Hired him to convert a garage into a studio apartment. Signed contract for $100,000, paid in installments with final $20,000 due on job completion. $80,000 later, with the job nowhere near done, he asked for more money. When I said, "I'll pay you when the job is finished," he told me he was broke and could not do any more work unless I paid him in advance! He then told me the job was going cost $30,000 more than the original bid. He actually had the audacity to ask me to sign a new contract for the higher amount! When I told him I did not have the cash, he said, "You make good money, find it." I typically avoid negative reviews, but my experience with Brilliant was so bad, I felt compelled to make an exception. read more

Our experience with Graeme Chapman at Brilliant Construction for our kitchen remodeling project has been excellent so far. We love that he has a positive mindset and focuses on solutions always. I believe in the saying "what the mind expects it finds" and I am happy that we are working with a contractor who is creative and resourceful, and tries to find ways to make things better. My husband and I observed that Graeme is professional, accessible, honest and reliable. He does what he says he will do. He's a great communicator which we witnessed when he worked with our structural engineer. He keeps us in the loop with whatever's going on (schedule, staff, project recommendations) so we're never left hanging. He has the expertise that our project needs, and best of all - he gets the job done! He has over 16 years of construction experience and truly cares about his clients. He goes the extra mile to make sure his customers are satisfied, he is always at the job site and always strives to do excellent work. He treats his workers/sub-contractors well, which I am sure is part of the reason why they do an excellent job. At the end of the day, everything must be brilliant when finished, and he truly lives up to his "Brilliant Construction". Very highly recommended!!! read more

Graeme has remodeled three rooms for me, and I cannot sing his praises enough. He is patient, hard-working, creative, and helpful. I wish I could give him more stars!!!!He remodeled our bathroom first, and I had a very specific, not exactly easy design in mind. He took me to various tile and flooring places trying to find material that matched my idea, and always offered creative ways to get what I wanted out of the design when the materials didn't exactly match. When we needed our second bathroom remodeled he was very busy and I was impatient so I had someone else do it, and I really regret it. So when we needed our kitchen remodeled, I knew that I would call Graeme and wait until he was available, because I knew it would be worth the wait. Again, I had an idea of what I wanted and again, he very patiently guided me to different tile and flooring stores, coming with me if I wanted to offer advice. He has an excellent eye for design and knows his business so well, steering me away from materials for my counter, for example, that would stain or be damaged by heat. When I finally found the slab I wanted (after looking at hundreds of slabs!) he came with me to slab store and figured out how he would have the slab cut, for maximum use of the slab, but also so that, for example, the kitchen island would be highlighting the portion of the slab that had some beautiful patterns on it, and so the cuts would be minimum and impossible to see. Graeme has great subs who work for him. My backsplash idea was a little complicated, but his tile guy had no problem figuring it out and did a brilliant job. His painter was great, but Graeme actually made him re-do some painting because he saw some flaws, that frankly, I hadn't even noticed. His cabinet guy is a true artist and my new cabinets are not only beautiful, but have really wonderful features like very strong pull-out drawers, spice shelves, and some terrific pull-outs for a corner cabinet where I store the pots and pans. He has a wonderful flooring guy who did a great job too. My kitchen is so beautiful, every time I walk in I am struck by how much I love it. And Graeme planned the remodeling really well too, minimizing the disruption to our lives, for example, leaving our old sink in for as long as possible after everything else was demo'd, and finding a place for our refrigerator so we could still access it. The kitchen remodel required a wall to be pushed out 30 inches, so Graeme also needed to remodel what was the existing living room, which became 30 inches smaller. It had a fireplace there, which as a result of the room becoming smaller, the fireplace was no longer centered in the room and looked awkward. Graeme really applied himself trying to find a solution for that problem, and finally came up with the idea of a fireplace insert, a narrow insert that he could then center better in the new room's space. But to do this, he still needed to literally remove big chunks of concrete from inside the existing chimney to make room for and center the insert. It was hard labor! All the way, he continued to give me good design ideas, such as the size and style of the floor molding for example, something that would match the style of the new kitchen, and advising against molding around a cased opening I asked him to create, as it would look too busy. Every step of the way Graeme was there to offer ideas, support, advice, along with just giving me the most beautiful new kitchen and the new room I call my 'reading room'. Along with the bathroom he created for me, these are the most beautiful rooms in our house! I cannot recommend Graeme enough! I am so grateful for all his hard work!! read more

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Graeme started work on the house in 2005. He did a beautiful job on the kitchen, so we hired him for other projects over the years. Here is a partial list 1. Removed exterior wood siding and insulated the walls, then stuccoed 2. Rebuilt the front balcony. 3. Replaced windows and sliding doors with double pained glass. 4. Re-plumbed the house for more efficient hot water uses. 5. Added soft water system 6. Upgraded entire electrical system with 200 amp and all outlets are grounded. 7. Re-tile floors in kitchen and family room. 8. Replace sewer line to the street. 9. Remodeled bathrooms to make it ADA compliant. 10. Remodel master bath. I would highly recommend Graeme and Brilliant Construction for any job on any residential building. read more

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*I have a longer review but yelp has a word limit. Msg. me for full review. While I think the work that Graeme does is generally good, and I think he knows his stuff, I can only give him 2 stars because of issues we experienced. Graeme was willing to take on a challenging sound booth project, following plans from my sound designer. He was enthusiastic in the beginning. We were told his quote included everything but the fan we needed. However, when the final invoice came in, we were charged for items that were supposed to be included. When asked about it, I was told he didn't expect it to be so expensive. I agreed to pay the difference (hundreds of dollars), however I do think it was his responsibility to find out what this stuff cost before telling us it was included. He would shrug off questions about pricing. For example, we asked for a quote to put on a new door and he told me the next day that he ordered the door and it would be $700. No quote for approval. I'm probably on the pickier side but there were things that I pointed out such as a crooked light switch, and uneven and unpainted door frame. When I asked him, his response was always "Why are you looking up there, just do your work and stop looking at that!" As time went on, I realized he wasn't joking. He did fix these things but it was a struggle. I had to always ask multiple times for the fixes and he made it known that I was annoying. He would insist things were even or level and then pretend to fix them, showing me a level that wasn't held on the top of the object or a ruler that wasn't held at the beginning of the piece of wood. I didn't appreciate him trying to fool me. He would tell us things and then insist he never said it. When we were talking about doorframe sizes, he was explaining how they are measured. He explained width" vs. "depth." I thought how he was saying it seemed backwards so I confirmed several times and he insisted he was right. I figured it must be because he's from New Zealand. I even told my Husband about the convo that night because I didn't want him to be confused. The next day, when I referred to the measurements, Graeme looked at me like I was nuts. I told him I was using his words and he told me that he never would have said that. When I told him that no, he definitely told me that several times the day before, he got angry and said I had no idea what I was talking about. Things like this kept happening. He'd tell me one thing and the next day he'd insist he never said that. It was very frustrating. Some days Graeme was in a great mood, some days he was cutting and mean. He would often talk down to me as a woman, saying things like "good girl" and "sweetheart." He was annoyed when my Husband said I handled the money for the project. He could also be really, really mean about things. So much that I started crying at night because Graeme was stressing me out. I dreaded days he was coming by. He always seemed annoyed by my barky dog and I never wanted to ask him anything because he'd make me feel so bad about it. One day, he was being so mean that I flat out said "Why are you so mean to me?" And his response was "I'm not, but a lot of people tell me that." The final invoice had a lot of charges on it that he hadn't told us about. For example, $210 extra for the crown molding we requested. However, when we were choosing crown, I had asked if this was going to cost extra because we might pick out a different one, and he didn't say that it would. It also had $100 to paint two a/c vents. We had asked him before he painted them if this was something he could do and he said "yeah, no problem. I've probably got something in the back of the truck that can take care of this" so $100 was a surprise. I emailed him with questions but he never read the email. When he came over days later for payment, he told me I shouldn't email him on Sundays, he doesn't work then, and he doesn't read emails unless told to anyway. He was immediately defensive. When I explained my concerns he started yelling (actually yelling) and when I asked him to calm down so we could talk, he said "it doesn't matter, I'm not changing what it says, just pay me." I thought we could come up with a happy medium. He continued yelling/berating me. He got up and shouted that he'd be back later and that my Husband had better have his check. He then stormed out, slamming the door behind him. He left in such a huff that my neighbor came over to see if I was okay and told me to come get him if Graeme came back. Soon Graeme texted "I'm in the driveway. Give me "this number" and I'll go away." So...I did. Just so I wouldn't have to deal with him again. I was actually so worried about the way he left that before I went out to give him his final check, I looked out of my window to make sure he wasn't going to hurt me. I should never feel like this. I'm not saying he would hurt me, but I am saying that I was scared enough to think he might. read more

I am extremely pleased with all the work Brilliant Construction has done. The owner was a pleasure to work with, stayed well within budget and communicated every step of the way. I cannot speak highly enough of this company. The work they do is truly "Brilliant". If you are looking for any type of improvement on your home or investment property contact Brilliant Construction, you'll be glad you did... read more

After working on my small music room project with Mr. Graeme Chapman of Brilliant Construction, we have been working with him again to remodel our entire house. The work he has done for us is amazing. Our house was built by him with a lot of passion, detail, and love. Graeme is a combination of builder, designer, artist, great communicator, and problem solver. He is very detail oriented and cares greatly to get "Brilliant" work done for you. Over the past few months, he has demolished most of my house, and built it up to amazing standards. We received an "A+" for our final inspection from our building inspector, and every person that walks into our house is amazed at the great work that he has done for us. The end product is an amazingly well built custom home, and if it was in a different neighborhood, it will definitely be worth a couple million dollars. His fees are fair and reasonable, and I would even say on the lower side compared to industry average. Since there is only one Graeme Chapman, you will be lucky if you can hire him as your contractor. He's done an amazing job with our house, and it has been a great pleasure working with him. read more

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Graeme is a great guy and his work is exceptional. I had him work on my home and my rental homes as well. Did lots of repairs and upgrades over the years and his work has always been top notch. I highly recommend him. read more

We have been collaborating with Graeme Chapman for 15 years as we upgrade our 1970's tract home and yard. We were the first clients of Brilliant Construction and have never regretted it. I admire Graeme's craftsmanship, his honesty, his good taste, and creativity. He has put in skylights, new windows and doors, a new heater, custom closets, new bathrooms and kitchens, moved walls, and floors. He has built from scratch a fountain, an outdoor table, and garden walls that can only be described as brilliant. Graeme knows where to spend money and has not shied away from telling us when our ideas were too expensive or too weird. Together we have transformed a dumpy 1960's tract house into bright, comfortable and eye-catching home. One of the things I particularly like about Graeme's work is the quality and integrity of his sub-contractors. They are prompt, good-natured, hard-working, and very capable. Graeme treats them and his craftsmen with respect and demands their best work. Work that does not meet his standards gets redone at his cost, but that was a rare occurrence. Naturally, when remodeling an older residence, surprises crop up. Graeme analyzes the problem and suggests the best way forward. We never felt like he used these issues to gouge us for more money and the problems addressed have stayed fixed. Brilliant Construction lives up to its name! read more

We Love Graeme!!! He has become part of the family. We had half of our upstairs remodeled, including wood floors, walls moved, new windows, new bathroom, new AC, new electric panel, new canned lights and fans. He has a lot of good guys that work for him. We love his Kiwi connection, being from New Zealand, where I lived for two years. He takes pride in his work and he is always following up to make sure things are OK. We will definitely have him back for more work. read more

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