J Sitko Construction

The owner discussed with me the project in detail, the process, staffing, work hours, and time schedule. On the start date the contractor arrived at 9:00 and became the job. Day one, they removed the old porch and framed the new porch. Day two completed framing of porch and began construction of new porch. Day three, finish construction and of porch and instructed sliding. I inspected the job the following week and approved job. J. Sitko Construction did an outstanding job.

I am very pleased with the work completed and my experience in dealing with this company. They offered me a fair price, finished the job in the time promised and the porch looks excellent. The porch is sturdy, structurally sound and I have received numerous compliments on it from neighbors.

Jack arrived on time and discussed the project. He was professional and efficient. A few days later he provided a written estimate. I chose another contractor.

They eventually did a good job, but I had to watch and make sure they were doing it right because they didn't know how to do it. They had to re-do it twice, and the third time they got it right. The communication wasn't very good.

Giving my past experience with construction companies, I had great reservation as to the work to be done but J Sitko Construction proved to be the exception for me. They were courteous, patient and professional.

They removed the old porch. I designed the new porch myself and they built it. The carpenter made a mistake but they were very responsive and fixed it the next day. We are very happy with all of the updates.

They did an outstanding job. I was very pleased with the work they did. It was done quickly and they were sure to clean everything up when they left. I would use them again for any home improvement work.

The architect that works with J. Sitko is very professional and expedited all of the drawings and permits needed for the project. The workers for J. Sitko were very fast and did a great job. They removed and rebuild the deck in just a couple of weeks, and the new structure was passed by the city inspector. Sitko coordinated all of the drawings, permitting, demolition, rebuild of the structure, and scheduling of the inspection with professionalism, expedience, and attention to detail. I am very pleased with the performance of this company.

It has taken me a long time to write this poor review for two reasons. One - I actually liked both Jack and Mike despite what can only described as this fiasco. Two - I haven't heard from anyone at the company since October even though there is a $2500 outstanding balance that would have been paid if they had completed the project. I was initially impressed with the professionalism and diligence displayed by Mike - enough to accept their bid even though it was considerably higher than any others I received. I wanted the job done right the first time without my needing to oversee every portion of the work and that was worth the extra money to me. Unfortunately, I just paid more for sub-par workmanship and one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had. The initial interior painting (scraping, sanding, repainting of skylight well) was done well by a team of two with Jack introducing them to me and then leaving. The porch was nominally scraped and the stairs primed over the existing paint by the same two workers. There was no sanding of the porch or priming of any other portion before being painted by one man in a two-day span. I asked the painter if he could sand the porch to avoid the ridges created by painting over old paint and he did - but only the specific column I pointed to. Needless to say, without any sanding or priming, the paint job not only looked awful, when I removed the blue tape after the paint dried, a huge swatch of paint stuck to the tape. I called Jack to explain that the porch had not been properly prepped prior to painting assuming he was unaware of the quality of the job. He agreed to meet me and then proceeded to explain to me that it is impossible to sand old porches because the paint sticks to the sand paper. I do realize that properly prepping old painted wood is an arduous task, precisely why I hired someone to do it in the first place. This led me to believe that Jack either didn't think a woman had a concept of construction or he didn't know what he was doing, which also made me nervous about the quality of the one-day parapet wall reconstruction job they did for me. I therefore asked a male friend to meet with Jack on my roof to review the work. As it turns out, the masonry was done reasonably well, but the roof was not sealed against the new brick work. Jack agreed to rectify this and that was the last I heard from anyone at the company. In October. I have not had the time to follow-up on this matter as thoroughly as I would like (why I took the higher bid at the outset) so now I am left with a peeling porch and hoping my roof has minimal leaking through the winter until I can get someone else up there to do the work properly.

They were very good to work with. Some of the concrete had cracked and they came back to fix it for us. The price that they charged was very good. The workers weren't quite as professional as the rest of the company was. I have to decide if I would be using their services in the future or not.

They were referred to me by my daughter. I thought his bid was too high, it was $2000 higher than others that we got a bid from and it was for less work. He also insisted that we had to have plans and I objected to that. That would have also been additional money and it felt like a scam to me. I felt like he was nickel and dimeing me with things that weren't necessary and he didn't talk to me about bringing the whole thing up to code which I was perfectly willing to do if I had known about it. I didn't think he was professional.

Jack was amazing at accommodating all my requests from brick replacements, relocating an A/C unit and making the scuttle hole bigger. They did the job so effectively that it required little effort on my part to oversee the work. It was helpful when he worked with my A/C contractor on setting up the unit in the new location. After the roof was replaced, I had two tiny concerns and Jack fixed them on the spot. I am confident that my roof will last a long time. In addition, Mike who handles all the paper work was very organized, responsive and timely. All of their hard work was very much appreciated.

Awesome. I am so happy every time I come home and see my deck. For years, I have been worried about the condition that it was in and the potential consequences. Bidding contractors would either estimate too high or pass on the job because they didn't want to deal with the City codes. However, not this company. I choose them because they have done so many decks in the city with flying colors. When I checked 15 of their 250 references, people were pleased with the company's quality of work, price and professionalism. They were great about value added service by not charging me for unexpected issues that came up during the construction. I was so impressed that from the plans to the permits, the department of buildings signed off on all the work with no corrections. In addition, I was concerned that getting the deck up to code meant that the deck would look less attractive. Actually, the deck looks so much better now and the new and old wood blend perfectly. And, it is also very sturdy and strong. This company was also great with the schedule, the job started and finished on time. Jack was very accommodating to my eye for details. A situation did occur when two crew members crossed the line of professionalism, Jack quickly responded and fixed the problem. I am so grateful for my repaired deck and their hard work.

Sitko was very accommodating during initial negotiations and start dates. However they initially failed to conduct the work clearly stated in the contract. For example, the contract stated in the second bullet point that concrete foundations would be poured for new post footings on all porches. However two of the four front porches were built on top of the old, cracked foundations from the old steps. Sitko did come out and properly install a new foundation after we called out this issue. We also questioned the quality of wood on two of the four porches. The two in question had a lighter tone, slightly green, and the wood was chipping just a week after installation. Sitko told us all the lumber was prime grade #1, but we are not knowledgeable enough in lumber to know for sure.

It was a very good experience working with them and they gave me the best price. The person was pretty easy to work with however, some of his workers were not experts in the work. I had an architect to guide them through some mistake that were made and they would always take care of it without charging anything extra for that. They were willing to work with the architect and I definitely got my money?s worth from them.

J.Sitko is a superb operation. I contacted them and got an appointment the next day. Jack Sitko was prompt, attentive and gave helpful advice after looking at the architect's plans. The bid was competitive, clear and prompt. The demolition and construction started on time and finished ahead of time. The City of Chicago inspection went perfectly. The clean up was well done. This was a rare good experience with a contractor and I recommend this company to all. Mike Fredman and Jack Sitko run a great company.

I spoke with Mike, the owner. He was professional and courteous throughout the process. The bid was coordinated through his sister company, The Smart Houses, as J Sitko primarily does Chicago construction (no suburbs). When the completed bid came in, it was $4,000 above all others we'd received through AL. When I asked Mike the difference, he said he'd research and get back to me. When we spoke again, he wasn't able to explain the difference, but offered an additional $500 off. As the bid was still larger than the 5 others we received (which were all in the same ballpark), we decided to go with someone else. However, we'd definitely consider them for future projects.

Bill the guy in the office makes this company move. He was great and very responsive. We already had plans for the redisign of the porch and facade. Mr. Sitko gave us a very reasonable estimate. They were able to get an inspector to verify the need for the repairs and a permit was obtained fairly quickly. Once the work began it proceeded very quickly. After the ceiling of the porch was in place they stained it beautifully. Toward the end of the job the final finishes were taking more time. I suspect that the company had new contracts to fulfil. We waited some time for the final painting and staining. Finally we talked to Mr. Sitko about the delay. He said that the original contract did not include painting and staining. When I pointed out that they stained the ceiling, he said that was thrown in extra. O.K., so I asked how much to paint and stain. He gave me an outrageous rate that I figure he knew I wouldn't accept and I did decline it. I think he just wanted to end this job and move on to new ones. The work was excellant and I would use them again (though I will make sure the contract includes everything). I was a little disappointed in the lack of professionalism at the end.

It couldn't have gone better. The drawings were done on time, they were able to get the permit faster than expected and construction started immediately. The communication was very good throughout. Paper work (billings, waivers, etc.) were very prompt and professional.

They were more affordable than the other three bids we got and were responsive until we signed the contract and gave the down payment. Once we signed they took forever getting the permits. I understand that the city has something to do with this but when we gave them the plans and documents it took weeks for them to realize that they needed additional paperwork. In other words it took them weeks to even start the permit process. At first it was only going to take a month. After a we heard nothing and the manager called. That was when they told us they needed more paperwork. Then they said two weeks. Three weeks passs with no word back. Then more delays. If we had not put on the pressure I feel we would never have heard from them again! The excuses on the phone sounded like down-right lies. I undersatnd that things come up and if they would have been honest we would have been more patient but it was one lame excuse after another and then the guy was so rude when ever we asked any questions. Their customer service is THE PITS. They damaged our gutter in the process of fixing the porch and it took mutiple calls before they came and fixed it. As long as you are not in a hurry and don't care about a rude attitude the price is good. I strongly recommend checking in regularly on progress even before the date they tell you because there may be issues along the way (such as additional paperwork needed in regards to permits) that you won't hear about until the day you expect the work to start and then you may find yourself waiting another month and a half.

I had an inspector come out and approve the build before hand and when he came back all he could say was perfect. I was very impressed. They do an excellent job. I liked working with them very much.

The whole process went very well. They returned my call immediately and had the appropriate people come out to view the house and discuss the project and their recommendations. A day later we received an estimate/proposal by email, which they followed up on by phone as I received other bids. Once the job was awarded to them, they started within 48 hours and put in full days starting each day at 7am promptly and wrapped up the job within 7 days. The workman were very courteous and went above and beyond by tending to the little things (like patching siding that was missing from the footprint of the previous deck. The skim coating also went well in that they repaired areas that I didn't point out, but were in need of repair. They also did a great job cleaning up.

They did a good job. I was impressed with how responsive they were to phone calls and emails.

The strength of Sitko is that they are fast and cheap. I was pleased with how responsive they were in that the whole process of from calling to completion was less than one week and the price was right. The issue were really the quality of the work. These guys are not exactly craftsmen they are there to knock out the job quickly. There was some follow-up work that they were responsive to, but it really did not come out the way I wanted in the end. That said, it was not a big enough deal to worry about just some finishing stuff that was a little rough.

The project went according to our expectations and plans. We and our neighbors are very pleased with results.