Unique Builders & Development

I would very highly recommend Unique Builders and Development. I needed to replace two toilets in my townhouse. I called a plumber (I won’t mention the name, but it was in the Village). They quoted me THREE times what Unique Builders quoted for me. They were completely trying to take advantage of me, perhaps because I’m a single woman, living alone. Gerardo installed my toilets and he was incredibly professional and courteous, I felt very comfortable having him in my home. I couldn’t have asked for better customer service. He was able to install my toilets very quickly and he even went out of his way to look at my water heater to give me his opinion about replacing it. He didn’t try to «sell» me a new water heater (the plumber in the Village certainly did), and he told me that it should last at least another four years. Thank you Unique Builders and Development for being honest and professional. I will definitely recommend your services and I will certainly use you again.

Great company! Had a garage addition done from this company and I love it! Everything was done on time and the plans have been drawn and they are scheduled to begin the kitchen remodel after the holidays! Excited!

At the beginning we were told they would cover all cabinets with plastic, and then put up plastic on the openings to other rooms. For the demolition they did put up the plastic and it helped. But the plastic came down after 2 days and they did not cover anything after that. Many hours were spent cleaning.
Quality
* The new island panels are shrinking or shifting and leaving gaps of un-​stained wood where the panels meet the raised sections.
o They have been out twice in the last 6 weeks to re-​stain these gaps.
o My wife and I originally considered re-​doing all cabinets and I can’t imagine how horrid we would feel if we had.
* Backsplash had many issues that needed to be re-​done; not the same depth, medallions not at the same height, tile stops 1″ before the top of electrical outlet.
* To cut a hole inside the new island they used a reciprocating saw which just tore up the interior.
o Their comment … «no one will see it»
* A wine fridge was going into the end of the new island. There was a lot of sawdust and wood parts on the floor and they said «No one will see it».
* Downdraft installation: The cooktop has a downdraft blower that was pointed to blow out the back for the normal install along an exterior wall. Ours is in the island which should blow down. The day of the install I decided to read the installation instructions because bending duct work will reduce the flow and of course there are instructions on what to do for downdraft. So I left the installation instructions out and wanted to see how Unique would handle this. As I expected they dropped in the cooktop without rotating the blower. I then stopped them and showed them the instructions.
o What if I hadn’t shown them that? The downdraft would work but not nearly as efficient as it should. How often does this happen and no one catches it?
Safety
The island cooktop was changing from electric to gas. The plumber’s helper was the only person to come out to install the cooktop and hookup the gas. When we got gas turned on you could really smell it. The burners worked but even after turning off the cooktop for a while you still smell gas so there is clearly a leak somewhere.
The project manager said the main plumber would be out in a couple days to find/​fix the leak. Well the plumbers helper came back and he does the soap test and says «no leak» then just leaves. Later that night the smell is very bad again and we haven’t used the cooktop at all so we turn the gas back off. The project manager says the main plumber will be out in a couple days, but the plumber helper shows up again (déjà vu). Same thing, don’t smell much gas and his soap test doesn’t find anything, he says «no leak» and leaves. The project manager was here later that day and we did not smell gas while he was here. Again that night we smell gas again so I shut it off.
I decided Unique Builders wasn’t going to bring the right people to find this leak so I call a plumbing company and in 15 minutes had found the leak. They fix it and charged me a few hundred dollars. I’m annoyed at spending the money but happy that we can use our cooktop without gas leaks.
I then e-​mailed the project manager saying a plumber was just here and fixed the leak. The project manager asks me to scan/​send him the invoice so that Unique could «make it right». As of now they haven’t
Good things:
* The project manager was good to work with and directed us to a place where we could get a really good deal on the appliance package.
* The project manager came by one evening to locate the gas shut-​off valve for the island. He spent a couple hours there one evening and located the valve behind a cabinet.
* Granite fabricator did really good work. The seams match really well.