Sandstone Construction Co.

In regards to the "Kitchen, Breakfast Area, Bar & Bathroom Remodel - San Diego, CA," which is MY home: We had a lot of issues on this project (began 10/2014, ended 2/2015): From my personal research we should not have been seeing any issues with cracking grout between our kitchen countertop and backsplash for five years after installation. It started cracking at the 1 and 1/2 yr mark, and by now (2 years, 3 months later) almost the whole line is cracked (9 feet widthwise and 9 feet lengthwise). In addition, grout is disappearing in some small areas in the backsplash. The same tile company (The Stone Experts/Intermark-believed to both be owned by Manuel Olmos) was the estimator of our bathroom floor and grossly miscalculated the area of the floor-the same type of math problem I've given 4th graders in the past. As a result 28 extra tiles were ordered-I never found out for sure if we were refunded $$ for just the 14 tiles I asked to be returned since the tiles had been delivered over a month before. Then the over order was blamed on our designer, who did not make the measurement. The measurement and number of tiles information was passed on from Stone Experts/Intermark to our designer, as is the norm, and then she placed the order. The same subcontractor tile company Sandstone used did a poor seal job on island counter-within a month of install it had to be resealed by Pellegrino Stone Care co, and there was a noticeable difference afterward. Bathroom countertops were installed upside down-they were sandpaper gritty and left that way. Stone Experts/Intermark needed to come back and sand it down, buff it out. The employees of the tile company were, unbeknownst to me, pouring the grout water onto my Agapantha plants on the side of our yard throughout the grouting job of our project. Finally, the owner of Sandstone discouraged us from getting an electrical permit-if we had, it would’ve been discovered that the new, larger oven wires in our electrical secondary panel were not screwed down, and, more importantly, the neutral wire in our main electrical panel was loose. All of the above complaints have been noted multiple times to the owner of Sandstone. I don't want to hurt his feelings in this review as he is a friend of a friend (hence the 2 stars instead of 1) however it's not fair for people to make a contract without knowing something about past jobs. If you want a construction company that moves fast thru the demolition process with the GC/owner on the site, someone who expects excellent cleanup by the end of the day, and expects high levels of insurance from the subcontractors, this is a great company for that. Beyond that, I can't refer it. If you do choose to hire this company and there are other subcontractors I highly suggest you personally take the time to call on those sub's own references, and see photos of jobs.

The contractor was very polite and professional. He was always responsive to my inquiries and kept things easy for me to understand. I would certainly make use of their services again.