ALEXANDRIA BUILDERS

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The work took longer than expected but the final product was great!

The owner of Alexandria Builders, Jim Steiger, first gave us an estimate in 2009. We had one other estimate from a contractor whose work we found questionable, but Jim's price was very fair and competitive. Because of the historic nature of Cape May, the process of procuring the necessary permits for our project took nearly a year. The estimated price did not change, although we liked the work so much that we ended up adding more things to the list. Once the work was started, they followed through to the end instead of doing part of a job, then disappearing for a time. They worked very cleanly and were extremely polite and unobtrusive. Jim is very particular to every detail, asks questions and is a good listener and communicator. Importantly, he is very willing to discuss the work with BOTH husband and wife, showing respect for everyone's ideas. He also has a lot of good design ideas of his own which he'll share if you WANT them, but does not impose his opinions on anyone. He tries to please the customer and was always accessible, answered calls immediately, and was happy to fine-tune any complaints or extra details, although there was very little to complain about. When I first saw our new deck boards installed, it looked like a work of art. The carpentry was excellent. As the railings and steps went in, the place was transformed from a neighborhood eyesore to a focal point. Neighbors who had previously ignored us began to smile and wave! He connected us with a local craftsman to make our stunning authentic-to-the-period mahogany front door, and we really splurged on that, but in other instances he worked with us to save on costs by preserving or reusing elements that were already in the house. The first bathroom remodeling turned a small, dingy under-the stairs bath into a fresh and usable space by stealing a foot for a bigger tiled shower and adding new compact fixtures. It looked so good that we asked them to do the upstairs bath. Jim's tile work looked great and the frameless glass doors modernized both rooms. One bath had an intact, if somewhat dated, tile floor and they were fine with our decision to keep it and just work from the floor up. We had purchased crown molding to install ourselves but they put it in so much neater and faster than we could have dreamed. In the basement, they cut out the old concrete and repoured new footers to reinforce the center support and prevent any further settling. Last was a sizeable new outside shower, all in low maintenance Azek. In Sea isle City, they took off the old wavy decks and built them again from the ground up, topping them with fiberglass and redoing all the trim boards with Azek. Previously, water would dribble through the old deck and prevent anyone from sitting under it on a rainy day. AND no more rusty nailheads showing through THEIR work. All in all, it was possibly the best experience with a contractor that we've ever had, based on the level of cooperation, reliability and quality of work. I'd certainly use them again...and certainly hope to bring them back in for some of the jobs we thought we'd do ourselves.