I hired Canter Construction in September of 2023 to build a 1st floor bedroom and screened-in porch addition to my home. The project manager estimated that it would take 4-5 months to complete, yet the project was finally completed and signed-off by the City in August, 2024. Here are some of the many issues that I experienced: QUALITY OF WORK: The City of Charleston failed the project seven times on various inspections: -Slab Inspection (2X) -Mechanical Rough-in -Electrical Rough-in -Electrical Final -Mechanical Final (2X) With the exception of the plumbing and tile work, subcontractors were frequently called back to correct issues with their work. This was especially true of the HVAC, electrical and carpenter trades. HVAC: While the contract called for the addition to have its own HVAC system, neither Canter, nor their recommended engineer, Michael Hance, PE, LLC (who drew-up the plans), made provisions for placement of the HVAC system in the addition. Planning for HVAC only started once the slab was poured and a considerable portion of the framing was completed. The result: I had to give up significant storage space in my garage and agree to lower the ceiling in my new bath addition 12 inches to accommodate the HVAC system and associated ductwork (a total of 209 cubic feet). In the end, the lack of proper planning of the HVAC system meant that the "addition" to my home became an unplanned "subtraction" as well (see photo). Had I known up front that I'd be giving up space for the HVAC system, I would have made alternative plans. When I realized the issue, I asked Canter for an adjustment in price as I gave up space for the HVAC equipment. Canter ignored my request. When the project was nearing completion, I again asked for an adjustment. Canter refused stating "Construction always has areas where things do not go 100% according to the plans and we must pivot." However, this particular "pivot" was caused by their failure to plan for the installation of HVAC system; a critical item required for any living space. ELECTRICAL: -The electrician did not follow the electrical plan; Outdoor lighting and the screened-in porch switches are located several rooms away in the new bedroom addition. -Exposed hot wires were recently found in the bedroom electrical box (see photo). FOUNDATION: The foundation was not built to plan. The contract specifically called for a CMU Stem Wall foundation for $7,200. Canter substituted a "monolithic pour" in place of the CMU Stem Wall without notifying me or seeking my approval of the change in scope. REMOVAL OF PERSONAL PROPERTY FROM MY HOME: A subcontractor was seen on video searching through my garage where he had no reason to be nor permission. He later emptied the contents of my recycle bin into my trash bin and took the recycle bin with him when he left. After sharing video footage of the act and making several requests, the recycling bin was returned days later. read more

Canter Construction - HVAC System in my garage - General Contractors Near Me

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We hired Jonah to do renovations on our rental property. He appeared to be very confident, interested in doing what would be a relatively small job (a result of minor smoke damage) even while he boasted of having been approached about doing a television show and building another construction business. We needed to have the renovations done before the rental season began (late March) and agreed that, after approving the project, we would fly over to approve the work before we wrapped up. Knowing we were coming in town to further prepare the space for the season, he indicated in late March that most of the work had been done and gave the okay for our travel. In fact, I arrived three days before I was to have renters in, prepared for only a deep cleaning, and ***90%*** of the work had not been done. The place was a COMPLETE mess and, in haste, Canter Construction rushed and did a sub-optimal job and not what we agreed. My mom and I, along with my one-year-old daughter, had plans to move furniture (from storage) back in and re-arrange the space in a period of 36 hours. This on the advice of Jonah himself, who had indicated the project was near completion. We ended up paying the super-nice guys who worked for the moving company to come back one day later to help us rearrange furniture and hang pictures because Jonah pushed it to the last minute and was still not done. We were absolutely not satisfied with the work---he hung a television on the wrong wall (after clear instructions to do otherwise) and in haste re-purposed an old bathroom door to not-fit a new pocket door, leaving a 2-inch gap at the bottom that he tried to justify. The single only reason he gets two stars is because Pete, his business partner came to resolve these issues when Jonah himself was too "put out" by being held accountable for wrongdoing. Jonah was angry and flustered and too busy---communication with him became confrontational. But Pete took good care of the problems and remedied the issues. I held onto all texts and emails, given our circumstance, and would not work with him again. read more

Jonah the owner is a great salesman but very unprofessional, confrontational and couldn't finish what he started. He left us with a demolished bathroom. We had 2 baths and full kitchen remodel in contract. 1st bath quality was sub par. No attention to tile work. For master bath we consulted for materials needed, ordered everything with their approval and after demolition we were told we didn't have enough tile, wrong plumbing fixtures and had wrong pocket door hardware. They were very defensive and said it was not their fault. We showed emails highlighting their approvals. Their response was to cancel all our projects leaving our bathroom completely demolished and kitchen unfinished. They never apologized or took responsibility for their shortcomings. Their only job is to make sure clients have right materials and are on a timely schedule since they sub contract all their work with cheap labor, and couldn't even do that properly. Would not recommend this company to anyone. Update: Jonah the owner confronted my wife and I while we were on a bike ride. He started harassing us for the previous bad review we posted. He insulated our character, appearance and repeated many vulgar terms at us. He closely approached me and was within inches of me at times. He was drinking and seemed intoxicated. I was willing to discuss our business disagreements and urged him to calm down. He continued with his harassing behavior telling us to F off and screaming at me. We rode away as their was no way of having an adult conversation with him. This statement doubles as our first public record of harassment. If he approaches my wife or I while we are minding our business again we will file a restraining order on him as allowed by South Carolina law. It is sad that it had to go this way. I have never left a review in my life, but such reckless behavior cannot be swept under the rug. As business owners ourselves we will never treat our customers like this. btw don't trust the google reviews. we posted on there too and it magically disappeared after a few days. This guy is a fraud read more

The only reason I gave them 1 star is because Yelp doesn't allow zero. Canter Construction was hired to put a porch on our home, but we should have known from the start to run when they were so difficult to get return calls from. Jonah didn't come close to the promised deadline and there were endless broken promises, but we could have lived with that. The lousy construction is more difficult to live with since we have to see something new every time we sit on our porch. They didn't follow their own design and put walls up where they shouldn't be, so they had to come down and we now have holes in our concrete. The paint job was so bad they had to come back and there are still spots that need to be redone and lots of drip marks and over spray on our siding, bbq, etc. The electrical is such a total nightmare that my husband is trying to fix it on his own. We had 2 ceiling fans prewired to a switch. When he tried installing the ceiling fans, one is not connected to the switch and is "hot" all the time. On the other the conduit is not connected and the lines are too short to connect a fan and it has to be rewired. They also hung the door wrong and rehung it, but never patched the original holes. Way too many issues to list. I would NEVER recommend them at any price. read more

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I know most people don't care to read lengthy reviews, so I'll sum up the experience in a sentence or two, and then you can read on if you'd care to get a bigger picture. Jonah (who was very communicative throughout the entire job) was on-time for all our meetings, came in on budget from the initial quote, and completed the job in the time frame promised - we really couldn't have asked for a better experience. We had a couple of vinyl windows that had begun to warp and would no longer lock etc., so we contacted Jonah to get a quote to replace all four windows on the south side of the house. Jonah arrived right on time for our initial meeting, and took time to explain why the warping had happened (lower end builder grade windows) and what he'd recommend as a remedy for the issue. He was upbeat and clearly knowledgeable about what needed to be done, so In the end we wound up having Jonah quote us to replace all of the windows. There was no pressure on his part to do so, but we knew they'd all need to be done within the next few years, as we quickly realized during our first summer the original windows were far from energy efficient. Jonah said we'd have the quote by the end of the week, and by Thursday we had an email with a link to the quote. I have to say this was a great way of having an electronic record of the quote, and you can communicate back and forth easily about updates etc. The quote itself was very fair (from a labor perspective), and he'd given us an allowance based on each window size. We decided to move forward and per Jonah's instruction we contacted his rep at Buck Lumber to setup an appointment to choose the actual windows (as a side note, I'd recommend Buck as well - great selection, knowledgeable staff, and delivery was exactly when they promised.) Jonah made it a point to be there when the Buck Lumber rep came to do the final measurements (which I thought was a great idea to avoid any miscommunication, as these were all special order windows.) A couple of weeks later Jonah circled back to say the windows were in, so we made arrangements for them to be delivered and schedule out the install. Jonah scheduled the install for within a week of the windows being delivered, and had them all installed within a couple of days. There were a couple of small curve balls once the original windows were removed, but Jonah and his crew handled the (framing) issues easily and at a very nominal charge - which was mostly for materials. They also did a great job with patching and painting the frames, and cleaned up as they went along. Our final bill came in right on budget and we couldn't be happier with the overall experience. Highly recommended. read more

Canter Construction did an excellent job on my kitchen and bath remodel. I love the results and the team was awesome to work with and gave us excellent design and construction advice. Jonah is a great owner and was always available to us. Would totally recommend them. read more

Great service and even better work. Jonah and his team were extremely knowledgeable and helpful when it came to helping us with our home improvement projects. I would recommend them to anyone that needs top-notch work at a fair price. read more

I could not be happier with my experience with Canter Construction. The guys were all professional and finished the project (a new kitchen floor) right on time. Jonah communicated clearly the whole time and no surprises popped up which is what you always want in a home project. Highly recommended! read more

I hired the owner of this company, Jonah, to help install my kitchen cabinets. He made sure everything was perfect, regardless of the effort it took to get it right. Several times he pulled a cabinet set back off the wall, because it wasn't exactly right. I was definitely appreciative of this type of professional perfection. Those cabinets are so secure you could hang off of them and they also look GREAT! read more