Sun Dog Construction

Sun Dog has performed two major jobs on our 1925 Portland home. First, they redesigned and rebuilt our front porch. The second project included removal of asbestos tiles and installing Hardy Plank siding and trim, insulation, window replacement and concrete upgrade and repair. In both cases they did an outstanding job which increased the aesthetic appeal and quality of our home. Their craftsmen were friendly, courteous and above all, highly skilled with great attention to detail. We are extremely pleased with the results and would highly recommend Sun Dog for your home improvement and building projects,

Wish I didn’t hire Sundog Sundog is Ferrari pricing but pinto quality and service. The sales job was great, Autumn will convince you, he & his team are highly qualified. But, in our opinion, they do not follow through with the quality of work or the level of competency that their prices dictate. A few subcontractors were good, but most were not at the level they should be and from our perspective, Sundog did not supervise them to ensure things were done right. There were numerous things that had to be done multiple times because it wasn’t done right the first time. We had to argue and push them to do it right. From our perspective, they do not do what they say they would. We also found their markup to be double or more than the underlying subcontractor cost. Our remodel was complete knob/tube removal, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, new roof, new heater & AC, and some other areas. Of more than 30 specific examples of their substandard work, here are some: 1.Sundog had a custom made vent duct built to vent the stove’s hood out the side of the house. Custom made, yet while they had cabinet specs for months, the duct stuck out in front of the cabinets. This resulted in having them cut a new hole in the custom vent to move the opening and patch the drywall in the ceiling. While they did complete this, the new opening was still not centered and connection to the hood ended up being at an angle. 2.Pocket door was moved 3 times after first framing it in because they couldn’t or didn’t read the design details they had for months. The last 2 moves required the tile to be fixed. 3.We, and the cabinet guy, pointed out the sink trap in the bathroom had to be higher to accommodate the vanity. Sundog had those specs for months yet pipe was installed too low. This resulted in an argument to get them to move the pipe up 3 inches. And resulted in a false back installed to cover the fix, which Sundog refused to pay for even though it was their mistake. 4.The newly installed kitchen sink was leaking immediately, and not a difficult issue to identify. A qualified plumber should have seen this right away. Plumber came out to fix leak. Yet leak remained. Came out 2nd time to fix the leak. Pipe had 2 leaks. During this issue, Sundog’s project manager said it wasn’t his job to check subcontractor’s work. 5.Plumbers originally cross threading the shower valve. This was pointed out to project manager who felt it was ok. We had to argue to get this corrected as it would have resulted in leaks behind the tile. 6.The bathroom walls were not level, not even close to level. This caused the tile guy to fix the underlying wall structure to ensure their hardy board would be level for tile. At this time, it was mentioned that the wall next to hardy board and where a new window would be installed was not level. It was pointed out before and several times after drywall was put up that the wall was not level; the wall was concaved in the middle and stuck out at the top. Yet project manager said it could be mudded. It was a drywall mudding nightmare and in the end, we had to compromise and fir out the window molding. It would have been so easy to just do this right the first time, or take down the drywall when you could see the wall was not level, but Sundog appears to have no desire to do a good job unless you push them. 7.The gas line for stove was too far from wall. Getting it to the right place took 3 visits from the HVAC guys -- first to move it, then to come out and put shutoff valve per code (and we smelled gas), and the 3rd time to put in a 90 degree turn so that stove could be hooked up. On the 3rd visit, 2 gas leaks were patched. HVAC subcontractors were not at the quality level they should have been. 8.We had them move and install a new AC unit. The wires for the old unit were uncapped for months. While it is true, the breaker was turned off some of this time, the electricians did turn all breakers on at some point, and we had to point out that the wires were live multiple times over a few weeks. Sundog did not cap them after we pointed this out. We capped them. There were also various other outlets that were not capped or left in an unsafe condition. 9.Drywallers were the worst subcontractors and mostly unsupervised by project manager. Once they were ‘done’, we pointed out 30-40 different areas that needed to be sanded, remudded, or re done; the project manager saw only a few issues vs. what we saw. We had to argue with them to get them to fix. Drywaller walked off the job; Sundog’s replacement drywaller fixed some things but in the end, we had to sand several areas on our own. During this time, we hired a different drywaller (outside of sundog) to come do a dining room ceiling. First, this drywaller was great and by seeing him work, we realized just how bad the other drywallers were. Second, sundog’s quote was more than double what we paid -- $3500 sundog quote, $1460 my drywaller. a.Further, the shower door quoted by Sundog was $4000; We took this over when we terminated them and paid $2200 which means Sundog’s markup was 80%. b.We explored changing the water heater with Sundog. Their quote was $1700 for installation only. Home Depot was ~$900, nearly a 90% markup. 10.Project management was a major issue. The order of things was just wrong. Drywallers should have been done before tile was ever put down. This resulted in drywall dust in the grout and more importantly, totally blocking the new AC filter. A competent contractor or HVAC professional should have known to replace the filter after drywall was done. We pointed out early on and multiple times to the owner that the project manager was not doing the level of job we expected. We specifically asked the owner to personally supervise more closely. He said he would and we take him at his word that he did. And we know he was getting near daily progress photos of work being done. This means he watched bad work being done, did not step in to fix it, and instead waited for us to point out issues and argue with Sundog to fix. Sundog sells themselves as experts but in our experience, they are not at the level of competency they claim to be. The process of having to watch them closely, point out issues, and then argue to get them to fix was not acceptable given the premium price they charged. Remodels are difficult especially in older homes, so you’d expect a few of the things above to perhaps happen, but the number of issues was just astonishing. Hire someone else.

The team at Sun Dog Construction helped out team out with a last-minute framing project. They did a fantastic job and we appreciate their flexibility and willingness to provide a helping hand. Good people and quality work!

They installed sliding glass door where there had previously been a window, and installed and framed another window. They were prompt, and did great work