SPANGLER CONSTRUCTION INC

Nope nope nopity nope with nope on top, at least for kitchens for non-locals. If zero stars were a possibility that’s what I would give them. The painting and drywall repair were the only competently executed parts of this job. I paid for premium service but definitely did not get it. I went with Spangler at the recommendation of my realtor and people here seemed happy. To recap, I paid nearly $27,000 for: —four new base and six new upper cabinets installed — 12.5 feet of standard depth quartz counters —5 new lights (which was 2 too many) and two switches and changing out some receptacles —adding one foot of wall —reventing the range hood —plumbing to install new sink and faucet, ice maker line and reinstall of dishwasher. I have done one other small kitchen and a basement bar in the last two years in NoVA so I knew this price was high even with inflation. Plus Lowe’s would have done nice cabinets and quartz counter for $9-10K. BUT I thought having a contractor in charge of everything would be worth it because I do not live here and having someone in charge would be easier. Both the process and product were completely unsatisfactory. PROCESS ISSUES Lack of communication/coordination: I made it clear that I wanted notice of work and to be present when major things were happening but I was never informed when exactly things were taking place. Of course that was partly because nothing ever happened on schedule or to plan. My tiny kitchen got demolished in March and here it is May 12 and we have a ways to go and that is only because I finally set a deadline. Lots of this was due to waiting for the electrician — had this been planned for, I would have foregone the lights because as noted below they were decidedly not worth the wait. And I would have known about the quality issues with the cabinets and had more time to fix them, instead of being rushed at the last minute. I thought I was paying for advice and someone to organize things and instead I got delay, screw-ups and obfuscation. I also wanted a cut out over my stove and although I showed a sketch of what I wanted to the cabinet designer, no one told me this would not be possible unless I had a very specific kind of range hood. I got pressured to select one quickly (no one explained ahead of time they wanted to install this first) and I couldn’t obtain the kind I needed in time (unlike what the expert told me, they DO exist). The result is a I have a hood that looks stupid without the cutout and so I need to buy and install another range hood and pay for a cutout. Or order a cabinet for over the stove and an under-cabinet hood, which of course would also require re-doing the stupid trim on top. My competent, reasonable handyman is hopefully coming over soon to give me an estimate as to which option would be least expensive. The cabinet ordering and planning process: somehow I ended up with several expensive cabinet add ons that there is no way I would have knowingly ordered, for example a two-level cutlery tray in a drawer that is in a location that no logical person would use for silverware. After I complained, they are replacing the tray I didn’t want with a normal drawer, but bottom line is that I got charged A LOT extra for these stupid things I didn’t want. I am still waiting for an itemized accounting. And I will have to make another trip to collect the drawer and then detach and reattach the drawer front. Given the other significant quality issues with the cabinets sucking up time and effort, it is no exaggeration to say Ikea would have been just as easy. Oh and I missed the fact that they ordered my wall cabinets so that they were neither short enough to have display space on top nor long enough to go all the way to the ceiling. Instead there is a crazy, heinous 4” gap. I trusted the “professional” measurement and got the worst result possible. Oh but no problem, for lots of extra money Spangler ordered trim to cover the gap. The guys here to install it, no kidding, JUST ASKED ME TO SUPPLY THEM WITH A DROP CLOTH because apparently they have neither a shop vac nor a drop cloth of their very own and acted like they were doing ME a favor not to leave sawdust on my porch! They are actually nice and seem to be good at their jobs and I would not be annoyed except they are currently the face of this fiasco. The counter ordering process: So months after you select your cabinets but before you have a door to take with you, you go someplace different to choose your counter. In my case, this resulted in a counter that I really don’t like with my cabinets. Yes, I picked it but I definitely would have made a different choice had I selected the counter and cabinets at the same time, or had one of the cabinet doors to take with me. Also I wasted lots of time picking a counter when I met with the cabinet lady, not realizing I had to go to a completely different place. No one told me that until the last minute so I had to fit in an extra trip to Accomack I hadn’t counted on. Then I was also picking blind because the person working at the counter place had literally NO IDEA of prices for anything. He barely knew quartz from granite. Apparently there was family illness at this business at that time to which I would normally be sympathetic, but because no one told me where to go until the last minute, I didn’t have time to return when their A team was back on duty. The toe kick: I did not replace my floor (because, $27K already) but new cabinets have a much deeper toe kick than the 1980’s cabinets they replaced. This is something you might assume an expensive contractor with kitchen experience, or a cabinet person, would have given me a heads up about well in advance. I had plenty of floor tiles left and would have had LOTS of time to replace them while we were waiting for the electrician but no one told me of this until after the cabinets were installed — making the fix more time-consuming and also not really possible. I guess they thought they were being helpful by arranging to build out the toe kick BUT of course that came with an extra charge. This all should have been explained and I should have been given the option about how to handle it. The cabinets: because the project was so delayed, I am on a very tight schedule to get things put back. It would have been nice if I could have put stuff away instead of running around town in search of missing shelf pegs and shaving down shelves that didn’t fit. Had I been here when the cabinets were installed, I would have pointed those things out immediately. Mind you, I shouldn’t have had to as these are things that the installer should have flagged and corrected or arranged to correct immediately instead of leaving this to me to discover at the last minute, when I was already rushed and behind schedule. QUALITY ISSUES Cabinets: The Waypoint cabinets they recommended are another big disappointment. Very poor craftsmanship — one is completely busted up and will need replaced. I had to plane several of the shelves on the sides to make them fit. Not that that was such a tragedy since unlike Lowe’s and Ikea cabinets which have three or four finished sides, these were finished only in the front. But the sides were so rough they gave me splinters. I also have to hire someone to make holes for the shelf pegs since they didn’t come with holes the entire length of the cabinet. I am the average height for a woman and need three shelves I can reach without a step stool. It never occurred to me that a cabinet wouldn’t have holes for pegs in a way that would make all three shelves reachable. I spent several hours and several drill bits already making one set of holes and I have six more sets to go. And the back of one upper cabinet split on installation. I may have unfairly blamed the installers for that, above. Lights: In addition to being oversold more lights than I needed, these are the ugliest LED lights ever. Harsh, institutional and glare-y. You can’t change it without changing the ENTIRE fixture. They did give me a dimmer when I complained but it doesn’t work at a low enough level. So now my kitchen lighting options are a choice between supernova surgical suite or subdued disco. As noted above, also the first thing everyone notices when I send pictures is that the light over the sink is off-center. More money ahead to fix this part of the fiasco and get decent lights installed in logical places and the ceiling patched. I hope this information is helpful so everyone can learn from my sad experience.

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Repairs were successful and no additional leaks. Would definitely use his services again.

After a heavy storm we discovered a bad leak somewhere in the roof. Our neighbors recommended Nick Spangler as one of the best on Chinocoteague and we gave him a call. We didn't expect to be high up on his list since we had never used him before and a lot of construction was going on at that time. But Nick returned the call promptly and came by personally to assess the situation. He told us that he couldn't be 100% sure where the water might come from until he opened the wall/roof to get a better look but gave us an initial quote that sounded very reasonable. We were a bit pressed for money and Nick assured us that he would work with us to minimize the costs. Nick found the leak and fixed it in a very professional way. We were thrilled by the work he did and also when we received the final invoice that was actually lower than we expected. Nick is not just very good at what he does but is also a very nice guy. I will definitely call him again if we need anything done on the house.