Wilson Construction

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We selected Wilson Construction to perform a remodel on our master bathroom. We moved the locations of the bathtub, shower and altered the facade of the house; therefore, it became a significant remodel. Wilson Construction?s bid consisted mostly of labor with limited materials such as drywall, nails/screws, Hardi-plank siding, drywall compound, primer paint, thin set, lumber, insulation, some plumbing materials, custom made shower pan, granite, hardi-backer board (for the wet area), cabinets and molding. We provided the plumbing fixtures, bathtub, tile, sinks, toilet, lights, baseboards, paint, hardware etc. Once you examine the huge range in prices for these items you will understand why these materials were excluded from the bid. (Yikes, does anyone really need a 10,000 dollar toilet?) I would advise you to pick out all your fixtures, tile etc prior to finalizing your contract with a contractor. It takes time to get everything selected and delivered. You are going to have to live with your selections for years, so you don?t want to be rushed. I found a spacious whirlpool bathtub from Watertech designed to fit into tight places, it required 3 weeks for it to arrive. Once the contractor gets rolling, he will want the decisions to have already been made and materials to be in stock or on site. It is my nature to take a long time to make decisions, and under pressure I do not always make the best choices. We received two other bids from Chip?s Cabinets and DFW Drywall Contractors. They all seemed like very good companies who have good references, but we selected Wilson Construction because he had a slightly lower price than the other companies. But far more importantly, I had seen his work at a friend?s house and was impressed with the quality. Most importantly, our friend gave Roger Wilson a strong character reference, since they had known him for many years through the Boy Scouts. Contract Negotiations: Roger Wilson looked at the project and visited with me for a quite some time. He was not rushed or distracted and seemed to have good listening skills. It is important that you cut out photos from magazine, internet or draw pictures to help communicate to contractors what you want. We altered the bid several times to include more work. The discussions about the bid were mostly via email, which is what I preferred. Roger will not hard sell you to do more work than you may want. He will share with you his opinion, but he is not pushy. I asked his opinion frequently and relied on it a great deal. Roger is pretty relaxed about contracts and legal stuff. All we did was sign his bid, wrote him a check for 50 percent down, and he began work. He has a contract if you prefer something more legal. I must admit, it is scary handing over a big check and house key to someone you do not know. Everyone has heard contractor horror stories. Trustworthiness is very important criteria when selecting a contractor. Scheduling: Roger?s crew started exactly when he said they would. The cabinet maker was backed up so it delayed the project about a week. I knew about this delay in advance, and agreed on it since his work was excellent. The work progressed fairly close to schedule with only the tile subcontractors taking longer than projected. But they did a good job, so I will not begrudge them the extra few days they worked. The only unscheduled delay was a 3 day pause when we hit a granite snafu. In general, give the projected schedule some padding because weather, holidays, shipping of materials, illness, mechanical failure, or surprises when existing construction can create delays. Contract Administration: During the course of the construction there was additional work that was required that was not included in the contract. Roger?s crew did the work without asking me for a change order on the work. His plumber noted our service plumbing valves were about to disintegrate. Also the shower drain had to be moved further than anticipated. If it had been me, I would have charged the customer for this extra work, but Roger did not. I can NOT promise you that Roger will not pass the cost of extra work not listed in the bid on to you. Obviously, he needs to make a living, but I can say that he did not try to nickel and dime us on the little extras. Performance: Roger checked on the subcontractors? progress everyday, and kept me abreast on the schedule. Feel free to speak up and ask him questions or point out any work that does not seem right. All his Subs. were professional and good. His plumber was very good. He moved the drains of the shower and a bathtub which required the foundation to be jack hammered. (What a dusty mess!) But he got it done quickly and had all the plumbing drains moved to new locations and re-plumbed quickly. When it came time to install the huge shower pan for the double shower he worked until very late. The tile work was not done quickly, but it was done very well and they seemed to take pride in their work. The carpenters, trim, painters all did good work. There was one blip in the picture. The granite subcontractor made a mistake. We were notified that he measured the granite scrap that I selected incorrectly. It was not large enough for the vanity without putting a seam in the middle of the bathroom countertop, or I could select another color of granite from his scraps. I was not happy with the idea of a seam and not willing to select a different granite. Fortunately, it was a common type of granite, so I got on the phone and found another granite fabricator with a scrap in the same color. Of course, this subcontractor wanted more money for the job than the first contractor had bid. The difference was around 500 dollars. Roger offered to split the overage, but I declined. Considering all the free work we got from Roger?s other subcontractors, I feel like we came out ahead. It only cost us a few days delay switching to a different subcontractor. In all fairness, the granite contractor was not one of Roger?s normal subcontractors. I selected him. His usual granite contractor did not have a scrap piece of granite that I liked, so I went searching through other contractor?s scrap yards. Roger warned me that he had little past experience with the granite contractor that I found, and he preferred using the other contractor. If your job is big enough to use a whole slab of granite / marble you will not have the hassle of looking through contractors? scrap piles to see if you can find a scrap that will work. Or if your granite needs are very small you will have lots of pieces to select from in these scrap piles. But our project was somewhere in the middle and it narrowed our choices. We have had lots of individual contractors work on our house in the past, but this is the first time we have ever used a general contractor. I am convinced that we saved money, time and lots of headaches by having Wilson Construction handle all of it. In conclusion the project was completed within the expected budget, and we were very pleased with the results. We would definitely use Roger Wilson Construction again, and I would recommend him to friends.