Crosby Custom Remodeling

We did a lot of research when choosing a contractor to do our home renovations. We chose Crosby Custom Remodeling because of the positive reviews and credible reputation online. Allen (sales rep) is nice but pushy. He contacted me daily asking when we were going to decide on the bid. The day Matt and Allen picked up the signed contract and required first payment, I told Matt my husband was unable to sign the contract yet. He stated that is fine, it is assumed since we both are owners of the home. After the owner Matt Crosby came to our home to review, it was apparent that Allen and Matt did not go over the quote before sending it. There were several items that Allen quoted incorrectly and ending up being an added cost, for example moving the toilet, which was in original bid, but Matt said would be an additional $450. Allen made measurements for Granite tops and quoted 1 slab for kitchen and bathroom. After I questioned it and they remeasured it was increased to two slabs needed for kitchen and an additional prefab top needed for bathroom increasing the cost by $900. Matt was not aware of what Allen quoted for services such as adding a beam. He told me himself he thought Allen had quoted a different price. These details are crucial when comparing bids to others. Additionally, the allowance given for products is completely nonrealistic and I believe was underquoted to get the job. During Matt’s walk through he stated our kitchen would be unusable for 2 weeks. After I looked at his schedule it was apparent the kitchen would be unusable the entire 4 weeks of work. When I asked him again, Matt said that 2 weeks is not possible, and it would be minimum 3 weeks out of service. This was not going to work with 2 small children and living in home during renovation. He then urged us to go pick out a granite top to help expedite the kitchen work. We drove to Houston, with our 2 small children, walked in the sun for an hour and picked out our tops. All to find out Matt did not provide us with the dimensions needed to place order and on top of that he was on vacation and unable to assist. He had the nerve to tell me he needed to come “re-measure” for a third time and that he wouldn’t be able to send someone until end of the following week. This after Allen measured the kitchen, as well as Matt re-measured the kitchen during the pre-construction walk. After these continuous red flags, we knew this was not the right contractor and that the inaccurate pricing and information given was only going to continue. I informed Matt we were no longer proceeding with the renovations. At that time, he stated he already “pre-paid” contractors, bought supplies and paid commissions for work that was not even starting for weeks. I have never heard of pre-paying contractors before they complete work. His contract states nothing regarding cancellation fees or non-refundable monies and no work had been performed. My husband reached out and asked for copies of receipts for any product purchased or payments made. Matt then responded that since my husband did not sign the contract, he would not communicate with him regarding these matters. Even though he directly told me that it was no problem that my husbands’ signature was not on the contract. Since my last email asking him how this can be resolved Matt is no longer communicating with me. I tried to send a registered letter to come to a resolution since he is no longer responding to me, but it was returned due to the business address listed on Google is not valid. His website has no address listed, nor does his contract or business card. He basically took my $10,897.00 and ran. I 100% do not recommend Crosby Custom Remodeling if you want to work with an honest contractor.

We read all of the fine reviews for Crosby and after speaking with others figured we had found someone we could work with. We agreed to a price that was well above market believing that we would get this exceptional service and workmanship. Unfortunately, our experience was less than stellar. Our main issue with the Crosby team was in the details. If you are not looking for a detail oriented contractor Crosby will probably be good enough, if you are looking for a contractor who is interested in details and doing a quality job, look somewhere else. Our issues: 1. The contract. We spoke with Matt several times in great detail about what we wanted and assumed he "got the picture" as he was taking notes constantly. He did not. He states that his contracts go into "great detail to avoid confusion". They do not. Matt will conveniently forget items you asked for during the project and try to make them additions. Just not cool. Our question about knob and drawer track additions: "Why is that an addition, we talked about this when we walked through the room for the estimate" Matts answer: "I don't remember that". Our question: "Then when did we authorize this as a change because there is no change order on bill." Matts answer: "Well you know I didn't charge you for this and that and the other thing..." Dodge, dodge, bob and weave but no real answer to the question. The last thing you want to do is fight over a bill when the project is finally done. Our recommendation is if you work with Crosby (Which we can not recommend) make your own contract list in great detail and have him sign it because in our experience you can't trust "His Memory" or contract nor should you. Some things you learn to late. 2. Paint. We should have known better when we said to Matt "Do not paint over the door hinges, they are antique oiled brass and brand new". Two weeks later Matt said "It would be a lot easier if we could just paint those hinges". We should have known then, Matt didn't get it and never would, but we were committed and hoped his painter might get it. 3. The painter. We were promised that he used only the best painter in The Woodlands. The short answer is the guys work looked like he used paper towels to apply the paint. We had a new tile floor installed with white grout and the painter proceeded to paint half of the grout gray and drip gray paint on the rest. It was just sloppy, sloppy workmanship. Everyone should know that at the end of the job, how it's painted sets the tone for the entire job; Crosby does not. We finally got about 80% of what we wanted in the paint and clean up of paint, but it took at least 5 trips by the painter and 6 or so touch up sessions by the Crosby folks until we finally realized that the more times they came back the more damage they did. Their painter is just another painter who thinks, "well it's got paint on it, just because it isn't painted all the way to an edge, or all the way to a hinge, I mean it's got paint on it right?? Ugh. Also note, they will not pull light switch plates, door knobs, lights off the walls and they will not fill in any holes or prep at all before painting. (Even though we asked to do this in advance) So be prepared to have paint on every switch, fixture, knob and tracked on the floors you have and then have to fight to get it cleaned. You shouldn't have to point to every drop of paint to have it cleaned or every spot that hasn't been painted but that's what it took and still some things aren't that great. It's always about the details and Crosby isn't into details. 4. Counter top Guy. We had a new counter top installed and it was beautiful with the caveat that they didn't center the under mount sink in the center of the counter and the hole for the sink was rough, not polished, too small and not oval. Also when his installer drilled the holes for the faucet, he drilled them about 1 inch off center. This sent the entire project into a tailspin as they tried to get their installer back out to look at it and then he tried to force it to fit regardless of how it looked. Ultimately, after much consternation they were forced to replace the counter, but the entire process set the project back 5 weeks or so. When they finally installed the second counter they left pieces off and had to remove it once again and reset it a second time. Once again the "best in town" granite guy was a below average performer. No pride in workmanship, no desire to do a good job, just get it done however you can and move on. Details, details. 5. Tile. Mason guy was a true master craftsman. As good as you will find anywhere and the one reason we didn't give the job 1 star. He installed Schluter Trim through out and a tile covered access panel under our cast iron drop in tub. Great tile job all the way around, exactly what we wanted, no hassles and he "got it". Whatever we asked for, "he" understood and he knew what he was doing. 6. Attitude. We were suppose to reuse our nickel plated $700 faucet, the only thing we emphisized keeping. When the demo was done, it disappeared. When we pointed that out, we were told by Matt that someone must have stolen it, pointing to my crew that is re-grouting the outside of our home. So I got them together so that Matt could face them in person. When faced with that option he declined to make that accusation against them. Basically Matt stated that it was OUR responsibility to keep track of the items that were to be reused. We persisted and he finally bought a new one. We had some damage to our wood floor in the bedroom. Matt's answer "We couldn't have done that" This was the basic attitude through out the project "Wasn't Me". It was like working with children. 7. This project was slated to last 5 weeks, it took 16. They decided on their own to set their paint and supplies on our black slate porch. We still have white paint on our black slate that was never cleaned off. Yes, they put down paper to stop this issue, but it rained and the paper got wet and nothing was done to make sure our property was still in tact. We have paint on our rear screen door never cleaned. We have broken slate tiles where they rolled equipment over them without protecting them. We still have damage to our wood floor that was never repaired. At the end of this and after almost 4 months of "work" we just wanted it to all end and so we paid them to just go away. We decided that if we wanted anything else fixed we would simply pay someone else to do it. After spending a huge amount of money and having to basically shepherd the project to relative completion we shouldn't have to feel utterly exhausted and only modestly happy with the outcome. We should have been excited to see the project done, not excited just to see them leave. We were scheduled to do another project with Crosby that will not happen. Any craftsperson who reads this review "should" want to step up and fix their issues because of pride in their work and reputation. That won't happen in this case and after as difficult as this entire process was I don't know that we could handle anything else anyway.

I wanted to throw a shout out for this local company. My house was severely damaged by Harvey and had to be completely gutted and rebuilt. I looked at several contractors and checked reviews and took a chance on Matt. Although he wasn't the lowest bid (although he came in very low) his professionalism and obvious desire to get to work right away really impressed me. Matt's team started work the very next day, ripping out sheet rock, drywall, waterlogged cabinets, soaked carpet, and drenched trim. His team even removed all the junk and furniture that had been thrown about by the flood waters (and trust me it was one heck of a mess). After the tear out, Matt only asked for a bit less than 10% up front to start work on the rebuild. I really appreciated that as he knew we were light on funds while waiting for insurance. I know for a fact that Mr. Crosby went in the red on our job at first while waiting on our flood insurance claim to be processed -- I really appreciated his willingness to work with us during our crisis. Like all the area contractors, Crosby subcontracts much of his work out. Most of these subs were very skilled and did an outstanding job. What sets Crosby Remodeling apart is his project management team. Although there were some minor deficiencies with the workmanship, once i brought these issues to Matt's attention they were resolved in a very timely fashion. At the end of the day that's what counts. Matt's input was invaluable as neither my wife or I are very fashion conscious -- Matt made a ton of recommendations on things we could do and really nurse-maided us through the entire process. My wife and I emailed and called him so often we really felt like a nuisance, but he always took the time to cheerfully work with us. His "project selection" software emails he sent us really made things go smoothly. I really feel like we have "more house" after Matt's team went through than we had before the hurricane. Everyone who has visited since the flood has commented on the quality of the workmanship (especially the porcelain tile floors). It's also of note that upon making my 1st payment to Matt at the local bank, nearly the entire bank staff came onto the main floor and offered unsolicited testimonials about how good Matt's services were and how lucky we were to have him as a contractor-- It's obvious he's well known and in a good way. My mother and father in law (who are very discerning) love the work he has done so much that they just hired him for their remodel. One of my co-workers visited my home this weekend and she is now recommending his services for her parents who were also devastated by Harvey. I strongly recommend Crosby Custom Remodeling -- They deliver an outstanding service and they stand by their work. Houston needs more contractors like this bunch!

Over a 3 year period, we interviewed numerous contractors to remodel our home. We decided to take a chance on Matt & Crosby Custom Remodeling due to the reviews online & his numerous discussions with us.; and, we were not disappointed. Matt listened to us & understood the vision we had for our home – our kitchen was one of the most dysfunctional kitchen layouts we have ever seen much less lived in for the past 10 years. I had lots of photos of cabinets, layouts, etc. I had seen over the years, & Matt incorporated those into our design. We remodeled 1100 sq. ft. of the first floor of our home - kitchen, dining, breakfast, laundry, den, & powder bath plus removed 2 walls. Matt provided a calendar of scheduled work, so we knew every day what to expect & who would be at our home. And, the team stayed on schedule – even during the rain, they would keep moving forward or stay late to complete the work - even working some weekends. As a project manager myself, I was very impressed with the level of commitment Matt & his team have. Demolition began on day 1, & everything was taken to the studs & the concrete slab. During the project, 2 beams were installed, gas line installed, water lines moved, & new electrical. This was a major project which lasted 8 weeks while we were living in the home with a small dog & 2 cats. Matt & his team used the large plastic sheets with zippers for access & an air filter to reduce the dust from infiltrating the other areas of our home. They used 2 air scrubbers during the painting process which helped tremendously as the fumes were removed from the house into the front yard. And, they were diligent to clean up after themselves as we continued to live in the house. All of our cabinets were built onsite to our specifications with rolling shelves which are soft close, & the cabinet doors are soft close, too. Rey & his team of painters were outstanding – their work was spot-on – no drips, no runs, just perfect. Rey’s team sanded every cabinet in order to have the "smooth as glass" finish. The granite was cut onsite & installed perfectly. Every one of Matt's crew was professional & willing to work with the Oak Ridge North inspector - ORN has very strict guidelines, & all work was completed to their satisfaction. As we would notice items which needed attention, Matt & Don would correct any issues we found – never an excuse, but “yes ma’am, we will get that done”; and, they did. We purchased a chandelier to hang over our kitchen sink; however, the chandelier had to be put together. Unfortunately, this came during a time when I was needed at work & could not devote any time to placing the crystals on the fixture. When I arrived home one evening thinking I was going to have to work on that light – whala! – Don had installed the crystals, & the chandelier was complete & hanging in its proper place. Happy Day! They go above & beyond to finish the job! Our family & friends checked on the progress during the 8 weeks, & they were very impressed with the work. Now that the job is complete, we are enjoying our new space – it’s hard to believe where we were 8 weeks ago. I have worked with other contractors in my 35 years living in this area, & trust me, I will only work with Matt & Crosby Custom Remodeling for now on – we are so very pleased with their professionalism & craftsmanship!