Gersy’s General remodeling

About a 200 sf kitchen remodel with new flooring, new cabinets, new countertops, new recessed lights, and a new layout with alterations to plumbing, gas, and electrical locations. There was drywalling in of new partition framing and duct re-alignment work which was previously completed under a separate permit.

Concerns:
-Job took too long --about 5+ montths
-Poor coordination with subs, electrical and plumbing
-Not very knowledgeable of building permits
-When working, favored speed over quality control
-Owner had to constantly catch mistakes
-Final product still contains some errors and damage

The job took too long --effectively about 5 months from the original start date to near completion. In part this was due to poor understandings of how to work with L&I(building department), and the contractor keeping their business license up to date. This delayed the project by about 2 months. To the contractor's credit, they eventually did the paperwork they needed to get the job started, but up front transparency about their lack of readiness could have saved all of us a lot of headaches. Also, after the late start, a job estimated to take 4-5 weeks took about 10.

There was poor coordination with electrical and plumbing subs. On more than one occasion, owner found the electrical sub using an outdated plan and installation errors. For example a countertop outlet placed where a full height pantry would go and no lights in the back third of the kitchen. Owner had to ask Gersy to come on site, see the issue and ask for the correction. Electrical sub also often appeared on site with little to no warning -- which we could not always accommodate since we both worked -- this led to further delays. The gas pipe was also installed twice as tall as the appliance spec recommended and with an unnecessary tee for two appliances (only one in the plan) -- This complicated space in the back, about 4" from the wall needed to clear the pipe installations. It took two weeks of the owner asking before the plumber came on site to correct it.

The owner had to constantly catch other mistakes, such as walls not fully planed out and ready to receive cabinets, which caused further delays on the cabinetry install date. There was also a refrigerator cabinet pocket built too tightly to accept the appliance. This was a result of earlier furring out and drywalling by the contractor -- the wall was not plumb and this was not considered for the filler panel. Not adjusted til after the owner caught the mistake and they cut the panel, more or less to fit the fridge -- Still a very tight squeeze and frig still does not sit all the way in the pocket. . And forgetting to remove abandoned drain lines and leaving existing copper plumbing lines to sag without reconnecting their supports to the joists in the basement (the latter now corrected by owner). The final product still contains some errors, omissions, and at times a lack of craftsmanship. There are exposed construction screws on a cabinetry end panel and a wall cabinet that was damaged either in delivery or installation. It has a splitting back and needs bracing. Granted the house is old with some significant settling, but no leveling was done for the flooring installation, even for the cross slopes.

Thankfully the base cabinets were shimmed properly up to level. For that and some other reasons, I still give this contractor a two, rather than a one. The countertops from the supplier recommended by the contractor are excellent and that independent installer did a superb job placing them.

These many concerns did of course lead to a fraught working relationship with the contractor. He is very reasonable in person and usually responded promptly to questions. But, as concerns were raised, no notes were taken, and they had to be raised again, and then again. Finally lists of incorrect and/or incomplete work were created, which the contractor objected to. Nonetheless, after weeks of urging the cabinetry installation to be finished and the fixtures to be installed, it was done after a list of incomplete work was sent to the contractor.

In the final analysis, the contractor DOES seem capable of doing a competent job, but he does not handle permitted jobs well and for us, in any event, there was little oversight of his crew and the results in the field. As he reminded us, he was working on several other projects, many of which were apparently larger and had bigger budgets than ours. So there you have it,...we did not seem to be a priority and our experience here seems to reflect that.