Boltinghouse Construction, Inc.

I called at the end of September, then Steve Boltinghouse came out and spent 20 minutes or so reviewing my needed work--rebuilding porch columns and rails and adding a handicapped ramp, looking at a sample picture. That part seemed to go well and was completely cordial. I gave him my phone, email and of course he had street/mailing address. I asked him if he used email and he said yes and gave me his email address. He said he was busy but said he would "do the work in October". I called 2 more times to try to get an estimate. Then about 3 weeks later he apparently called and left a message with estimate info, but for whatever reason, I did not get that phone message. That was it, he moved on to another job with no further notification--just that one phone call from him ever. I called a week later (I didn't want to bug him too much) and found that out. I was understandably a bit upset (I did not say anything nasty, just was pretty flabbergasted at his actions). He then told me he didn't have to work with "unpleasant" people and that he gets "100 quotes a week" so what did I expect. I am in pretty deep need for that handicap ramp for both me and my dog, so then he offered for someone that works with him to get in touch "maybe in 10 days" because he had just had shoulder surgery. Two days ago I sent him an email asking for more info, contact info for that new person, a tentative date. No reply. Today I called him, told him I had sent email, and he said "I never check email" and I said "then why did you give me your email?" (again, not in a nasty way) and he said "I don't need to work with you" and hung up on me. I have never in my life had such a "service" encounter. The fact that this posting has a flag about the phone number says it all. I can't imagine recommending. Now it is nearly November and it will be difficult to get this done before winter.

They were very nice and paid attention to what I said. We haven't gone ahead with the project because he said he couldn't get the work done as soon as I would like it to get done. For other reasons though, we have had to put the project on hold. There were not a lot of details in the quote, it was very general. I needed the quote to include the details we discussed.

Our porch roof was pouring water down through its support posts whenever it rained, so the posts rotted inside and there was rot in the knee walls. On a friend's recommendation, we called Steve Boltinghouse to get a quote for repairs. He came by and looked things over, but we didn't hear back from him. A month later I called to follow up, and he had forgotten about us. He came by again and looked at the porch again, and this time he mailed me a quote, which I accepted. This was sometime in August, and he said that they were very busy, so it would be a while before they could get to it. In October I called him again, and he told me that we were next on the list, and that he was planning to come by the next day to work up a materials list, and would start the day after that. He did. It took 3-1/2 days. Most of the work was done by his associate, but Steve was there about a third of the time. Neither of them talks much; they just quietly do the work. When it was done they packed up, cleaned up, and left. No conversation. Two days later I got the bill in the mail. It was exactly the amount that Steve had quoted. The work is excellent. It was done right, and it looks good. We've gotten compliments from the neighbors about how good it looks. He's not very communicative, so if you want constant updates on how the job is progressing, you'll be frustrated. I know enough about construction so that I could see that he knew what he was doing and had a strong sense of quality. Once I figured out that he wasn't going to say much, I left him alone and he quietly did an excellent job.

I thought he was very professional, knowledgeable and his price was good.