Justin Woo review about company A&T General Construction Inc.

I had my basement finished by Octavio (Tavi) Rodriguez, who runs A&T General Construction and had a great experience. The project started in late-September and finished mid-December. 1 - You get what you pay for. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, but I paid less than 50% with A&T than I would have paid those well-known, price gouging companies, like Matrix. You need to keep those things in mind when shopping around and considering contractors. Tavi completed two basement jobs for people in my neighborhood and trust is one of the most important things you need with a smaller contractor. 2 - Pricing - Out of the gate, Tavi gave me a great quote. It was clear that the price included 10 canned lights and with my larger basement, I knew I would go way over. I expected it. It wasn't clear as to how much each additional light was going to be upfront, but that was on me for not asking so I could put it into my budget calculator. No big deal. What was not clear was that the original quote did not include the wiring for smoke detectors in each room. It also included X-number of electric outlets and any more would incur a charge. This was the only thing that disappointed me about the transaction. If a space or room must have certain features (like outlets per wall or smoke detectors), then that should have been included in the original quote. The extra check I had to write for this was painful. With how flexible Tavi was on not charging me for certain changes and giving me a killer deal on moving my washer and dryer up to my main floor's mud room (installing water, outlets, and running gas), I accepted my fate. 3 - Flexibility - My wife and I made changes along the way and Tavi graciously made them. Some changes did not include an extra charge (like moving where they put some canned lights) and some did (like installing a custom window-box above a glass-paned double-door to the workout room. I also did a custom home-theater setup. I wired all the audio and networking cables myself and Tavi worked around it and installed the boxes that I left for him to attach to the studs and drywall around. He did a custom box-around over my sump pump and installed access-panels near my water-line-outs (to hose spigots) so I could shut off the pipes from the inside, during the winter. 4 - Timing. Tavi said 6-8 weeks, but I think it ran more like 10-12. Towards the end of the project, Tavi and his crew were there in fewer numbers (less larger things to do as a team and more detail-oriented). When they were framing and drywalling, it was 2-4 guys a day. When they got to doing baseboards, it was at least 1. It could have gone faster, but I have a feeling he was ramping up on another project. With his small crew, I understood his operation and it didn't bother me. 5 - Overall quality was wonderful. Ultimately, if you look closely for certain details, you can absolutely find flaws that other companies (like Matrix) may have avoided. I am in my basement every day (I put an office down there) and I don't notice the flaws. People that see my basement for the first time don't notice the flaws. Small things like the double-doors to the HVAC room not lined up 100% at the top. Nobody is bothered by it. If you are bothered by it, avoid my house. I have kids and a lot of other things will bother you about it. A month or two later I had Tavi come back to finish another small job in the basement. Good price and he came out to do the work himself.