Am I happy with my kitchen? Generally yes. Do I recommend KBR? No. With all the headaches of lack of communication and the other issues listed below, I would not recommend KBR. I'd give it 2.5 stars for the final product and our designer.
TL;DR
Cost
We found KBR Kitchen and Bath through a few online reviews. We did the complimentary in-home estimate with Marve who was wonderful to work with throughout the design process. We were doing a kitchen renovation which required all new cabinetry, removing two walls, new island and coffee bar, and all new flooring throughout our main floor. She provided an initial design and estimate, and after a few tweaks, we got a new design and estimate of roughly $55K. We met Marve at the Fairfax showroom to pick out our cabinets, flooring, countertop and backsplash. We made some upgrades and that added $3K to our estimate.
The next step was having Marve and the Project Manager come to our house for the final walkthrough/measurements. During this walkthrough additional outlet/switch cancellations were identified resulting in an additional $1500 to the total.
During the renovation, some issues were were identified, such as needing to fix a support in the ceiling beam. These unexpected items resulted in a $3720 change order.
In total, it was $8,000 more than our initial estimate. This also doesn't take into account the various additional items we had to purchase: garbage disposal, appliances, light fixtures, floating shelves, etc.
Contractors
The days the crew did work, they arrived promptly (if not earlier) at 8am. We gave them a code to the house, and they would typically leave between 4 and 5pm. KBR's website claims no subcontractors. This is not true. The main crew we had was Landmark Construction based in Maryland. That's who I had to write the change order check to. And the flooring company is MB Flooring. Overall, the crew is doing quality work. There were issues called out (we are still waiting to have them fixed). We did have issues with how they left our home each day. There were instances of leaving the ceiling door to the attic open, lights on after leaving, and door in our garage open. The worse one was we get home to the tub plugged up with the water running and nearly overflowing.
Project Manager
We had a terrible experience with our designated project manager, David. The only time he was proactively communicative to us was when it related to money (e.g., required change orders, picking up the check). With a 6 month old, we had to leave the house each day they were working and asked David to notify us when the crew would not be working. On at least 3 occasions it was not communicated. We would also bring things to David's attention to be proactive for items that should be addressed before the next step happens (e.g., a poorly cut tile piece that should be fixed before grout goes in, a light fixture that needs to be re-centered, a dent in the wall caused by the crew that should be fixed prior to paint). After talking to the crew, they told us David never communicated those updates to them. After us complaining, David's boss was sent over to our house the same day, but little improved.
Schedule
The project started on January 4th. We were very happy with the progress they made in the first week, and even the second week. At the rate it was going, we had no doubt they were going to be finished way before 6 weeks. However, after that 2nd week, each passing day we lost more and more faith in KBR. The project had an estimated completion date of February 15th. It is currently February 20th and the project is not complete. Over the course of the 6+ weeks, the crew has worked a total of 12 days out of 33 business days (36%). Some of the reasons why KBR did not work: 1) a wrong cabinet for our island was sent, so a new one had to get order. No work at the house could apparently be done until that and the countertops got delivered. 2) After the kitchen cabinets get installed, they said someone to do final measurements for the countertops. It takes 7-10 days for the countertops to get delivered, so the crew did not work a whole week because of this. 3) Right now, the crew is waiting on pieces for our island to come in before they finish all of the other touch-ups and fixes we have been telling the project managers about. It was told to us that prior to the project start that all materials are ordered and in-hand, which is another claim made by KBR that isn't true.
So we have been living in a kitchen and dining room that is 90% complete for at least 2 weeks. KBR will not come out until that island piece is in, so we can't set up our dining room, because the light fixture in there needs to be fixed. This wouldn't have been an issue had the project manager effectively communicated to the crew what needed to be done. read more