We got quotes from 3 contractors in town (Metuchen), who are all very reputable and excellent…read morechoices: La Porta, ASAP, and Ideal CDR. They all came in around the same amount, but had a lot of different takes on what to do specifically and what kind of choices to make. We liked them all, so none of this is a knock on ASAP or La Porta, as friends of ours have done large projects with them and were very happy. But we felt Al was the best guy for us, so we went with Ideal.
This was a pretty big project with a diversity of things to juggle: finishing the basement, building a multi-story addition, demolition, excavation, foundation/masonry, framing, siding, windows, drywall, painting, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, insulation (including spray foam insulation), stonework for porch and walkway and retaining wall, custom cabinet design for multiple rooms incl closets, hot tub crane-lifted to a custom rigging to get it onto a 2nd story balcony, new kitchen appliances and massive exhaust hood, gutters... pretty much everything except the landscaping. The before/after pics in this review don't do it justice.
Through all the bajillion decisions and details and tradeoffs and nuances that came up, Al and Sunitha were really terrific to work with and help with deciding on the right course of action for us. This should work well for you if you are good and quick at making decisions.
The head of the company, Al, was very easy to get ahold of during the project. We had weekly meetings, but on top of that, he'd often drop by the site (we lived in the house thru the remodel) and was very available to discuss and steer the project. Sunitha's guidance on navigating through the details and complexities of cabinet design and other operational details was fantastic. So, we definitely got very engaged with Al and Sunitha and others during this project and got to know them well.
My maximum respect goes out to Al, Sunitha, Julio, Rich, Luis, Chris, Heladio, Andrew, Joe, and many others I'm forgetting to mention, as well as to all the subcontractors, who were numerous.
Despite issues that inevitably arise in a project of such complexity, 99.9% of the work was completed within the 5.5 months that all the contractors (not just Ideal) estimated.
If you want to get into more details, feel free to drop by for a tour at 117 Beacon Hill Dr in Metuchen. Just ask for Andrew.