At the beginning we were told they would cover all cabinets with plastic, and then put up plastic on the openings to other rooms. For the demolition they did put up the plastic and it helped. But the plastic came down after 2 days and they did not cover anything after that. So we had to bring in a cleaning company to do post-construction cleaning.
Quality
• The new island panels are shrinking or shifting and leaving gaps of un-stained wood where the panels meet the raised sections.
o They have been out twice in the last 6 weeks to re-stain these gaps.
o My wife and I originally considered re-doing all cabinets and I can’t imagine how horrid we would feel if we had.
• Backsplash tiles weren’t at the same depth and had to be pulled and re-done.
o You could run your finger up the backsplash and get hung up on tiles sticking out too far
• Medallion inserts were not at same height
o On one wall they were 1 tile from the bottom (as planned) another wall 2 tiles from the bottom.
• They stopped tiles so that 1” of electrical outlets were above the tile line
• To cut a hole inside the new island they used a reciprocating saw which just tore up the interior.
o Their comment … “no one will see it”
• A wine fridge was going into the end of the new island. There was a lot of sawdust and wood parts on the floor and the project manager said “No one will see it”.
o To me, this is the core issue of how I feel about Unique Builders. I don’t believe they care to do a good, clean job. If they can hide some sub-standard work or dirt behind or under things, they will.
• Downdraft installation: The cooktop has a downdraft blower that was pointed to blow out the back for the normal install along an exterior wall. They didn't rotate the blower for island installation.
They left a gas leak and I had to get a real plumber in to fix it, They promised to reimburse the cost but never did. They tried to fix it twice.
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