We interviewed 5 contractors to completely gut and refinish our basement (including HVAC, bathroom, insulation, windows, etc.), and replace our front door. Florin thoroughly impressed us with his initial presentation, detailed proposal, and project schedule. SQRC is certainly not the cheapest contractor, but we felt that the extras he could provide would be worth it (detailed project management, design support with an interior designer, and 3D drawing).
The project started off well. SQRC's contractors were amazing - friendly, clean, and respectful. We've never had such conscientious contractors in our home, and since they were there for for 3 months, sometimes 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, this made a huge difference. We met with Florin regularly to review progress and discuss upcoming work to make sure we were all on the same page. He is very methodical and detailed in project management, which we appreciated.
Florin generated some great solutions for us, as we have a small space and needed to maximize it wherever possible. Not many GCs would take the care he did in the design to meet our needs. His carpenter did amazing work to replicate the old trim in an upstairs doorway.
Some of the subtrades were not as great as SQRC's own guys. We recognize that it can be difficult to manage subs, but we would have expected given Florin's experience and price that he would have a little higher quality in his subs. Examples: the sprayfoam insulation needed to be applied twice because the first application was not to spec, the HVAC contractors were not very polite and didn't seem as knowledgeable as we would have liked, and the laminate flooring needed to be removed and floor leveling redone.
The main place where SQRC falls short of a 10 rating is due to price. For the cost premium, we had high expectations. Many of them were met, but there were frustrations we did not expect. Later in the project, it seemed like Florin was involved on one or more others as his communication with us decreased and the project seemed to stall without explanation. The final cost was higher than we had expected as he tried claiming for extras that were not discussed during the project. Through discussions, we came to a middle-ground, but we were not happy having to deal with surprise costs when they should have been brought up and discussed before doing the work.
In the end, SQRC delivered a beautiful, functional space that we love to spend time in. We have recommended SQRC to friends with our lessons learned as side-notes.
