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Review 9/13/2010
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BACKGROUND:
My project was a master bathroom remodel. It's been a very long time since my bathroom was updated. My bathtub's finish was ruined, tiles were cracking, and various plumbing was starting to break and leak.
INTERVIEW:
What impressed me the most about this company is their preparation, both in information and workmanship.
As I've heard and read from various sources, when you meet with a contractor you need to be prepared and ask all the right interview questions: past history, references, costs, etc. When I first met Peter, he was fully prepared for all of my questions including some that I didn't even think about asking. He came with a stack of references with contact info and various other guides about how to find the right contractor, from the state licensing board. Basically, he wanted to prove to me that he was very reputable and detailed oriented. He did that.
Calls to 3-4 of his many references (I chose to call those who had similar projects to mine) yielded high praise and compliments. Although, his estimates were a bit on the pricier end than other estimates I received, it was still within our budget.
DESIGN:
The kind of designer that I was looking for is one that can help me find ways to improve the overall usability of my bathroom. Usability issues can range from subtle (walking area, easy access, etc) to significant (e.g. Handicap support, storage space, etc). Aesthetics to me, had a lesser priority. As a designer, Stephanie was very competent. She gave us an interview about how we currently use our bathroom. She was able to drill down significant problems we had with the old bathroom and helped us to find solutions to them. She gave us pros and cons to various options available to us. Although I've only met with her twice, this process took about a week for us to really narrow down and finalize.
Aesthetically speaking, we had a decent amount of selection to choose from. I believe they work with 2-3 cabinet and tile companies and we were able to find a color selection that looked modern. Fixture selection was very easy to make as well.
DEMOLITION:
It took about a month after the design was completed before the demolition started. The things I made sure to note was how clean they kept the house after a day's work. They brought sufficient floor protection to ensure that no debris damaged the floor. At the end of a work day, the house looked the same as the start of the work day. Demolition only took 2 days.
CONSTRUCTION:
During the construction phase, most of my communication went through their site supervisor, Ambrose. He was very courteous and informative, keeping me up-to-date on how the project was going, good or bad. He was always available to contact when I had questions and concerns.
An outstanding issue I had during construction was restroom logistics. In my previous experience with other contractors on similar sized projects, I had always requested that contractors go offsite if they needed to use the restroom and I never had any problems with it. But, in this case, it would have cost me more money because they required use of a restroom on-site. I wish they would have inform me about these kind of seemingly obvious logistical issues before the project started so I could have been better prepared.
The rest of the project went fairly smoothly and ahead of schedule. The entire project finished in about 1.5 months with the estimated time being 2-3 months.
POST-CONSTRUCTION QUALITY AND SUPPORT:
It's been a month now since the work was completed.
Since then, small cracks in the grout developed where the walls meet and where the bathtub meet the walls during the course of that month. I called Peter and twice they made repairs to ensure that the cracks would no longer appear. I have a one-year labor warranty with them. So, I'm hoping that no more cracks will occur in the future. I will have to re-evaluate again over the next few months. I am currently satisfied with the expediency and attentiveness of the post-constuction support they have provided.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, it's been a pleasure having Baccaro Construction do my project. For such a heart-wrenching experience remodeling in general can be, they have made the experience fairly stress-free.
Their professionalism, trustworthiness, and zero-pressure approach truly impressed me. I would definitely consider them again for a future project.
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