Birkenmeier & Sons Inc

Very well and on schedule.

Never got a bid.

very timely and efficient

unknown

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The workmanship was outstanding. Extremely reliable. When Al - the owner - said he would do something, it was done when he said it would be, you could count on it. Al checked on the job site every day. He took the time to answer your questions and discuss possible changes. He was extremely responsive to all our requests. The job was started when scheduled and finished before schedule. A couple of months after completion we had problems with an exhaust fan, as it turned out, due to a manufacturing defect. Al responded immediately and replaced it with 2 or 3 days. He was the low bidder and his price was very reasonable. I give him my highest recommendation.

In the year 2000, when we decided to gut our old kitchen, re-insulate and dry-wall it, and put in an entirely new set of cabinets and appliances, our choice of contractor was Al Birkenmeier. He and his crew did a fabulous job, and we have never regretted our choice. Since then, Al has done many more jobs for us: installed a custom-made, sliding glass door to close a large opening in the wall of our guest room, added a completely new sunroom off of the kitchen, gutted and rebuilt our master bath, and scraped/restored our deck. In all of these jobs, we have found him to be courteous, reliable, honest, imaginative, and skillful. Every time we’ve had a question, or some item wasn’t working well or needed repair, Al would follow up on our concerns and take care of them immediately. I wish I had more construction projects to launch, as I’ve always enjoyed having Al and his team around. We could not imagine launching another one without him!

Overall the project went very well. With a project this large over this long a period of time there were some hiccups as the project started October 30th and we moved back into the house the end of February. Due to the weather, the final landscaping and concrete drive was not completed until early summer.At the very beginning we had unsuitable soil in the foundation, because it is all clay in St. Louis, Al resolved this issue quickly within just a few days we had a solution, an engineer's letter, and a solid foundation. This was typical of Al, when a problem or a situation which wasn't planned came up, he put on his thinking cap, called in the resources and resolved the problem.Some minor changes to the plans were made for the benefit of the project and these turned out real well such as the children's playroom closet, in lieu of a jog in the walls of the master closet. This was Al's idea, and it turned out very well and was a great use of the space, vs. what we initially intended.Al prides himself in making his work blend in with the existing house, and in our case he again succeeded. The house looks great, our new part flows seamlessly into the old.We expanded our garage from a 2 car to a 3+ size and made all bedrooms have walkin closets. The kitchen was expanded and a sunroom added, these will always be the focal point of our home and are the areas where Al really showed his craftsmanship.From a review standpoint Al and his direct carpenters did very high quality carpentry work, the little touches are very nice. Some of the subs he used were not as good as Al with the subs being pretty good to decent, but not exceptional.In the end we are very pleased with the way it turned out, the plans were great, the schedule was fine, issues when they came up were dealt with in a quick and professional manner, and it was fun. On the extra work we requested Al got the pricing for us, explained the work, revised his numbers when we changed our minds or gave us options and we came to agreement on the extra change orders.I would be remiss if I did not mention how Al always kept us in the loop, if he was running late, I got a call, at the end of the day if something got ahead or behind Al let me know with a call or an email. He responded to my comments immediately which was refreshing to work with someone who "gets on it" right away.Finally after the work was done and a "warranty" concern arose (minor things), Al jumped right on it and fixed it, even though some of the issues were not his fault.I enjoyed the process with Al, he made it enjoyable and fun to realize our dream house. I would recommend him strongly as a fair and highly capable contractor.

My first entry is complete enough.

Job went as smoothly as one could expect for such a big job. Al Birkenmeier is a perfectionist who stayed on top of every detail for almost six months. We never had any issues working through problems that came up, and we are very, very pleased with the finished product. We have not had to call Al back to redo anything.

Because each job was so successful and almost pain free, Birkenmeier & Sons is the only contractor I will ever use to do remodeling and renovation work. The first job, removing a kitchen and putting in all new everything was done ahead of schedule. The workmen and subs were professional and courteous, going so far as to call if they were going to be later than expected on a given day. There was not a single snag. Al was always professional and very easy to work with. He completed the job on budget 5 days ahead of schedule for which I was extremely grateful. The second job went the same way, however the workmen had to deal with the rules of the retirement community and a complicated regulation on use of the elevators and noise. There was never a single complaint from the management or any neighbors. Again the workmen were pleasant and courteous and the work was just the way my mother wanted it (and she had extremely high standards). Al made a very plain apartment into a showpiece with beautiful crown molding and other very nice touches. The third project, the driveway, was probably the most challenging as we had no place to park our cars during construction. Al completed the work speedily with minimal inconvenience to us. The workmen bent over backwards to accomodate our requests and were always polite. We were thrilled with the results. Al was always extremely professional in all of our dealings with him, from start to finish. He was always courteous and provided numerous good ideas for our consideration. I cannot speak more highly of Birkenmeier & Sons. They do quality work in a most professional manner. I highly recommend this company.

They made sure everything was done to perfection. They were very nice and trust worthy. I felt comfortable with them.

Al Birkenmeier was prompt in visiting to view the potential work, and in preparing a bid. The bid was very thorough, and seemed to be at a fair market rate. Al did not start work until all needed materials and appliances were stored in my garage. We agreed on a starting date, and workers were at my house every day until the job was finished. The different sub-contractors were carefully and tightly scheduled to do each piece of work in the correct succession. The total job took 10 weeks (except for the backsplash, but that was because of a mix up with the tile company). The finished kitchen looked great! BUT.....there were several problems: 1) Al used finish carpenters to do the grunt work of removing a tile floor, and tried to charge me for the difference in their hourly rate. 2) Al did not examine carefully enough a wall that was to be removed. The cabinetry was ordered assuming the wall would not be there, so a return air duct had to be moved and Al tried to charge me for it. 3) At some point, a worker decided that they needed to explore my upstairs (NO reason they should have had to go up there) and tracked black stains up the stairs. Al's response was to give me a can of carpet cleaner. I thought he should have agreed to have professional cleaners come in. 4) My granite counter tops had an extra seam, beyond what was stated in the agreement with the counter company. I had picked out several slabs of granite to be used, and there was plenty there to do the job with one seam. My guess is that they wanted to save money by not cutting into another new slab, so they put an extra seam in my counter. Al gave me the approval form to sign the day before the counters were to be installed, so they had to have been fabricated already. I had the option to sign, or wait another month for them to re-fabricate my counter tops. I figured he had known about it ahead of time, and should have let me know earlier. Here's the biggie: 5) The contract stated that all pertinent permits would be pulled, and County inspections would be done, but they were not. I did not ask about it at the time, because I assumed it was being done. I was not home at all times, so I assumed the inspection had taken place when I was not there. About a year after the job was finished, we discovered that the dishwasher and the microwave were on the same circuit - against code. Al did have the sub contractor come in and rewire them. Then recently I had an electrician in to do other, unrelated work, and he found several other code violations, including the fact that the newly installed master circuit breaker panel was not grounded to the water supply, as it was stated in the contract that it would be. I called Al again, and he said he had no records in his files about my job, because it was 5 years old, and that he did not recall who the electrical sub-contractors were. He says that a permit was not required for a minor kitchen remodel, even though a new circuit breaker panel was installed. He did send out an electrician to confirm the code violations, but he said he has no responsibility to repair the problems.