CHARLIE ALLEN RESTORATIONS

They raised $11000.

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We met and spoke with Charlie a number of times and were impressed with his responsiveness and frankness. He actually talked us away from some of the more expensive ideas we had because they weren't cost/benefit a value add, all while helping to look at our 1860's house as a whole when making changes. We haven't hired any work yet, but look forward to some big changes in this house's future!

Working with Charlie-Allen Restorations is an entirely different experience than any other I have had. For example: -All aspects of the work to be done are carefully written down and reviewed, line by line -Similarly, all changes are reviewed and signed off, whether proposed by Charlie-Allen Restorations or me -There is always a foreman on the site ensuring everything goes right. Example: I arrived home one day to find the foreman in the middle of berating a worker (someone who presumably does not regularly work for Charlie-Allen Restoration) for having done something that could have potentially damaged our property. -Anything I didn't like was immediately taken care of . If I mentioned that a piece of wallpaper wasn't quite as flush as I would have expected, it was fixed the next day. -There were a few cases where something was good enough for me, but not up to their standards, and they addressed it. For example, I mentioned that the quarter-sawn white oak molding for which we had paid a premium was not as figured as I would have expected. I had decided it was not a big deal, but before I knew it, they had several people evaluating the molding, decided they agreed with me, and ordered new molding. -Sandblasting and repainting the radiators was something I never would have thought of doing, and they came out great. -The preparations they took to ensure our house was not damaged by their work were significantly better than those done by other contractors we have hired. -They decided that they did not have the experience to properly hang the ceiling medallion and recommended someone else. The estimate for the installation was removed from our bill. I really appreciate someone who says someone else should do the work rather than their attempting it and doing a poor job. As for the cost of the restoration, I was prepared to pay more for their work, and I believe we did. There were times when I was surprised at how much they quoted. But I do not know for sure whether another contractor would have charged significantly less, and the above benefits made it worth it. This includes the peace of mind that resulted from my not having to worry about the work. For example, when we had them install the molding to hide the edge of a previously installed ceiling, I knew I did not have to specify what would or would not look appropriate in our house. They just took care of it.

I can't speak highly enough of the firm and its employees. Mark, who manages the projects, does a great job of communication and regularly checking in with the home owner and the carpenters about the progress of the jobs. He's very personable. I never hesitated to call if I had a question or concern. We've had two different carpenters, both of whom were easy to have around the house, and they did very high quality work. Julie, in the office, is helpful, she creates the contracts (very clear and thorough), and manages the billing. Charlie came out as well before the projects started and to help us with decision-making. I can't think of anything that went wrong, which seems impossible with all those different jobs. It think the reason is that if there was ever any work that needed to be improved upon or might have been incomplete, Mark caught it and had the carpenters fix it before we even noticed. They took a long time to bill us once, which is hardly a reason to complain! They definitely pay attention to details in trying to match any structural changes to the style of the house. For example, Mark went to look for particular screws that looked like the old ones when they replaced the window sash (if that's the name for the side boards). They are very meticulous about the quality of work and the cleanliness. They are a little higher priced than some carpenters we have used, but the work they do is excellent, and you don't have to deal with the communication problems and hassles that we've had with other contractors/carpenters.

For the huge investment we made, we expected a much different experience. We would not hire Charlie Allen or his company again. Why did we hire Charlie in the first place? Because he made a promise that he knew (but we did not know) was dicey: he promised to manage the "Pottery Barn" problem we faced if we decided to go ahead with the exterior renovation we were contemplating. That is, once we removed the composite shingles from the exterior of our house (that is, once we "broke it"), we were committed to restoring the exterior of the house, regardless of the cost (that is, we "owned it"). Charlie promised to help manage this risk through an initial investigation phase, at a cost to us of about $11,000. How? Well, during this initial phase of work, his staff would, among other tasks, remove some of the asbestos shingles around the house to see what lay underneath, thereby, Charlie told us, gaining a more accurate understanding of the cost we would face once all of the asbestos shingles were removed. We hired Charlie on the basis of this promise because none of the other contractors whom we interviewed offered any way to manage this risk. Charlie's staff completed the initial design phase and submitted a contract for the full renovation. The contract contained an allowance to replace 10% of the underlying clapboards on our house. We signed. The work began. Within two weeks, our project was $50,000 over budget. Why? Because 90-95% of the clapboards and detail on our house required replacement, not the 10% budgeted. As Charlie admitted later, his staff did not actually spend much of their time during the investigation phase actually investigating the condition of the original clapboards. And the contract estimate of 10% clapboard replacement--as opposed to, say, 50% or 90%? Well, as Charlie told us later, 10% is just his "usual rule of thumb," the percentage he would have included in the contract with OR WITHOUT the initial "investigation." Let me be perfectly clear: despite our having paid Charlie Allen and his staff $11K to help manage the biggest risk to this renovation project, we fell into the very trap that Charlie had promised to help us avoid. I do not have enough space to detail all the ways in which our relationship with Charlie and his staff, especially his office staff, went downhill from there. Suffice it to say that it did. Despite the fact that we disagreed with several thousand dollars in our final bill, we paid EVERY DOLLAR requested. And what are we dealing with now? We continue to have to correct problems resulting from the uneven quality of Charlie's work, and especially from the problematic quality of the work of his roofing and painting subcontractors. I have today posted a glowing review of Premiere Roofing, the contractor whom we called recently to repair yet another problem in a section of roof installed by Charlie Allen's subcontractor. This is after Premier Roofing last year replaced the chimney step flashing badly installed two years previously by Charlie Allen's roofing subcontractor. This comes on the heels of our having last month paid our carpenter to reflash an area on our back porch that was flashed shoddily, allowing some leaking, by Charlie Allen's roofing subcontractor. The carpenter also replaced a patch at the roof rake completed not very solidly three years ago by one of Charlie Allen's staff carpenters (or, perhaps, one of the subcontractor carpenters on our job). Our painter is coming this week to, among other things, repaint, for the THIRD TIME in as many years, sections of the house painted badly by Charlie Allen's painting subcontractor. And, despite having paid our bill in full , Charlie left us with a hazardous water problem on the back porch, a problem designed by his architect and implemented by his roofing subcontractor. We had to correct that problem immediately at a cost of about $1000, not a small amount of money, to be sure, but in the context of the amount of money we had already paid to Charlie Allen's company, he should have taken responsibility for this problem and fixed it at no charge. In all of the unpleasantness of our months-long renovation project with Charlie's company, a project that went off the rails at the very start, Charlie promised me that the project would be like a long unpleasant pregnancy, labor and delivery: after all the unpleasantness was over, we would have a gorgeous "baby" -- our restored period house -- of which we could be quite proud, and the awfulness of the process would recede. What IS true is that we love our house. What IS NOT true is that the unpleasant memories have receded. The bad feelings about our dealings with Charlie, the big promise he made that he knew might not be true, the enormous amount of money we spent with him that he did NOT use to hire quality subcontractors, the ongoing problems that are of his making and that we continue to deal with three years later, the fact that he left us with a dangerous drainage problem that he caused . . . these bad feelings have NOT dissipated. I would not recommend hiring Charlie Allen Restorations for any project.

I found them doing some searches on the web (before I knew about Angie s list!) Their website indicates that they do historical restorations and the testimonials on the site were very good (for whatever that is worth.) I called their office to ask about having my chimney re-pointed and was told that they were booked up very far in advance and got the impression that they only do larger jobs. I would try them again for an estimate if I had a larger job. They were friendly and professional.