The Hungry Carpenter LLC

He was very easy to talk to and was willing to work with me on the price. The work was great! I would use him again.

I initially contacted Jim Watson?s company, The Hungry Carpenter in early June. I was looking for someone to repair a section of privacy fencing and rebuild two gates as well as extend my existing deck and replace the cedar decking and railings. The excellent reviews in Angie?s list gave my wife and I a good feeling. Jim returned my call on June 10th and told me he would have one of his employees come by to discuss what I wanted done. On June 12th, Ryan stopped by and we spent about a half hour going over what I wanted. As far as the deck, I asked Ryan to quote the use of wood as well as composite materials. Three days later, which happened to be Father?s Day, Ryan called me in the morning to tell me he was working on the quote, trying to get the best possible pricing on the materials. He also said that I would have the quote soon. Over a week went by and I still did not have the quote so I sent a message to Jim on June 25th. Jim replied that same day and stated that he would call Ryan. I expected to receive the quote soon after that but I did not. On July 9th, I again sent a message to Jim stating that Ryan never called me and I still do not have a quote. I asked Jim if his company was not interested in quoting on my projects. The next day, I received a message from Jim telling me that he would call me personally and ?see to it that we get a quote to you about your projectssee to it that we get a quote to you about your projectssee to it that we get a quote to you about your projectssee to it that we get a quote to you about your projects.? That same day I received a second message from Jim saying that he spoke with Ryan and that he sent the quote to me the previous week and that Ryan would be calling me to see if he had the right e-mail address. Up to this point, a month has passed since first contacting The Hungry Carpenter. Later that day Ryan does call and he tells me that he had my e-mail address spelled wrong and that was why I never received the quote. He also said that he will send it to me by 5:30pm that evening. What was puzzling to me was that if indeed my e-mail address was miss-spelled, the e-mail that was sent would have bounced back to Ryan as being undeliverable, at which point I would have assumed he would have given me a call to verify my address. Regardless of what happened, I thought I would finally have my quote that evening. That evening came and there was no quote in my in-box. I decided to wait several more days to see what would happen. I waited until today, July 20th to write this review and I still have no quote. During the time since speaking to Ryan, I read more of the reviews for The Hungry Carpenter and I discovered that I was not the only one whose quote was sent to a wrong e-mail address. There were approximately 4 or 5 others instances where this excuse was used when people complained about the delay in receiving a quote. Like my wife said, ?I guess The Hungry Carpenter wasn?t very hungry?.

No work, therefore all details in above comments. As of July 16th, I am updating the review. It appears as though when Mr Watson sent the estimate, he omitted a letter in the email address so it never arrived. I still think he should have followed up by phone, but at least he did submit a bid. Therefore, I'm revising my overall grade. I reviewed the bid and it's more than I thought I should spend, but that's on me and not him. I appreciate the fact that he did phone when he read the review I wrote earlier. He's concerned with his reputation and I understand that.

The team completed the work on time, and my front porch looks very nice! They also noticed a small part of the storm door that needed to painted, and took the initiative to paint it without any additional charges. Jim called, stopped by and email me during the entire process, and it was nice to have this level of communication.

Their first bid was for a major repair to the deck which was more than I wanted. They were willing to adjust bid. The price for powerwashing was high but it included the use of a pre-cleaning treatment and cleaning the gutters. Did not provide samples of stain from which to choose, although I was okay with what they used.

Did receive bid for deck repair as well as installing new adjacent deck. prices seemed high so asked for detailed pricing on materials only. Wasn't complicated, just 4 items. emailed twice, did acknowledge email but didn't send pricing details. even told him I wanted to try and give him the job, but to no avail.

We took a tree out and asked if we needed to take the tree stump out, if that would be a problem. Jim said no. We had so many issues with this situation, with lattice issues...we were told that this was our problem. Jim ended up building up over the pier, incorrectly doing work and pouring concrete improperly. We are on a hill, and the wya that the deck was designed was completely improper for our home, which is on a hill. My husband surveyed the area we saw that there was not enough clearance, they built it...and we were right. there was not enough clearance. Beams were built in the dirt. The design just did not work at all and was massively problematic. The solution for the beams was to pour concrete, however that didn't solve anything, in fact made more problems! The inspector came out, and did not pass their work. The second inspector...passed it, but we feel that it wasn't to code. From beginning to end, this was such a problem. They never looked at the contact. Some of the quality was very good...some of it was just not. We had to keep an eye on everything in order to make sure that the work was happening correctly.

Estimates were provided in April, the work began as scheduled in May and was finished by the end of the month. The group cleaned up after themselves as well. Looks nice and is very sturdy. Jim was also good with communication -- he does email as well as phone and that is helpful when you are not always attached to a land phone!

He was rated very high in Angie's List, and he did a very good job.

He was a No-Show - twice !! The first time he said he wrote the apt down on the wrong date. We rescheduled. No-show again. If he wasn't interested in doing my relatively small job, he should have said so at the beginning. I have several "small jobs"'which add up over the months -guess he doesn't care.

We did not move forward with the project as we will be moving.

Jim Watson learned my needs and customer service expectations from the start, never tried project creep techniques (the porch will look new, how about we replace your its concrete floor too?) type stuff. His team was focused, respected the fact they were in ear shot and never cursed or talked nonsense. Team members worked well together, answered all my questions and completed the work in a little over 2 days.

Jim performed just as promised. We had weather issues but Jim was able to complete my job on the schedule we had agreed on and I am very happy with the work. Jim made certain all of the materials were first quality and the clean up of the job site was complete I plan to use Jim for some additional work in the future.

Fantastic. Jim Watson and his crew are terrific. The price was right and the work was done professionally and quickly. Jim is professional and down-to-earth, very easy to work with. I am looking forward to working with him and his crew again on several projects.

Jim was very responsive in making an appointment and providing a bid. The timing worked out that it was winter by the time he opened up to do the work but he and his crew made it on every clear day the weather allowed. He was very professional in providing information and I received a compliment from my neighbor as Jim asked permission to do some minor tree trimming. He also realized he could use my original fence posts which reduced the cost of the job and called to walk me through some additional items they could do on the job to make up for those costs! Jim was attentive, detailed and punctual not to mention the final deck and fence looks great.

We are very happy with the work and the timeliness.

Jim is very professional and responsive. Gave me a bid with a great turn around time and answered my questions. I am deciding not to move forward with the project due to other priorities.

They had a crew 3-4 people working on a given day. It took them about three months to complete the service. The service took longer than expected due to weather issues and getting the approvals from the city. What was in their control was done in a timely fashion. The head of construction team Steve, the owner and the crew were all fantastic to work with.

Never even bothered to return my phone call.

We contacted Jim to give us an estimate to build a deck and two pergolas. He was very quick to respond and met with us to discuss our needs. He took measurements, sketched a drawing and submitted an estimate to us within a few days. We signed the contract and the work commenced. The carpenters were very hard workers and the quality of their work was superior. We couldn't be happier with the results! We got another bid from Jim to stain our new fence and the new deck and pergolas. We had a couple of issues but Jim was quick to come out and make things right. I would definitely call Jim again should we need anything else. It's important to trust your contractor and I know that Jim cares about the quality of his work.

When we met with Jim in March, he said that he could easily have the project completed by May 25th, the date of a baby shower we were hosting. The railings were replaced pretty quickly (we had to the work redone), but then there was a lull. The date passed, it was half way through June, and we were finally on their radar. There were various workmen doing shoddy work at sporatic intervals. We then added a few things to the job that made it take longer, and the Spring weather was rather wet, however, we did not actually have the deck completed until near the end of August. Here are a few other things that we were disappointed with: 1 - The white pergola boards are spotted. No primer was used on the "new" boards and that allows the tannins from the knot holes to bleed through the paint. So now we need to re-prime the holes and repaint our brand new pergola. 2 - Whoever power washed the deck boards got it too close in several areas and gouged them. 3 - So far we have pulled 16 long deck screws out of our grass. Not sure why there are so many screws in my yard. No one has stepped on one, yet ... 4 - A broom was left in the yard. 5 - There are a couple of places where there are paint marks on the driveway. 6 - When the workman was painting the decking, he spoke to us about how the paint didn't flow down the side of the boards and cover them. He was going to have to get another thinner brush or something to get the paint in between the boards. It didn't happen. We have already completed this ourselves. So, we have paid a lot of money to have our deck redone--but had to finish it ourselves, as well as clean up after the crews that were here. It doesn't seem quite right. Jim was very nice, and seemingly tried to stay on top of the project, but there didn't seem to be enough professionalism in the crew he was employing. Maybe he had too many projects going at once. . . ?

Very professional. Gave bid, simply was not the right time to do the extent of work noted for the job.

Completed work in timely manner. Translated my vision of a new deck into a deck plan that was spot on. Took care of permit process and work was well done, with attention to detail. Because bid process was made during peak season, it took a while to get the work scheduled, but the wait was worth it. Great job!

Wow, were we impressed! It's rare enough to find a company that does really good work, and equally hard to find one that provides great customer service, but the Hungry Carpenter gave us that rare combination. Jim Watson was very easy to work with, responded to all of our questions in a timely manner, and gave us the lowest quote of all the contractors that we talked to. He offered some great suggestions, and handled our change requests with no problems. Our crew of Scott & Scott worked hard in the 95+ degree heat, and had a great attitude the entire time. Their attention to detail and high standards ensured that our new deck was beautiful! We will definitely use the Hungry Carpenter for our next project, and recommend them to all of our friends! Matt Deichmann & Sandy Miller

We obtained 3-4 estimates for replacing just the flooring and rebuilding the crumbling dangerous staircase. Several of the companies we contacted wanted to do a complete tear down and rebuild (they were both deck building specialists) and were reluctant to do just a resurface and repair. Jim was very knowledgeable and assured us that the deck did not need to be entirely replaced. We were quite pleased that he was able to start the work fairly quickly...within a month. It took 3-4 days to complete the work. The crew was very pleasant and polite and checked with us on a couple items to make sure about our preferences. There was some trim that also needed to be replaced that wasn't originally planned however the extra cost was minimal and worth the extra expense. The work site was cleaned up and left in a neat and tidy condition. We love our deck and spend a lot of time on it when the weather is nice. It's great to have it back in almost new and safe condition. We are extremely pleased with the work and would not hesitate to recommend Jim and his team to anyone else needing this type of work.