Short summary: You will be hard pressed, in our opinion, to find a better company than PCS to work on your remodeling project regardless of size and scope. If you want a five star result for a fair price, on time and professionally done, you need to talk to Steve and Cindy Beyler about considering your project. PCS should be on your short list of potential remodeling specialists and if you are fortunate to retain their services, you won’t be disappointed. Please read on for more details about our experience with PCS.
My wife and I own a mid-70s, three bedroom two bath 2400 square foot house in North Auburn in a great location – no desire at all to move to a new house. In the almost 30 years we’ve been here, we’ve done a lot on the outside (paint, roofing, insulation, windows, etc.) and built a couple of outbuildings on the property. We also remodeled the kitchen in 2004 which exhausted us so much we didn’t want to tackle anything else until we were both retired and could devote all of our time and energy to getting it done right.
Although the house has good bones, as the years went by, the interior got more and more tired and we were way past time for a refresh. The goal was to redo the entire interior of the house short of the previously redone kitchen, “feathering the nest” if you will for the remainder of our retired lives. It was also time for the house and outbuildings to be repainted. All of this added up to the scope of a job probably only exceeded (arguably) by building a new house from scratch.
Sound familiar?
The time came to do this in the Spring of 2017 when we were both officially retired. The biggest trepidation in both of our minds (after watching too many episodes of “Holmes Makes it Right”) was finding a competent, trustworthy, easy to get along with contractor to take on our job and getting it done in a reasonable amount of time for a fair price and no monkey business. Through a referral, Steve and Cindy Beyler and their company PCS Construction were recommended as a firm that specializes in remodeling projects. After calling Steve, he was out within a couple of days and he patiently (one of Steve’s many characteristics) spent more than three hours doing a walkthrough of the house, listening to our ideas and taking copious notes.
Although we didn’t want to do any serious structural work on the house, our scope of work included literally everything else, minus the kitchen cabinets and countertops. This included a total gut and redo of both bathrooms, new flooring throughout, new baseboards, the addition of crown molding to the entire house, new interior and closet doors, window and door casings, and a total electrical audit to correct any found deficiencies and the installation of recessed LED lighting throughout the house. We also wanted to redo the interior of the attached two car garage that was way beyond tired and was becoming an embarrassment.
We also asked for a significant amount of custom cabinetry from new bathroom vanities to built-in closet organizers; custom office furniture to a very custom sewing tabletop and storage for working on a large variety of projects.
Steve responded in short order with a several page project proposal. It was clear during the review and subsequent discussion and refinement that he was totally engaged (another characteristic of Steve is that he makes you feel like you are his only client although he has many at once) and is more than willing to explain all aspects of the project to any level of detail requested. Steve is a great communicator and is always checking to make sure we understood the points he was trying to make.
Steve offered us the opportunity tour some of his other projects which were impressive. He explained his philosophy of how he hired his workers and subcontractors (after all, the contractor is just the boss and a whole cast of characters do the work). He discussed with us the details of living through a remodel (we didn’t want to have to vacate the premises during the project) and set our mind at ease (as best he could) on PCS’s ability to take on this (in our minds) large project.
We signed on, moved most of our stuff into storage and spent the next five months watching our home go from a nice but modest abode in need of a refresh, to essentially a new home that rivals any custom new construction house, inside and out, you can find in the area.
Cindy Beyler provided much needed help (Cindy is a certified design professional) in areas we needed help/advice in selecting features such as interior/exterior paint colors, wall cladding options, floor and wall tile selection, etc. Both Steve and Cindy are willing to suggest alternative courses of action on the remodel but allowed us to set the direction and overall design elements. They suggested places to purchase flooring, light and plumbing fixtures that gave us fresh choices and helped save money on these items. As a result, we feel we have a much superior result than if left to our own devices.
All of Steve’s employees are kind and gracious to a fault (this is not a common characteristic of many construction workers) which is appreciated when you greet them every morning for several months and they are in your home almost all day. As mentioned in other reviews, Steve’s guys are not just general construction workers; they are true craftsmen in many different disciplines and the quality of their work is impeccable. Steve saw to this on almost a daily basis where he would visit the job site, answer questions and make sure the work was being performed as discussed.
As an aside, all of Steve’s employees were universally happy coming to work (direct employees and subcontractors alike). There is a comradery demonstrated among the workers and with Steve that belies a healthy work environment and it is clear that Steve is seen as a good employer and respected as such. As can be appreciated, this leads to good outcomes in both the quality and schedule aspects of a project and makes getting through challenges much easier when they inevitably occur.
In closing, you really should talk with Steve as one of you candidates if you are doing any level of remodel – large or small. You be the judge after having the conversation. We suspect you will see the same thing in Steve that we did, and we can attest the outcome exceeded our expectations across the board.
Now we intend to sit back and enjoy the fruits of Steve’s labor for years to come.
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