Empire Countertops

It’s too bad there’s a one star minimum.
After expecting Empire to install our countertops for weeks and receiving an acknowledgment from them that they were holding up progress on the rest of our construction, we were relieved when they finally decided to show up for work. On the first day they broke our island slab and had to purchase an entire slab to replace it. Fortunately, they took on the cost of that, however, they then took an additional three weeks to show up with the new one (which we had reserved at Alkusari, right next door to Empire’s Austin office, the same day they broke the first one). When they finally came to install it the lamination on the edges was extremely sloppy– not at all what we expected for the time and money we had already invested in our marble countertops, but consistent with the service we had received thus far from Empire.
Then they took an additional three weeks to come and install our bathroom countertops and shower surround, at which time they neglected to bring all of their materials and those remaining items took them another MONTH to bring and install. Believe me, if our builder hadn’t insisted that any other company would have cost us $ 15k more (which, in retrospect, I have a hard time believing) we would have fired them from the beginning. But we were already so over budget on the total project, that we couldn’t bring ourselves to start over with other installers. (Again, in retrospect: it would have been worth it.)
The shower surround looks like it was done by a lazy husband trying to check it off of a honey-​do list, complete with a ridiculous– and again sloppy– seam right at eye level. Even a novice would know to just flip it so you don’t have to stare at it right when you walk in the door. They then refused to fix it, claiming that they would probably break it if they did. It’s as if they didn’t want our money (and certainly not our good review).
The worst part is that there is no recourse when you are working with a company who takes the slabs you have already spent thousands of dollars on into their possession and then continually fails to show up with them. I tried calling Empire myself on a number of occasions (against my builder’s recommendation) and I left a voice mail every time, which was never once returned.
When you build a custom home, you expect a certain level of quality and service. Our builder told us time and again that in construction subcontractors typically excel in only two of three areas: speed, quality and price. Empire took months to complete a job that should have taken days. Their work is atrocious and they refuse to make amends for it. And, based on my research, their rates are just about standard for the Austin area– although avoiding the nightmare of the lack of speed and quality would be totally worth a few extra dollars per square foot. If you are wise, you will not even CONSIDER working with Empire.

My husband and I absolutely love our countertops. From picking out our slabs, scheduling, templating and install the process was nice and easy. The install crew was on time and they left the place nice and clean!