Alwin Installs & Home Improvement

Nathan Alwin and his team were fantastic! First impression was that he hit the basics of reliability: he answered my initial call, scheduled a time, arrived on time, and sent a bid the same day.
We have a 1925 house and asked Nathan to replace all of the carpet and linoleum on the main floor with 18 inch porcelain tile. This included a sunroom, living room, kitchen, hallway, and bathroom. His bid was $ 2000 less than the other bids and he accepts credit cards. These were both deal breakers that, otherwise, would have prevented us from doing the project … AND it included new, painted baseboards which the other bids did now. Additionally, other bids asked that we move all our appliances out of the kitchen and the move the toilet. We only have one bathroom. Nathan kept both our kitchen and bathroom fully functional throughout the whole process. It was always fun to see where the fridge would be when we got home from work each day!
Nathan ran into a few snags. He had to raise the front door (you can do that?!), level out the sun room with cement, and work with very «wavy» tile. These set backs meant that rather than the estimated 5 business days, the project stretched to 8. He didn’t charge us anything additional! He was more concerned with giving us a perfect floor than getting the job done quickly.
Overall, we were 100% satisfied with Nathan’s work and will call him for all future home needs! THANK YOU for making this project possible!

I’m giving a review based on customer service alone but I believe that’s fair since I’ve seen similar businesses with poor reviews for such things (i.e. not returning calls, and in general being very hard to get ahold of). I can also vouch for the work they did on my neighbor’s home as he is the one who recommended them to us in the first place.
My wife and I have contacted Alwin installs a few times now and they have always been the best at getting back to us. Each time they’ve been quick to respond and have taken the time out of their day to help point us in the right direction. Thanks again for the advice! This will be the first place we call the next time we’re in need of any home improvement/​repair work. Cheers!

We ended up having Nathan come back out I think in January this year to do the job for the pass through that I mentioned in my last review. Amazing, fantastic, and reasonably priced work.

We purchased a condo with a bathroom stuck in 1949… literally. The crumbling salmon and maroon tile added to the ambiance of the ancient medicine cabinet and hideous light. We also had the joy of running an extension cord from the hallway to use a hair dryer, as the bathroom had no outlet.
After having two exorbitant bids come through I was feeling disheartened about renovating a very small bathroom for under 10k; I found Alwin Installs on Unilocal and Nate came by to check it out. His bid was literally half every other contractor that came through. It was a bit alarming. However, I got good vibes from Nate, he seemed laid back, and he accepted credit card, which was how we wanted to pay for this particular project.
Nate fielded our 1,000 questions with humor and was responsive via email and phone. He did exactly what we asked, including add-​on tasks like installing a new light in our bedroom and adding fire-​proof insulation to the bathroom wall so our neighbor no longer has to listen to us in the bathroom. They did all the electrical needed (new outlet and light) and even painted a little to help us out!
When bumps occurred (as they are wont to do) Nate was very communicative and calm (despite my nuclear-​level anxiety about everything). His response was always «don’t worry, we’ll figure it out».
I felt comfortable having him in the house alone all day and just gave him a key and told him to do is thing.
In the end, he completed the project within the time frame he estimated and exactly on budget.
The craftsmanship is spectacular, and really adds serious value to our home. I would recommend him to ANYONE. You can’t beat Alwin Install’s prices for the high quality of work you get.
(He has way more great reviews, but for some reason Unilocal is filtering them all… not sure what that’s about)

Nathan did an amazing job rehabbing our fireplace! I would recommend him to anyone. Very professional, always on time, easy to work with, reasonably priced and on budget. We had a couple last minute changes and Nathan was super accommodating. I am blown away with the end result. Thanks again!

I’ve worked with a number of contractors over the years. The job we needed Nathan to do was pretty straight forward (replacing a window broken by a kamikaze bird), but even during this process Nathan’s responsiveness and consistency were very evident, and very appreciated. Highly recommended!

Alwin is a great guy that cares about his customers. Thumbs up!

After interviewing 3 – 4 contractors regarding a kitchen facelift I was planning, and not feeling quite right about any of them, I looked on Unilocal and found Alwin Installs highly reviewed. Nathan is truly a craftsman, with attention to detail. He immediately spotted our microwave that was hung too low over the stove (not to code), something that no other contractor had mentioned. That change alone was quickly remedied and makes the vent function more efficiently, and makes the kitchen feel more open. Also while creating the underlayment for my new countertops, he suggested a way that one counter could continue to the window — I have an extra 5 feet of countertop now in my teeny kitchen — win! I would not have thought of that.
I had never hired anyone to help with a project like this, and working with Nathan was great. When I mentioned that I wanted to order & paint the cupboard doors myself to save $, he didn’t bat an eyelash, and was fine with me ordering parts on my own (sink, faucets, backsplash tile). Of course the things I didn’t think of (mortar, grout, trim, etc) were figured out and purchased by Nathan that day. I agreed with many of his suggestions, declined some of them, and we went from there.
He even recommended a place that could do my countertops for a more affordable price than he could. Nathan wanted to be paid for the work that I wanted him to do, not try to make extra $ on markups. I felt that I was in control of the project, and he was there to support my choices. And his hourly rate is very reasonable.
My project was not a rush job, and I think Nathan came out 3 different times as I was ready for the next phase of work (and as his busy schedule allowed). And I got to pay as I went, which was very helpful.
Nathan’s work is efficient and thoughtful. His facebook page has a bunch of photos of before & after work that is compelling. I highly recommend his work.

I had Nathan come out to take a look at some small jobs we needed done. He was rude to me during the visit and never contacted me again afterwards with the promised estimate. No go.

My husband was trimming our trees on the side of the house when one branch landed on one of the picture windows and broke it… He tried and tried to find somebody to fix it (so he say) but unfortunately could not locate anybody. So I went and checked Unilocal and started looking for window installers and chanced upon a review about Alwin Installs and was impressed right away, not having second thoughts, called Nathan and he came right away looked at the damage, gave a clear estimate of how much it’s going to cost us (which was reasonable).
I was sold, he got the order in and exactly a week my window was looking brand spanking new. no mess left, very impressed of how he handled the job.
Thanks so much Nathan and I’m pretty sure you are going to be one of my go to guys from now on… highly recommended!!!
Sheila K.

Nathan is awesome. You simply cannot go wrong with him. I found him through Craigslist after a DIY home improvement project went a bit south. He responded to me right away, got out to see my place that night, and started the job the next morning. His professional demeanor, laid-​back attitude, and apparent knowledge of all things handyman put me at ease and boy did I need that. I had gathered several quotes and he was the most competitive and the only one would didn’t scare me while explaining the work he’d need to do. He was incredibly easy to work with, offered to pick up materials needed if I couldn’t do it myself, gave me suggestions as to what should be done, and (this is the most important) reacted with confidence to everything I asked him to do (a few others reacted in that way where they raise their eyebrows, shake their heads, sigh loudly, and then tell me something scary. Nathan did none of that!).
He installed floor tiles in my bathroom and kitchen, installed the baseboards, and even noticed that my new granite countertops didn’t look quite finished underneath and solved it by adding trim along the bottom of the counter. At the end of the job (which was completed super fast in my humble opinion), the floors looked spectacular but the whole room looked professionally finished which I never would have figure out myself! He cleaned everything up perfectly and, like others had said, it now looks cleaner than it was before. My boyfriend and I also took out our toilet to do the floors and Nathan reinstalled that for us too! He did a terrific job and didn’t leave anything to doubt – for instance my toilet was leaking somewhere and he didn’t give up until he had figured out why and had stopped it from leaking.
I feel so lucky that I found Nathan and will certainly call him again for any manner of home improvement project. THANKS NATE!

Originally I met Nathan through a Craigslist ad to build me an outdoor pet-​house and he did a fabulous job. Not only was I impressed with his workmanship but also how nice and accommodating he was to my requests. When it came time to remodel our rental house I asked Nathan for a bid to replace moulding, install new windows/​doors, new flooring, and eventually a whole new kitchen. Nathan was ALWAYS on-​time, honest, worked a full day, had excellent craftmanship, and was able to accomplish all different types of work. Most importantly I was able to leave Nathan alone to do the work with full trust and a completed job. Nathan’s attention to detail is superior and he’s proud of his work, yet his pricing is very reasonable. Even if he’s not the «low-​bid», I would pay more for the ease-​of-​mind to have a quality job done.
I have no reservations referring him to all of my friends and family and when I have future work I will be calling Alwin Installs.
Hilary
Seattle WA