A reader writes in that he and his wife are considering purchasing an older home in our area and asks for recommendations for any particular architects or contractors who might be a good fit.
My wife and I have lived in NE for 5 years now (love your blog) and are getting close to buying a home. A home we have an eye on definitely needs renovation but is not a total gut job. I was wondering if you or your readers have come across good (or bad) renovation companies to handle this sort of work? We're looking to expand a bathroom, do minor kitchen updates, and renovate another bathroom. We'd also do some painting/small electrical work, etc and would love to have one point of contact to handle this sort of work.
21 comments:
Call OdCStudio @ 917-664-9147
contact me for interview nicolasbruzera@hotmail.com
i could provide references
Robert Sestak of Sestak remodeling has been great for me. I did a full gut job on my NE rowhome as well.
My wife and I had a good experience with Sundance on some comparatively minor interior work. For repointing, we really liked working with Renaissance.
I hear Taja Construction does nice work...
Frozen Tropics can tell you a lot about Tara Constitution... Not good.
My wife and I just bought in the neighborhood and are doing almost a total gut of a rowhouse. We met with 4 contractors about the job. We went with RCW Construction (Rodney Wooten is the owner and general contractor). Just getting underway, but previous clients had great things to say about him and his co. A very close second was Impact Construction and Consulting (Justin Sullivan is the owner and general contractor). Similarly, their former clients had nothing but positives to report.
Tar Heel in Trinidad
I and several of my neighbors have used David Robertson of Something Different Contracting. He does quality work that has held up over time in my home.
My wife and I live in the neighborhood and did a renovation on our house recently. Not a full down to the studs job, but we redid bathrooms, the kitchen, floors, installed A/C, etc. We used Pete Marsh at Eco Installations - http://www.ecoinstallationsdc.com/. Pete is fantastic to work with, reasonably priced, and just really competent and honest. We've had friends use him as well in the neighborhood who also loved working with him.
Avoid hiring a general contractor. You will end up saving $150,000 order of magnitude cash. Hire subcontractors (electrical, hvac, plumbing and drywall) yourself. You will have to monitor the construction yourself but it's not rocket science. In the end all that the general contractor does is make a few phone calls while having subcontractors do the job for a meager amount and pocket thousands of dollars! Your first step is to hire a good architect with knowledge of DC codes and then pull necessary permits (it takes half a day)
Do your own research on "Something Different". I have had an experience with David.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their comments. This is a good list of names for us to work with.
Brian
We also had a negative experience with Dave Roberson at Something Different contracting. I would not recommend them.
Hello My Name is Edith and there is an individual who lives on the 1500 block of Gales St that is an architect that has a team that rehubs homes. She has rehubed and helped people rehub in the area. She was been featured on a blog, Urban Turf, several times. Her name is Amanda Clark. Go on to www.dcurbanturf.com and type in rosdale in their search and some of her work will come up. She has two articles on the blog www.dcurbanturf.com. One titled Deal of the Week: Amanda Clark's LATEST H sTREET gEM. Her work is beautiful.
I would 2nd the recommendation of being your own GC. It's really not that hard and is kind of fun. You save a ton of money in the process and learn so much. Use a website like thumbtack to advertise for individual jobs and pull the general permit yourself, while allowing plumbers and electricians to pull their own.
Ari Fingeroth at Federalist Builders is Fantastic! Tons of experience with DC rowhouses. (202) 302-4567 - Ari is not an architect but is a more than capable GC and full service builder.
www.federalistbuilders.com
Asking a bunch of different people what general contractor and architect to go with is a great idea. That way you can really get an idea of who it is that you can trust to get work from. With there being several out there that you can go with, it is not just about going with the person everyone recommends though. You also need to make sure that they give you a good price for their services as well as them being reliable. That way you know that they are truly perfect for the job.
http://gibsonconstruction.com/#aboutus
Fowler Architects. http://fowler-architects.com/
I bought my home in the area about 2.5 years ago and did a gut renovation. I used MAPRO Builders (marcela@maprobuilders.com) a family-owned business and they were wonderful. They were honest, transparent and fair. Everyone I know that's used them has remained friends with the owner and the GC. Amazing but true!
Being able to know how to take care of work around the home can be a little difficult. I remember when my wife and I started working on our deck to ensure that we are not going to fall through. After a lot of wood rot was removed we had to completely redo the deck. The architect that we got in contact with was a great choice, unfortunately we have moved since that time. Hopefully you will be able to find someone that is able to meet your needs. Thank you for sharing.
http://www.kentatearchitect.com/recognition/magazines/62-architectural-digest.html
RCW Construction-Rodney Wooten's license is suspended by DCRA-and is in the process of being revoked. Call Licensing and buyer beware.
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