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"Although we contracted and made an initial payment (1/3) on February 27, by mutual agreement the work began on 13 April 2015 to allow the work-site to dry out from the winter weather.  The contractor made incredible progress in the first two weeks demolishing the old deck & garage porch, pouring footers, raising the frame & putting on the roof.  The first crew was very hard working, here early in the morning, & leaving late in the afternoon (after cleaning up the area each day).  When rain was in the forecast, the crew would ask if they could make up the day on Saturday, which they did.  Everything we saw in the first 2 weeks was consistent with our previous great experience with Fox Creek 2 years earlier when they replaced all our siding, windows & doors. The only problem at that point was that a plain black roof (25 yr) was put on instead of the architectural roof (lifetime warranty) we asked for.  The contractor acknowledged the error and offered to replace the roof at no additional cost.  We had originally only contracted for 2 skylights so we asked if he'd install 2 more at no cost versus replacing the roof and he agreed.  We were told that everything was on schedule to complete the rest of the job in 2 weeks.  We made the second (of 3) payment on April 29 which was when the excavation work below the porch/deck was supposed to begin.  No one showed up to start this work for several days and when they did (it was a different crew from the first), they typically showed up around mid-morning and were gone by mid-afternoon.  We had beautiful weather during this period in which very little work got done.  The contractor claimed they were having trouble getting the supplier to deliver sand and crushed rock.  Since we're located in St. Mary's County which is a bit of a distance from the contractor's home base in Crownsville near Annapolis, they decided to use "local" suppliers & subcontractors (electricians) rather than those they normally use.  We found out later that the sand & gravel supplier was located in Brandywine about 40 miles from here (there are plenty of suppliers right here in the county).  When the sand & gravel finally showed up at 10:00 am one morning about the same time the crew arrived, the crew directed them to the spot they wanted it dumped and then everyone left shortly after that without doing anything.  We knew by then that the job wasn't going to be completed anywhere near the 3 & 1/2 week total time advertised.  The predictable springtime heavy rains started and we were delayed even more.  The week of May 11 was the first week we could see some progress each day.  The end product was beautiful.  A paver retaining wall was put in all around the perimeter below the deck/porch and in between the concrete slab under the porch and the pavered patio area below the deck.  

We couldn't understand why the remaining work on the porch above couldn't go on while the below work was going on.  Wiring had to be put in, and also all the finish work (soffets, gutters, trim work, ceiling made of soffet rolls - looks very nice).  Most of the holdup turned out to be waiting for the "local" electrician to show up.  The electrician (Goudie) wasn't really all that local but was from Waldorf 35 miles up the road.  Our contractor had to threaten, cajole and/or beg Goudie to show up and install wiring so that the finishing work could be done on the porch.  We begged our contractor to get another licensed electrician (there are plenty of good ones right here in the county that we've done business with).  Anyway, once the electrician showed up we had to get them back several more times because they'd forget to do something we'd asked for or they didn't have a part and we'd end up in the same waiting game.  They did end up getting shamed into sending an electrician on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend to put in 2 ceiling outlets they''d forgotten to put in, but we still didn't have any fans or lights to enjoy that weekend, by which time our contractor assured we'd be enjoying the porch.  You don't EVER want to do business with Goudie Electrical.  

To make a long story short, after a lot of nagging to get a lot of loose ends tied up, the work was finally finished and inspected the Thursday (the day) before this past 4th of July weekend.  The porch & deck are absolutely beautiful (we'll attach pictures if we can figure out how to do it - they will speak for themselves).  We got some extras that we asked for like 7" wide Azek boards along the tops of the vinyl railings inside the porch to serve as a counter top for setting drinks or small plates of food or snacks, which we've had a lot of nice compliments about.  They're the perfect height for pulling a barstool up to.  One of the things we didn't get that we expected was a decent landing area at the bottom of our deck stairs.  The crew threw grass seed and straw there.  When we asked about getting some sort of solid landing, they shoveled out the area and threw some leftover crushed rock on it and tamped it down.  When we asked if they were going to finish it (we told them they could use some of the many wall pavers that were left over) they said the wall pavers would require digging too deep. We offered to pick up (and did) some square flat stepping stones from Lowe's which we left for them.  One of the younger fellas who was there one day to meet with the inspector and had no tools just laid the stones down, stomped them down with his feet and let it go at that.  The area was not level and a downpour that evening directed a steady flow of water from the stones across our concrete slab.  We didn't bother asking again, just tore it up last weekend, leveled and tamped it down properly and reinstalled the stepping stones ourselves.

Our sense through this whole experience was that there was nobody in charge.  Besides the first crew that started the project and came later on one day to install all the soffets and gutters, it appeared to be young fellas without any on-site direction or supervision.  They did a lot of good work but there was a lot of unfinished work that we had to call our contractor up to get fixed.  If we lived closer to Annapolis or the DC metro area, this would probably have been a much better experience.  They do good work at a fair price and the owners are very honest people and have the best of intentions.  But they appear to be ill-equipped to do business in St. Mary's, southern Charles or Calvert counties or other more distant locations.  I did mention to the owner that if he wanted to do more business here he needed to do more to establish relationships with truly local suppliers and subcontractors.  Communications also need to be improved all around - with the crews, between the partners, with suppliers, subs and us, the customers.  We had the sense that the crews didn't really enjoy coming here and that we were kind of at the bottom of Fox Creek's list of priorities due to our distance from their home base.  As much as we love the final product and will enjoy it and show it off for a lifetime, we couldn't go through the aggravation again.  We would encourage folks from the Annapolis and metro DC areas who are considering a project like this (or folks who aren't in any kind of a hurry to get a project like this completed in a reasonable amount of time) to give Fox Creek serious consideration.  

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"I had the original siding removed, had insulation board installed and wrapped and then installed new vinyl siding on the whole house. They also wrapped all of the trim. Stronghold s service was amazing and we just love how the house looks now. They also addressed all areas of concern for me. I now feel like my house is properly sealed and insulated from the outside. I highly recommend them and plan to use their services again in the future."

"Nhoj was very friendly and professional. He was able to come out the next morning to fix the loose siding and reasonably priced. Very knowledgeable and pinpointed how the siding was not properly secured previously. Highly recommend! 👍"

"The crew was quick, Ralph did an awesome presentation. We love our new roof, can't wait for siding"

"Very good company. Fixed my house siding in a timely and professional manner"

"One of our gable vents blew out during the intense windstorm our area suffered in early March. I called several contractors for help, and RIBA Construction responded promptly and professionally, and had the gable vent fixed within 24 hours. RIBA is the only one that seemed to understand the urgency of getting the hole in my attic closed up to keep out birds and animals, as well as the weather. RIBA is the one I'll call when I need roofing, siding, or window work in the future. Kudos!"

"First person came by door-to-door to see if we wanted an estimate. Our house is 2000 sq feet (3/4 siding, 1/4 brick). Second person came to give us the estimate. It took at least three hours. The first estimate was more than $19K, but if we bought it right then, it would be $12K. We finally settled on $13.5K: $12K for siding and $1.5K for window and door caps. We were told that even though our window capping looked good, it would probably tear when they took off the old siding. We were told over and over what a great company it was. We were told everything that had aluminum would be replaced with vinyl, the new siding would be "practically seamless," and we were getting a great deal. A few days later someone visited us again. We went over the project and picked out the color. On the day of the installation, the crew started removing the old siding. Another "quality assurance" person showed up at noon to go over any questions. He again told us what a great deal we got. He looked around and went up on the roof. He also noticed that there was aluminum covering on front half of the rake on north side of the house but not the back half. He said there was an issue behind the gutters at the top of the house, that moisture could get between the gutters and the house, and that the job was really going to look incomplete without new coverings for all the rake. He gave us an estimate: normally it would be $3500, but if we bought it right then, it would be $2000. We agreed to pay for covering the rake. The window wrap did not rip when the aluminum was removed. The new window wrap looks exactly like what was already on the house. There are a lot of seams; even the smallest lengths have seams. Once the job was wrapping up, the last person showed up. We told him there were a lot of seams. He said they wouldn't be noticable further away from the house. There are a couple of places where the pieces behind the gutter were not cut correctly. I expect they will be able to fix this. Bottom line? We're glad we got new siding, but with all the high-pressure sales tactics and inconsistencies in presentation, we still feel like we got ripped off."

"Kyle, the owner, did the selling. He's smart and coherent, and we liked him a lot.The roof was done first. It was done the day before a major snowstorm, which we were glad about--until they reported that they were one square short on shingles. So we had a tarp over the roof for a snowstorm. That worked out OK, but we weren't thrilled.Then the siding and door project started. We had laid out with Kyle exactly what materials were to be used. A truck arrived and delivered piles of stuff; then the project foreman came by the next day with a crew and they started work, only to realize that a bunch of parts were missing, including the underlayment. That was the first delay, only a few days.Once they were working again, various other bits kept being wrong. At one point I came home from an errand (I work from home) and saw that the gable vent was the wrong color. I asked the foreman why on earth he put a gray vent on a cream house and he said "I thought that was the color you wanted". He could have asked -- it's not like I wasn't around 99% of the time! That necessitated removing most of the siding from that end of the house, replacing the vent, and then putting the siding back on.Then they were mostly done and I asked when the corner posts would be put on. "Those are the corner posts", he told me. "No, those aren't the ones specified in the job", I pointed out. That meant more delays, while the right posts were ordered, and then they had to remove all the siding that went to the corners, put on the corners, and replace the siding.All of these "parts" problems could and should have been settled early on, by checking what was delivered against the work order. Finally the siding was almost done, and it was time for the doors. The crew that did the doors were great -- very fast, very careful, and very professional. I noticed the lead guy spending a LOT of time making sure the door from the garage into the house was level, and indeed, it's totally neutral -- doesn't want to swing open or closed on its own, which is great when, say, you're bringing in groceries: you can leave it almost closed to keep the garage from heating or cooling the house. Oddly, however, I noticed a "Firehouse Windows and Doors" sign in the crew's truck. So I asked one of them, "You're from Firehouse Windows and Doors?" and he said "Yes"; the foreman (who was not the lead guy -- the lead guy was the real craftsman!) sort of corrected him, but without conviction. I subsequently asked Kyle about this, since he had told us he had his own door crew, and he admitted that he'd had to let that crew go over the (slow) winter. This wasn't really a problem, since Firehouse did great work, but I would have felt better had he been straight about it.The next problem was the headers for the windows and front door. Again, these had been carefully speced in the work order, but were not delivered. To be fair, this wasn't R&M's fault: the distributor ordered them, they came in, and they never delivered them as they were supposed to. Eventually they sent them back, without ever following up. Stupid.Anyway, so now the job was almost done but waiting on these parts. Kyle finally got Jason, a handyman from another company, to build them out of Fypon (or equivalent) parts, rather than ordering them premade. Again, that would have been OK, but it took several weeks: Jason kept delaying. Eventually I got stern with him and Kyle, noting that we were WAY behind here, and that Jason needed to get on the stick and git 'er done, not keep taking time for other, larger projects.Finally he finished them and installed them. His crew also painted the wood trim on the new sliding door to the deck, which Firehouse hadn't done because they "don't do painting"; this had been part of the original job spec as well. They also painted the (steel) garage door, as agreed, to match the trim. When they did so, they got paint on the weatherstripping, which blocked (stayed sticky). After some negotiating, they came back and worked it over with some paint thinner. This made it somewhat better, but the garage door still sticks sometimes.With the front of the house complete, we could see a couple of places where bad siding joints were VERY visible at night, due to shadows. R&M sent a couple of guys out and they tinkered, made things better, though not perfect.Two more nits:When we were waiting for the window/door headers, R&M wanted us to pay the rest of the job. I had to tell them that there was no way I was paying for it until it was DONE. They weren't happy but acquiesced.A few months later, we realized that we'd paid a premium for a roof quality that included an inspection by GAF (the manufacturer), and this hadn't happened. We called R&M, and they said to call GAF. Called GAF, and they found the job but said we hadn't paid for that level of roofing. Called Kyle, who checked and found that the wrong paperwork had supposedly been sent to GAF. This seemed...fishy, but no way to check. Anyway, GAF said they would have it inspected, and told me it would be a couple of weeks.Got a call from the inspector, who said he'd be by later that day if it was OK. I said "Sure". At 5PM, my wife asked if he'd ever arrived; he hadn't, so I called him back. He answered his cell, but said "Sure, I was there". "You were? You didn't ring the doorbell!" "Sure I did, I talked to your daughter". "Uh...no, she's at school." "Hmm..." <riffling of papers> "Oh, jeez, I went to the wrong address!"So the good news was, my neighbor's 5-year-old roof passed his inspection. The bad news was, ours still hadn't been inspected. He said he'd reschedule.A week went by; I called GAF again (because this guy's cell wasn't working any more) and they said he'd fallen off a roof and it would be a few more weeks. Another month went by, and then R&M called to say that the inspection had been done and there was a minor problem with some flashing, and could they come fix it? So they did. I'm not happy with GAF that they did an inspection without having the courtesy to let us know.I also discovered, a few months after the job was done, that someone had stepped off a joist in the attic and made an almost-hole in the ceiling below. I didn't follow up on this with R&M, as I have no proof that it was during that job, but since nobody else has been up there, I can't see how it could have been anyone else.
So the end result is that the exterior looks great, but it was a lot more hassle getting there than it needed to be. A few checklists and some project management would have saved a lot of time and a lot of R&M's money. I think they're nice people and mean well, and I'm sorry that the choices are only "would use again" or "would not use again"; I *might* use them again, but can't give an unconditional "yes", alas."

"Roof installer were very polite and hard workers."

"Shortly after purchasing our home (circa 1940), we discovered it had a significant amount of asbestos in the building materials.  After interviewing multiple remediation contractors, we felt that Peter and his crew offered a professional, and careful approach.  He was no-nonsense, and was willing to negotiate a fair price.
The work was performed quickly, and within the time frame as promised.  Peter was responsive throughout, and answered all our questions."