Homeowner beware! I would shop around before spending money with this company. We spent over $90,000 with them and it was nothing but a headache.
All in all, I would never recommend this company as I can go on and on regarding their shoddy work. I have listed some items below for you to get a feel of what happened. We would have been better off hiring separate contractors as we had the headache anyways & the price tag would have been much smaller. This company is very pricey & NOT WORTH ANY PENNY.
When we BSI we told that one superintendent would handle the job from day one until completion. We were also told that he would supervise as well as open and lock up the house daily. We were not assigned a superintendent until week three. The "interim" super didn't seem to know or care about any of the long term plans with the house. When we approached him the answer was "I'm not your superintendent" and allowed the other sub contractors s to lock-up leaving strangers in our home when we were specifically told that one person would oversee this. When asked a specific question regarding the house he would shrug his shoulders as if he did not know the answer, or even worse, did not care.
We quickly learned to stop by the house daily to ensure things were getting done correctly. We were assured we wouldn't have to do this when signing the contract. Unfortunately, we were forced to do their superintendents job by showing up on the job daily to make sure that the work was adequately being administered.
Our most significant cost overage was a grave miscalculation in what it would take to renovate our back porch. The initial quote was to tear out all existing glass & replace the glass with screens as well as a door. This cost was estimated at $1800. When work began, we were told the wood was rotten. Porch replacement suddenly took an addition $8,000 for lumber cost and labor. . A cost increase of $8,000 was a real shocker. The porch was quickly built (no great labor cost there) and we have since priced the wood, which was not of exorbitant cost Suddenly, we felt like our estimates were unrealistic and poorly calculated with an estimated to actual cost increase of 444%, we were suddenly and completely bombarded by unforeseen costs.
After the 8 week headache of renovation, we moved in to find the old bathroom hardware & trash items placed in our brand new bathroom cabinetry! Cabinets that were worth thousands of dollars were being used as trash receptacles by workers. Unbelievable.
Moreover, each window sill was covered with dust & dirt. We noticed holes around four of the six new "can lights" in the kitchen ( that we were assure would look remarkable) that we had to call to their attention for repair. We had to be most persistent or they would have never been properly installed.
We are left with no further explanation than to believe that the entire contract was based on profit without any concern for a job well done. There were no translators for us to even talk to some of the non-English speaking contractors. We have become dismayed at their slogan "It's not what we build its how" because we saw nothing even close to that on our job! The only "how" was how BSI was going to make the biggest profit at the homeowners expense. It seems that the cheapest labor was brought in to increase their profit and the quality of work suffered greatly.
To add to our dismay, we moved in to find the entire downstairs flooded due to a screw being placed in a pipe. This was an area of work that was done after inspection and was never inspected prior to closing the area of the wall. This short cut in work led to major calamity. After a short battle, it was decided that BSI would take care of the water damage.
To add to this comedy of errors, the repairs were shoddy. We were told there would be moisture readings done on the wall but never told the findings of this. Although it was in the contract to have baseboard & trim replaced throughout the entire home, the ensuing repairs left a baseboard that was cut about an inch short from one corner. Instead of having some integrity with their work and replacing the baseboard, they filled it with wood filler??? We paid a separate contractor to have the baseboards put in & Building Specialists replaced with wood filler. Our brand new tile that we paid for is now stained & ruined because of the leak which was their error and they refuse to replace
Wood filler replaced a once beautiful base board and our brand new tile floor is full of rust stains (which we were told could be cleaned but they remain) despite a $90,000 payment. Contractors used our personal garbage to fill with paint and plaster and we had to spend over an hour cleaning up after the contractors. BEWARE! read more
