BIG ISLAND BUILDERS

This is a revision/update from my earlier review. Shortly after posting my original review I was contacted by the owner of Big Island Builders, Jay. He apologized for the issues that we had been having, indicated that he had not been informed of some of the problems and promised to make things right. With his involvement, he was quickly able to get the owner of the pool company that had done the original design and installation to come take a look. They discovered that our spa inflow and outflow pipes had been reversed (everything worked, just not nearly as efficiently as they should have…which was why my pump failed early). The pool company owner wrote me a check on the spot for the cost of the new pump I had had to purchase and organized his crew to make the necessary repairs. With their involvement, my pool has been repaired and is now working properly. Afterwards, I spoke with Jay about the issues that we had. I understand that some of the unresponsive back office people are no longer with BIB and that Jay is doing more of the General Contractor work himself. He is also being more discriminating about what sub-contractors he will work with (in our home, some of the subcontractors were chosen by the spec home investor). This is all good news. I found Jay to be friendly, responsive, knowledgeable and a straight-shooter. As I mentioned above, once he got involved, things got done. As I stated in my original view, we are very happy with our Big Island Builders home. We love the look, style and design of the home and feel that, overall, it is well built. We did have a couple of issues, which I highlighted, and they have now been addressed. Given our overall satisfaction with our home and my experiences in dealing directly with Jay, my wife and I would definitely work with Jay and Big Island Builders again if we decided to build something custom here in the Naples area.

Our experience with Big Island Builders (BIB) has been less positive. In April ‘18 we bought a brand-new BIB spec home. Overall, we are pleased with our home. It seems well-constructed with a number of high-end finishes and some thoughtful design touches. At closing the punch list was not overly extensive and Big Island got through the items in a fairly timely manner. That said, the quality of workmanship is uneven in places (see below) and I believe this comes down to the subcontractors that BIB used and their supervision of these subcontractors. Luckily we had a 1 year Builder’s Warranty which we have made extensive use of. The problems we’ve had include: After living in the house a few days the drains backed up and waste water from the toilets started coming up the shower drains. Apparently, during construction, one of the workers flushed rags down a toilet, blocking the main sewer line and eventually backing up the drains/toilets. The pool auto-fill didn’t work. BIB gave me the name of the subcontractor (Park Shore Pools) but their phone goes to voicemail and they never called back (Our BIB contact told me that this is why BIB no longer uses them). Eventually BIB got them to come by and they said they fixed it. However, it still wasn’t working so I had my pool maintenance company do it right ($600). In July a compressor on one of our year old AC units blew. Luckily the subcontractor who installed the units registered them so they were under warranty (later I was not so lucky) but the labor was $1100. It is rare for a new compressor to stop working. Maybe this wasn’t BIB’s fault…but given all of our other problems I wonder if there was a issue with the original installation that caused the part to fail prematurely. At Christmas we had a full house when water from an upstairs shower started pouring from one of the light canisters on the main floor. It took 2 weeks before BIB could get anyone to come look at it. Eventually BIB determined that the rubber shower pan liner was damaged during installation. Repairing this was major work, tearing up the shower floor and some wall tile, putting in place a new fiberglass shower liner and retiling everything. 12 (!) weeks and a lot of micromanagement later it is finally fixed, but it’s not perfect…if you look carefully you can see where the tile was replaced, which is irritating in a new house. Now it’s March and our pool pump filter has failed. Again, this is not normal. These pumps are engineered to run 24/7 and have a 3-year warranty. I called BIB and they referred me to Park Shore Pools (the ones who don’t answer the phone). I called the pump maker and they said that it should be under warranty but it was never registered so they can’t do anything. BIB continued to refer me to Park Shore who never responded to any of my calls. In the end, not wanting the pool to be down when the kids are here for their spring break, I bit the bullet and had my pool maintenance company install a new pump ($2000). [Note: it is a week later and I still haven't heard back from Park Shore Pools or any follow-up from BIB] And there have been other issues which I won’t bother to list here - some of which may be normal and some of which seem to indicate quality problems. I would say that the BIB general contractor we have worked with on the warranty issues is good…he is very friendly, knowledgeable and responsive (text/phone). He wasn’t the original GC on the house so he inherited the problems much like we have. He is very much at the mercy of the original build quality and the subcontractors that they use (he is also leaving BIB shortly, unfortunately). The BIB backoffice staff less so. Warranties that should have been filed on our behalf weren’t done. They don’t take accountability for issues and instead point you to subcontractors who then don’t return calls. So if you use BIB, verify the subcontractors, ensure the warranty docs on all major systems (HVAC, pool, appliances, etc) are filed and perhaps maintain an escrow account during the warranty period.

I didn’t hire this company directly but the previous owner of my condo did. We recently accepted an offer to sell the condo. Unfortunately during the title search an open permit was discovered from over 10 years ago. The permit was for the renovation by Big Island. The previous owner had health problems and didn’t allow Big Island to finish getting the inspections to close the permit. I called Big Island even though I had no relationship with them. They were totally professional and immediately agreed to reopen the permit and get the inspections done so I could sell my condo. Reopening a more than 10 year old permit was no easy task. Doing so required paying a fee and waiting for several hours on more than one occasion at the county office. They also had to be at my condo several times to meet with inspectors. They were responsive and actually cared. A special thank you to Patrick Flynn. I would hire these guys in a second. Any company that treats someone the way they treated me is the kind of ethical, professional company that you hope to find when you build a house or do a renovation. By the way, they did a nice job on the renovation too.

Working with Big Island Builders is always an easy and professional experience. We love working with the selections coordinator, Kacey, who always has an awesome rapport with her clients and is an absolute delight to work. Builders like Big Island make our job very enjoyable and rewarding. Prompt, courteous, and understanding. The best in Naples!

We hired Mike and Jay to renovate our 1980's home. They worked closely with us on the budget, the time frame, and consistently oversaw the work being done. They were conscientious, with good ideas, respectful, and alway courteous. Our best contractor/owner experience.