Hollow Ridge Design & Build

Was extremely fast, did excellent work, stuck to the bid and was a pleasure to work with. Besides bad cell phone reception at his house you couldn't ask for more from a contractor.

unknown

He seems reliable, trustworthy; but was not able juggle the different pieces of a renovation. Honesty and communication were big problems even though homeowners wanted him to succeed. Photos and conversation available from this reviewer. Lesson: check references from recent jobs!

We hired Hollow Ridge Design & Build because the price was very attractive and allowed us to accomplish all the areas we hoped to renovate. He also seemed like a very capable and straight forward, honest person. I was there almost every day, having taken on the bedroom portion of the renovation and the painting of the new walls throughout the house. The builder was often forgetful, framing the windows at wrong heights and when I pointed out the mistake, he stood by his opinion....until he measured again and found his mistake. They were re-framed. That was not really a problem at that point. I came in one day and he had installed pine flooring in the mud room when tile was specified and priced into his estimate. He tried to tell me I changed my mind and wanted pine. I did not, but in the large scheme of the project, I decided I could live with pine in the mudroom. He offered to remedy the situation, which was fair, but I really meant it that I could live with it and be fine. I would still be fine with this if things had not deteriorated. It started going badly when I noticed his sheetrock skills were quite sloppy, the final coats of spackle were rough and incomplete. The corners between ceilings and walls had holes that he said I could fix with caulk. He sheetrocked around a door that was supposed to have been removed and admitted later that he forgot it was supposed to be removed...even after I reminded him often. Then he started declaring he would be gone for a week or long weekend here and there. We were close to the deadline and he stopped showing up. When texted or emailed, he would say he would be there first thing in the morning, and still not show up. We had 8:00 meetings (15 min) every Tuesday from the beginning to see if there were concerns, go over timing and money. He always said he was fine, with no problems. We paid promptly every time he billed us. We also paid for any changes at the time they happened. He installed a random width pine floor to match the existing pine floor in part of the living area. His estimate for the floor was $4000 including installation, stain and two coats of polyurethane. He then wanted me to pay an extra $2000 because he said his estimate did NOT include the sanding of the floor. We've built a number of additions and two homes, and I've never encountered a floor estimate that did not include sanding. I offered to split the cost with him, which I thought was generous. He refused to do that in the end. He said he heard my offer, but never agreed. He recommended a certain glass shower door and sent me to the glass supplier to OK the choice and the price. They sent me the estimate for that door, $865 with clear coat and installation included. At the end, the builder tried to charge me $1600. I went to the cabinet supplier to pick up the touch up paint for the cabinets and they informed me that my builder had already picked it up for me. When I texted him about it he replied "I regrete to say it ended up in the trash after it ended up on my truck floor". He estimated 8-12 weeks, putting the end date at June 1. He was done mid August. The reason I am compelled to write a report is because now, after a few months of living in the house, the soffit has shrunk away from the ceiling, the formica counter in the pantry was not supported underneath and pulled away from the wall and when texted about the soffit, he replied, "Yep, wood shrinks" Also, the wood floors have shrunk in horrible ways because it seems he glued the edges of the pine together in the humid summer. Now, some of the joints have remained glued, some have pulled apart, and some boards have split down the middle, shredding the wood fibers....some to 3/4". When emailed photos of this, he replied "You still haven't changed" In all fairness, this was a person I wanted to do well, a person I stuck up for to my friends, and a person I tried to work with and encourage. He can do fast work, and some of the work is just fine. The tile in the shower turned out beautifully, except for the drain not draining perfectly from mis-leveling the floor. But he is someone I would never recommend and certainly would never hire again. If you are just too tempted with his initial estimate, please make sure you talk to his last few clients !