I can't recommend a contractor more highly than I can recommend Mike of Michael Heaton…read moreConstruction. If you have an opportunity to hire him for your project -- and he has so much work these days, he can pick and choose the projects he wants to take on -- you shouldn't pass on the chance. Your project, both the process of building and the final product, will be better because Mike was in charge of it.
We've done home improvement projects before but none as massive, destructive, and disruptive as the one we hired Michael Heaton Construction for. For this project, we added a 2-car garage and 1000 s.f. addition to our existing home which was also completely remodeled at the same time. We put in a new septic system, all new windows, new siding on the entire home, a new driveway, turned a kitchen into a master bedroom, and added new lighting, electrical, HVAC, and flooring everywhere. This required an entire exterior wall to be torn down mid-January. It could have been a nightmare.
But unlike the adversarial contractor relationships we endured through other relatively minor home projects, we always felt like we were on the same team with Mike. What he wanted for our project was exactly what we wanted: to have our house turn out both functional and beautiful.
There are three main reasons to hire Mike:
1 His knowledge of the building industry. I've never met someone with his breadth and depth of knowledge in this field. He has an answer for everything, including why he wouldn't recommend doing something you thought want to do, or what particular building code will prevent you from doing it. He can fix almost anything, and he will come over and do it, even if you're texting him about it at 9 PM on a Friday night.
2 His creativity and vision. Our home would have turned out completely different if we'd hired someone other than Mike to complete the plans our architect created. It was Mike's idea to put soaring ceilings in an area over our kitchen that, according to our architectural plans, was supposed to have 7.5 foot ceilings, an idea that completely changed the entire look and feel of the place. The truss company told him it couldn't be done, but Mike sent them back to the drawing board several times until they came back with a solution that satisfied him.
This creative problem solving extended to every aspect of our project, from the restructuring of our existing HVAC system, to, literally, the placement of individual plumbing pipes. This kind of thinking saved us money and created space, and produced a more attractive home that will be easier to live in.
3 His desire to do the right thing. Mike doesn't want you calling him 2 years from now because something he installed broke or leaked. He does the work right the first time. But he doesn't often take credit for doing so.
For example, we hired him to put in a septic system designed by an engineer we'd hired separately. The plans included a standard lid for the system. We only found out later, when the wrong lid was delivered, that he had insisted upon a sturdier lid that cost $500 more (but which he had not charged us extra for) because he didn't want to take a chance that on some future date a heavy vehicle would drive over the standard lid and crack it.
My final comment is that Mike's team was just a complete pleasure to have around the house. We practically lived with Jeremy, Billy, and Christian these past months, and they were just really *nice* to have around. His office manager Brittany is sweet and helpful. I can't say that about everybody. In fact, I rarely say that about anybody.
I know I might be making this project sound a little too rosy to be real. It was, in fact, dirty, messy, invasive, exhausting, expensive, and overwhelming, and it went on for what felt like far too long. There is no general contractor who can wave a magic wand and prevent any of that.
The only thing a really, really good contractor can do is what Mike did: he can make you feel like you're both working toward a common goal while you're suffering through, and he can make the house you get to live in for the next however-many years, turn out better than you could have possibly imagined.
