James L Graves Construction

This was the second time I used Jim for a major renovation and I couldn't have been more pleased. It's been almost a year since the kitchen was completed and I'm even happier with the result now than I was when I first saw the finished product. Jim takes good care of his clients. He makes you feel like you're his only client. He uses craftsmen that take great pride in their work. I don't trust my house to anyone but Jim Graves!

Pretty much everything went smoothly.

I had some problems with one of the carpenters on the job. He was a bit sloppy with protecting my home from dust during the demolition phase, but his carpentry work was excellent, and he also had very good suggestions for accessories that I was buying over the internet. However, he is no longer with the company. Jim wants only the highest possible quality and customer satisfaction, and this young man was not a good fit. The degree of dust during demolition was my only complaint. The job took nearly three weeks, but the result is spectacular. My bathroom is gorgeous and functional. Brian, the other young man who did the bulk of the work, took great pride in his work, and it shows with the result. My bathroom is so well insulated that even without a radiator, the bathroom felt comfortable. The tile specialist, Mauricio, is a true craftsman. I have a very challenging bathroom. It is small, and the tub/shower is under the slope of the roof. The walls were also not completely straight, although Brian rebuilt them on a level. Mauricio did a fabulous job with the floor and wall tiles. I could not be happier. After two months, I noticed that one of the tiles was cracked, and several more looked like they were starting to crack. I called Jim, and he sent Mauricio right away. Luckily, I still had a box of tiles and a bag of grout left over, and Mauricio replaced six tiles. Apparently something happened as the mud was drying that created stress on the tiles, cracking six of them. As usual, Mauricio did a fabulous job, and I am thrilled with the result. My tub is tiled all around and up the slope of the ceiling. Brian built a knee wall at the back of the tub (my original tub was bigger and fit flush to the wall), which is tiled. It's like I have a little alcove at the back of the tub. The tiles are hand-made white tiles, with floral accent tiles and a floral listello. There is white wainscoting on three walls, a new white wall cabinet with crown molding, and a new pedestal sink. I wanted a look in keeping with the age of the house, and Jim designed and built exactly what I was hoping to have.

Where do I begin? Jim and his workers have spent so much time in our house that some of them are beginning to feel like family. We first started working with Jim in the Fall of 2010. We met with a few different contractors to discuss our options in remodeling and reconfiguring our master bathroom and master bedroom and updating our guest bathroom, we also installed hardwood floors in the majority of the house including the stairs and replacing the banisters. Jim was by far the most upfront when it came to our options and the most cost effective way to do the work. We were impressed that Jim has you meet with each of his subcontractors and has you pick out all of your finishes before he provides the estimate so you know exactly how much the project will cost. We had a ton of work done on the house and I think that our bill was less than $400 different from the original estimate and that was due to changes we made along the way. Our master bath went from a tiny little functional bathroom to a beautiful room with a large shower with frameless glass door, double sinks and beautiful tile work. They built me the most beautiful walk-in closet with a custom built window seat its truly amazing! Our guest bathroom is equally stunning. One of the places where Jim excels is his eye for design. My husband and I are not blessed with this talent and Jim wasn't shy in giving his opinion if he believed something else would look better. Case in point, we had picked out a slab of granite for the guest bathroom and Jim called to tell me that he believed it was too busy with the tile we had picked and he had seen the perfect slab at the yard. We trusted Jim's choice and that beautiful piece is the first thing people comment on when they see that bathroom. With the amount of work we had done you can expect some problems but ours were minor and Jim worked hard to make sure everything was done to our satisfaction. We hired Jim and his team again in January 2012 to help with a minor remodel of our basement, this time we didn't bother to talk to anyone else. The work was done quickly and efficiently and we are very happy with the results. We are sure that the work has added to the value of our home and we are so happy that we had it done and if we need anything else in the future we will call Jim.

Every aspect of the job was top quality, especially the tile work, which is better than I have ever seen. The job took longer than we expected, but the finished product was worth waiting for. He did not offer the lowest price, but we we were glad to pay for the professionalism, reliability, responsiveness and quality of the work. I highly recommend him.

We had four estimates for the project and Jim Graves was the most professional and thorough. Jim met with us to discuss the project and submitted several different options for the floor plan. He worked with us until we landed on a floor plan that we liked. Once we selected James L Graves Construction for the project Jim guided us through the very difficult process of picking out tile, sinks, counter tops, faucets ect. On one occasion Jim met with us to help us pick out the tile, vanity and granite counter top. From start to finish the project took about 5 weeks. Tom was our project manager and he did a great job of keeping us informed about what they would be doing each day. All of the people that did the work were professional and they took great care to keep our house as clean as possible during the construction. We were very pleased with the final results. Our new bathroom looks great and we would use James L. Graves Construction again.

Overall extremely pleased with professionalism and workmanship of the company. Due to holidays, start date was somewhat delayed but work after the start all work was completed in a timely and professional manner. I can't say enough good things about the company. The supervisor on the job was professional and was looking out for my best interests. The individual firms that Graves employed to do the work did an excellent job both in the workmanship but also in their professional manners. They arrived prompty and left the place in very good condition after the work day was done. I received several calls from the supervisor to make sure that the workman did show up and accomplish their tasks. It was pleasure working with Mr. Graves, Tom and all the other workers.

The job went very well. The kitchen was completely gutted and new cabinets, countertops, cabinets, floor, backsplash, lights, etc, put in. Jim was meticulous with the job - ensuring everything was done to the highest standards. Would definitely recommend him!

James L. Graves construction was an absolute joy to work with. This was a multi-month process that is almost entirely our fault because we had selected one type of door and the estimate was made with that door in mind. Since this was a big purchase for us and one we would have to live with for many years, we changed door styles and had to have a new estimate drawn up, only to go back to the original plan. Tom, the man who was working with us on the estimate, was so very patient and accommodating throughout our decision making process. We found the estimate to be wonderfully detailed and appreciated that compared to other estimates we had received. We also appreciated that the job was done in a timely manner once all the materials came in. We needed a new door because there was water damage and rotting of the frame and entryway subfloor which had caused some water damage and mold issues in our basement. When it was time to install the door, the workers arrived at the time they said they would, were professional, and did a complete job. They were also very patient and kind to my rather curious 2 and 5 year old children. We initially thought we would paint the interior of the door and stain the exterior of the door. The gentleman who was doing the painting/staining asked if we had thought about staining the interior of the door. We had not and he said to us that we can paint over the stain if we don't like it, but we can't stain the door once it's painted and he would do whatever we wanted. We went ahead and stained the interior door and fell in love with it. The painter himself was impressed with how the fiberglass was taking the stain like real wood. We get many compliments on the door and people are surprised when we tell them that it is not a solid wood door at all. There were some issues with the installation that the workers were able to address. The brick that the base of the door frame rested upon was, apparently, very uneven and was a source of some of our basement troubles. Also, the area of the subflooring that was water damaged was larger than initially expected and there was a colony of ants living in the subfloor under our hardwood floor. The workers took the time to address the ant situation before tackling anything else and addressed all other issues in a satisfactory manner. We also chose a mortise lock set that required precision work to install - a multi-hour process. We are very pleased with the results. After the door and lock set were installed and everything painted, the hardwood floor was set to be repaired. We really believed that there would be no way to match the untouched flooring with new flooring and were content with placing an area rug by the front door to cover up the mismatching. Well, we were VERY impressed with the work done on the floor and no one can tell where the new flooring and old flooring come together. The match was exact - size of the planks, wood type, and stain. The worker even came out on a Saturday to finish the job. We are very pleased with James L. Graves construction and have plans on using them again for some projects we have in mind for the near future. When there was an issue with the door closing tightly and the deadbolt sticking a bit, someone came out to the house within a week (less than that, I think) and made the necessary adjustments. There were no surprises with the estimate with one exception that we felt was fair - the entryway floor damage was more extensive than initially thought, thus more flooring had to be torn up and then replaced (and the ant colony destroyed). The change was a few hundred dollars extra, but not beyond what we had in our heads. The floor is solid now, there are no ants, the basement is dry, and we have a front door that we just love.

Greg was our project manager on this job. He always made me feel like my kitchen was the only job he had going on -- and I know that wasn't the case. He was very personable. He offered ideas and solutions. They say we should trust our instincts when we meet people --- my instincts told me Greg was a very trustworthy and knowledgeable man in the construction business. I am very sorry to learn that Greg had been in an accident within two weeks of finishing my kitchen, in which he lost his thumb. I am praying the doctors were able to work their magic through God's miracles. Greg, please be safe and get healed as quickly as you can. You are such an asset to your business and you are just a very good man.

James L. Graves Construction did a fantastic job on rebuilding my front porch Portico and I will hire his company again to do other major work needed on my house. I am pleased with the results of my Portico and have received numerous compliments about the it.

As always there are hiccups with projects like this. Jim was great, extremely communicative and made sure that no decision was made without first talking with us. We ran into a problem with the granite install where the seam was not close enough for us. The installed tried to fix it and ultimately was going to extend us a discount. I was wavering on whether to accept the discount and Jim simply told me NO, he would not let me settle on this since we would have to look at this every day we live in the house. He made his sub eat the cost and ultimately it was fixed and Jim was completely right. This type of decision says a lot about the pride they take in their work. Jim was also great to deal with on the small things. I am EXTREMELY picky about details. Almost every other day I was sending him a punch list of items I would like addressed. Unlike so many other contractors, not once did he try to convince me I was being too picky. He simply fixed the things I requested and moved on. Jim is extremely knowledgeable and has a great team working for him. My only concern is that he will get too busy not be able to keep up the pace :-)

They let me know that they could net get out until January. I needed this done now. I could not wait this long, so I had to call other companies.

s My overall experience with Graves construction was very satisfactoy. They responded to my call for an estimate very quickly and the quoted price was very fair. They repaired the damaged part of the roof, installed new flashing, and replaced all the water damaged drywall inside. The workmen were very courteous and professional and cleaned up thoroughly after the repair. I would definitely recommend them to anyone needing any exterior or interior repair to their home.

Upon pulling into the garage, I noticed water dripping onto the hood of my car from the garage ceiling. Luckily, I backed out and parked in the driveway because by the next morning that section of ceiling fell onto what would have been my car. Since the roof is only six years old, we suspected tree branch damage. I immediately did an Angie's List search and found James L. Graves Construction. Jim Graves came over that very day. He was professional, knowledgeable, and sympathetic with our "sky is falling" panic. Intrepidly he went into the dark crawl space over the garage ceiling and surprised us by finding not one but two holes, one on each side of the roof ridge. Since more bad weather was predicted he sent someone over the very next day to repair the roof. Would that it would be so quick and simple. The day after the repair, a new section of ceiling fell. Another call to Jim Graves brought him right over to look for a possible missed leak. No new leak was found, even after saturating the roof with a garden hose. The patches held. Just in case, we waited through a few gully washers: no new leaks - bone dry! Apparently the second ceiling fall was due to heavy, accumulated water that had soaked into the insulation and wall board causing that portion of ceiling to finally give way. The next phase was ceiling repair. Scaffolding was set up to reach 12 feet over our embarrassingly cluttered garage floor, tarps covering the lawn tractor and other items. (We didn't have to clean out the garage in bad weather to get the work done.) The repair took three days total and looks as good as new. We were very pleased.

The remodeling process went very well. There were some surprises along the way that were dealt with quickly. I discovered that the water in my downstairs shower was not draining through the drain in the floor because it was plugged, but into two of the shower walls, requiring them to be replaced. In the upstairs bathroom, I discovered that there was no floor but that the tile was set on top of something like concrete and that there was no floor under the tub. The tub was simply resting on 2x4s. Now the bathrooms not only look great but also are functioning properly with no hidden surprises.

He seems like he would be really great to work with but I ended up using another company.

From the first day that my husband and I met with Jim Graves, we realized that this man really knew houses, including old houses. He inspected everything including the outside and the basement plumbing before deciding on what to do for the bathroom. We all decided together a plan for the bathroom. We quickly established that Jim really knows the people who work on his crews and he doesn't contract out. We then worked closely with the people in his office (Nichole was great) in helping to pick everything out - cabinetry, plumbing, etc. That took a lot of work on our part but after that was done - we had a very accurate estimate which included every possible detail you could ever imagine (and came in well under the price of our other estimates). The crew showed up bright and early the first day led by Greg who was fabulous. Jim came with them the first morning to make sure everything got started correctly. The crew covered every possible floor space and furniture with plastic and paper taped down; they also moved anything breakable out of the way as well as much of the furniture before it was covered. All of the demolition went smoothly, the new wall went up and all the drywall was expertly done with some of the smoothest work I've ever seen. From there, crew members would come and do their part when it was time (Santiago and the painting, Gary and the plumbing, etc). Greg kept contact with me nearly every day and always called to double check on things he wasn't sure about. There were a few glitches along the way through no fault of the crew. In particular, the granite vanity top we had on hold with a company Jim usually doesn't use called at the last minute and said there was a problem with the piece. However, Jim was right on it. He found another slab with the guy he normally works with and went down there personally to take pictures of it and e-mailed them to me. When the first cut broke, Jim went back down there and sent pictures of another piece and was on the phone with me constantly. Anyway - it turned out BEAUTIFULLY! The last things to be done were the installation of the shower doors and the glass in the niche and this was done with perfection. There were a couple of unforeseen delays - earthquake, hurricane, lack of power for days, but we all perservered. Jim came by in the end to check on things and the guys came back to do a bit of touch up. Greg actually put on an additional coat of paint instead of just touching up little bits. We now have a beautiful modern (and much larger) bathroom that's a real pleasure to use. As an additional note, Greg noticed that our front porch (made of Timbertech) was starting to cave in at the front edges and the support of the roof was beginning to pull away. This was an amazing catch because we could have lost not only the porch but that part of the roof (the original contractor did not give the porch the proper support). Jim had one of his crew come by and put on temporary supports for the roof until we can have all of it repaired. I'll be using Jim and his crew again (starting with the porch) and recommending them to everyone. They're professional, talented, and extremely knowledgeable and are very easy to deal with - I would trust them with anything in my home.

I interviewed 6 contractors for this job, 4 from AL. Jim Graves impressed me from our first meeting as extremely knowledgeable and professional, and it was an easy decision to go with his company. I was not disappointed. 95% of the job was completed in less than 2 weeks, very important because that was how long my wife was away. She returned to her beautiful new kitchen and was EXTREMELY pleased!! The finishing touches were completed in a reasonable time shortly thereafter. Every member of his team - carpenters, electrician, plumbers, and flooring installers - was not just very good at his job, but courteous, respectful of my family and property, accommodating to our questions and requests, and innovative in finding ways to make the final product exactly what we wanted. Supervision and oversight were excellent, and the quality of work near flawless. I even saw Jim instruct his guys to make repairs to sloppy work done by previous contractors, simply because it was in the same area as the work his team had done and he wanted to ensure that every aspect of the finished product met his exacting standards. The final bill did not differ from his estimate, even though there were several aspects of the job that were probably more complicated and costly than he had planned for. I would recommend him highly for any kind of remodeling project, large or small, and he will be my only call the next time I need work done on my house. Thanks Jim, Bonnie, Jason, Tom, and all the members of your team for such a great experience. We LOVE everything that you guys did!!!! Art and Sara Gibb

Excellent services --start to finish. I am so glad that I found James L Graves Construction on Angie's List as he and his team made it a very pleasant experience to re-design my Kitchen. Mr. Graves helped me plan out the redesign and provided great suggestions on how to layout the kitchen. The kitchen was very outdated as the house was built in 1956. The entire kitchen was gutted and re-built from the floor up...Jim helped me select colors for floor tile, cabinets and appliances. As I said, he gave freely of his time and spend a several hours helping me come up with re-design options for the kitchen. In the end, he provided me two design options allowing me to select one the worked best for me. Mr. Graves was very attentive and responsive throughout the entire project. He provided suggestions for lighting and granite countertops. I have a beautiful kitchen and I am very happy! Highly recommend James L Graves Construction and will use his company again for my home improvement projects. Jim and his crew are awesome!!!!!!!

Jim came out to do the initial visit and was obviously very knowledgeable, and he clearly understood our goals and requirements. He and his staff provided us with the information about the choices we had to make, and once we had made them, they submitted a very detailed estimate, with every expense (including profit) as a separate line item. The cost was extremely reasonable. We were in a pretty big hurry, and Jim worked us into his schedule as best he could. The first pleasant surprise was that they were actually able to move up the promised start date, due to circumstances with some other projects they were working on. Once underway, the project went very quickly and smoothly. They were very careful about moving the existing appliances out of the room and storing them securely, and they built a complete dustwall to protect the rest of our house. The job was overseen by Greg, and the craftsmen who spent the most time at our house during the project were Tom and Brian. These three gentlemen could not possibly have been kinder, more accommodating, or more pleasant to have around. Really, that sentence is true about everyone who participated in the work, but these were the folks we had the most contact with, and by the end of the project, we felt like they were friends. The kitchen came out beautifully. All the work--ceramic tile, drywall, painting, cabinet installation, counter tops, everything was done skillfully and with real professional pride. After reading the Angie's list reviews for this company, we expected this--and we feel that we completely got it. A great company to do business with, and terrific people to trust your home to.

We engaged Jim Graves for a remodeling of the original bathroom but with the conversion from a tub to a walk-in shower. Jim came out and we worked up a plan that was budget-based. Jim uses transparent estimates that listed every cost, which helped me see where exactly my money went. This is my first experience with contractors and I can't see how any of them could bill without something like this--it was very convenient. Once we approved, the next trick was getting the work scheduled, as Jim's company is very, very busy. Jim estimated a week for the main work and then an additional period for the custom glass (which he estimated at one add'l week to ten days), since this cannot be built until the exact dimensions of the resulting shower tile work are known. This took an additional two weeks but we were at that point tied to the schedule of the sub-contractor. There was about another week to finish up the final punch list and for me to do the work that I declared was my responsibility (e.g., paint, door hardware). The cost estimate was very good, and we only paid a bit extra for some additional work that we added on at the end. Jim's crew was exceptionally well mannered and very technically proficient. His "crew chief," named Greg, was simply superb--very responsive and very patient in explaining what was going on. Jim, as the company owner, receded into the background and we did not deal with him after the work started; I learned later this is not his style, but that instead he was dealing with some personal matters and with normal summertime scheduling factors like vacations. He later took the time and energy to explain this to me and express his regrets, which I greatly appreciated. We are very happy with our new bathroom. I would definitely recommend this company based on the accuracy of their estimates, the quality of their work, and the expertise and integrity of their on-site crew.

Jim is very detailed oriented. He really backs up his work. He wants it to be right and if it is not, he takes care of it. I can't say enough good things about him.

We are very satisfied with their tendentious. They've been very professional and attentive to our need.

It didn't go well. It certainly didn't go very far -- I never heard anything back from the company. Update: after posting this review on Angie's List, I received an explanation and sincere apology from the President of the company. They had received my note, but it fell between the cracks before I could be contacted to arrange an estimate. I accept the explanation and apology and am thus revising my original report.