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

"Our house had a water damage that ruined much of the drywall and floor on the first floor and the basement. For such a big repair job, I carefully looked up the reviews and recommendations from Angie's list and talked to 3 contractors that have the highest ratings. AOM was one of the three. David, the owner of AOM, quickly came to our house, assessed the damage, explained to me what need to be done, showed great empathy to our loss and current situation (having to stay in hotel waiting to go back to our house), and put a very competitive bid (about 2/3 the bid of another contractor). We picked them and signed the contract. AOM uses Trello, a cloud-based project tracking system that software companies often use, to effectively and promptly communicate task description and updates to all workers and house owners. AOM workers are professional, hard working, and friendly. For such a big project, expectedly there were some hiccups and AOM had to juggle ours with their other on-going projects. David kindly explained to me various aspects of the repair work and promptly fixed any faults that we identified. I became to completely trust David's professional skill and that he would treat our house like his. Several nights and weekends David came to work late so that we could move back to normal life as soon as possible. In the end, we are very happy with our remodeled house. I sincerely recommend David and AOM for any house remodeling and restoration job."

"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."

"IRC did an phenomenal job remodeling my master bed and bath. I was so impressed with their process and company values. If you're looking for an honest, reliable, and local contractor, this is it!"

We here at Preferred Home Improvements take pride in our work! Customer service and satisfaction is our number one goal! The Services we offer are : Air Duct Cleaning Dryer vent cleaning Attic Insulation Crawl space clean ups We also offer other home services! We do full viedo inspections of duct work we also will do a whole walk through and explain everything step by step. We also offer before and after pictures! We have been in business over 6 years and are here to stay. We promise you will have a Awsome experience with us. We also offer yearly warranties and free estimates! Our service area is within 150 miles of the Quad Cites!

"

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.
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"Matt is an experienced and talented contractor. He listens to my input and involves me in the decision making process of each phase of the project. He comes to work with a positive attitude and is a pleasure to work with."

"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...
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"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
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"She was fine. We were working long distance and communication took place via phone and email. I would not ever hire someone long distance again for design work unless I see something on their website that is exactly what I like. She was very responsive though and she provided us with pictures of sample furniture and physical designs. I gave her a 'B' because she didn’t take a lot of time to customize the plan to our style. I expected her to adapt to our style, but instead she tried to make our living room fit her style. She seems to have a look that is her style and we actually asked her re-do the plan a few times before we got something usable. In the end, she is very good at what she does and she is very professional, but her design style doesn’t fit our way of living."

"I will be very honest in my assessment of Amanda. Sitting in front of me I have a beautiful design for my living room and dining room in a townhouse I owned in Houston. Amanda picked beautiful, comfortable chairs, nice wallpaper and very cool lighting.  The problem with Amanda is not her ability to design an amazing room - she certainly is very talented. The problem I experienced with Amanda was the inability to handle the details, to stay on top of the project, and to assist with actually putting the room together. This may be a problem in general, with all on-line designers, who knows.  I do know that I ordered this package from Amanda in August of 2013.  My first conference call with her was some time around October, and my designs were given to me (not the complete design) some time in December.  I learned quickly that when Amanda says she would have something for me "by the end of the week," she really meant about 2-3 weeks down the road.  In any event, I was elated when I got my first design for my dining room. I delayed placing an order because the stuff she picked was a bit pricey and I wanted to save my money over the holidays. I placed an order in early February for two rugs and a chandelier - totaling well over $3,000.00. Amanda advised that it could take about 4 weeks for the rugs and chandelier to come, which was no problem with me.  8 weeks passed and I began emailing Amanda. (Mind you that the money was charged to me immediately, with no follow up emails from any of the manufactures, no indication of shipping, nothing... so I began to feel uneasy). After a couple of unreturned emails and phone calls, Amanda apologized for the delay, mentioned that she was surprised I hadn't received anything yet, and explained to me her mother was in an accident. No biggie, but I explained to her that I would be out of the country in mid-April and unavailable to sign for anything. She assured me the rugs were en route from Georgia and would be there before I leave.  As far as the chandelier, we discovered that they had attempted to deliver it, but Amanda had provided them the incorrect phone number, so they were not able to get in touch with me. I asked her to correct this so I could receive the chandelier. Because I never heard back from the company, and no additional attempts to deliver were made, I am assuming she did not do this.  And, as could be expected, the rugs did not come before I left - they came when I was in Germany and when no one was home to sign for them. Since over 12 weeks had passed since my order, I contacted my credit card company and initiated a charge back.  They agreed with me that it was concerning that so much time had passed with very little contact, and immediately refunded my money. (Amanda and her husband eventually tried to fight my chargeback, but they were of course unsuccessful. I did not have the goods, and they never attempted to re-deliver them). Also, I will add the following to things about my experience with Amanda, which bothered me:
1) I was told in January I would have curtains and throw pillows picked out "by the end of the week." Those never came.
2) Amanda said she had a client in Florida who would ship me a sample of the wallpaper. This never came either. Amanda said it was shipped to me - I never received it and kind of doubt it ever was.
So basically, $500 dollars for two rooms of design got me some dining room chairs (albeit - awesome), a table she picked out that was too expensive so I found a different one, some cool wallpaper that I will never be able to get a sample of, two expensive rugs and a chandelier that resulted in a credit card fight and a headache. At the end of the day, my advice is that if you want a talented and friendly person to design your home, don't mind waiting some time for it all to come together, and are cool with locating the stuff and putting it all together on your own, Amanda may be it for you. If you want a designer who is good at following up with details, assuring stuff gets to you in a reasonable time, and assists with pulling the room together and finalizing your project, I would highly recommend you find someone else."