Sterling Creek Construction

Sterling Creek construction which is operated by John Corcorran and Julian Montoya were hired by our project manager to finish an extensive downstairs remodel of our home. They seemed very professional when they came into to inspect and see what needed to be down to complete our project. They made many remarks about the quality of the uncompleted work and left us with great assurance that their work was top notch and of excellent quality. By the time our dealings with this company and the many subs that they DO hire we felt as if we had been living in an extreme home makeover gone bad. They began to work on the stairs which had been originally carpeted with a traditional banister and railings. They had their carpenter that set to work on finishing out the trim on the side of the stairs and cutting and placing of new stained stairs. They made wrong cuts of one of the stairs and had to order another one. This one which was eventually replaced is still missing the final sanding and clear finish coat that their painter started. They started baseboard from two different ends and they didn't match so they had to take off one side. There are still scrapes and holes in the new texturing that they painted over. One day the trim man that instructed all the hourly wage guys in what to do did not show up. I was told he had a drug problem and he would just disappear for awhile. They had a man and his son that laid our wood floor. I had to point our to them that they needed to use a shim saw next to wood cabinets. One side is a bad cut and the other side the floor goes under like it is supposed to. There are still loose planks in our entry that sound different every time you step on them. They left glue everywhere..even on the new painted walls. The owners said it was the first time they had used them and would not use them again. We had three different trim guys working on our home. There was one new door that had to have a frame and door put in. The door is still not level. You can see light above it. The workers had to take it on and off three different times and scratched the new cabinets adjacent to the door. They just filled it in with chalk and paint like a lot of things they did. The area where the wood floor met the rock fireplace was cut very straight and all agreed it did not look good. They just filled it in with chalk but it was silicone chalk and was shiny when it dried!! Julian tried to tell me I okayed the chalk but he had only asked me about the color of brown. The painter had been instructed to chalk the fireplace and all around the new stained baseboard where it did not meet the new wood floor flush. You could see the paint peeping out. They applied the same shiny "wet look" chalk all around the baseboards and then went up the stairs on the sides. It looked horrible. They were supposed to put the chalk under the new stained wood stairs to fill in the spaces from taking the stairs on and off many times to correct squeaking and popping when walked on. All of this had to be removed and then they put regular brown chalk under the baseboards and in front of the fireplace. It is sufficient but not professional. The rock fireplace was done when we were out of town and it was a very sloppy job. There is still grout all over the sides of our new cabinets and even holes in big blobs of grout. The professional contractors that have come in to give us bids on finishing have shown us how it should have been done to have a clean and a more refined look like the rest of our home. Not a rustic mountain cabin look which I specifically told our "project manager" I did not want. It looks like it needs a great big elk head hanging on it. They applied a shine to it to make it look less rustic. So disappointing as we had never had remodeling ever done on our home. Our master bathroom was a disaster in itself. There was insufficient amount of tile ordered so there was tile that was laid on the floor long before the walls of the shower and bath. It is an open concept spa type bath. There was paint and texturing that had gotten on the floor tile. Then, their tile guy, finished out the bathroom and their was grout smeared over every tile on the floor and the wall. There were some strong reactions from friends and professionals that saw the lack of workmanship and work integrity. We have had professional try to clean the grout smear and it cannot all be removed. The grout is still not sealed because we have been trying to get all the mess cleaned. I have had a professional and well know carpet and hard surface cleaner out to try and power wash and steam clean along with chemicals. They did not even charge me because they could not get it out. The tile man and his helper cut tile in our bathroom and did not cover up the entrance to our walk in closet ( which is still not finished but we are doing fine with our Sam's closet organizers) and left heavy dust on all our clothes. We had to wash and/or dry clean everything in our closet. The owner's saw this and said they had fired him because he did the same thing in another clients home. They also were not happy with the extremely poor quality of texturing and painting that had been done in our bathroom area but that still remains. There is also a shelf that was designed by our"project manager" that the tile guys put up. It used expensive glass tiles. Besides being useless, there are cracked tiles and has grey grout that does not match the black and white tiles. There are heavy grout lines and they even grouted in an ivory switch plate (all others are white) and does not even have electricity running to the outlet. They left a 4 way switch plate with out a cover right by my sink ...it did not even have screws in the bottom. It was loose. It shocked me a couple of times. When my alarm man came to reconnect everything they had put back without connecting it, he found a live wire in my attic that was very dangerous. They did send an electrician right out. He fixed the wire in the attic and my 4 way plug ( only the screws) it is still missing the cover. It is set in tile so I do not know how to do that. The electrician ( i had 3 different ones working on my house) could not believe they left that plug that way. I also need to mention the tile man laid tiles that were cracked, broken and/ or uneven. We even paid him additional cash for materials he said he had to go buy to finish. I have photos of this unfinished and unprofessional tile job. There is about 10-15% left unfinished...door thresholds, the finish work on new front and back doors that were put in, and all the above work I have discussed that needs to be redone, repaired, or cleaned up. I have photos to document everything I have discussed. I did try to resolve this but the contractors say we owe them more money for things we added. We hired a 'project manager' that hired a "contractor " that walked out of our house after she had paid him in full. She hired Sterling Creek Construction/ Montoya and Sons to finish our home. Our job was not a cost plus job. Her original price was $65,000(which we did go over) and she never relayed to us the concern of going over cost. She would tell us she saved money other places if we changed or upgraded somewhere. If our home had been done in a professional or even just finished then we would not have minded additional cost to a point but everyday was a circus of talk and shoddy work just to get it completed. Julian told me many times that they wanted it completed as much as we did because the longer these type of jobs went on the more was found to do...whatever that means. We hope this report helps others not experience the home remodel disaster we have. I found Angie's list in hopes of finding a reputable contractor to finish our home. We are just so embarrassed at who we trusted and feel very frustrated as well. I am leaving out so many details of workmanship and stories of excuses. I also have many photos, I think I already mentioned. I would be willing to even talk to individuals that wanted confirmation of what I write. The remodel contractors ( some of whom are on this Angie's list) have come by to give us bids and just shake their heads at the work that is completed as well as not. Thanks to those that thought of this avenue to share our story and help others.