Laurelhurst Homes

Pros:
• Quality carpenter staffed
• Relatively competitive pricing if set initially with clear plans
• Willingness to talk through issues
Cons:
• Poor communication (Slow response times, misses text and email messages, and sometimes does not follow up on items requested)
• Erroneous assumptions causing delays and money, does not ask for information he needs before work, starts parts of project without full information needed.
• Lied about submitting permit on certain date, causing at least 1 month delay. He firmly said in October that he submitted permit, and I checked with him weekly on any updates. I got fed up and went to the city to find out that no permit was ever submitted. Called him out on it, and he said that I misunderstood him. It was quite clear and dry: “did you submit the permit.” FYI, He had over 3 months when the kitchen was being built to draw up plans for the Addition. Time took for plan to be approved was 2 weeks after submittal.
• Dated practices (communication, permitting, etc)
• Contract and Invoicing clarity (dated and not current standards to protect consumers)
• Poor subcontractor selection, and poor communications with subs (80% errors was with subs not having correct information or poor subs)
Tips:
• Must set substantial completion date on contract. (Can and should add addendums for excusable delays such as change order, permits, etc. )Too many preventable problems that arose due to erroneous assumptions and poor subcontractor selection.
• Use standardized Contracts such as AIA’s A105 (small fee applies, but would be worth it)
• Get quotes for Change Orders immediately. Will be hard to get detailed billing later. Mentioned that “he had no obligation to show that bill,” That would be true if it was Lump-sum bid for the job, but my job was not.
• Do not let him start on job site until permit in hand. He is not that familiar with certain municipals.
• Must follow-up early on and tackle issues early on.

Project summary:
• 2 parts: Kitchen and Addition over garage. (2 phases)
• Quoted time: 2 months for kitchen, 3 months for Addition
• Demands: basic bid, with open options and owner contributed work, coordinate with owner on details as they come along the schedule.
• Started: June 2016, plan to end: May 2017 = 1 year.

Not terrible, but fair. Not up to par to what I'm seeing elsewhere. To be clear, there was those 2 or 3 instances that set the tone of the project that was not retractable, and I hope others do not experience. I bet If we were to redo this project, the hindsight would make it smooth sailing for the contractor and me.