Core Alternatives

I hired Scott Glahn of Core Alternatives in April 2017 to do a master bath remodel. It was to take 3-4 weeks, he started masking off the master bedroom and bath on May 17th, 2017, then started demo 5/25. It took over 4 months !! and we had no use of our master bedroom as well as the bathroom due to the dust, masking, and construction traffic. He did not finish until Sept 20th with multiple issues as outlined below.
(note that similar issues are now found on the BBB website as well).

He was very personable and attentive initially, present almost every day for the demo, but there were multiple problems after that. The work just stopped after that, and he would not answer calls, VM, or text, (I specifically asked not emails) for days at a time. He would say a sub contractor would be there on a certain day and I would hire a house sitter to watch my dogs (as his plumber repeatedly left my garage door open and let my dogs out), but they wouldn't show. I still had to pay the sitter.

--He didn't order materials in a timely manner. So, when he did, it was late in the season and they were backordered. More delays.

--He didn't tell me for several weeks after signing the contract, that the Cambria quartz I designed the whole bathroom around wouldn't be available from his preferred source unless I paid an additional $50/sf. Had he told me sooner, I could have gotten it from the Cambria dealer cheaper and in a more timely manner.
I contacted the Cambria dealer anyway, to work Scott, but they were backlogged for months for install, so Scott said he would install. That was a mistake. It turned out to be months before Scott installed it, and he did not do it correctly. He did not seal the edges for weeks, installed the tub over unsealed edges.

--Scott did not order enough materials, ran out of tile TWICE, and sub had to stop in the middle of the job until more was shipped.

-- Wrong materials ordered and more delays.

--He did not supervise his subs, which would have kept a lot of damage from happening.

--His plumber who called himself "master" plumber, works out of Windsor Co, caused unbelievable water damage to hour home due to sloppy workmanship.
------He hooked up the plumbing under the sink crooked, it leaked overnight and warped my brand new custom cabinets.
-------He broke the auto clean toilet during installation, AND didn't connect intake to toilet under the floor correctly, we woke up to a huge area of water in our basement ceiling which is professionally finished. The contractor had to put in a new toilet, and cut a 4x4 foot hole in our finished basement ceiling to repair the water damage. It took 2 weeks to fix this. This is now August.
-------The plumber put the hot and cold handles on our soaking tub backwards, because "that's how I do it". He never asked or told me about it, was very rude to me when I let him know this was not what I wanted. Too late to change.
-------He was rude, parked in front of my neighbors driveway, refusing to move his truck when I asked, said they "could wait", he "was busy".

--Shower door guy had us wait 3 weeks for a glass wall and door, then installed the wall crooked, 1 " off at the top, drilling holes in our beautiful tile in the wrong place. Put in the wrong shower door, too short, made us wait over 2 more weeks for a new one, then drilled all new holes in our tile and quartz, more damage.
We had a shower tile mysteriously crack when he was there, and he broke off the tub faucet handle. Scott was not present to supervise him.

----Contractor gave out our security code to a sub we didn't know. That was an explicit part of our contract, to NOT give out our security code.

--Contractor ultimately fixed all the damage from the others, but he should have picked better subs, and been on site to check their work and make sure these bad things didn't happen.

--Biggest frustration was Scott, the contractor, not communicating, and disappearing for days at a time not answering the phone, texts, or VM. We would have fired him but had invested so much, had paid for all the parts, and would have to buy new materials and get someone else to finish, so we stuck it out, but it was a miserable experience.

--Contractor was a nice guy, and a very good carpenter, but I would NEVER recommend him for contractor work.

--I want to warn others of these issues, and find that there are similar reviews on BBB site. A particular problem noted is failure to pay subcontractors who contacted the owners months later.

ADDENDUM: I paid Scott IN FULL 2 days after he completed the bathroom, and asked him to sign a form to agree to pay all subcontractors within 30 days of receiving full pmt. He said, no problem, he had already paid them. BUT, on Nov 9th, we got a bill in the mail from the granite company for a bill that was 96 days overdue. It was a small bill, and we demanded he pay it immediately, which he did, but he had lied to us. We found similar reviews on the BBB for not paying subs. And we have run into 2 subcontractors in the community since then, who refuse to work with him for this very reason. Scott may seem nice, but we DO NOT RECOMMEND him for contractor work.

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