AES Builder & Home Improvements

. Without exception, I found the employees of AES to be conscientious, highly skilled, hard working & responsive to my questions/concerns. Under the leadership Brian Coffman(roofing), Dean Dixon (concrete) & James Vanderwarker (kitchen & dining room renovation) the work was performed in a timely manner & was of excellent quality. Bill Miner, the AES sales rep provided thorough & candid advice on costs, materials & possible structural deficiencies we would discover after demolition of the kitchen & dining room floors. He was pretty much on target with respect to added cost & work required. His suggestions on kitchen upgrades were much appreciated & made a big difference in appearance & my satisfaction. Bill also expedited the start date so that I could move into the house by early October while remaining work continued. He did an excellent job of getting input from company experts regarding approaches to solve the many problems encountered.

Upon communication via email to AES Home, I scheduled a call with TJ to come out to the home and discuss our overall plans for the addition. TJ drew up drawing plans and submitted them back for review within 2 days. I made a minor change and then he updated the plan and then I was ready to hire, but the pricing was an issue since it excluded too many items (carpets, wood floors, tile, permits, fixtures) to be paid by me. The turn around on the design was pretty fast. Company seems great and communication was good, but they are primarily focused on making money (which is understandable in this economic climate) over actual business opportunities. Their prices are very high priced compared to other vendor's I have spoken with and inflexible to concessions. (A contractor doesn't "have" to give concessions or be flexible if they want...we understood that. Some companies are, some are not). When we evaluated that it would be more like $60,000 instead of the budgeted $50,000 for all of the work and taking into consideration 10% on top of the budget that for all unknown and unforeseen problems that always come up with construction work on an old home, we decided to just sell the current home and buy a 6b/2b home instead of trying to modify the current home. Overall, the communication was pretty good and the design was good, but their services run at a very high premium cost. I personally think that this company would be good if you are willing to pay a high premium price for services. Cost breakdown from company: Material $11,920.00 Labor including General, plumbing and electric $27,280.00 Overhead cost $9800.00 (Overhead cost consist of Liability Insurance, Workman?s Compensation Insurance, Fuel cost, Operational cost, and administration cost.)

Mr Bill Minor (who did the estimate) and Dean who did the concrete work were OUTSTANDING. They arrived on time and listened to what I wanted and what I needed. They discussed price and payment options. Mr Dean came to my home and looked at the proposed work and made suggestions on what needed to be done and we discussed the type of sidewalk I needed. I am disabled and needed a new sidewalk that would allow me to get to and from my home to my car and my back yard without difficulty. They did that and then some. We settled on a price and AES worked with me on the time line to do the work. They showed up on time and (in my opinion) Mr Dean and the two young men he had with him (I don't remember their names I am sorry to say) went far beyond what I have dealt with regarding sidewalk contractors in the past. If I had any questions they stopped to explain what they were doing and answered any questions I had professionally and politely. They were diligent in their work arrived and left on the schedule they provided me. Were courteous to a fault and very professional. I felt VERY comfortable with them at my house and the end product was gorgeous! I am VERY happy and have received nothing but compliments from friends and family and other professionals that have come to my home. I HIGHLY recommend AES, Bill Minor, Dean and the other gentlemen (including the gentlemen that applied the stamp design on the concrete). I have other projects I plan for my home and I will be using AES again

I was excited about working with a company with the stated motto, if you're not happy, we're not done. I was disappointed when the work I wanted done would not be considered because it was not a full gut job. The salesman actually stated, when it comes to kitchen and baths, if it is not a full-gut, we do not do the job. I only wanted and needed base kitchen cabinets removed and installed and upgrades in a lower level bath. I did not need a full gut on either project. In my effort to work with AES, I did fax a quote from one of the big box stores on windows to see if AES could or would match their price and do the work. I never received a response from the faxed quotes. I will note, the salesman stated they cannot match the larger company price but fax the quote anyway. It would have been respectful of my time to respond to the fax. The salesman was kind, considerate and patient as we sought another means to finance the project when the first broker discovered his company could not do 203k refinance. We did find and secure financing through another lender, I only regret AES does not consider the needs of the consumer when considering the scope of work it chooses to contract. The rating reflect differant areas. C- overall experience - salesman pleasant, responsive to consumer want- poor F- did not respond to faxed quote D- salesman late for each appointment but always called to inform would be late C- professionalism was a bit lacking when I received calls at work after I requested no calls at work; salesman failed to file phone numbers correctly

I heard about them in a TV commercial. They were excellent. They were very efficient in their computations.

Well that wasn't fair at all. I don?t have anything to complain about and I love to complain. My wife and I had a very old fiberglass shower/tub combination in our bathroom that we wanted to get replaced. We thought of first getting one of those units that just go over what you have and decided to get a price from AES. What they recommended was completely taking out the current unit and replacing it with a porcelain tub, redoing the walls with cement board, and then tiling the shower unit. The price for this ended up being cheaper than an overlay unit. I was not sure how this would turn out. The new tile would have to match the rest of the tile in the bathroom in color as well as pattern. Plus it?s a small bathroom, not much room to work in. They gave me a Monday start date and told me they would be done by that Friday. Monday, right on time they started. Friday they were finished. The job is excellent. My wife and I couldn't be happier with the finished result. The gentleman they had doing the work (I wish I could remember his name) was a pleasure to deal with and completely trustworthy. After the first day my wife didn't even bother staying around the house anymore but simply told him to lock up when he left. At the end of each day he vacuumed and cleaned up everything he was working on. I have noticed a couple of negative comments on Angie's list about AES. The problems seem to be about lack of communication. If you have a problem say something right away. AES will solve it immediately. The fourth day into the job we noticed a problem. We pointed it out and within one hour it was solved to my complete satisfaction. Nobody is perfect nor can they read minds. Just let them know. So how happy am I with the job they did? And keep in mind I don?t recommend people lightly. It usually comes back to bite you. The Executive Director where I work needs some work done at her home. I highly recommend AES. Where I work needs remodeling. I have already called in AES to give me a price. Thanks for a great job.

We had a large project done. Most of it we are very happy with but one part we are not. Therefore I am dividing my review into two parts- A and B. Part A involved taking out carpet and installing engineered wood floors on a concrete slab in the living room, dining room, hallway and 3 bedrooms. We chose an engineered bamboo floating floor that we had seen at Lumber Liquidators. After it was installed we were not happy because with every step the floor makes squeaky and crunchy noises and in places it is bouncy. AES told us that the reason LL sells floors for less is because their floors are cheaply made. If this has been their experience with flooring from LL, why didn't they tell us and suggest we look elsewhere for flooring? Although we chose the flooring, AES is the one that placed the order, picked it up and paid for it. If they knew the place it was being purchased from sold inferior products, I feel we should have been warned and encouraged to look else where. As it is we have a floor we hate and as soon as we are financially able we will probably replace it! Part B consisted of several areas. One wall of our living room was all brick with a raised hearth and a hole which was the fireplace. Unlike most people we hate exposed brick so we had it covered with wall board. We had a large window installed in that wall; we had the hearth covered in tile and had a tile surround and mantle added to the fireplace. That came out beautifully! We had porcelain tile put on the floor in the entrance hall, kitchen, breakfast area and family room. We had a heat mat put under that to keep the tile warm in winter. We had the wall between the kitchen and family room removed. The large built in cabinet and bookshelves which were against that wall in the family room were moved to the opposite side of the room. In the kitchen the wall oven was moved to the opposite wall . Five feet of base cabinets were added and granite countertops were installed. We love it!!! All of Part B is wonderful! As you can see our review is mixed. I would not recommend them for installing wood flooring but for the general remodeling they did an excellent job

His pricing was astronomical. We finally selected a plausible option within about a $20K pricetag. Mind you, I had recently done the same amount of construction for 1/2 of what he was pitching, but thought maybe the extra $10K would be beneficial to spend in terms of getting a better quality product with financing. When he left, I said I would have to see about moving some money around and he was going to draw up a plan and a quote and get back to me the following week. It was weeks before I heard back from him and his message on my voicemail was, "so, yeah, when I left you said you were going to move some money around. I haven't heard from you." I thought that was severely unprofessional for a few reasons: where was my written quote? where was my plan? I guess my first impression about you being a gold digger was correct.

I got estimates from other company and I wasn’t happy with what I got. With AES, they went out of their way to help me and they’re great. The guy who came was very helpful and very respectful. He came with all the information about their company; their license and everything. He was proud of his company and he’s passionate in doing his work. The owner also actually came to see what I needed. Starting from the price range and how much are the materials needed. They were very thorough. I was very impressed with the fact that the owner took time to come. We were then all set to get the work done and I suddenly decided not to put any more money into this house and I don’t want any work done. They didn’t do the work but they kept in touch with me unlike the other companies. A lot of people go to the lowest bidder but the lowest bidder is not necessary. It all depends on the quality and have been great so I referred them to a lot of people.

AES Builders advertises on my favorite radio station. For the year preceding my decision to renovate, I kept tabs on the company through their website and radio ads. They are 'regulars' at the Maryland Home and Garden Show in Timonium, Maryland twice yearly. Last fall, I went to the show with a mission, and that was to engage AES in a conversation regarding my hopes and dreams for my home. When the person who 'mans' the booth for AES is the same one who takes you 'shopping' for your supplies including choices for flooring, cabinets, marble and granite, this is enough to tell you that this company is the one you should list in the top 3. When owner of the company calls you and asks you how things are going, this is enough to tell you that this company is the one you should list in the top 2. When the foreman who manages your work calls you to apprise you of progress and asks for your input, this is enough to tell you that this company is the one you should list as #1.

Everything went really well. We were happy with the product. We had a great experience with them.

They were upright and honest. They did some stuff that was not in the original estimate free of charge. Their price is definitely higher than most other people, but quality of work is worth it. I would use them again.

The company was very quick to respond and provide a date to have an estimator come to my home. They offered evening and weekend time frames. The sales coordinator actually left several messages before I was able to call back to confirm a date. Unfortunately, I was insulted by the inflammed price quoted to me. He later told me that my kitchen flooring install was a smaller job than they normally do. I now understand that they don't do "handyman" jobs, although when I initially contacted the company, I explained what I wanted done and I was never led to believe this was not what they do. It would have been nice to know in the first place and not try to 1......Sell me on a more elaborate remodel or 2...... give me an extremely high price just so it would have been worth their time. I am shocked that he dared to price this job over 3times what other great companies have quoted.

The folks at AES were wonderful. They were very professional but made us feel very comfortable. They arrived when they said they would and finished when they said they would. The windows are beautiful, and my heating bill really did go down. For our next home-improvement job, we definitely will contact them.

big joke. Munson had know Ideas what his subcontractors (which he never uses) did at my mother's house. He showed up to pick up checks

The rooms are beautiful & I cannot wait to show my friends & family.

The first AES person i met was Bill who came to the house and gave me the estimate. He was very helpful, meeting me at Lowe's and giving me some tips to consider for choosing the tub, toilet and sink. He also steered me in the right direction regarding the tile and flooring. I love the ones we installed (really I chose and Ben installed); they look and feel great! Ben was wonderful. He arrived when he said he would, cleaned up at the end of the day, consulted me periodically, and kept me up to date as to what he had planned for the next day. He was patient with my many questions. Ben was creative with the doors to the linen closet, so that the outcome was what I wanted with very reasonably priced supplies. he often made suggestions for items I had not considered. He did a beautiful job with the tile around the tub and planned the placement of the tiles, so that the little shower shelves within the walls are ideally placed. He was great with all of the details, very detail oriented. When I contacted the office, Karen got back to me quickly and was responsive. I have to say that whenever I go into the bathroom it makes me smile! I no longer have those nagging concerns and background worries regarding the old plumbing. It looks absolutely beautiful and is much more functional!

We were completely satisfied with the work done by Steve and Kim and would recommend them to friends and family for "any" job as they are both very talented and skilled craftsmen that were able to perform any task we asked of them. Tim Munson is very lucky to have such great employees.

The salesman, David Hill was extremely informative and in particular was eager to accomadate the unique timelines of the family situation. The porch installation included further diagnosis of structure issues including the roof, and a renewed plan was imediately developed to address both immediate and long term needs of the home. There was excellent teamwork displayed by the respective trade specialists (plumming, electrical, carpentry) timing the repairs of the overall plumming system with the bathroom reconstruction. All of the employees acted not only as workers, but as problemsolvers. I had phone contact during this project as well in a previous work order with the company owner confirming the true credibility of radio advertising.

Our initial contact was with Jeff Harrington. He scoped the work with us and helped us make selections (such as a higher than normal - and more comfortable - vanity). We were somewhat disappointed that they could not start the job for several weeks (they estimated 6 weeks). When they called to start the job, we had relatives coming in and they pushed the start off for a week without any complaint or resistance. Mike and Charles - the team that did the work - arrived each day at the agreed time and worked late (ie, past normal quitting time). The did a first class job. They paid attention to detail and were very professional in their work. They cleaned up the space each day before they left (they were not unduly messy in the first place). They recommended a couple of touches ( such as crown molding) that added to the renovation. They also were able to finish the entire job in four days instead of the five to seven days that had been estimated. But they did not rush the work. We are very happy with the new bathroom (especially the fan).

The overall work that AES did in my home was the very best! Right from the start, the representative was very knowledgeable about the product (windows and door) in which I was inquiring. Next, the crew of men were always on time and very respectful of my home. The office staff was very courteous and communicated information as it was needed. In the end Mr. Munson, the president made sure that I was happy with everything. I would highly recommend this company to anyone! They were absolutely flawless from start to finish! Thank you AES...I am so very happy with my windows and door! Theresa Slater

The salesman from AES was wonderful. He promised that we would be happy or the work would not be considered done. He inspired our confidence. Since we only needed them to provide a counter top plus a little demolishing, a little electrical and some plumbing, plus lots of painting, he told us they would have one guy who worked for them take care of everything for us. This was supposed to be the guy the owner of AES always used to do the work in his own private residence because he was such a perfectionist. We thought that charging us over $10,000 for this work was very high, but we also wanted it done right and for all to go smoothly. We did not want to hire an electrician, plumber, and painter plus someone who could remove our 42" peninsula cabinet. We needed someone to fabricate a dividing beam in place of that peninsula divider that would match existing beams in our kitchen work area to set it off beautifully from what would become an informal dining room that was "open" but separate from the kitchen. So, to simplify and guarantee a great result, we hired AES to do all but install a new floor. They also installed an Amish-built kitchen island. It was a simple kitchen rehab. In our case, using AES was a mistake. It ended up being more stressful and much more costly than hiring several qualified individuals to do the work for us. The "jack-of-all-trades" AES subcontracted to do our project turned out to be suffering with depression. As a result, he did not seem capable of doing nice, clean detail work. While he may have been a perfectionist at one time, not the case this time. I mentioned this to AES and received confirmation that the guy was having some problems but he was a solid worker. Because I did not want to add to his problems, I did not push for him to be replaced. I just wanted his work reviewed. The salesman did come out once, I think, before it was done, but he seemed to see no problems. In hindsight, I should have complained to the owner. I have hired a lot of contractors over the years and have a good idea of what to expect from a professional. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect very good work. Because we allowed AES to keep this man on our project, I had to check his work very carefully throughout the day. I should not have been put in that position. That was what we were paying at least 30% more to AES to do. One night after being away all day, I even had to remove all the caulk and redo it myself around the window above the sink, above the back-splash, as well as around the cook-top where it met the brick. It was so thick and ugly and could be seen from across the room. Thank God it had not set yet! Unfortunately, the speckles of paint he let dry on my vintage black cook-top hood and on the brick above the cook-top cannot be removed. It would have been cheaper to get new cabinets, but I love the "vintage" look and we had decent wood cabinets that I knew would be beautiful painted to match a new Amish island and cabinet we bought. I have painted cabinets before, and it is time-consuming to do it right! This time, I wanted to hire a pro for this task. Their subcontractor seemed to be on the same page with me because he told me he would take our cabinet fronts to his home workshop to prep and spray paint them to avoid drips and to get a smooth finish for the satin paint I had purchased. So, after he re-installed them, I was shocked to see he did not fill in even one little gouge or nick - or even sand the surface smooth - before spray painting! There were drips on several places. He may have roughed it up for paint adherence, but he did nothing extra to enhance the finished look so one could tell a "pro" did it. I do better work than he did for us. One big drip of paint he allowed to dry on a cabinet frame still "jumps out" at me after one year every time I open that cabinet door. I can live with that without a problem, but what bothers me is how the salesman looked at the finished result and thought it was just fine. I wanted him to say they would redo the four lower cabinet doors and sand out that evidence of sloppy painting on the cabinet frame. That would have made me happy, but that was not an option offered to us. In his opinion, the work was done well enough and my husband and I felt pressured to accept his point of view - which we did in the end. However, the truth is we did not think the cabinet paint job was done to professional standards. Please know that I am very happy with the overall "look" I achieved by redesigning our kitchen and choosing the right colors and textures. It looks sooooooo much better than before! So, right after the work was completed, I was so relieved to have it all done that I gave the subcontractor a B out of sympathy when AES surveyed us at the end of the project. But, I had such mixed feelings about AES that I waited almost a year to review this company for Angie's List so I could gain some perspective before sharing my experience with others. The above was written more than a year after completion of this project. The remaining part was re-written after the owner of AES read the entire original review and responded appropriately. I originally gave this company a D for professionalism, based on the subcontractor they assigned to our project for his lack of attention to so many important details and for seriously stepping out of line with a live-in caregiver of ours while we were out of town. However, I have changed that to a B because the owner came out more than a year later - even though we had signed off on the job as being satisfactory - and agreed the work was not to their high standards. He then assigned a very professional worker to bring a few things that bothered me up to par. I have not changed the overall C rating I had assigned, however, because nothing they did was enough to make up for the daily stress I endured while having to do their job of supervising the work being done in our home for almost 2 months. Because they are a larger general contracting company, they do have higher overhead. As a result, their price was very high for the kind of simple rehab work we wanted done in our kitchen. We knew this up-front and still hired them because I wanted someone I could trust overseeing the project. Unfortunately, we did not get this kind of oversight because they trusted the workmanship of their long-time subcontractor so much - and I did not complain loudly enough to overcome their inherent trust in him. I know they have learned from this experience and so have we. For more complex projects, I would hire them again but I would be very prepared to make any concerns I might have heard by upper management, not just a sales rep.

I contacted them for an estimate. The sales person arived within 10 min of the scheduled time. I sat through a 3 hour sales pitch ( wayyyyy too long) The estimate was almost 3 times the other estimates I had gotten. I have no doubt they would do good work I am just not made of money. It was a big project, I had the estimate on. It just was not worth over 3/4 of what I bought my house for ( in 1984)I only submitted this because anjies list asked for one. And I did have experiance with this Co.

The job was botched from day one. They installed shower tile in our kitchen. We had to redo the entire the job. The quality of the work was not good. They sold us a bar sink instead of a regular kitchen sink. They messed up our silestone top. It was just a mess. It was way too expensive and then we had to pay for someone to come do it correctly.

From the time we called for an estimate until the end of the project, everyone was professional and courteous. There were no changes to the cost of the project and the quote was the exact amount we paid with no hidden costs attached. Dave Hill answered all of our questions and walked us through the project step by step. He was very helpful adding cost saving suggestions. Once the job started, the workers, Mike Rafferty and Charles Johnson, who call themselves "Ravens of Ravens," were very nice gentlemen. They reported on time and their work was outstanding. They took pride in their work by going beyond what was expected of them. When the toilet had to be moved and the sewage pipe was above the ground, Mike took it upon himself to build a window bench that would not only cover the pipe but would add needed seating to the new space. It was a pleasant surprise, a beautiful window bench and a brilliant solution to an unsightly problem. Mike also took the initiative to build a shelving unit around the entire storage room in the back of the basement and he rounded our bottom steps so that they curved down into the basement area. Charles built a beautiful corner beverage bar. Their work is exceptional. I also want to acknowledge the personal interest that the owner, Mr. Munson, showed us by stopping by and introducing himself to us and assuring us that the job would be done right. In the future if there are any more projects that need to be done in my home, AES Builders will be the first company I will contact for the job and Mike and Charles will be the workers I request.