ORTIZ CONSTRUCTION

Horrible experience. There has been an issue with 100% of the items they have completed. A few examples of many... First, we needed to fill in some hardwood in our kitchen to accommodate replacing the island and removing a counter/adding a free standing range. First (of many) mistakes, they didn't order enough wood. The second mistake, they ordered AND INSTALLED American Cherry rather than Brazilan Cherry. It's obvious that they are nowhere near the same wood type (one is red and the other looks a lot like maple), but they went ahead and installed it anyway. After I told them about the issue, they blamed me for the mistake. No matter what isn't it the contractor's responsibility to figure out what is needed? How would I know what kind of wood was installed 13 years ago? (And I didn't even know there is such a thing as American Cherry). So then they get the Brazilian Cherry and install it with the planks either poorly staggered or not staggered at all (see pics). Not only that but they didn't bother to relocate the electrical for the new island... meaning that they drilled a hole in the new flooring that is in the wrong place (and visible). They tried to charge us over $2,000 to install 3 new circuits. They completed one (for $1,000) but I tackled the other two myself. I was able to pull my own permit ($70) and had an electrician complete the work and pass inspection, for $250. I understand that pulling a permit takes some time, but in Loudoun County contractors can just do it online - takes about 5 minutes. There is no justification for charging $2,000 for 3 new circuits. We let them know that we lowered the number of cabinets in our island. They sent a change order, charging me an ADDITIONAL $750 for installing FEWER cabinets. They scheduled an inspection for an updated gas line without bothering to ensure that someone would be at the house. No follow-up on this for a month and the inspection is still pending. They failed their electrical inspection, and of course, they blamed the inspector. That was a month ago; no follow-up. They said they would order our backsplash; sent status requests (as I never got confirmation that anything was ordered). No response until after I talked the tile company into just letting me order it direct.

They worked carefully and quickly. Although our job may have cost less, the minimum to use them is $500 and, at the time, we had no other things that needed doing. We would recommend them for similar work, at least.

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Start to finish Ortiz Construction was professional. They were thorough in their estimate. The price was competitive. They arrived on time, executed per the agreement and cleaned up once the install was complete. Pleasant to deal with at every turn. Had a slight adjustment that was needed after the invoice was paid and they were quick to respond. They came out quickly to successfully address the issue. This is just what you want in a contractor. I would use them again.

They were fantastic. I would recommend them to anyone. We did not have one issue with this company.

It went very good. They were very prompt, here when they said they would be here, spent a few days doing everything. She was just really good. She did most of the work. She did a good job of grouting and stuff like that.

This was a great experience considering what I had heard about kitchen replacements. Ortiz was selected for us by Home Depot. We purchased the cabinets from Home Depot and waited about 6 weeks for delivery which is not too unusual. The cabinets were delivered on a Friday and Ortiz was on the job Monday to inspect the new material and to begin removing the old cabinets, floor, backsplash, and appliances. Within two days the crew began to assemble the new cabinets. Within a week the new tile floor was going down, electrical work was done and within two and a half weeks we had a functional kitchen so we did not even need a temporary sink. Angie Ortiz, the owners daughter, was helpful in suggesting ideas to improve the kitchen, helped in procuring the tile for the floor from Moasic Tile and was easy to work with. I have seen other reviews of Ortiz that were negative. The company has a whole new crew and they are great so delete the negative stuff from your mind. I received 5 bids for this job but Home Depot had the best price and the cabinets we wanted. Yes again I heard of horror stories but this truly worked out well thanks in large part to Ortiz. Home Depot contracts with Counter Intelligence if you get your counter through them and that worked out well as Ortiz was able to schedule their work around the counter installation The mirror back splash was done by Reston Glass who did a great job but Angie Ortiz again suggest an improvement for the back splash that made a great difference. The owner Rick Ortiz stopped by and introduced himself which I thought was nice. The coordination between Emma at Ottiz and the facilitator at Home Depot was great. Yes Home Depot has someone you can call who monitors the project. James and Francisco who installed the cabinets along with Angie were professional and great. My neighbor down the street also had Ortiz and had a similiar experience. AN EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE. Bob Belsley Great Falls, VA

Ortiz has been easy to work with so far. I first met Oritz when they came out to measure the kitchen for the cabinets we were purchasing through Home Depot. Angie Ortiz was the individual who came out and she was wonderful and even had a good suggestion on where to relocate the refrigerator so that we would have a little more counter space. I was working with another contractor who was demolishing the kitchen and installing new flooring that was supposed to be ready when the cabinets arrived. Unfortunately when the cabinets arrived he had not completed the prep work that was needed to have the cabinets installed and when Ortiz showed up they tried working around the parts that were done but there was just too much left undone and we had to reschedule. Ortiz was very understanding about coming back to finish the kitchen later. When I fired that contractor I hired Ortiz to fix the mistakes and previous contractor made and finish the remodeling. Rick Ortiz, our project manager and the owner of the company, was wonderful about getting our project back on track, going to the city to apply for the necessary permits (the other contractor neglected to do this) and a guiding us through the process since this was our first time doing this large a project. The price was a bit higher than other companies I received bids from but I decided to go with Ortiz for two reasons. First, I thought he would be as particular about the look of the finished product as I would be, and second he was very easy to get in touch with and responsive to my correspondence. If I emailed him in the evening I almost always received and answer by the morning, or if I called he would call me back within a few hours. We have been woking on our project for almost 3 month now so there have been hundreds of email exchanges and several calls where I have been frustrated over some delay or item, such as doors not showing up on time or an electrical issues, but through my rants Rick has always remained professional. We have one last item to complete I will update this review when that is done. I would recommend Ortiz. Well it has been a year since Ortiz, started the job and we are finally done. It was a long year but we had work done in nearly every room in the house. Throughout the process Rick and his team have remained professional and have been great about working with us. I paid a bit more then I would have another contractor but I don't know if they would have stuck with us a long as Rick did to see the job through. Overall I am happy with the work that was done.

Ortiz Construction gave us a price that is more than the price of the appliance and the cabinets put together. Mr. Ortiz expressed opinions that his business is having some difficulties. We spent about 10 minutes talking about his business and all that and that did not lead me with a sense of confidence in his company. He showed up on time. I think he knows his stuff but he is out to gouache.

Overall everyone, including me, wanted this done quickly (being without a kitchen takes it's toll quickly). They didn't cut corners, communicated with me throughout the project, and only had some minor change orders (which were not totally unexpected). Overall cost from estimate, purchase, and completion only fluctuated by 1500$, which I think is great. It was a straightforward project. The work was completed on time, all approvals were received by the County (Loudoun) and my kitchen is gorgeous. I would definintely consider Ortiz again for any additional work I need completed.

Our experience with Ortiz was a nightmare from start to finish. Ortiz grossly underestimated the time it would take to finish the work, originally giving us a start date of May 22 and end date of May 31. Instead, the job stretched into September, with as much as a month going by with no work or even word from Ortiz, at which point we insisted that Home Depot send in a different contractor to finish the job (which they did). Not only did Ortiz work only intermittently on our bathroom once they found that the job exceeded their estimate of how much time it would take, but much of their work was shoddy and subpar, requiring some of it to be redone and/or completed by a more senior and highly skilled member of the Ortiz staff. The workmen were poorly supervised by Ortiz and often did not seem to be aware of the specifics of the job or what products were needed to complete the work. For instance, when Ortiz found that they did not have a specific plumbing part necessary to install the shower fixture because they had never reviewed the parts list supplied by Home Depot before starting work,, the foreman sent me to a plumbing supply shop some distance from my house with vague instructions as to the part that we needed. This scenario occurred several times, with either my husband or I making a desperate dash to the plumbing store to get supplies that Ortiz should have known they needed prior to beginning work. (I should add that per our contract with Home Depot, we should have been ordering all our products through their store, but if Home Depot did not have a plumbing part on their shelves that Ortiz had failed to anticipate needing, we were desperate enough to go wherever necessary to get Ortiz the part they needed to do their work). But the worst part of our experience with Ortiz was the damage that they wreaked on parts of our house that were not even involved in the bathroom renovation. Because they removed our old toilet and left the sewer pipe exposed in the bathroom while they demolished the old floor tile, large pieces of tile debris fell down the exposed pipe and clogged the sewage pipes two floors below in our basement. In order to fix the problem, which the Ortiz plumber denied had been caused by any work performed by Ortiz, we had to call in an independent sewage drain specialist for a total of $1,200 to clear the pipes of the tile debris. (The drain specialist had a fiberoptic camera connected to his equipment that took pictures of the old tile debris clogging our pipes and thus proved that it was indeed a result of Ortiz's work). The debris was lodged in the pipes of our basement two floors below our bathroom and we had to have two walls and two portions of ceiling in our basement torn out in order to unclog the pipes. Additionally, the Ortiz plumber installed our shower fixture but installed the temperature gauge upside down so that we could not get hot water properly from the shower faucet. He also did not connect the overflow valve in the tub properly, so that the first time we used the tub, the water drained down into our library one floor below and destroyed the ceiling. Ortiz also seemed to want to take shortcuts that were not acceptable to us; they argued with us for weeks about how to install the over mount soaking tub into the granite tub deck, contrary to the installation specifications guidelines from the tub manufacturer and the granite installers, finally capitulating to us only after Home Depot's regional supervisors became involved. Ortiz also left empty boxes and other construction trash in our garage for weeks and told us that we had to call a hauling company to take it away, which we did, before coming themselves to haul away the rest of the trash. Ortiz did reimburse us for all their damage, including dry wall repair, carpet cleaning, and painting, but none of it should have happened in the first place. We relied heavily on Home Depot supervisors to negotiate much of the work and resulting repairs because Ortiz was not responsive to many of our concerns or complaints until Home Depot intervened. One caveat in all this is that the senior member of the Ortiz staff, Dave, who was sent in late in the job to finish, repair, or redo work by previous Ortiz workmen, was outstanding. He was highly skilled and did superb workmanship, all while being extremely responsive and reassuring about the work that needed to be done. Had we had Dave from the start, our experience would have been much different. However, with the exception of Dave, our experience with Ortiz was a nightmare.

We were guided to Ortiz by Home Depot. We wanted to replace our kitchen cabinets with ones we selected at Home Depot. After paying the $100 fee to have a PROFESSIONAL MEASUREMENT done, Oritz came out, measured our kitchen, and submitted them to Home Depot. We designed the kitchen, ordered the cabinets..... and waited. Apparently Ortiz was supposed to provide an install quote, which they did not. Getting in touch with anyone to give us an estimated cost to install these cabinets was like pulling teeth. Well, when they finally came out they realized they did not take into account a soffet which we ended up paying $1000 to another contractor to remediate. We were so flabbergasted at their inability to PROFESSIONALLY MEASURE (for which we paid $100) and return phone calls that we elected to not have them set foot in our house again and went with a different contractor to perform the work. Lo and behold, he was able to remediate the first issue but discovered they measured the entire length of our kitchen 15 inches TOO SHORT!! Literlaly they stated in the overall specs our kitchen was 160 inches long. Well it is 145 inches. That is a big difference when you're planning to put your trash can in that last 15 inches of space. We were completely dissatisfied to the extent that we are pursuing Home Depot to refund a material portion of our costs on top of the $100 for the PROFESSIONAL (yeah right) MEASURE. Stay away, not worth the headache. Also their install quote was ridiculous at over 30% higher than all the other quotes we received. They wanted to charge us $400 to uninstall the sink and another $400 to set up a temporary sink. Just nuts.

Before we could get started with the design, Home Depot had to measure the two areas where the cabinets would be installed. They charged $100 for the initial measurements, which was applied to the final project cost. Ortiz Construction of Reston, VA came to my home and measured the areas where the cabinets were to be installed. Based on the drawings from Ortiz, the designer at the local Home Depot store created a design and specifications for the cabinet installation. As I was reviewing the drawings, I noticed that some of the cabinets seemed to be the wrong size based on what I know from my home and what I had explicitly pointed out to Ortiz during the measurement process. I had to have Ortiz come out and redo the measurements and the drawings submitted to Home Depot. The one set of cabinets is still 8” too short in length due to measurement errors. The Home Depot quote included a full detailed quote from Ortiz Construction for the installation services. The installation required electrical work – some receptacles and recessed lights needed to be moved. The installation services totaled $4,300. The electrical work was $1,800. In addition to the $4,300 of installation services, I was charged $250 for the “Permit Fee.” I expressed my concern about the cost of the electrical work knowing how much work really needed to be done. I accepted the quote, since I did not have the time to do the installation myself. Ortiz Construction showed up to start the installation. They took inventory of the cabinets, outlined the location of the cabinets and cut holes in the walls to accommodate the electrical work. That is when the trouble started. The electrician told me that there were more units to be installed than were on his list. I told him that this made no difference to me, since all the units were clearly outlined on the drawings that I had signed and that they had arrived with on the job site. They had also estimated having to run a wire all the way back to the circuit breaker box as part of the installation. Since I had wired the basement myself, I showed the electrician a receptacle he could use as a starting point. He even admitted that this saved him half a day of work. Ortiz then informed me that this would require a change order and that they were going to charge me for the additional work. They stopped all work, presented me with a change order totaling $680 for items in the drawings that they had “inadvertently overlooked” with no credit for the work that I had saved them. I called Home Depot to complain, and the manager simply told me that it was OK with them for Ortiz to charge me more for mistakes they had made in their estimations. I reluctantly signed the change order, since at that point my entire basement was unusable due to all the unpacked cabinets and openings in the walls. In the process of moving one of the recessed lights, the electrician broke the light. I asked him to fix it. He simply replied that it would be an additional change order for $300. He said that the light was “about to fail anyway”. I refused the change order, and the light is still broken today. On the second day of the installation, the crew showed up, closed in the walls, and installed the rest of the cabinets with the exception of those that would sit above a countertop on the entertainment center. During the installation, the crew pulled their pickup truck around the back of the house. They broke enough branches off the hydrangea bushes that lined the driveway to fill an entire trashcan. On December 7, I called the Home Depot store manager to complain about the change orders and the cabinet color. Before calling the Home Depot store manager, I checked the Arlington County on-line permit system, and discovered that Ortiz had not pulled a permit for the work. Here are the points I covered with the manager: 1. The change orders were unacceptable, since they were for items clearly marked on the drawings. The store manager would have to call Ortiz and ask. 2. The change orders did not take into account work that I had legitimately saved the electrician. He would have to ask Ortiz. 3. The crew decimated the hydrangea bushes. He would have to ask Ortiz. 4. No permit was pulled. I demanded my $250 back. He would have to ask Ortiz. Ortiz also came back with the excuse that they did not pull permits until the work was substantially complete so that they would not incur change fees. I reminded Home Depot that the code requires permits to be pulled before work commences and that Arlington County does not assess change fees unless there is a significant change in the scope. Ortiz said they were standing behind their change orders. A day later, a permit miraculously appeared under my address. That same day, the store manager called back to let me know that Ortiz was refunding part $150 of the permit fee, and $350 of the electrical installation fee based on the wiring not run to the circuit breaker box. I also let him know that we had not yet resolved the issues surrounding the cabinet color and the broken light. I had Arlington County come in and do the inspection required under the permit, and as I expected, the worked failed inspection on numerous counts – wiring concealed before the proper inspection was performed, one switch mis-wired and no extension boxes on receptacles behind the cabinets. The latter is a fire hazard, since the wiring is not shielded from the plywood in the cabinets, which is highly flammable due to the glues and finished used in the cabinets themselves. Four months later, I am completing the installation myself, since I cannot trust Ortiz to complete properly, and I have to fix all the problems that they created while they were here during the initial installation.

They were thorough but slow. They said it would take three weeks but it took three months.

The workmanship was amazing. The company mainly lacks in some organization & coordination of sub-contractors. All people who worked in our home were honest, hardworking people. The errors of communication can be traced back to the administration of the company. There was also very little visibility of a project manager or foreman. We, the homeowners, often ended up handling situations that should have been dealt with by a foreman.

I should have known this was going to be a difficult process when the manager, Rob Meyer, came to measure for the cabinets and arrived at the wrong time, so he didn't time to do a thorough job. From beginning to end, if it had to do with communication with Rob, it was a problem. He would be argumentative and difficult, then when I spoke with Mr. Ortiz, he basically didn't believe me. The crew that did the installation led by Luis Guevara was very professional, careful about protecting my floors and were the absolute best to deal with. If I could cut out Rob and Mr. Ortiz, I would have. The problem with communicating with the company overall was extremely frustrating, but the technical aspects of the work were top notch.

They showed up on time. Were very professional laying down protection for my hardwood flooring. Set up the cabinets and before installing made sure it was where I wanted them to be. Also involved the moving of a previously installed island. Cleaned up well after themselves and were polite at all time.

The installers did a very good job, but dealing with the company and trying to get them to call you back or schedule a job is a nightmare.