Reviews

After a bad fill valve on a toilet flooded a bathroom and portions of the partially finished basement below, Jose was one of a very few contractors who went all the way from visiting and assessing the project to putting together an estimate. We were thankful to be on track to getting a significant part of our house back. Now more than 5 months since we signed a contract, we’re not there yet. Our bathrooms were finally restored to full functionality 69 days after the “on or before” completion date on our contract, but we’re still waiting on a few last items to be completed, now 83 days past that date. We understand that project delays are real and that this has been a tough stretch in which to operate a business. But the way this project has proceeded for us-- a piece here and a piece there with a level of (non)communication that we can still scarcely believe -- has been an experience we wouldn’t wish on anyone. First work started 16 days after it was scheduled to begin. There was no communication that the project wouldn’t start as anticipated. It’s just that no one no one showed up. We once had a 19 day stretch during which we didn’t hear anything from Jose. I can recall only two times in 5 months that Jose picked up the phone. Of the dozens of voicemails I’ve left, only two have gotten a prompt call back. Text messages? Jose has sent a few to me; he’s never once replied to one I sent him. Emails? Not a single one since we signed the contract. The main upshot of this is that we never know who might be coming to our house on any given day to do work. Several times Jose has laid out a plan, but it’s rarely borne any resemblance to what actually happens-- which is that no one will show up for several days and then someone will knock on the door out of the blue. Since we made our penultimate payment, 90 days have now gone by....

We'd like to first thank you for choosing us to help work on your home needs. We were happy to do so because we knew you badly needed the help. Secondly, we'd like to apologize for any delays/lack of communication you felt happened or didn't happen during the timeline of your project. In response to this post: During the contract signing we laid out every step and reminded you of certain things that we needed from you 9 ordering fixtures/appliances you wanted). We were very clear and thorough in that and you had a copy of that contract. We have the same process for every customer and our thoroughness/transparency has been something customers appreciated. We follow our contract obligations so that there are no questions at the end. It's how this industry works. IF you want something else done while we are there and we are able to do it, we can certainly try and help. But we can't take away from another family's time and projects. We had a contractual obligation to fulfill only what was in the contract. Due to the nature/needs of your project the delays were not because we didn't value you as a customer. It is quite the opposite. Like you mentioned we took the time to take your job and help you and your family with an issue that needed addressing. It wasn't an easy task nor is it easy to navigate projects in this industry during this time period (as you are well aware) for any business. Lead times for materials/ products/tools (not including labor issues) etc. can take a toll on a project at any point in time. It's why we urgently ask any customer that wants anything done with their home to start the process now. As a family business we cannot just wait for something to arrive to complete, we have to do our best to multi-task numerous projects to try and make sure each family we help gets their needs met. We wish we could have sat and waited for your materials/inspections to complete and was there 24/7 at your house to answer questions, but that just is not possible. With that said, we see we didn't communicate enough with you due to your feelings we get from this lengthly post here and wish we tried something more to quell your concerns. We work with families across all of CT and have had no issues because they understand the current situation we are in and trusted us to do the work (let people in and out of their home because they knew it was us) And we take it personal when you say our work was good, but others could get equal quality. That just isn't true. We have great reviews for a reason and very thankful for all our amazing customers, including you. We have very minor things we need to do to say your project is 100% complete, but I believe it's a fixture you ordered that is taking longer than expected to ship to your home.

One might get the impression from the response from Stonybrook that our project was held up at various points by our failure to procure certain needed elements (“we…reminded you of certain things that we needed from you like ordering fixtures/appliances you wanted.”) That’s patently false. The only possible example of something like that was when we hadn’t ordered enough bullnose to complete the tile job on first pass. As it is, we ordered the amount of tile that Elisha (via Jose) told us to order. It wasn’t a matter of our lack of preparation or an issue with the supply chain (“Lead times for materials/ products/tools”). It was a failure of communication/coordination from Stonybrook. So, too, with the ongoing saga of the tub spout (one of the elements of our contracted project that remains undone). Our trim kit was ready and waiting in late December before any part of the project began. The plumbers did their rough plumbing without apparent reference to the kit we’d already purchased and were then unable to install the type of tub spout we had ready when the time came. They weren’t waiting on us: the spout had been sitting there for 7-8 weeks when they came back in February to install fixtures and apparently realized the problem. The contract promises that “Stonybrook…will assist in the ordering and selection of fixtures to ensure a successful integration with the proposed work” presumably so this sort of thing does not happen. We did our part and were failed by Jose’s (lack of) communication and coordination. The intimation that there were items added along the way that slowed the project down is also false. (“IF you want something else done while we are there and we are able to do it, we can certainly try and help…. We had a contractual obligation to fulfill only what was in the contract.”) We paid the electrician an extra work fee to add a switch to some basement lights, which he promptly did. But that’s literally the only thing that was added along the way that isn’t in the contact, and it didn’t extend our timelines one bit. That’s not the reason this project still isn’t done. Calling the contract “very clear and thorough” is a bit of a stretch by nearly any standard, but it’s hardly a standalone document in any event. It certainly doesn’t spell out such a clear sequence of operations (“we laid out every step”) that we wouldn’t need to have any supplemental communication about who was coming to the house on what day-- as if we’d have had no issues if we’d simply been better readers of the contract. That’s nonsense. The clearest things in the contract have to be the dates, and it’s probably worth reviewing those one more time: the start date (missed by 16 days), the “on or before” completion date (missed by 86 days and counting….), and the dates for Jose to collect payments (nailed every time). And let’s lift up just this one sentence to conclude: “We wish we could have sat and waited for your materials/inspections to complete and was there 24/7 at your house to answer questions…” This is a bit of smokescreen, followed by obvious hyperbole. But it helps to make our main point. For one thing, no one ever performed any inspections and, as I said above, no one was ever waiting on any materials that *we* had failed to secure in time. Of course, we had no such expectation about 24/7 availability. But we did expect that we would have regular communication about the schedule and plan for work happening at our house--that our calls and emails and texts would get returned (at least some of the time). Not that we would have a 19 day silence. Or another 18 day silence. That we'd hear from Jose's own office administrator that she herself hadn't heard from Jose in more than a week. It’s that element that we really wanted to highlight in posting our review so other folks know what they’re getting into. These suggestions about added items and delays with supplies and the clarity of the contract (eliminating the need that we’d ever need to hear from Jose about what was happening?) are more than misleading. We’re sorry if it’s insulting to say so, but on that score--if nothing else--we continue to think that there must be better options.