Our home remodel project with GOAT was significant - including kitchen & bath remodels with structural modifications, walls moved, as well as, a complete electrical rewire and HVAC conversion from boiler to central heating and air. Being new to the area and from out of state, we went with the recommendation of our realtor and agreed to go with GOAT for the remodel.
The biggest area of concern besides the amount of rework that had to be done is the lack of communication during the project. We were constantly reaching out for any kind of information and even relied on family members to travel into the area and see the home to give us updates.
When the work was finally completed and the home ready to move into, we were generally pleased with the work that was done. There was a minor punch list of items that needed to be addressed, which we discovered in our final walk through, for example, one item which was part of the scope was the removal of the prior wall mounted radiators. The installation of the new furnace and central AC included new ducts throughout the entire home. When we asked Chris why the remaining radiators were left on the walls despite the installation of completely new ducts, Chris's response was he "didn't really know why they were left but he wasn't going to be able to remove them without charging us for additional work." This didn't make sense given the significant cost to install an entirely new heating and AC system.
During the first couple of months, we lived in the home, we had a couple of issues related to the remodel and at first Chris & his team were responsive and willing to come address these concerns. The concerns were all material workmanship quality issues and not simple cosmetic issues, although we had many of those that all added up over time.
Despite it being a brand new system, we had issues with the heating and cooling for months and finally was able to determine thanks to the furnace company that GOAT's drywall contractors had drywalled over a few of the air returns so there were not enough returns for the airflow to circulate.
Additional issues we faced included: bathroom remodel issues where the drains didn't work because they were installed incorrectly, bathroom walls that had to be cut to access and to repair the incorrectly installed plumbing, sending the painting contractor away as they intended to paint over a poorly patched drywall repair, and bathroom wallpaper that began peeling off the walls after 7 months. When we reached out for assistance from Chris we were told this was not a GOAT installation issue, and therefore not something he and his team were willing to help us correct. During this last conversation is when Chris finally told us that: "GOAT has lost a lot of money on our home remodel project and because of the number of calls asking us to come and fix issues with the remodel that he and his team need to draw the line in the sand".
We ended up having to hire and pay additional money to other contractors to correct the work product that we paid GOAT as part of the original bid to complete. All of the above issues happened within the first 8 months after initial completion.
Overall, given our experience with GOAT we would not recommend them based on our project. We understand that much of the work was subcontracted to other trades, however, as the General Contractor, Chris had an obligation as the GC and Project Manager to ensure the work the trades completed met the standard of industry. Chris travelled out of state often and we felt he was simply not present full time during our project.
While it may be true the project was less profitable, that would not be the fault of us, the homeowner, that would be the responsibility of GOAT and the GC to ensure the work was completed professionally and quality workmanship was present. In our experience this was not the case, and it has cost us additional expense, time, and frustration to get our home to where we expected it to be when we signed on with Chris. read more
