Get matched with top major home repair pros (general contractors) in Blackstone, IL

"Brian LaValle is a God Send!! Bought my home for under 20k and Brian has done everything from the basement to the roof!!! Drive by and Look at It. 705 Lundy St Streator. It sat for 5 1/2 years after a destructive foreclosure. There was no bathroom! Everyone Loves my bathroom now. The house looks Modern and heâ  s SO professional and comfortable and has been working on my home for well over a year so we pitched him keys to the house. I slept in the other day while him and his crew, always making sure my cats donâ  t get out, installed my laundry room floor. Never thought something like that could happen! Grade A work! Im So Proud of my house! This guy Checks My House to assure itâ  s sound and safe! The addition was attached to the original house. My roof was stressed and leaking. He â  tiedâ  (their lingo) the 2 lil houses together. Now Iâ  m saving up for him to do the roof. I flipped and remodeled 4 homes of my own when I was younger. This guy is the best. I humbly admit. Brian LaValle 815-674-8152"

Hi, I’m Kevin with Klock Home Services, proudly serving the Fox Valley area. I provide reliable, detail-oriented handyman and home repair services at fair prices. From furniture and drywall repair to minor carpentry, fixture installs, and general maintenance, I treat every project like it’s in my own home. Whether it’s a small fix or a larger task, you can count on quality work done right the first time.

"David gave me what I thought was a fair price for the work to be done. He asked for 1/2 up front. As a previous small business owner I did not feel this was unreasonable so I paid him 500.00. He estimated the work would take 3 to four days and I thought the same. After several no shows the "mason" showed up. The first clue was he came in a car. According to my wife he was here 2 hours and left, came back for another 2 hours the next day and left again. He said nothing to my wife about leaving or when he would be back. David called a day later to ask about coming out to look over the job and get the rest of the other 500.00. I said he isn't finished and he's only been here 4 hours. So then I looked up the prevailing wage in IL for a mason and found out it is 28.50 an hour. The next day the guy comes back for another 3 hours. David came to look at the work and I walked him around and showed him all of the places that had not been done. So the guy comes back again for about an hour. All told it was 8 hours work, nothing to write home about but it was agreed up front that I wasn't looking for an exposed brick look. I need it tuck pointed well enough so that I could drylock and paint the exposed brick. I will say this was done in the end. The worker left a mess that I and my wife had to clean up, I pointed this out to David as well. I told him I felt he was overly paid for the amount of work preformed and that was the end of it. It's really to bad. It's difficult to get contractors to do small jobs and I had plenty for him to do. I'm not unhappy, just would not hire again"

"RESPONSIVENESS TO NEEDS
There are different measures of success on any project and different constraints and issues that will challenge those measures.  My primary measure of success was a DRY basement, and Brian?s proposal to deliver it was comprehensive. He was committed to meeting my request while satisfying my second measure of success: do it at an affordable price.

ESTIMATE
Brian does all estimates himself instead of sending out salespeople (which I appreciate).  I scheduled Brian's first visit in the days following a large rainfall that caused flooding in neighboring areas, so his schedule was packed. Understandably, Brian was crunched between appointments when he arrived slightly behind schedule, but he had kept me updated in the hours preceding his arrival.  Brian quickly conveyed a focus on resolving the seepage problem.  He also listened to my concerns, identified primary and secondary issues, and said he would send a thorough e-mail containing precise details for a solution with a cost breakdown.  He arrived and left in about hour, and within a couple days he sent an e-mail estimate with two options. 1) A complete basement drain tile system with crack repairs, or 2) a partial system that he believed would resolve the problem at a lesser cost. He offered to allow me to "upgrade" to the full system in the future and pay the difference between the two estimates. This type of offer was not even discussed by the three other companies (two big names and one small business) that came for estimates.

With the exception of the extended (years-long) payment / financing options offered by the larger companies, Brian?s proposed solution was almost a hands-down winner.  The other small company was comparable, but after sending the initial estimate, Brian offered to return on the weekend to give me the opportunity to talk again when there was more time.  Other companies' approaches to doing exterior excavation ranged from doing minor reinforcement to not even wanting to touch it.  Brian, in contrast, said he can?t honestly guarantee a dry basement when he didn?t know what the previous repair looked like.  He offered to completely excavate the two walls that had work done previously and to replace (if necessary) any inferior quality materials with his own fix.  Now we're cooking with gas!  The cost of the job remained competitive, and this ?extra mile? effort on top of everything else fully satisfied my need to be 100% sure the seepage would be stopped.  I opted for the full drain tile system.

TIME
The timeframe Brian quoted was in line with all of his competitors: 2 days max.  The time element of the job met some challenges, taking 5 full working days to complete, (Tues-Fri plus half days Sat-Sun).  The reason?  The crew found the floor was new, dense 4-inch concrete poured on top of the original 4-inch concrete floor.  This meant twice the work for the breakup crew that was prepared for a conventional job, making it impossible to accommodate the original time frame. Brian promised to never leave a job unfinished, so he juggled his crews' schedules to make daily progress, and he never once raised his price despite the extra time or material (concrete) required. I was very grateful.  He also personally came to finish the job on the weekend rather than pushing it out to Monday or Tuesday.

EXTRAS AND RESPONSIVENESS
Some plumbing in the floor was impacted by the concrete breakup and required repairs due to its age and condition.  Brian took the time to find the exact materials I requested for the repair and installed them.  I was not present at installation so he took photos and video and sent them to me via smartphone so I could verify he got it right.  What other contractor does that?! He also paid attention to every detail for laying out the design of the downspout tie-ins, finishing touches, and every single special request I threw at him. He also spotted an additional leak in the corner of the foundation and sealed it up as well. His commitment to resolving every issue to my satisfaction was outstanding.

Brian made himself accessible via phone, e-mail and text, and he responded quickly to inquiries.  I wanted to know every detail of the work, and Brian accommodated. Another totally unexpected surprise came when Brian discovered that some of the promised work did not need to be performed, and he provided credit for this instead of using the difference for my extra requests.

SATISFACTION
"You'll be happy," is Brian's mantra.  He addressed a couple gripes - dust exposure to the first floor space; a few trampled plants outside - by providing equitable financial credits.  These professional oversights on his crew's part are unacceptable to Brian, and credit on the final bill was all he could do to make up for it.  Overall, the crew was polite, and one even brought a stack of extra floor tiles from his personal supply to replace some I'd lost during demolition work I had done weeks earlier!

From start to finish, despite delays and minor shortcomings, Brian executed on the proposed project by 100% nailing the two most important measures of success ? quality and cost. As for timing, the job ran long but Brian didn't quit until the job was done. I never expect perfection; nevertheless, Brian aimed to earn my satisfaction as his primary goal. I give an A+ on nearly every category, taking a point or two away for the issues mentioned.

Rain is coming in the next two days, and I'll only edit this review if the repairs fail to deliver a dry basement.  I am posting this review before the rain comes as a vote of confidence that I won't have to change a word.

The most important criterion to assess a job well done is whether you'd recommend a service provider to a family member or friend.  In Brian's case, I absolutely would."

"They painted entire interior & exterior including refinishing the deck in front & back of the house & was done in a timely manner very professional. Would hpainted entire interior & exterior including refinishing the deck in front & back of the house & was done in a timely manner very professional. Would definitely hire again."

"

Brady is the best you'll ever find for home remodeling projects.
Showed up on time. Took the time to make ever job right.
Projects were worked on over a number of months, one at a time.

The best and most honest tradesmen I've ever found.
We moved to Texas in January of 2014.  We whish Brady could have come with us.
I've found some good (and bad) people to work on the Texas home.  But no one who comes close to the quality of work done by Brady Brower.
"

"I would like to start off with precise, warm welcome and highly responsible of what they are doing. They really know what they are doing and from start from start to end it has been a great project with new experiences and great craftsmanship. Thanks again guys and i hope to have more work for you soon...
"

"The entire project was so clean, every day he took great care of our home as he worked. Not only am I extremely pleased with the final result but I am also excited to have found a reputable, respectable, trustworthy company to partner with again in the future. I sincerely recommend G.C.Rightway Home Improvements."

"I hired the company to do a make ready [clean up & prep] on a single apartment in a building which I own in the  town where I live. I needed the property to be cleaned up so I could rent it again.  I have been a landlord for over 20 years & hadn't found a vacated property in such a mess in all my years. They did the complete interior clean-up which took about five hours. And, the complete prep of the property. they took out all the trash & junk, and cleaned up all debris left in the yard. They did such a great job with that I decided to use them for the yard maintenance also. They cleaned all my flowerbeds & got them ready for spring, placed mulch & trimmed the shrubs and flowering trees. On the inside they made everything look brand new! Cleaning the walls, painting, cleaned the carpets & stripped & polished the wood floors...making them look brand new. The appliances that stayed were cleaned inside & out. They even remembered to get all the light fixtures clean for me. Dusted all window seals & doorways. Shine mopped all they tile floors. To top it all off they even gave the bathrooms a fresh clean look by putting a new caulk seal around the tubs, sinks & shower...which gave the bathrooms a fresh face. All in all I found it to be a very stress free pleasant experience. And, I will definitely call on them for the next project because if they could do so well with a nightmare like that I'm sure the less difficult will be equally affordable and easily handled. Everything just looked so nice when they were finished. Thanks, Green Earth
"

"Once I sent her all the measurements, it took her a little while to get the options back to me.  Overall, they're good designs.  However, they're very simplistic and give general ideas for space planning.  I was hoping to have a better idea for sizes of furniture for the space and some variations on staging.  
Jill was very responsive when I did have a question.  I'm not sure how helpful it is to have a virtual design done.  If we lived in similar cities, I'd probably use her again for help with additional designs.
"