Crown Construction Inc

unknown

While waiting to close on a house that needed new siding and windows, my husband and I found Crown and stopped in at the business to discuss options and set up an appointment for an estimate. Crown was relatively disorganized since the office manager was out of the office. We left and were contacted by the office manager a few days later to set up an estimate. We scheduled a two hour block, which required us to drive from our home 3.5 hours away from Ithaca and make coordination with our realtor for the house to be open. They were aware that this was a time-consuming affair for us. On the day of the appointment, we were driving to Ithaca and got a phone call 30 minutes before the appointment, when we were just pulling into town. Apparently Crown had overbooked themselves that day and were not going to be able to make the appointment. We were told they would be in contact soon to reschedule. Never received a follow up call. We received two other estimates and ended up hiring one to do the work. We were not impressed with a company who was willing to waste that much of our time and not return phone calls. We thought of the possibility that Crown was too busy. During the latter part of June, they were advertising a sale on new siding and windows. If they were too busy or didn't want to do that job, I would have appreciated the honesty. But being blown off is unacceptable in my opinion.

They were good all around. They have done a couple of jobs for us. We trusted them and we thought the price was fair. The guys who came were very respectful of the property. We called them to do other stuff because of the price. They were very good.

What stood out about this company is because they came right away and they answered my call, none of the other companies came. My husband was the one who was here when they came an he did not say anything bad about them so I guess they are okay.

Excellent. We have used the company several times in the past. Although we feel they are expensive compared to what we might be able to spend, their work is excellent, they are professional, they are dependable and we get the craftsmanship for which we pay. We have called them back for repeat jobs and when conditions warrant, we ask for the same workers as we have had in the past.

Sales person cam and looked over job and gave a rough estmate. Told me there would be a charge for a complete writen estimate, that would be deducted from the bill if they did thejob. The rough estimate was high and I di not like the idea of being charge for an estimate so I did not procede with them.

My experience with them has been good. They are very friendly. When I called them in the fall there was a little lack of communication; but I could say that about both parts. At that time, I was looking for front steps and they gave me another person to do the front steps which was fine but in the mean time my sister was dying so I kind of stop calling them. In the spring, in the end of February I called them and they got back to me. Mr. Jeff the owner came out and sat down with me and we went over the other things. When I initially called them they said the more they did the bigger the discount I would get so then we talked about the kitchen and doing all the bathrooms and paintings. He brought the crew guy out and so far they have been here every day. They are very neat and pick up after themselves. They are very friendly. They tell me the things I need to do and I go do them. Their prices are cheaper than another construction company. They were $1500 cheaper from the other company. Their quality of work seems to be very good. I did have some people from another company they put in my sinks backwards and the stoppers as well. They destroyed the front steps by kicking the ice on it so compared to them these people were wonderful. They are very responsive; when I say something they jump right to it. If I change things in the middle they are okay with it; they go with the flow. I am really happy with them. They were a little late this morning because they had to pick up stuff from the people who get my permit because they had to get permit for the roof. They were here doing their work, staying their time and clean up after themselves; there is never a mess.

The quality of the work and professionalism of the work crew was outstanding...they worked in cold snowy conditions and did not cut corners and cleaned up any mess that they made . The major problem I have with this company is administrative. I had initially obtained 3 estimates and Crown came in the middle at $3465. This was subsequently increased to $4250 which I agreed to and paid $2000 on acceptance (Work on the existing window would be done at $69 per hour plus materials) As the work was about to begin I was informed that it would need to increase by $1869 which I agreed to (esp. since the job was about to begin and I needed this work completed) Once the work was completed on the existing window at what I thought was going to be $69 per hr plus materials I was given a bill which also included $59.75 (plus tax) for materials handling fee (most everything was already there) and $46.62 for mileage from Crown to my house. This appeared to be a hidden fee to get just alittle more out of us than tthe nearly $8000 I was already paying. I wrongly assumed that any other charges than materials costs would come out of the $69 per hour Maybe those in the office could take some professional etiquette lessons from their very competent and professional workers on the job site..and maybe the buyer should always beware of hidden fees.

I had a guy come on Wednesday to give me an estimate for the siding repair work I needed, and since he quoted $180 for the job (he said most likely, assuming it didn't take more than 2 hours), I signed the contract and asked how soon it could be done. He told me sometime within two weeks, but he would try to squeeze me in sooner. The siding guy called me at 8am this morning and asked if he could stop by around 9 or 10 to do the work. I was thrilled! After he worked for a little while, he called me outside to say there was a problem because the spare pieces I had were bent and cracked in several places and that there wasn't enough to do the job. I asked him to just cut off the bad pieces from that and salvage the good pieces from the stuff that fell down and see if there was enough to finish that way. He was able to finish and did an extremely good job with the pieces he had. He was able to get it all done for $180 estimate, which made it even better. He was extremely polite and willing to work with my needs.

They do an excellent job and are true to their contract. They have very decent people working for them and they are expensive, but fair. They are professional and honest; the owner tells me what he thinks.

The job seemed to go well; what we could see of the work as it progressed looked fine and the resulting roof looked great. We were quite satisfied until our kitchen was gutted for purposes of remodeling and we discovered that the roof over the kitchen had been leaking; the rafters and underside of the roof were wet and the sheetrock was punky. The kitchen workmen discovered that the shingles above that point had been lapped the wrong way where they joined a slope over our addition. The point was that, instead of being lapped so that water runs over the edge to the shingle below, the shingles were just put with the edge up, inviting water to run under the shingles onto the roof over the kitchen. For a while, evidently, the roofing cement had prevented serious leaking. But, in time, materials shrink and shift, and we had a small but steady leak. When I phoned Crown, they first told me that our warranty had expired -- the roofing had been done a bit over 5 years previously. However, I insisted that since the shingling was done in a fundamentally wrong way, the warranty didn't apply. If we had had a professional roofer inspect the finished job at the time, this error would have been seen and corrected. As Crown and our kitchen contractor continued to look at the problem, it turned out that not only was the shingling a problem, the old roofing was still on that section of roof -- whereas it had been in the contract to strip it. Unfortunately, we had some haggling to do in order to get things set right. Crown first gave us a huge price; I said it should be free. My wife, who is much more organized with records and receipts, produced contracts and statements that clearly showed the original job was not fulfilled. Eventually, we got a good price on completely re-roofing that section with high quality shingles meant for low-pitch applications. They tore it all off, including the old roofing, repaired damaged wood, and reshingled. If all this had happened without the need for arguing and haggling, I'd rate Crown at the top -- the outcome is good. But, we were almost at the point of having to pay a couple thousand dollars to fix a problem that shouldn't have happened.I find this worrisome. One of the reasons we selected Crown was because it was an established, reputable company -- not because it was the cheapest. One expects more from such a company. The problem originated with the fact that our roof had been done by a sub-contractor, not people in the direct employ of Crown. It's not difficult to understand that under such circumstances, where direct supervision isn't available, things can go wrong. However, I would have preferred if, first, Crown had sent someone trustworthy to confirm that all was done right (shingles lapped upside down is not hard to see if you're a roofing expert); but, at least, we should have been faced with apologies, not denial and haggling, when the error was revealed -- even if revealed out of the warranty period. Ultimately, I don't downgrade my rating of Crown by much. I still believe it's an excellent contractor that can do excellent work. It's just that one does have to check up on them the same as for other, less venerable companies. If you get their full attention and effort, I believe that you'll get an excellent job at a fair price.

They crew was outstanding and the salesman was exceptional. I appreciated that he was willing spend some time just chatting with my mother.

I would give them C or a D and they're very high priced. They came with good recommendations but we were not happy with the results.

They did a good job. Their service is good. Their workers are very competent.

Their quote was about 3 times more expensive than what I got from Lowe's.

They showed up quickly for the estimate. They were punctual.

They did a great job on window installation and their windows are guaranteed for the lifetime of the house. The workers were not easy to work with so I had them redo my windows but wouldn’t hire them for anything else. The receptionist was very good. The reason I wouldn’t hire them for anything else was because they were working on putting up a fan in the bathroom and they were doing a plaster. They put the plaster and threw it down the toilet that plugged up the toilet. So I had to have that fixed and I don’t need that kind of thing. I had the guy measure the window and I wanted a bow window in the front in my living room. The guy ended up getting a window twice as big as what I wanted. They took in the cost and I didn’t have to pay for it but I had a much bigger window. It was kind of mess. Their price was a little on the expensive side but the windows were really good. The quality of window is excellent.

The skylight was installed professionally and the workmanship looks good. We have had quite a bit of rain since the installation and have experienced no physical issues with the skylight window itself. The size of the skylight is just right, and I appreciated that Crown uses Vellux brand -- which is highly rated. We achieved what we wanted -- much more light in a space that previously had no window. However the painting and other room interior work (light socket replacement, framing of the skylight 'tunnel', fan replacement) was not done well and had to be re-done by another member of their staff. On the plus side, Crown did make sure that the work was re-done. I was especially surprised to find out that they had not even used kitchen & bath paint the first time for a bathroom.

It went very well and I give them all A's. I will use them again in the future.

Crown Construction did a good job making a scary little room into a nice closet space. Everything they did was timely and to expectation. They were very professional. A touch expensive, perhaps, but well worth the price for the assurance of a job well done.

They were very cooperative and very confident in their work, but the price point was somewhat high. I had hoped that ceiling insulations would reduce our energy use, but it the insulation was not that effective. I would use this company again in the future.

It went extremely well. The work was well done & the builders were very pleasant & professional.

They do a beautiful job. Their price is a little higher but they are definitely worth it. They cleaned up really nice after the work was done and were really nice people. We would recommend them and this is a very professional company.

The project toke a little longer then they planed but the end result in very nice.

The company owner, John, came to my house and proceeded to tell me what he was going to do in my bathroom. Everything that I wanted was too expensive. Keep in mind this is a very small bathroom there is barely room for a shower, toilet, sink & we were talking about spending more than $11,000. He obviously was pushing the cheapest materials on me(like a cheesy vanity with a FORMICA top) & intended to charge me top dollar. Probably stuff he already had lying around & was trying to get rid of. After we talked about the project for a while John sat down & came up with an estimate. He gave me an estimate of an estimate & it was above $11,000. I don't remember the exact number as this was over a year ago. Then he asked for a $100 deposit for a detailed estimate & a computer drawing (auto-cad it was not), refundable if I accepted the bid. I should have backed out here but I am(was) a sucker. My wife & I later accepted them to do the work. I did all the demo & rubbish removal myself. Then I went & chose the things that I wanted (the toilet, sink faucets etc.) on-line & asked Crown to use those items for the job. I know these items didn't cost more than maybe 2000 dollars because I picked them out but they are good quality products from Kohler and Moen. The shower that they picked out for me, a three piece fiberglass unit, maybe another 300-500 dollars. Of course they were so busy that they scheduled the job to start like 3 months later right around Christmas time. Anyway December comes along and they send one guy to do all the work. This guy was a complete hack. This job that they told me might take about two weeks ended up taking two months and the work is piss poor. I think the guy was high most of the time and he spent a lot of time hanging out with the neighbor who also works for Crown Construction instead of getting any work done. This guy (the foreman), obviously had no plan and limited skills. He had to re-frame part of the shower because of poor planning and then tried to charge me extra to fix his mistake. He wired outlets wrong and I just fixed that myself. That's when I discovered that the outlets weren't anchored solidly in the wall and they were pushed in. The guy actually tried to stick the outlets in place with joint compound I made him fix that (not very well). Then he forgot to wire the mandatory smoke alarm so I had to help him do that. All the while he is saying that none of these mistakes are his fault. IT'S HIS JOB I'M PAYING MORE THAN $11,000 for this crap work. The list goes on and on about this guy. Then there is the plumber who kept coming in and out and complaining about he has other jobs to do. He spent more time on the phone than ever getting anything done. Anyway he sent his nephews or sons or whatever to do the work and when they were done the shower head is way off center and a slide bar they installed keeps falling apart. It was just an endless nightmare I am angry every time I go in the bathroom. Do not hire Crown.