Saw Contracting

After searching for the right contractor for literally years - and having many come to bid only to tell us they were too busy, the job was too difficult, or their price astronomical - we found SAW Contracting through Angies list in July, 2011. In competing with another contractor for the job, Scott Waltenbaugh of SAW Contracting demonstrated a keen interest in taking on this "challenge" (our old house had and still has a lot of piece-meal problems) and won the bid by being competitive in his pricing, being professional and courteous in his demeanor, and gaining our confidence with his obvious knowledge and experience. Reading the extensive review before this, it seems there must be two SAW Contracting companies, for our experience with SAW Contracting has been NOTHING like that reviewer's: our tile is perfectly aligned and flat, as is our engineered floor; our framing is straight and tight; the drywall is smooth and beautiful; the stonework on the foundation is clean and tight and garners many compliments; the assistants were polite, respectful, hardworking and skilled; the communication has been par excellence; the attitude has been friendly, courteous, and professional; and the pay schedule was very appropriate and professional. We did give SAW Contracting a "new construction, total gut job and addition" work and it came out better than we even dreamed it could. We had our own certified electrician friend do our electrical, but Scott showed knowledge in that area, also. Scott had his work schedule, materials and crew organized well; showed consistent and practical planning ahead; organized the job site well; and was extremely efficient with his materials cost and use. We're not sure what happened on the other reviewer's job, but there are always two sides to any story. To us, the last review had a vengeful tone, and we find it curious the reviewer stated he had trouble communicating with other contractors, as well. Our project has taken a long time to complete for many reasons, but over the time SAW Contracting has worked here, we've come to know a young man who is highly skilled, sincere, honorable, and with a fabulous work ethic. Scott is a great communicator and truly enjoys keeping his clients updated daily with what is going on and what his next step will be, and he encourages his clients to give him feedback on his work. He is very easy to get along with, friendly and funny, and takes set-backs in his stride and just tackles problems head-on. An artist as well as a contractor, Scott is full of practical but creative design ideas and advice, and has been tremendously helpful to us in choosing materials and even re-designing our original plans - much improved and little to no extra expense. He would be excellent to consult with before you settle on any project. In fact, we are consulting with him currently on another project we will soon have him do. Scott Waltenbaugh works hard to stay on or below budget, and has actually saved us money. He prefers the client pay for materials directly and never fails to provide receipts promptly; the few times he has had to pick up extra materials, he personally buys them and presents the receipt for reimbursement. What little material may be left over - and it is a small amount, as Scott is very efficient and produces little waste - he has asked us where we would like it stored, not keeping anything for himself as some other contractors might. The actual cost of the job is very, very close to the original bid; the overage we have is due to our materials upgrades (windows, doors and flooring). As work progressed, we and our visitors have been consistently impressed with Scott's great knowledge of materials, techniques and trends in all phases of construction. Scott has built homes in California and Florida and uses his knowledge of earthquake and hurricane codes here (remember the little earthquake we had last fall?...) Even the building inspector commented on the extra support he included in his foundation framing and was impressed with the quality of the rest of his work, stating Scott was one of the best builders he'd seen. His superb skill and craftsmanship is obvious in all the work he has performed, but especially in his finish work. He takes the extra time to put beautiful custom cuts on his woodwork, caulking the smallest joints, carefully taping all painting, cleaning the walls and floors, creatively framing windows and doors, etc. A meticulous, careful and self-demanding perfectionist, he has seen and fixed 'flaws' we had difficulty seeing even when he pointed them out to us! And he stands by his work: he has called numerous times for various reasons to check for water leaks, air drafts, etc. and was willing to come out late if necessary to fix a problem, which, fortunately, there were none (he drives nearly 1.5 hours to get here). Scott takes great pride in his work and genuinely wants his customer to be thoroughly happy with the outcome. On that note, he eagerly jumps in to help wherever he sees someone could use an extra hand - even helping with non-construction tasks at times. His biggest flaw, if you can call it that, is that he spends a great deal of time on small details that really make a difference in the final product but can set his work schedule back. Our project took longer than estimated, but our result is far better than we imagined and we are thrilled with it. Clean-up is good, especially when Scott has his workers with him. Even without extra help, though, Scott doesn't like to leave the customer fighting through construction messes and tools and takes time to put everything away or out of the way. He keeps sawdust swept up, cleans floors and is careful about removing boots or putting down floor covering when working in the home. If you want superior work and can be patient with the progress, we absolutely recommend SAW Contracting. In fact, we've contracted with SAW Contracting for the next phase of our historic home remodel. Should we ever desire to build a new home, SAW Contracting would be our first choice to turn to.

In regards to the renovation of 8 townhouses project and for some background: I came to learn of Scott Waltenbaugh and Saw Contracting through Angie's List. I worked with him for nearly a year and got to know his strengths and weaknesses. As someone in the real estate business who works with multiple contractors, I feel as though I'm in an excellent position to give you a thorough assessment of Scott's and Saw Contracting's abilities and lack thereof. Initially, Scott was very professional, polite, responsive and attentive. The first and second townhouse renovation seemed to go quite smoothly. I had some initial problems with some of his finish work (ie. ceramic tile not straight, crown moulding not mitered properly, etc), but after pointing it out to Scott, he was able to correct those couple of mistakes during the next renovations. In reading some of the other posts about Saw Contracting, I sense that from Scott's responses to the couple of complaints, he is wanting to portray his Company as a large company that is growing rapidly, with estimators, office personnel, etc. I found this to not be the case whatsoever. Scott is essentially a one to two man show. He will sometimes brings some extremely low skilled help when he needs the extra manpower. During my experience, Scott went through several "assistants" . To demonstrate the quality of employees he employs: One assistant contacted me directly suggesting that Scott was "stealing" from me (although I was never able to substantiate that claim). In another situation I learned that one of his employees was breaking into my vacant property at night and using it as a home. In this situation, Scott actually found out about this, forced his employee to apologize to me, but let his employee continue working with him. And yet in another situation, I was able to prove that an assistant of his actually did steal a lot of roofing shingles from me. I found all but one of Scott's assistants to be extremely low skilled, unreliable, unprofessional and dishonest. In addition, other than this one articular employee "Lance," I do not recall any other employee that stayed with him for longer than a few weeks. It was probably the 5th or 6th townhouse renovation that I started sensing "attitude" from Scott. He started to demonstrate a consistent denial of responsibility for certain duties, some disorganization in doing tasks not required, or not doing tasks that were required, and then an obvious effort to purposefully ignore my phone calls, text messages and/or voicemails when prior to this time he showed none of these tendencies. The part that aggravated me most about this what that I specifically stated at the beginning that the reason I wanted to hire him was because I was not happy with the lack of communication and disorganization from my previous Contractor that worked on these townhouses. It seemed to me that Scott (during the last few townhouses) went out of his way to ignore my calls/texts at all costs. To me, this lack of communication would peak whenever we would have a minimal disagreement. To me his approach at times seemed childish and revengeful, all of which seemed to escalate with time. As far as the skills Scott proved to be capable of, I would list them as follows: Painting, Crown Moulding, Baseboards, window installation, Closets & Doors, Fan Installations, Cabinet Installations, Hardwood Floor Installations, Door Hardware, among other small odds and ends. As far as the skills Scott proved to be incapable of: New Construction, stone work, plumbing, electrical, drywall repair, recessed lighting installation, cleanup at the end of each job, planning ahead, organizing a job site, minimizing supply/material costs/purchases, supervising employees, estimating, etc. In regards to my New Construction Project: This is without question where my relationship with Scott and Saw Contracting was a much more costly experience and the one that I strongly urge you to learn from. I hired him to perform the framing work at the New Construction site. Scott was involved minimally, "sub" contracted about 90% of the work to several different contractors who would consistently quit on him and later talk negatively of him to me directly. Then, Scott later showed the audacity to blame me for "the negotiated price being to low" as the reason he could not get good help or deliver a good product. On several instances of trying to explain my position to him, it seemed it could not sink in for him. So I will explain it here the same way I explained it to him. "If you agreed to do a certain job for a certain price, then you have an obligation to get it done in a workmanlike manner at that price. It is unprofessional, unacceptable and borderline criminal to attempt to justify incomplete and/or sub par work as being acceptable as a result of the negotiated price that you agreed on being too low." I truly believe this is where Scott and my relationship went straight down hill. I lost tremendous respect for him in his attempts to justify his poor work in this manner. Ultimately, he performed VERY LITTLE observation of the workers (framers) on site, and then took a substantial chunk of their pay while leaving little to his sub contractors. At the end of the day, as it relates to this project, he has left me with a house that is out of square in many areas, and has cost me thousands to repair drywall after the fact just to get it to a reasonably acceptable level. He has forced me to accept a house that shows obvious evidence of sub par construction. He proved to be extremely unskilled in the New Construction aspect of homes. Several of his work was simply incorrect and was later, essentially mocked and proven to be incorrect by engineers and other professional contractors that followed. During the framing, several areas were not finished, some items were just done improperly, yet he stressed (become extremely aggravated while doing so) that these areas were correct and he defended his work at all costs, even when licensed professionals were saying different and to the naked eye it was obviously incorrect. He consistently failed to return to perform the needed work/reparations to complete and/or to repair what he was already paid for. From my experience, I found all of this to be signs of someone who is not ready to call themselves a professional. Scott gave me the impression prior to giving him this Job that he framed "hundreds" of homes. It was obvious in the end after thousands have been spent in correcting his errors, that he truly did not know what he was doing when it came to New Construction related work. I found scott's warranty of his work to be non-existant, and his obligation to finish or perform duties after he may have monies advanced to him to be extremely unreliable and many times simply ignored. He does not stand by his work. In this respect, I would be hesitant to ever give scott any new construction, total gut jobs and/or addition related work. Further, I would be careful to ensure that if any pay structure is set up for him, it involves significant work up front prior to initial payment and final payment withheld until a professional inspection of the completed work is performed. In summary, if you have a small odd and end that you could use a handyman for, Scott and Saw Contracting is probably a good go to guy for a once or twice situation. If you are looking for a professional, that only offers work he can perform properly, that stands by his work, and that will correct any issue if it ever arises, I would urge you to look elsewhere. In my personal, professional opinion, Saw Contracting is not a professional Contracting Service as Scott portrays it to be. He is a handyman with limited capabilities at best.

The project went very well . In the past , we had dealt with several other contractors , and we understood some of the types of delays and setbacks possible . If you are new to having "strangers" in and out of your house , adjustments in perception need to be made . Plaster may need a day to set up . Furniture needs to be moved . Carpet may need to be removed before starting . Wall mounted portraits and photos need removed and stored . To do this preliminary work ,You may chose to pay your contractor , or you can have others do it . Many things accumulate in bedrooms that are best stored away . You may chose to move and catalog your more treasured items well in advance . Our project was much akin to moving into another home . The difference was that we moved out of a room , redid it , and then moved back in without leaving the same house . If you have done this , you are very prepared for this kind of project . One must consider the amount of time you will need to prepare . Pets will be disoriented by the comings and goings of workmen . Drop cloths and additional mats and mopping will be needed to control tracked dust and dirt , new and old from spreading . SAW used a power vacuum constantly to control dust and dirt.Your visiting family may be scheduled to arrive before the ordered carpeting . SAW was very good at seeing these contingencies and helping us plan for them , suggesting placing to buy carpet , and the pluses and minuses to buying in stock and ordering from factory.

Work was done on duplex I purchased that needed remodeled to get into good rental condition. Original time frame for work was not met, work was done 4-6 weeks after goal time frame. Outside factors contributed to delays and not just the contractor. Original bid was just for labor only, asked for bid including materials. Contractor estimated materials and ended up being off by $3k-$4k. Not a huge issue. Noticed different workers there and appeared as if employee turnover and stability was a problem. Owner Scott, was very nice and easy to communicate with. I liked working with him. Would have preferred to pay funds to business and not to owner's personal name which he requested. Agreed to do so. Contractor was adamant about draws and could not float work or labor for more than a week or two. Quality of finishing work was satisfactory initially. In the 1-2 months following the rehab, I had to have another contractor correct many items. Following the main job, the items that needed corrected were, not properly sealed glass block windows, wrong type of grout used in kitchen floors, dishwasher not installed and sealed correctly, minor electric issues, new toilet installed leaked and caused damage to ceiling below, wooden deck was not correctly secured and/or repaired. A few blemishes in finishing work needed corrected. I had a single contractor who could handle those items himself and preferred to use him rather than having the contractor come back. I needed a contracting company with multiple employees to do the project though and selected SAW Contracting after getting quotes and talking to 2 other companies. Scott beat both in price, was based locally, and made a good first impression so he was hired. I feel he probably underbid and the additional fees paid to correct some of the work and the overages on materials, still were roughly even with higher bids I received. I asked for rental quality work, so I can not accurately recommend him for good residential quality. OVerall I'd consider using Scott again, but would have a more detailed contact and agreement with him, with time restrictions, detailed material and labor figures included. I've done multiple rehab and residential projects and it is not easy to find a good contractor at a good price who works quickly on bigger projects. I've used others and had similar experiences. As long as the right expectations are there, Scott could be a good fit in the right project.

It didn't go at all. He called to cancel his appointment at the exact time we were supposed to meet. To make matters worse this was a time sensitive mattter as I needed the estimate for price neg. in purchasing the home. My husband took off work to be there and our real estate agent rearranged her schedule to let us into the home.

Couldn't tell. They never called me back.

He was prompt and provided a reasonable estimate. They?re still in the running for the project.

So far so good. Work is still in progress. It is taking longer than initially quoted, but Scott is doing a great job and he keeps me updated through out the day on his progress. He is diligent about explaining exactly what is is going to do. He is very reasonably priced. I appreciate that he provides me with the receipts for materials. That way I know exactly what I'm getting. On top of that, he is easy to get along with and I feel comfortable with him working in the house while I'm at my job.

Scott and helper Dexter did a beautiful job. The transformation is remarkable. Scott was courteous and helpful with great attention to detail. His prior experience in the construction industry with new homes and methods and older homes like mine makes all the difference. He had many good suggestions. His forte is carpentry. The woodworking was superb. He also has a good understanding of foundation and structure stresses. I have confidence that his work will last a long time and my home is much more stable because of the work that he has done. I would advise that in electrical matters that an electrician is consulted and/ or do the electrical work. Scott wants very much to please and may attempt work in areas where he is less experienced. He may also suggest not doing certain work because of large electrical undertakings. We worked through the difficulties and he brought in a very reasonable and competant registered electrician to do the work that was necessary. I was most impressed in the quality and cost of his work. He even helped me in other ways by carrying very heavy objects and offering requested advice on other personal projects. Some special considerations: My house was not yet lived in and considering the amount of work, a lot of dust was raised. I might have requested that a filtering device be used with power tools in the house if I had it to do over again. Also, I received Scott's estimate in a timely manner ( one week ahead of another contractor) but actual start time was delayed several times. I understand now that scott's value of quality over quantity and his willingness to accomodate additional work requests on each job can push his schedule later than might be expected. The wait was well worth it. I will definitely ask Scott for help with future home improvements.

Had bids from several companies and Scott's bid was the best for installation of the windows we wanted (Marvin Integrity windows). He was very professional and upfront with his descriptions of work and what he was bidding. Throughout the whole experience we felt like we were dealing with a very honest person. Unlike many contractors he didn't ask for any money upfront except for the money to order the materials which he provided a receipt for. We actually paid the window provider for the windows, his name was not on the check. He checked up with us regularly to let us know that he hadn't forgotten about us during the several week wait for the windows to come in. He was thorough in his explanations of work, friendly, and communicated with us regularly throughout the process. While installing the windows he informed us of a couple of issues (gutters, garage door etc) that we may want to look at dealing with in the future but did not give us any kind of high pressure to use him. He even made some suggestions of a couple of things we could easily do ourselves. We have him in mind for a couple of jobs in the future. We fully anticipate a very positive experience with these as well. It is interesting to note that on one other job we had him bid on we didn't use him but his was also the lowest bid. He actually apologized for the bid he gave us and told us that he knew it was probably higher than we were expecting but he just couldn't do this job for what we expected. (No one else could either). We have to put that one on hold. We actually paid him a little more than his bid because we were pleased with the experience.

Was able to work within our budget, yet complete our projects with beautiful results. Very thorough and professional in discussing options for design, listening to our ideas and offering opinions in a constructive and pleasant manner. Demonstrated great creativity, knowledge and skill in completing the work. The job was completed quickly and the work site was left in good condition upon completion.