5 stars for general construction and remodeling (Arete Renovators). 3 stars for design services (Arete Art of Design).
The good: the actual construction and remodeling work was great. Eric, the project manager who did the coordinating with the sub-contractors and checked in most days on the job was a pleasure to work with and always responsive and available. The subs were always professional, timely and courteous with their work. And the labor was competitively priced. The finished project looks amazing and we’re happy with the end-result.
The not-so-good: the design-side of things started out well. The actual “design” ideas the team (Ben and Ivana) came up with were very nice and captured the “vision” we had for our basement. If it had ended there, things would’ve been great. We paid an hourly rate up front for their ideas and concepts – the issues started after that.
Our biggest complaint involved their initial materials estimate. We gave the design team our overall budget parameters, and they came back with a materials and labor proposal over the budget we had discussed. That forced us to do a lot of the subsequent research, pricing, etc ourselves to find ways to trim costs. This ultimately caused delays in the start of the project as we went back and forth with them for over a month trying to figure out ways to save money and cut costs.
Ultimately, we ended up eliminating a couple aspects of their proposal that we found to be over-priced. Specifically, we removed their custom wood cabinetry from the proposal and went with our own woodworkers instead (shout out to 57th Street Street Bookcase & Cabinetry) and saved about 33% percent in comparison to what Arete was charging. Same thing with carpeting. We eliminated their carpet proposal and went with our own carpet company (shout out to Mr. Carpet) and saved over 50%.
Material mark-ups were another concern. We understand that mark-ups are part of the business – but the amount(s) Arete was charging (at least in some areas) were pretty excessive in our opinion. For example, part of the design called for a double barn door install for the new room we were creating in the basement. The design team showed us a great-looking door and wanted to charge $2065 for it. We researched online and found the EXACT SAME DOOR for $1300. That’s a 33% mark up. Arete also had in their materials proposal “frameless” vents. They were charging over $256 each. We found the EXACT SAME product online for $125.99. That’s over a 100% mark-up. And keep in mind, these weren’t mark-ups involving obscure, hard-to-find or custom materials. That was their mark-up for regular materials anyone could’ve purchased online.
Finally, one of the selling points Arete promotes is that communication between the design side and the labor side will be easy and problem-free since they operate under one roof, which results (theoretically) in a smoother and more cost-effective project in the end because “one hand knows what the other is doing” so to speak. We found that not to be the case in our experience.
From the beginning, it was evident that none of the subs, nor Eric the project manager for that matter, had really laid eyes on the “plans” from the design team. During the initial walkthrough, one of the subs was actually looking at the specs the design team created and started claiming that what was drawn up couldn’t be done! Moreover, throughout the project, many of the subs were literally asking ME what they were supposed to be doing as it was either unclear to them or they were operating with older, outdated plans.
Fortunately, I mostly work from home so I was around to address those issues, and as I mentioned earlier in the review, Eric the project matter went above and beyond in smoothing things out and handling issues as they arose. Also, the subs were all extremely professional in their areas of expertise and were able to figure things out as well, so everything ended up fine. It just wasn’t a “seamless” transition from design to labor as promised.