J.S. Brown & Co

unknown

unknown

They were excellent. They were very efficient with their work. They communicated about what they were going to do. They did what they said they were going to do. I thought that the price was reasonable. They were all quite personable and good. They are excellent for doing work along the lines of remodeling. I would recommend them to others and I would use them again.

This bathroom is 12x7. I did most of the demolition and they came in and finished up the ceiling and put in everything new.

I was very happy with them. They had a foreman on site but subcontracted all of the work.

It went well and we are largely pleased with the results. There were a couple of challenges but those were more related to the people they bought the products from. Their price was competitive.

We did not use them for the final build out, as we decided to use a different contractor that was less expensive, mainly because I was able to act as the project manager as I worked out of the house and was here at all times. If you are not available during the day, it may be worth the money to pay for the project manager that JS Brown assigns to the project.

We used them because they had redone a bathroom for us before so they were people that we had experience with. They did a good job. It wasn’t their price that made the bathroom so expensive, it was our choices. The TV in the wall, the medicine cabinets and the custom-cut marble were expensive but there was nothing wrong with what they charged. They have a lady that troubleshoots for them and you can call her any time and she’ll show up and discuss what is going on or what is next in the project.

They did very high quality work, but their cost was also very high. I would use them again because of the quality, but I would compare other estimates first due to the high cost.

Overall it went pretty well. There were stressful moments as in any remodel. The portico area received an A+ from us. They have some very talented woodworkers on staff and put a lot of detail into the columns and an overhead arch to match the arch window in our new front door. It turned out BETTER than we expected. Additional lighting was also added. The front door and sidelights were ordered and installed. The basement included overhead canned lighting. We had to find someone else to carpet and paint (inside and out) as they do not provide this service. We found some good people, but it was a bit of a hassle to not have a more turn key arrangement with them. The pros of the project included an exceptional project manager, Chris Cline. He was very conscientious and a wonderful problem solver. Excellent at following up on things. Also the woodworkers who work for JS Brown were outstanding. The cons were the electrical subcontractors were not great. They did mostly industrial work and not residential and created some problems for us. We addressed these with JSB. The other downside was that our contract was not detailed enough and we ended up in negotiation over what we considered petty things, with too many change orders (and cost increases), which was way more stressful than it should have been. For example: We asked for the closets to be built but did not specify that we wanted a rod and a shelf or two inside and were led to believe these things would be additional costs late in the project. Be sure you write everything to the 10th degree on the contract. Do not let them tell you "it will be no problem , we will just do a change order later." For example we had canned lighting installed in the basement and asked for 4 cans to be installed in the kitchen as well along with some very minor other electrical work. They gave us an estimate close to $3000 on a change order the night before the electrician was coming. We asked to have the numbers broken out by kitchen area and portico and they refused to itemize it for us, which we thought was absolutely ridiculous. We ended up agreeing to the portico lighting work for a few hundred and later had our own electrician do all the other work for around $500. Their estimate was out of sight. We had also purchased a very expensive front door unit and asked that they overlay a screen door so another company did not disrupt their fine work on our door. They wanted the home improvement store to install our door, but we feared a mistake might result and no one would accept responsibility. After much back and forth they agreed to install the door as we had discussed all along. Things like this made the project harder than it should have been. Overall the final product was very well done. Most JS Brown employees were a strength, the subcontractors a weakness. The process was stressful at times. We would probably work with them again, but only with a VERY detailed contract and no/minimal change orders.

They redid the tile, cabinets, floor, ceiling, appliances and lighting.

Overall, we are very satisfied with the quality of the final product. We love the room, and it serves its purpose very well. There were a few hiccups along the way during the construction, but we were able to iron out any problems primarily because of the responsiveness of the project coordinator Paul Golich, and the owner Jeff Brown. I got the impression that they really put the client first, and will go to great lengths to make sure every detail is satisfactory, and to make corrections where warranted. The project took quite a bit longer than originally estimated, but we are very happy with the end result.

WE ALSO PAID A $1000 DEPOSIT WHICH, JEFF EXPLAINED, WAS FOR THE "KITCHEN DESIGN" FEE AND WOULD BE APPLIED TO THE FINAL JOB COST; IF, FOR SOME REASON, WE DECIDED NOT TO MOVE AHEAD WE WOULD STILL RETAIN THE ARCHITECTS "DESIGNS". WHEN WE MET TO REVIEW THE PLANS, JEFF TOLD US THAT, AFTER FURTHER INVESTIGATION, THE COST OF THE JOB WOULD ACTUALLY BE $69K! HE SAID THAT HE "MAY" BE ABLE TO GO DOWN TO $65K, BUT HAD "SERIOUS RESERVATIONS" ABOUT DOING THE JOB FOR LESS. HE SAID THE INCREASE WAS DUE TO A CAST IRON PIPE, SMOKE DETECTORS, ETC. ALSO, THERE WAS NOT A KITCHEN REDESIGN, JUST REPLACEMENT. WE WERE SHOCKED AND LEFT. CLEARLY THE INITIAL ESTIMATE WAS NOT THOROUGH. THE COST INCREASED FROM A "CONFIDENT" $55K TO 69K! UPON REQUESTING OUR DEPOSIT BACK (THE FINAL COST EXCEEDED THE CONTRACT'S $60K), JEFF AGAIN CHANGED HIS STORY AND SAID THAT "MAYBE" HE COULD GET DOWN TO $60K. WE ARE APPALLED AT HIS UNETHICAL BUSINESS CONDUCT. WE STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED OUR $1000 DEPOSIT BACK.

They are extremely responsive and it has been a good process.