Hambleton Construction LLC

I hired Hambleton Construction for a major renovation of my home. Hundreds of thousands of dollars and over 14 months later, they still have not finished the project and I am living on a construction site. At first they did great work and moved steadily. Then, with no discussion and nothing in the contract to allow it, they ripped up my beautiful original hardwood flooring in what was going to be my new dining room. Apparently, their flooring expert thought it was maple and could not find the right size to patch where walls had been taken down, so they decided it was best to destroy all of it. (It turns out the floor was birch, and you can find the same size as my original at Home Depot--I found it in a single Google search.) They expected me to pay for this uncontracted destruction, and when it became clear I would not, they installed maple to make it up to me. Now, my once beautiful floors look like a car with a replacement, off-color door. They said they would make it right in December, but have so far not responded to my emails attempting to move forward with a correction. In fact, they respond to nothing. Once they got their second-last payment, they moved all their people to other projects and took six months to do odd jobs around my home when they can spare a person, usually during holidays--which just adds to my inconvenience. Of course, they kept their dumpster and port a potty on my driveway for months after they absconded, using the dumpster for garbage from other projects until it overflowed onto my driveway. I had to call the dumpster and port a potty people to arrange for removal so I could stop being a Hambleton dump site or hosting random strangers who stopped to pee. Autumn passed, then winter, no progress on my build. No updates, no communication. I notified them in January that the garage door they installed leaks when it rains and they have not responded. There are downed wires in my yard so I cannot mow my grass, and go into a second year of neglect now. They finally got a permit for the last phase of the project in February and told me they planned to begin it in early April, but have refused to answer my text or phone messages to say when. This is after hundreds of thousands of dollars in prompt payments, the end of my bank's draw period, and 14 months of my home being a construction site with no end in site and my builders treating me like I have no right to ask about when they plan to finish. I've never seen such unethical conduct and wonder how many more years of this lie ahead of me.

UNREASONABLE, UNEXPLAINED DELAYS: The estimated completion was 3 weeks from the start of work. It took them over 4 months from the time we signed the contract until they CLAIMED they were done, and that doesn't include the time they needed to revisit and correct poor workmanship. Their workers would disappear for a week or more at a time and I would never know when they were coming back. In the meantime, several rooms in my house were unusable, which created considerable hardship for my family. The contract says there may be delays due to material availability or weather, but all of the excuses combined cannot account for their chronic absenteeism. TRIM: They removed a piece of trim and when they reinstalled it, they did it incorrectly so now the closet door in one of my bedrooms won't shut. INSTALLED WRONG SIZE WINDOW: They installed a window in my basement that was too narrow for the opening, which left a large gap around the edges that they just packed with foam and caulk. After I pointed out that it looked terrible they covered the exposed foam with plastic trim. They said that the window size was not available at Home Depot and they would have needed to order a custom window, which would have cost a couple hundred dollars more. The smart thing to do would have been to talk to me about it before installing a window that is the wrong size. I would have been willing to pay a bit more to get it done right, rather than fast and wrong. (Actually, it wasn't done fast either. The installation was delayed by weeks and the window is ALSO the wrong size.) PAINTING: When they paint, they can usually get the middle of the wall right, but when they get to a light fixture or door or window or built-in bookcase they get paint on the trim. They never use tape to get crisp edges. All of the places they painted in my house have wavering, inconsistent lines. There are multiple paint smudges on the white window/door/bookcase trim. I raised this issue with them multiple times and they made repeated attempts to correct the problem, but they could never seem to get it right. This is not the sort of "workman like" quality that was promised in the contract. I have painted rooms in my home and done a much better job, more quickly, and with no training. GARBAGE: When they departed they left a trail of trash and debris. For months I was finding construction debris, energy drink cans, candy bar wrappers, random work gloves, cans of paint, and pieces of scrap wood around my house. DRYWALL: They left a large gap between the drywall and the skylight they installed. They were going to leave it that way, until I asked them to fix it. They also left numerous marks in the joint compound on walls in my bathroom that they just painted over. I pointed out that it needed to be fixed to their quality assurance rep during his first inspection, but it was not fixed. I had to point it out a second time to get them to take action. LIGHT INSTALLATION: The exterior light fixture they installed flickers from time to time. I emailed them about it on more than one occasion several months ago. They said they would take care of it, twice, but they never actually showed up to make the repair when they said they would. According to the contract, this problem should have been resolved under the warranty. In summation, Hambleton Construction is guilty of poor management, poor service, and poor workmanship. I would NEVER, EVER invite them back.

I have had the privilege of working with Hambleton Construction as the designer on numerous remodeling projects and have always found David Hambleton and his company to be of the highest quality and customer service. It is enjoyable to partner with someone on a project who adheres to high standards of integrity and Hambleton certainly fits the bill. I would highly recommend Hambleton Construction to anyone seeking a true professional, with the client's goals in mind, on a remodeling project in northern Virginia.