a contract the following Monday. Roman and Jack did the work, arriving promptly each morning, keeping us updated on the work, and responding to all questions. They demolished the existing wood and concrete stairs, poured a new concrete slab (pitched away from the house!), and built a beautiful new wooden porch and stairs. Additionally, they built the porch so that a covered roof may be added at a later date -- so yes, we will be using J Sitko Construction again! The new porch is beautiful -- even the neighbors are commenting on how good it looks, as well as the attention to craftsmanship that Roman and Jack put into the railings and handles. We have already recommended J Sitko to several friends for work at their homes.

EVERYTHING WENT GREAT..... THEY WERE THERE ONLY A WEEK OR SO WORKING ON THE PORCHES, CONCRETE SLAB AND STEEL, DOOR.. MY HUSBAND AND I LOVE OUR PORCHES, IN FACT, OUR ENTIRE BLOCK IS JEALOUS!! I ENJOYED TALKING WITH MIKE AND WORKING WITH MARK SO MUCH THAT AFTER THEY COMPLETED MY PORCHES I AM HAVING THEM TO BULD MY TWO CAR GARAGE. I WOULD DEFINITELY REFER J. SITKO CONSTRUCTION COMPANY.

Our condo association has used J. Sitko for several projects over the past five years or so. We always get a few estimates for work and they consistently outbid other contractors. They have always been prompt and courteous. Their work is of high quality. Other contractors we've had out have had positive comments on the decks they repaired.

My husband and I never start a home project without searching Angie's List. We read the reviews for this company and decided to scheduled an appointment. Thirty minutes before our appointment, a representative called and asked to reschedule. Things come up, so we rescheduled for Monday evening. Not only were they a no show, they didn't even have the courtesy to call. When I contacted them, a representative said we could reschedule. Thanks, but no thanks.

We found J Sitko Construction right here on Angie's List. We contacted them last Fall when we first started thinking about having our deck replaced. They were very responsive right from the beginning - great about returning the call, coming out to give an estimate, and following up with answers to our questions. We couldn't afford to do the work at that time and then Winter came so it was too cold/snowy to do the job. At the first sign of Spring, they recontacted us and honored the estimate from the Fall. They gave us an approximate start date and said the job would be done in about a week. All true. They showed up, did their work, we didn't even have to be there. They were totally self sufficient. One week later, the deck was done. It looks great. It feels great. Any "punch list" items we identified were addressed immediately. As the deck has only been done for a few weeks now, we can't speak to its longevity - but our contract does warrant the work so we feel very comfortable. Now it's on us to seal it and take good care of it so that it will continue to look great. Our only complaints (and we've already discussed this with Jack, the "J" in "J Sitko") were - On day one, the workers demolished the old deck. On day two, nobody showed up to do anything - and we weren't informed that nobody was coming that day so we were mad and concerned. Per the workers' request, we had left our garage door and pedestrian gate (to the alley) open for their convenience - so it was bothersome that they just didn't show up that day. Whatever, I guess stuff happens in the construction world - and they showed up every day thereafter until the job was done - maybe 5 days in total. Our other complaint was that the workers smoked incessantly and used our back yard as their ashtray, leaving cigarette butts behind even after cleaning up their job site. We thought this was gross and not befitting the great job they did. It was a small thing and didn't change how happy we are with the end result - and when we complained to Jack, he came and picked those butts up with his own two hands! I would definitely recommend them for deck construction. Nice job, Jack & team!

Mike came out to our house promptly after our initial call to Sitko. We received a very fair estimate within 24 hours. Unfortunately, we had a flood in our finished basement right after receiving the proposal. Our original basement contractors came to make the repairs and we decided to just have them do the porch as well since they were already at the house doing work. If this hadn't happened, we would have certainly used Sitko to do the job.

It went well. They were professional, clean, and they did a nice job. They are reliable.

Sitko was very responsive through the bidding process, provided a very competitive estimate and worked closely with the designers to produce drawings for the new deck. They met timelines for the construction and built 6 new decks up to code that easily passed a City of Chicago inspection

The experience was excellent. They were very professional and they did exactly what I wanted them to do.

J. Sitko Construction demolished and reconstructed three floors of stairs and porches in the rear of our home. They deserve the highest rating on every scale. The quaity of work was first-rate. Literally everyone we dealt with was knowledgeable, intelligent and responsive. In addition, they promptly scheduled the city building department final inspection. In the 20+ years we have lived here, we have never had such a positive rehab experience. Would recommend without reservation.

Outstanding. The construction crew and architect work together, so the transition from plan to work site was seamless. They do lots of work in Chicago, so they understand the porch permit and construction inspection process very well. Mike Fredman responded to my calls and e-mails in a timely fashion, and all work was done as agreed. Jack, the foreman, responded to all calls promptly and resolved any issues right away. Everyone says how beautiful the porches look, and what a great value we got. Other companies were quoting us $85,000 - $100,000 for the same work. My only issue was with the City of Chicago. The city approved the plans (which were to code; we got the code and checked the plans against it), yet twice the inspectors found something they didn't like; even though Sitko was following the exact plans the city approved. Sitko made the corrections as required, and didn't try to charge extra. They kept the job site clean and safe. They communicated to the tenants, so people knew what was going on. They even did some extra work for us at a reasonable price. If you're a landlord, and need new porches, these are the guys for you!

Short review: The deck is great and the quality of the work is why I chose J. Sitko. I received quotes and interviewed many Angie's List contractors before choosing J Sitko and their quality and price were the best match. I recommend them highly, with one small caveat (more below). Long review: I am a do-it-yourselfer and was working on the property when Jack came out. He impressed me as someone that knew his work / what he is doing (his website and Angie's List reviews back that up, as well they should). I couldn't be happier with the deck, the quality of the work or my overall experience. My only issue (small) was with the ambiguity of the schedule / timing of when the work would be done. I should have added something to the contract related to scheduling, because I had other work pending, but didn't and will in the future. I had other work on the property (siding and roofing) pending, explained this and was led to believe the deck would get done sooner than it did (the contract was signed end of July and project began mid Oct.) I understand scheduling in construction can be difficult (weather, permits, etc.), summer is busy, especially decks, but had another contractor waiting based on the time frame I was given - which put me in an unfortunate scheduling position with the other contractor when deck didn't begin. Luckily the other contractor could/would work around the existing deck. However, still, in early Oct., two months after the deck drawings and permit were approved, there still was no definitive date on when the project would begin (even though I was told repeatedly that a date would be provided). I was frustrated and finally felt like I had to push the issue of getting an exact start date. I'm sure they were busy with other projects - they worked very hard, did a great job, but I was frustrated that I had to force the issue instead of being given a start date.

From the first phone call with Mike Fredman to the final walk through with Jack, the experience was professional, timely and on budget. The expectations were set from the beginning and met every step of the way. They provided constant communication throughout the process. The staff that performed the work were timely each day, clean and thorough in their work. J Sitko Construction assisted with the architectural drawings, plans, permits and management of all inspections. I would highly recommend J Sitko Construction to anyone looking to have any porch or deck work done. They are a top notch company.

From start to finish Mike handled everything, he met with city inspectors and made EVERY arrangement. I have worked with J.Sitko on a few occasions- they show up on time and they do EVERYTHING they promise and they do it for the price they quoted, I've never had any surprises on the bill.

The below review is about how they demoed, rebuilt, and tried to stain and seal our new deck. We, the condo association, have spent $15,000 with this company and we are writing this review based on our experience with J. Sitko. Please note that we were once a satisfied customer and had a professional relationship with them for a whole year. In the end, a problem arose in which Mike would not fix and he went from being nice and helpful on the phone to completely rude and unprofessional. We started doing business with J. Sitko Construction in October 2011. We have a roof top deck that is approximately 880 sq ft. Due to some roofing work that needed to be done and the age of our deck, we decided to demo the old deck, build a new deck, and stain and seal the new deck all with J. Sitko. The demo of the old deck and the construction of the new deck went well. We were satisfied with the work and the deck looked great. Mike was very helpful throughout the process as well as Jack. Jack even fixed our front gate for free. They went above and beyond and everything was great until recently. Before we even demoed the old deck, we discussed the whole process through staining and sealing the new deck. Mike said the deck should be stained and sealed sometime before winter. It was still early in the year, but we asked Mike to provide a proposal for us anyway so we could prepare the condo association budget for the upcoming stain and seal. The first contract they provided for us said ?J. Sitko Construction? on it. Word for word, the ?Construction Contract? said: This proposal is inclusive and covers all labor and materials to power wash, stain and seal the roof-top deck. - Power-wash the roof-top deck - Stain the roof-top deck (owners to select color of stain) - Seal with two coats of clear Thompson Water Sealant the roof top deck We told Mike the proposal looked good and we would contact him again closer to when the stain and seal needed to be completed. When we were ready to stain and seal, we contacted Mike. In the email to him, we attached the old J. Sitko proposal from 6 months earlier and said that we wanted to go through with the stain and seal per the attached document. Mike replied to our email with a new proposal. On this new proposal, we noticed a few differences: the company name in the upper left corner changed from ?J. Sitko Construction? to ?The Smart Houses Solutions, Inc.? and the word ?stain? was replaced by the word ?paint?. Word for word, the new ?Construction Contract? said: This proposal is inclusive and covers all labor and materials to power wash, paint and seal the roof-top deck. - Power-wash roof-top deck - Seal the roof deck with Thompson Water Color Sealant the roof top deck - Owner to select color of paint We did not question the name change as we assumed the company was going through some changes; not subcontracting the work out to another company. We also did not question the word change from ?stain? to ?paint? as it did not seem odd to us. We trusted the company as an expert in the industry to provide us with a truthful and accurate proposal. We should have questioned both changed items but after a year of good service and good work, we trusted this company to deliver based on numerous conversations and emails between us about how to correctly stain and seal a new deck. After the work was completed on the deck, Mike asked us to look it over and see if it needed any touch-ups. When we looked at the deck there were several spots of discoloration. You could see where the flower pots and rugs used to be. You could also still see the blue manufacture stamps on the wood. We told Mike about this and he said he would talk to the workers about the problem and get back to us. When Mike came back to us through voicemail, he said the deck was sealed with a clear sealant in which it will not cover any discolorations in the wood. Mike said that nothing could be done to fix the problem, the contract had been fulfilled, and no more work would be done. He also said the word ?paint? refers to the color in the clear sealant. We are still confused as we write this review because to us, the word ?paint? means paint...not clear sealant and this was never explained to us. When I called Mike back, the phone conversation we had was very unprofessional. He answered the phone by saying ?yeah?? instead of ?hello? knowing it was me. He said I ?shouldn't take things for granted.? He also admitted to making a mistake but did not clarify how he would fix his mistake. I told him I was going to write a review on Angie's List and he said, ?I don't care what you do. Do what you want.? Mike yelled at me on the phone and would not listen to what I had to say. When he finished, he started yelling ?Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye? on the phone continually until I hung up. I was in complete shock that this was the same Mike I had been talking to for a whole year. Then later that night through email, Mike said ?The Smart Houses? would come over to try to fix the problem by sanding the discolored areas. By this time we had already talked to other respected deck maintenance companies and learned that trying to sand down the discolored areas may actually make the deck worse than it already is. Plus, after the last phone call with Mike, there was no way we were continuing to do business with him whether it was fixing a deck or not. We paid the final bill of a few hundred dollars just to be done with them. Of the $15,000 that we spent with J. Sitko, the stain and seal project was only a few hundred dollars. It shocks us that a company in which we had a good relationship with for a whole year would allow this review to be written and hurt their good reputation. It's not about the few hundred dollars; it's about them admitting to making a mistake, failing to fix the issue professionally, and being unprofessional on the phone. In the end, we wish Mike would have clearly communicated with us. He never told us it was a clear sealant, he never told us the deck would not be painted even though the contract said it would be, and he never told us the work was being subcontracted out to another company. Our biggest fault in this whole matter: we trusted J. Sitko. We trusted J. Sitko as an expert to deliver a beautiful new deck and the final result did not meet our expectations. J. Sitko was unwilling to resolve the issue professionally. Remember, if you do business with them, ?don't take things for granted? as Mike likes to say. In response to Mike's response: Thank you, Mike, for responding. There are a few things we would like to clarify though: - ?We constructed a wood pergola on the roof top and completed the work and were paid in full without any problems.? The bar and pergola project (which we are satisfied with) is separate from the condo association project. Our review is based on the condo association project only. - ?Starting in 2012 we decided that our company would not be doing any more maintenance contracts as its not our speciality.? We have a stain and seal maintenance contract from February 2012 that says J. Sitko on it; not ?The Smart Houses?. - ?I explained this to the Customer and that I had another company that I work with that does porch and deck maintenance work.? This is not true. This was never explained to us. - ?Greg told me that we cannot power-wash, stain and seal the deck, that we can power wash & seal or power-wash and stain the roof deck.? If this is true, why were we never given these options? All of our emails from the past year say ?stain and seal? over and over again. If you knew staining and sealing was not possible, why didn't you mention this to us? The difference between staining, painting, and sealing was never explained to us. - ?I prepared a contract to power-wash, paint and seal the deck.? Our deck was never painted. - ?This was a very small project, only $600.00 but all projects are important to us.? The entire project from beginning to end was $15,000. The $600 project was indeed a separate project as were the demo of the old deck and the building of the new deck, but when we go upstairs and look at our $15,000 deck, all we see is the final result ? a discolored deck. - ?I did not intentionally try to deceive the Customer and the condo association.? We understand you did not intentionally try to deceive us, but you never communicated with us the things Greg told you about the staining and sealing process. It also does not explain why you were very unprofessional during one of our last phone conversations.

From day 1 this company has provided excellent customer service. For us it was one stop shopping: They provided the architectural porch drawings, applied for and picked up the permits and built a wonderful porch in the time period they promised. Their price was good compared to the other quotes we received. They also provide tuck pointing for us. The workers were very clean and the tuck pointing was done in 1 day. I would highly recommend them to anyone in need of a new porch or porch repairs. J Sitko Construction has been the easiest and most flexible company for us to work with. Thank you J Sitko !