Our experience with Westway Custom Builders (WCB) was highly favorable. Our project was a major renovation of an existing house plus adding space. The renovation was extensive and complex; we thus exercised significant due diligence in choosing our builder. After investigating several of the area’s reputable contractors, we kept narrowing our candidate list with WCB clearly coming out on top. Tom Classen, WCB Owner, was given excellent reviews by several in the HSB area, including but not limited to, architects, real estate agents, former clients, suppliers, local regulatory authorities, and even area people we would just randomly ask about him. Tom lived up to his reputation on our project, in particular:
Integrity - Tom, his family, and his team are honest people and of high integrity. Never once were there any reasons to be concerned in this regard;
Quality - WCB has a longstanding following of reputable subcontractors that are very good. Tom and his foreman closely monitor the work; No shortcuts are taken; everything is done in correct manner with quality craftsmanship. Occasionally, there may be an oversight namely due to miscommunication; but any issues are readily resolved;
Creativity/Innovativeness - Goes without saying, but there are always unforeseen challenges throughout the course of a project. Tom is an idea generator, great at creatively resolving issues. He also has a good eye and will offer up ideas for consideration;
Fair - WCB is competitively priced, but by no means is it the lowest cost provider which is reasonable to expect. The end product and workmanship are worth the cost as evidenced by the strong higher-end, custom home demand for WCB services. If you are nearing the point of kicking off your project, we suggest getting on Tom’s commitment list as soon as reasonably possible and engage him in the upfront planning process. We put a lot of time and effort in the design and planning phase; Tom helped us tremendously in this regard;
Project Admin – WCB provided reasonably sound estimates on the front end. Project accounting and billing are timely and accurate; actual-to-estimated cost comparison analysis is done with every billing; you know where you stand with every payment draw. Clerical mistakes are few; any made are promptly corrected.
Constructive advice: Be prepared to exercise patience. There is short supply of proven quality subcontractors relative to the area’s current enormous home building demand. As such, you sometimes are placed in what we referred to as the "sub-queue" and you just have to wait… frustrating at times, but in the end, it’s worth the wait when you see the quality of work that is done by the right people.
Again, our experience with WCB was / is highly favorable. Its post project completion follow-up is very good and we remain pleased with its service and quality. We have done many building projects over several years now and this project is certainly one of, it not the best, building experience we’ve had. We would use Tom and Company again for sure.
