K & S Remodeling

It went great. Scott and the guys who work for him were a pleasure to work with. Given the magnitude of all the work we had done, I am amazed that we had very few problems. When we ran into any issues, it always ended up with a brainstorming session with Scott to figure out what could be done to resolve it. We always felt that we were working as a team to get the projects done.

OUR EXPERIENCE: When we decided to have our house re-shingled and have various repairs done, we shopped around and got several estimates. Even though the estimate K&S gave us wasn't the least expensive, we had a personal recommendation and Scott, the owner, seemed to know his stuff when we spoke. While Scott is a lovely man and is great at some things (he caught some serious structural issues which he ameliorated), the overall experience was unsatisfactory. Everyone who worked at our house was polite and courteous, but there were cigarette butts, clips of nails, and other materials left all over our property (we're still finding them), and there was a distinct disregard for gardens and lawn. They constantly ?borrowed? our pails, rakes and shovels, which we then would find among their gear. Again, this wasn?t theft, just sloppiness. I don't think this was at all malicious; rather, I think it was just a lack of understanding about the effect of their actions. We had intended to have the house completed so we could put it on the market last autumn. As it is, we weren't able to put it on the market until all the work was completed by another contractor. I am certain that we paid twice for some of the work that should have been done by Scott for the original price, and we?re having to have work re-done that wasn?t done properly, at our own expense. We signed with Scott in mid/late-August of 2011. I was very clear that we had been through renovation h*** in the past and wanted a reasonable and realistic estimate of how much time it would take, not a pie-in-the-sky estimate to get the job. I explained that I work out-of-state a great deal, but that I would rearrange my schedule to be home for as long as it took ? I just needed to know how long that would be. He said the job would take about two weeks. Knowing how these things go, knowing that we would run into work that we?d need to add on, and expecting he'd run into weather and problems, we figured on a month-and-a-half to two months. Instead, they worked well into December (and only stopped because of the weather), and I lost several important contracts (and therefore a huge chunk of income) as a result. They also increased their speed as I leaned on them to finish, and I have concerns about how well and how thoroughly the work was done. The job is still not completed. A dumpster was moved onto our driveway in August, but no work commenced for weeks. There was some hellacious weather last year, to be sure, but nothing that would have prevented the job from being finished by mid-October, had they started on time, even if they hadn't worked consistently. Scott had other clients that took his time, as well as having to go out of state at one point for a client. I worry about the quality of work done on our house with the most experienced person (and boss) not around for days while the work went on. In some cases, the workers who were here had never done shingling before and were doing so without supervision. By the week before Thanksgiving, with a house full of guests expected and our neighbors complaining bitterly about the horrible mess in and around the dumpster and our house, we asked Scott if could do anything about the eyesore. He and his workers did clean up, sending the dumpster back to the company and clearing the driveway all in a couple of hours (so, why had they left it that way for so long?). They continued to work in fits and starts, finally finishing the shingling in December. Things like hanging the new doors was done far too quickly and not properly ? I had to use strapping and weather stripping to cover huge gaps that actually let in the snow and rain in both doors, and I had to move and reset the latch plates. The kitchen door ? which we use the most ? is not right and can?t be made right because they cut too much off in a slapdash way, and now it?s ruined. We have ordered a new, expensive door. I was told that there was silicone caulking done around all the windows and doors, but that is absolutely not true (I had another contractor check, just to make sure). Again, if Scott just told me he hadn?t had time, we could have figured what that will cost me to have someone else do. Instead, he lied and left the caulking undone. There was also an outdoor faucet, dryer vent, and electrical outlet left sticking out well past the wall and left totally unprotected around the cut ? there was plenty of room for insects and moisture to get in. I temporarily sealed the holes, but had to have someone take care of it more permanently. The paint job is absolutely atrocious, and was left undone (they wanted to continue painting after the temperature was dropping well below 50° at night, but I wouldn't allow it, as that's just throwing good money after bad). The sub-contractor did a terrible job on most of the work: what is painted at all has only one coat, which is streaky. Raw wood was left unpainted, and I had to prime it myself before winter. The windowsills are a mess. I had to unstick every single window; in some cases, the paint that was stuck peeled off when I unstuck the window. A couple of gallons of paint were left outside and allowed to freeze (I was supposed to receive replacement paint, which I still haven't seen and don?t expect to). The whole job had to be redone, at our expense. I had to call the original painter to come back and put my combination storms back up just before last year?s hurricane hit. I was assured he used sealant when he replaced the frames, but I am all but certain he did not. He painted the outside of the new bulkhead, but did not paint the inside (which voids the bulkhead's warranty ? so I needed to paint that, as well). Several of the windows that the painter allegedly re-glazed are falling out, and we hired someone else to redo the work, at great expense to us. Keeping the squirrels out was one of the primary goals of the project, but Scott ? unable to find a strong enough metal gable vent (or so he said), built wooden ones instead, behind which he put some flimsy screening. I was unconvinced about this and, sure enough, a few days later, the wood and screen had been chewed through and we had squirrels in our attic. To his credit, Scott came right back to put hardware cloth over the hole and paint on chili-pepper liquid to keep them away (recommended by someone who gets squirrels out of attics) while we figured out something else. I took less than a half hour to research and call a company that makes commercial-grade aluminum gable vents. Scott installed the vents when they came. My problem with this was that Scott really should have come up with a better solution to begin with. The work that was done on part of the roof had to be further repaired by the roofer we hired this spring. We had originally planned to have Scott do some additional work on the house (renovate an upstairs bathroom, reface cabinets, re-grout a bathroom, replace our roof, replace two more windowsills, fix the tiles that fell in the bathroom as a result of the shingling, etc.), but decided against it, based on our experience last year. He has not even answered several emails from me about getting the name of the paint color used on the trim, nor has he contacted us about repairing damage to the trim of the house caused by his workers, or putting the silicone around the windows and doors. He did contact me several times about the roof job last February ? probably needing the work in the slow season ? but I haven't heard from him at all about the unfinished work since I said we had decided to go with someone else for the roof. Obviously, Scott does not intend to finish or make good on the work he did for us. At this point, I don?t know that I?d want him to. But I feel he should have offered. Unfortunately, I can?t recommend Scott to anyone. He has missed out on a good deal of possible work as a result of how badly our job went and the fact that we can?t recommend him. In this economy, that?s a shame for anyone.

It was supposed to rain in the middle of the project so they protected my roof and finished it the next day. He was excellent and very knowledgeable. He was professional and hard working. I would highly recommend him.

He did exactly what I wanted in the time that he said he was going to finish. He was easy to work with and very knowledgeable. He was hard working and I would highly recommend him.

He was excellent and the windows were great and the quality was good. He did the job quickly and efficiently. He was easy to work with and very hard working. I would highly recommend him.