1st American Builders of Chicago, Inc.

After interviewing a few company’s to come and do a gut and repair on my due to a leak from shower in my master bathroom we choose Jim, he seemed like a great guy who was morally sound. And at first everything was great, and we worked well together until the project was “done” there were several issues with things not being properly installed. Both myself and my husband reached out to Jim To see how we could rectify the situation initially Jim and his foreman returned to our home, and we went over all of the things that we were unsatisfied with one of the major problems was the tile installed against the manufacturers recommendation, There were issues with the install of the glass enclosure to our shower, As he refused to hire a glass company, even though my insurance was willing to pay the additional cost. as well as fixtures, not being properly reinstalled. fast-forward a few weeks we ask him to please redo the work, however, as we requested a different set of labors to ensure a better outcome, Jim refused this, and became quite difficult to work with. Things Escalated from there to lawyers. And then at some point both, he and his lawyer refused to return phone calls or emails . In the meantime, my shower is still leaking And post the completion of the project my bathtub is leaking which it was not doing prior to this renovation. I recently reached out again to Jim to see if we could solve things amicably. As this was a 30k project and all I wanted was for things to be done right. He, however, has refused to reach out, to fix things. This has left a bad taste in my mouth and I will be reporting him to the better business bureau. And blasting him on every social media platform because this was a terrible and dishonest way for a business to handle things bare in mind I have given him a year to make things right

Jim was attentive to all our needs and very helpful with working with our insurance company. The work was done professionally with the best materials. When the work was completed the area was cleaned and the church looks like new. Jim stands behind his work and we would gladly use him again.

unknown

I was taking bids for the job and I?d seen a few other contractors within the past few days. They ALL had me wait for them to get back with me, to receive the quote either by email or phone. Some of them hadn't even gotten back to me yet. One of them sent out a non-contractor that couldn?t even get me a quote, but wanted to set up a new appointment to bring an actual contractor with him. Yeah, complete waste of time. I suppose this is the norm for this type of business (especially if they have a lot of business/jobs) but when you're looking to quickly find out the cost of your project (AND want to get the job started within a week) this can be a bit annoying & frustrating. I found 1st ABC on Angie?s List, called them and set up an appointment for the next day. The owner (James Halikas) came out and game me quote right on the spot. Which I REALLY appreciate. The quote he gave was also MUCH better than what I had received from the other contractors,not to mention he didn't suggest tearing my whole house apart (like some of the others) to get the job done. I guess that has to do with the 40 yrs of experience he mentioned. Well, I IMMEDIATELY went with them *ha*. They got started 3 days later on the roof (when the weather was above 40 degrees) the day after that they did the interior in a couple of hours. I was surprised at how quickly they finished, I thought it would take DAYS. The owner/foreman was very responsive & kept me posted on everything, as I was not present while they were working on my home. They were also very neat & clean. There were no scraps or debris left when they were done. As of today the roof is great and we've had a few MAJOR winter rain-storms, and there's no leaking what so ever. The owner also gave me an awesome quote on some MAJOR HVAC work I'm going to have done. I?ve been looking for a reliable contracting/remodeling company for a while. I?ve gone through several, and I?m so glad I found this one. Look forward to hiring them for many more projects.

Their price was very comparable to anyone else. They provided a lot of information before the job was even written up which a lot of the other companies we talked to did not provide as much information. We felt we knew what was going to happen before it happened. This was not our first roof we have ever had done, the first roof on this house, but not the first roof, so we had that to compare it against. They were very prompt with time. The work area was very clean. I think he subcontracted some of the people because on the work permit it had another company's name. They were very friendly and we had no problems with any kind of communication with anything. I would recommend them and if I ever have work done again, I would call them. Their price was pretty much the same as everyone else's, so I can't say it was great. It was what everyone else was quoting. When the guy came he was very friendly

We was very impressed. They came out to begin the project on time. They completed the entire project in one day. They were willing to do some minor add on work for no additional charge and they made sure to clean up after themselves very well. I believe that they are Polish speaking. The main foreman also spoke English, however I do no think anyone else did. I probably would've helped if the others did, but it was a minor issue because we could go through the foreman. They did such an impressive job with our roof that my neighbors decided to go with them as well.

JIM CAME OUT AND WOULD ONLY BID ON THE ROUGH OUT PORTION OF THE JOB-POURING FOUNDATION, DOING STUCCO, GUTTERS, ETC. HE GAVE A ROUGH ESTIMATE OF A PRICE ON THE SPOT AND SEEMED LIKE HE COULD DO A FINE JOB. WE REALLY WANTED TO GO WITH ONE CONTRACTOR FOR THE JOB, AND SO WE WENT IN ANOTHER DIRECTION.