
H-Towne & Around Remodelers, Inc.
About us
H-Towne Remodelers is a full service remodeling company in Houston, TX. We specialize in all types of remodeling, with expertise in room additions, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, and custom patios and porches. No project is too big or too small! If you're looking for superb Houston remodelers, we've got you covered! We provide free estimates and design work for our customers. Our prices are competitive and we will bend over backwards to make the project a reality for you. As a general contractor, although most of our people are sub-contractors they are real tradesman that have worked with us for many years. Unlike other contracting companies we do not bid out your job to the lowest bidder, we continue to use our same people job after job. This translates into a worry free project for you and us. The owner, J.R Smith is the recipient of two NARI Contractor Of The Year awards while he was contracted out to a well known remodeling company in Houston. These projects competed against many other beautiful projects in the area. Unlike some of the other contractors out there who refuse to break out the job costs on a project, H-Towne Remodelers does not use "smoke and mirrors" with our estimates. We detail the job in full and attach a price to each item. This transparency wins us many bids because we truly put the cards on the table. H-Towne Remodelers has no desire to be the largest remodeling company around. We believe in quality not quantity. Although our business is growing nicely, we are proud to grow the right way, happily putting our name on every job. Many "production" remodelers pride themselves on how many jobs they can blow through, we like to enjoy the process of transforming our clients home with attention to detail. Having said that, we have very little dead time on our jobs, we stay on top of them daily. We normally accomplish around one thousand dollars of production daily on jobs under $30,000. That amount normally increases to closer to $1500.00 per day of production on bigger jobs. During the job we are always reachable, our sales staff have smart phones so they can be reached anytime either through phone calls, emails or text messages. We also like to keep our customers informed during the projects by those methods also. You can check us out at H-Towneremodelers.com we would love the opportunity to look at your project.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Room Additions, Bath & Kitchen Remodeling, Carports, Patio Covers, Window & Siding Replacement.
Services we don't offer
Small Handyman
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Warranties
Yes
Senior Discount
5%
Accepted Payment Methods
- Financing Available
- Check
- 36
Assorted photos uploaded by H-Towne & Around Remodelers, Inc.
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Remodeling - Kitchen & Bathroom Project
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Remodeling - General Project
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Remodeling - Kitchen & Bathroom Project
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Remodeling - General Project
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Filter reviews by service
Having work done like this encourages me to do more work around the house, there is absolutely no hassle with them, they do a clean, flawless job. I have the utmost confidence that any job I need done, no company will be able to do it like H-Towne.
First, let me say that dealing with Andy, who came out to review the scope of work and who was my contact point, was very nice and very professional. I accepted their bid pricing and they provided contract documents to me. Now, I'm sure that most people don't read these documents and just sign them, but I am in the business of hiring commercial contractors, architects, engineers, etc., and I read these type of contracts all the time. Typically, a vendor will provide a very one-sided document because they know that a certain percentage of the people will just sign without reading. After a number of years of having an attorney review these documents for me, I have learned what to look for and how to make reasonable changes so unless I come across unfamiliar language, will just handle it myself.
This was the case with H-Towne. I was given the typical one-sided documents, reviewed them and made appropriate and reasonable changes. Let me review for you some of the more egregious items:
1) "Owner agrees to secure or remove jewelry, cash or valuables during the construction process. H-Towne Remodelers LLC is not responsible for missing or misplaced valuables." I completely understand why they would not want to be responsible, but it is impossible to remove or secure all valuables from a home in which you are living. I have insurance in case any items were missing or stolen. But if my insurance company was able to prove that an H-Towne employee or representative was responsible, they would be able to subrogate against them. How can they be expected to be completely released if they are found to be responsible??
2) "I also agree to waive my right to the thirty day statutory retain-age." For those of you that aren't aware, let me explain the significance of this statement. In the State of Texas, if you hire someone to work on your house (or any real estate), any of the suppliers of material or subcontractors that work on the house have 30 days after the job is complete to file a lien on YOUR property if the contractor does not pay them for the materials or work. To protect yourself, state law says that if you "retain" (or withhold) 10% of each and every draw (payment) to the contractor, until 30 days after the job is complete, then the unpaid supplier or subcontractor can only look to the pool of retainage funds to get paid and cannot file a valid lien. This protects homeowners from having contractors run off with their money and not paying suppliers or subcontractors. When dealing with construction projects, I am not aware of any situation where it would not be prudent to withhold 10% from every payment until 30 days after the job is complete.
3) "It is understood that surplus, or extra material supplied by contractor belongs to contractor and is to be returned for credit or moved to another project." Moved to another project??? So they can overbuy on my job, charge me, and take it to another project? I added language that said "...with credit given to Owner."
4) "Therefore, Owners will hold H-Towne Remodelers LLC and all affiliates harmless from all costs associated with mold remediation from any past, present or future moisture problems." I completely understand why they want this. However, I wanted to add "...unless such moisture problems were caused by Contractor." Since they had the word "future" in there, it seems reasonable to me.
I discussed some of these changes with Andy before I went through the effort of marking up the document. He indicated to me that, although he had not had anyone want changes, he didn't see a problem with what I was requesting. After some delays with e-mail issues, he heard back from his boss, J.R. Andy apologized and said that J.R. was advised by his attorney that it was easier not to make any changes to the documents at all, and that they would have to decline the job.
I respect his decision to decline the job because it's his business, but I also feel that I need to let everyone know why they declined the job. Everyone needs to make their own decisions, but it needs to be an informed decision. If a contractor (i) will not take responsibility for their actions, (ii) wants a homeowner to waive their statutory rights, and (iii) wants the right to charge me for materials that they can take elsewhere, it's time to look for a new contractor.
BOTTOM LINE: Read your contracts! Know your rights! Not doing so can get you into trouble.
"Thanks for your business [member name removed]. I am glad we were able to add another happy customer to our book. Please feel free to call us again in the future."
The project completed by H-Towne was major to say the least. H-Towne's motto is "Simply put, integrity first" and I can honestly say this is absolutely the truth and is embodied in everything they do.
From the start JR Smith, owner of H-Towne met with us at our convenience after business hours which is what worked with our hectic schedules. This immediately set H-Towne apart, as in the search for a contractor I found it rare that any would meet outside 8-5 Monday through Friday. On our initial meeting, JR was extremely knowledgeable and provided great insight and ideas on our planned project. He was courteous and extremely professional, following up a day or two later with a detailed bid and design ideas.
After making the obvious decision to go with H-Towne, the project started as scheduled. I cannot understate how big of a project it is and how many things are involved with adding-on to a house. JR and his team handled every step with professionalism and always took the high-road when critical decisions needed to be made on how to proceed. In construction, rarely does everything go exactly as planned - there are always unforseen issues, especially with older homes. Several times during construction unforseen issues arose, which JR handled usually at their expense, without complaint. The entire construction project went on with ups and downs including issues with the city of Houston and natural gas permitting. All of these issues that were out of H-Townes' control were handled with professionalism, minimizing delays and keeping the project on track. Every unforseen issue was dealt with quickly and fairly without any arguments or bickering over costs. For example, JR realized the proper way to complete the roof tie-in for the paito cover would be to add a massive unforseen section of new roof to the back of the house, and made the decision unequivocally as it was the best way to do it. I can definitively say most contractors would not have taken the high-road or would have passed on this unforseen cost to the customer. In another instance, JR had a masonry sub that did a fairly decent, but not perfect job of applying stone veneer to the back of the house. Despite us not pushing the issue and being mostly satisfied (but not 100%) JR took it upon himself, without even telling us, to redo the entire masonry job on his own dime.
Throughout the job, JR was available via phone or text message almost 24/7, and we maintained a very good on-going dialogue. JR was on the job daily, and usually for at least several hours, when anything important was taking place.
I can definitely say H-Towne promised not to leave the job until we were 100% satisfied and they honored that commitment to the fullest extent. In fairness I think this says a lot because I'm probably one of the more difficult people to please in the world.
So, I contacted H-Towne Remodelers and JR (The Owner) came out to meet with me at the House to see what I needed to do and discuss details.
I can honestly say that this Remodel was the BEST remodeling experience I have ever had.
JR, is so professional, he cared about the needs of my Family and was very flexible with me. Had great creative ideas, helped me figure out what was best for my situation. His crew is very reliable and dependable. Completed tasks quickly and timely. JR was on top of all the tasks and provided me with timely updates.
He is very honest and cares about his customers, he gives his all in the job he accepts and the turn out is not just GREAT, but EXTRA ORDINARY.
If you are looking for an Honest, Reliable, creative, contractor, who cares about your time-line and your needs and gives you the BEST result, then give JR a call, I will constantly use H-Towne and Around Remodelers for any work I need done in my house again.
Russia
JR showed up on time and was very friendly and approachable from the start. I showed him what I wanted to have done and JR said he could certainly do what I wanted but made a couple of excellent suggestions that would improve my original plan at little to no extra cost.
I sent several e-mails to 2 of the contractors who quoted for the job before I made a selection, asking questions about time-frames, extra costs etc. JR ALWAYS replied promptly and with complete and easily understood answers.
I told JR that he had been selected and set up a meeting with him. He arrived with his superintendent, Israel, who was on site for a lot of the work that was done. Israel is a really nice guy, very keen to make sure that you are happy with each part of the job as it it progressing.
It took about 4 weeks from start to finish, and it only took that long because I held up the process in taking time to select the granite and buy a kitchen sink (obviously they couldn't buy and cut the granite until they knew how they needed to cut it for the sink to go in). If everything had been ready on my end, I think they would have been done within 2 weeks.
They bought us an excellent selection of granite samples to choose from (given that we were only interested in the cheapest, level 1 granite, they bought us a good 30 sample selection). They also made sure to choose a granite yard near our house, this meant that we could go out and look at the granite we wanted in full sheet size, which made a huge difference.
Anytime I had any questions at all I would mostly text and occasionally e-mail JR. He would always reply promptly, mostly within a minute or so (although obviously if he was with another client he would reply once he got free).
He was VERY honest and straightforward with pricing. there were a few small things that we decided wanted to do after he had quoted the price (like replace the shelf in the kitchen with granite to match the countertops for example) and none of these requests were any problem at all, he was always more than happy to accommodate and at little to no extra cost.
Overall I would use JR's services again in a heartbeat. He was VERY competitive in his initial quote, VERY flexible when extra things came up, and very communicative also. In addition the guys he brings in to do the work are really good. We previously had 1/4 round between the bottom of our cabinets and the floor to cover the "good enough" tile job the house builders did when they did the initial install. The tile work that JR's guys did was detailed enough that we just didn't' need it afterwards. They even made sure to check with us if we wanted the grout color to match or contrast with the tile. We said match and they took it from there, matching it superbly.
Excellent service that I have already recommended to 3 work colleagues.
The new roofline structure was built outside before the roof was cut open. Once the roof was cut open, the framing resumed within the new addition. It wasn?t until absolutely necessary that the new doorway was cut through the attic into our living area. The crew worked for three weeks before there was any disruption inside. JR?s contractors worked with high standards and they were clean, polite and committed. His framer worked miracles building the new catwalk to join the existing catwalk in a day?s time. At all times, the hardwood floors and furniture were properly protected.
During the eight week project, JR was conscientious of keeping the mess to a minimal with two young boys and an obsessive clean-freak wife. Near the project end, we had a few quality issues due to unfortunate circumstances but JR was exceedingly prompt to get a new contractor assigned and ensured the job was finished with top quality results. JR even pointed out some items that he felt needed touching up because he was not happy with the results and we had not noticed before he mentioned them. JR was extremely committed throughout the project, constantly provided schedule updates and made frequent checks on the job's progress.
We were given a quote but to NO fault of H.Towne & Around Remodelers, the end cost was exceeded by $7K. JR was very understanding as we decided in mid-project to add soundproofing and mirrors to the gym and built-ins to the craftroom, as opposed to installing IKEA furniture, which was the reason for the price increase.
Throughout the whole project, JR was accommodating with suggestions, ready with recommendations and understood if some of his ideas were not exactly what we had in mind. His enthusiasm did not fail and most of all, he ensured fairness. We continually get comments from friends that cannot believe the craftroom and gym room is an addition?. just the way we wanted it!! We would highly recommend H.Towne & Around Remodelers to anyone as we are ecstatic with the end result. Call JR; you won't be disappointed...
Unfortunately, we have not had the best experience with past remodeling/updates we have made to our 33 year old home.
We spent way to much money on our kitchen and had to deal with sub-contractors not showing up to do work the days
we took off work to be home for work, poor quality work that needed to be done, etc?..
I have wanted to make my family room and formal living room one big room for several months but kept putting it
off because of the hassle of finding a good contractor. Thank you Angie's list, and the customer reviews, I narrowed
down to three contractors. One came out and didn't call me back, One wanted me to complete remodel my entire home.
Thank goodness for JR Smith!!!!
JR responded to my email and called me back the same day and came out the next day to talk about what I wanted to do.
He was professionally dressed with a company logo shirt. Super friendly and let me ramble on and on about what i THOUGHT I wanted which was to knock out the entire wall and make one big room. He did have a puzzled look on his face and stated, "I'm concerned you might not like how it looks if I do what you are asking me to do". " Have you considered how your furniture will
look"? " I'm not sure you will like walking in and seeing the back side of your couch". He was soooooo right. Plus to make
sure the house would not "tumble down" he would still need to have a column. in the room. JR asked me what it was exactly
I was trying to accomplish. I explained I wanted to see out of my front window, as well as see my Christmas tree from my family room. He simply said, "How about we compromise"? " What do you think about cutting out half of the wall and making a large opening so you can see out"? OH MY GOODNESS, I was so excited! Not only did he come up with a great idea, he talked himself out of a much higher priced project which saved me a lot of time and money. Now that is what I call integrity!!!
Oh, and to top it all off, I was asking him to compete before the Thanksgiving, Christmas Holidays. Within 3 weeks, start to finish, the job was done! The same crew (Jesus) came to work every day. Awesome communication skills, professionally dressed, friendly, cleaned up each evening. Even helped me pick out paint. I love the attention to detail. JR suggested I trim out the crown molding to match existing. Perfect match!! I will continue to use JR Smith for any job big or small THANK YOU!!
"Thanks for the kind words and great review. I am so glad we were able to achieve the intended result for you and it was our pleasure doing it. Best of luck, and enjoy your pretty home. ----JR Smith"
The media room was wired perfectly. The speakers and media center for covered patio works wonderfully.
JR helped us design the project and his original sketch was pretty much spot on!
We will be using him to remodel our kitchen next. I can't say remodeling your home is fun but with H-towne it wasn't painful.
"It was our pleasure working for you Erika. Enjoy your new home with all of those great upgrades! Regards, JR Smith"
Work was done June of 2012. Everything is still perfect. No leaks, not issues what so ever.
J.R. worked with my wife and I to design an acceptable layout to knock out a portion of the wall between our kitchen and living room and add a bar counter instead. We relocated the doorway so that we utilized that entire wall with either counter tops (a portion of which also had a bar counter), stove, or doorway. On the opposite wall that faces the front yard, we actually removed one window (and matched the brick almost identically on the exterior), and utilized the entire wall with counter-tops, sink, pantry, and the fridge. Remodeling a kitchen is never going to be easy on the homeowners, but H-Towne worked hard to make sure that we stayed comfortable. We prefered to have the work performed as quickly as possible, even if that meant having contractors work late hours and some weekends. They accommodated the quick schedule as best as possible, and the work was completed in the estimated time.
J.R. had very good ideas on the cabinet selection, and I am still extremely pleased on how our cabinets turned out. The remodel included granite countertop, stainless steel appliances, and nice floor tile. We concluded this project almost exactly on budget, and J.R. made an effort to keep us on track though we tweaked the scope from time to time. J.R. is not the kind of contractor that is going to hit you at the end of the project with extra fees that you aren't aware of. I am very happy with the results of this project, and I have recommended H-Towne Remodelers as a result. I have worked with them on subsequent projects, and I will work with them again.
My wife and I were familiar with H-Towne Remodelers from a recent kitchen remodel that J.R. (owner) performed for us the previous year. Also, J.R. had done an excellent job remodeling a neighbor's house, so we were very confident that he could run this project. Our home was fairly small at 1,200 sq ft, and once our family began to grow, we worked with J.R. directly to design a house that would be consistent with the neighborhood motif that we wanted to preserve, but also accommodate specific ideas that we were sure would benefit our family. J.R. worked to understand our ideas, then he improved our ideas and put them into an acceptable design that included about 2,700' of air-conditioned space, plus a large porch in the backyard. Of the creative ideas on design that J.R. brought to the table, I believe that I'm most happy about the porch that he designed in our backyard, the utility room and laundry chute from our master bedroom closet, and the open space that he created that makes our home flow from our kitchen in the front to our porch in the back.
We awarded the contract to J.R. once we received financing (which he was able to help show us the way as well), and work started almost immediately. The construction was going to "touch" almost every room in the house, so J.R. made a great effort to preserve our comfort throughout the project. Specifically, we more than doubled the footprint of the house, so J.R. kept the back wall in place until the last few weeks to keep the new construction separate from the existing house. Also, J.R. planned very well the remodel of the rooms that were in the existing footprint so that the inconvenience was minimal.
The absolute best thing that I can say about J.R. is that he and I worked to develop a budget for the house, and I finished the project almost exactly 1.5% over our original budgeted cost. Though we added some things throughout the project, we would make an effort to discuss with him what we could "do without" or remove so that we would not end up spending too much money. For example, we originally included a resurfacing and driveway expansion, which we ultimately struck from the scope to perform some of the other changes. J.R. was very understanding of our budget constraints, and, very much to his credit, he was very creative on working with us to build exactly what we want. The contractors that worked on the project were generally well dressed, polite, and hard working. On one instance when we came home to a small mess in the back yard, we reported it to J.R. and the issue was immediately resolved. We never felt unsafe, and I can happily say that we had no property damaged or stolen. To no fault of H-Towne Remodelers, interfacing with the utilities (i.e. CenterPoint) was somewhat of a challenge. As much as H-Towne Remodelers would try to schedule around CenterPoint's crews that worked to shut down our gas line or change over our electricity meter, it seems like CenterPoint would always get the work done after working hours (middle of the night or at 8pm). J.R. and his crews went out of their way to come to our house after hours to complete the work, which I really appreciated on a personal level.
Lastly, I believe that J.R. and H-Towne Remodelers went above and beyond to "complete" the job. We develop a punch list whenever we were a couple of weeks away from completion, and they took care to complete all of the items. After they had demobilized from the site and we had closed out the contract, we had a few very minor issues come up (i.e. light switch issue, small plumbing leak, drain in bathtub broke). J.R. was very responsive and sent contractors over whenever was convenient for us to get the issues resolved.
I have recommended H-Towne Remodelers to others, and I have received positive feedback. I will continue to recommend them in the future, and I will do my next project with them as well.
JR and his crew were all very nice and pleasant to work with. They were also responsive to our questions and requests. They are honest, professional and conduct themselves with integrity. They always made efforts to please us and comply with our requests. Their work is top-notch. The only possible area for improvement is in the area of communication and scheduling the subs. However, it is entirely possible that is not at all within JR's control because the subs are not sitting around waiting for JR's call - they're working for multiple other contractors at the same time as JR. So this aspect might be beneficial for the customer to realize going into the project. However, the bottom line is that the subs are excellent and they are worth the wait!
"Thanks for the great review. The finished result is always the most important thing to us and so I am really glad that H-Towne was able to make your pretty Heights home even more beautiful. Best Regards, JR Smith"
Our kitchen is beautiful and the master bathroom is just gorgeous as my wife said. We were so pleased and happy with results that we asked J.R to give a beauty lift to the kids and guess bathroom and also we asked J.R to paint the entire house. Great job J.R! You did it! The house looks amazing and you deserve an A+....Thanks a million
Esmersoy's family.
"Thanks so much for the great review. I also appreciate you taking the time to post this in English as I know its not your first language. It was our pleasure doing these projects for you, I am glad that H-Towne was able to deliver. As I mentioned several times, "When you're happy, I'm happy!" Regards, -JR Smith"
JR gave me good instructions on the phone on what all he needed prior to the job beginning so they could have everything staged ahead of time: tile, granite, bath tub, faucets, etc. When I asked how long the project would take to complete, he told me these type of things take "10 days." With my wife pregnant and the baby coming any day, 10 days fit our schedule well.
We gave JR and his team our tile and granite preferences so they could be ordered for the work. They never ordered the granite ahead of time so when they needed it for the end of the project, they said it was out of stock and to pick something else. We had given them the granite option way ahead of the project. With better planning, they should of not dropped the ball here.
The crew who worked was nice and kept things clean, however, they didn't seem to work the full day schedule (9-6pm). There were some days where they left at 4pm and didn't come on Saturday when we thought they would be working. With the tight timeline we had, this was something that was frustrating. The project timeline also got way behind as the plumber that JR subcontracts the work to didn't show up 2 seperate days which caused more backlog in the work. When I asked him for a resolution, he stated "I can't control these people" which I thought was a very poor excuse.
Overall, the work was done pretty well but from a planning and project management point of view, I was not impressed. The granite we originally selected never made it, plumber didn't show up a few occasions, when I pressed JR for when they would complete the project, I was told "Wednesday" which in turn ended on "Friday." If the crew was more motivated to knock out the work and Htowne was more organized, this should of been a non-issue.
The end product turned out pretty nice but we had some headaches along the way...
Basically, I feel like I got what I paid for with a beautiful new addition to my home
Everything started OK, but didn't end well at all. In short, this other company left behind a huge mess and poorly painted walls.
I turned to J.R. Smith at H-Towne Remodelers for help. I called him in the morning on July 11th, 2012. Despite the very short notice, J.R. was able to come from Cypress to pay a visit to our office in The Woodlands by 1:00pm the same day to see the mess left behind by the other guys first hand. After about 5 minutes in the office, he made a call. When the call was finished, J.R. turned to me and said, "My guys are available tomorrow."
My office building states that paint work cannot begin until 6:00pm on weekdays, and the guys showed up at 6:00pm sharp! They were finished a few hours later. When I came back to check the work they had done, I was so relieved! The walls looked the way I expected them too. The paint was even and professionally applied. The trim looked crisp and clean and the office was spotless!
I thought I made a huge, expensive mistake hiring the wrong guys at first. J.R. Smith took care of everything quickly and efficiently. H-Towe Remodelers WILL be the only remodeling firm I EVER use again!
Thanks J.R.
Many companies claim to be ?construction professionals?. but H-Towne truly is. From start to finish there was never any attempt to cut corners. In fact anytime there was a question on what was best, the high road was always taken at no additional cost. The entire project was turnkey for me including cleanup and submitssion to the subdiviion architectural approval committee.. Any question that came up I was consulted immediately complete with ideas and recommendations. They only time I did not take their recommendation was when it was strictly an aesthetic issue. I?ve worked 30+ years on jet aircraft and there is no such thing as ?probably?. I am happy to say H-Towne doesn?t believe in it either.
The framing crew was first on the scene always on time. The first day I spent with the foreman, Eddie. After that day I never worried about the process. His crew obviously had done this many times before and Eddie was always there for them answering questions and pushing them to do better.
Each following crew was on time and completed their portion on time. At one point there were 3 crews working; framers, roofers and electricians as they had all worked together before. JR only uses the best crews and he uses the best every time. Some worked Saturday and even Sunday to complete the task on time. The entire project was completed a few days early.
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