Blum Custom Builders & Remodeling

After experiencing all the trials and tribulations from Hurricane Harvey, we are so happy that we found Marvin Blum from Blum Custom Builders & Remodeling to help us with our reconstruction. As others in our area, we lost everything due to a Harvey. We had to deal with being displaced, FEMA, flood insurance, home owner's insurance, remediation removal and the other dealings due to the aftermath of Harvey. We contacted several contractors and were getting very frustrated because of extremely high estimates, a few were not interested, some wanted to charge to show up. We were told of Blum Custom Builders & Remodeling though a friend who is using Marvin for a new home build. Marvin was very responsive, open and extremely easy to work with. His team had full access to our home, so security was never an issue. His foreman, subcontractors and team are quick, thorough, hardworking, easy to work with it and very friendly. Kudos to Omar, Rudy and Augustine who were at our house practically every day. Marvin was extremely patient and flexible as we dealt with the mortgage company's slow release of our funds. Marvin was open to our ideas and allowed us to make some major upgrades. Imagine a sunken 1950's den now leveled with the rest of the house. We are excited that we upgraded from cast iron pipes to pex. That could have been such a problem in the future. He was very direct and honest with upgrade costs. We did not have any surprises. Marvin became a great source for us, as he gave us recommendations for a fence guy, AC guy and other professionals in his arsenal. We stayed within our budget and we even met our move in deadline. Our home now looks so good. We are extremely happy and will recommend him to everyone we meet.

It was a complete nightmare. Don’t be fooled, this is a two man circus and Marvin Blum is the ringmaster. I should have predicted what was to come after he lost my very first payment of 5k. At least on my build, he oftentimes was incompetent, forgetful, lacked attention to detail, had poor customer service, and did not communicate clearly. After a few months, unfortunately, I realized that I was going to have to take a more hands approach to the build. In the end, I personally spent thousands of hours supervising the work being done by the contractors and also doing a lot of the work myself because no one else was going to do it, especially not Marvin. I had to become a junior foreman even though my wife and I had full time jobs. Not a second of my time was discounted by Marvin. To give him a little credit, he did finish the build, FINALLY, a full 7 months after the promised 12 months. But he was also paid fully, unfortunately, even though he cost me thousands of dollars due to his incompetence. The only thing that made the entire process somewhat palatable was Jeff. He is not perfect but seemed to genuinely care. Had it not been for Jeff (and the process of having to litigate and having to find another builder), we would have fired Marvin early in the process and looking back we wish we had. I met with most of all the subs directly and I paid every sub myself. I did the entire accounting. I recommend Todd Rice, Gay & Loudermilk, Probstfeld & Associates, DG Concrete, Alvarado Brothers, Hernandez Framing, Ilgen (make sure your plans are 100% finalized before you get bid, change orders will cost you dearly), Ram Windows, Morrison Supply, Capital Insulation, Capital Audio (stay away from Allan), Bison, Arzola (paint), Guerrero Bros Tile, Blanca Watson (cleaning), Kiva, Diversified Roofing, Apex (if you measure area yourself before ordering), Unico, Chapa (flooring – make sure you get 3rd poly coat in writing and make sure he does punch list before he is paid in full) and Universal Lights. Run away from Bellaire Builder Fees (Marvin tried to get me to pay them even though I did the entire accounting myself), Pegasus, Easy Flow Services, Imperial Tile & Granite (Doug/tile), Earthstone (granite slabs, especially Michelle), Alfredo and his son Luis (trim), Arturo (painter), Benito (concrete), Diego (granite, oh this one was really bad), and of course Marvin Blum. In the end, we just felt that all Marvin cared about was his money and his sign and I never got a cent from the free advertising by the way (sign was up for 31 months on busy Chimney Rock and Huisache). Also, when things got really bad with a particular sub, instead of defending you fully, once they were off your build, Marvin would just hire them on one of his other houses. If I had to do it all over again, I would rather move back to my apartment then to have to Marvin build our house again. Memorable quotes: “Every conversation you have with Jeff is transparent it’s like telling me.” “I’m not jumping just want my money.” “They are all very reputable companies.” Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that this clearly did not apply to all of them. And, my most favorite quote of all “It happens.” Seemed to “happen” a lot on my build. You were forewarned.