Do not use Meridian Build Group for any type of home building or renovation work without major changes to their business, communication, and financial practices. We hired Meridian Build Group to perform an extensive remodel on our home in 2016. Unfortunately, the process and the results did not go as expected, resulting in a project over 2x its original schedule, a large number of quality defects, and a lack of follow-through by the contractor.
Remodels are obviously stressful, and emotions can run high, so I’ll keep this review focused on the factual events that gave us great concern and unfortunately cause me to not recommend Meridian.
This review is broken into 3 areas that matter most to homeowners thinking about building or remodeling their home, along with suggestions for how Meridian can address these areas in the future:
1. Financial management
A number of financial irregularities occurred throughout the project. Among these were:
* On the date of the contract signing, Meridian had “forgotten to include framing labor,” stating, “This is not like me." A $6000 line item was added to the budget that we'd been reviewing for the preceding month.
* Attention to detail on invoices. We were double-charged for the same line item on 3 separate occasions. In one of these cases, it took 3 attempts to get the line item removed.
* Many items, totaling over $10,000 were left off the original bid, and only added on or discussed after the project had begun and there was no choice to refuse.
I suggest Meridian hire a full-time bookkeeper and schedule manager to prevent issues like this from occurring again.
2. Schedule management
* The project was scheduled to complete in 3 ½ months. Instead, substantial completion happened 7 months after project start.
* While the project was technically over at the 7 month mark, over 6 significant quality and warranty issues remained. In almost every case it took us several notifications and weeks/months of waiting to have Meridian address the issues.
* Nearly every time we asked for a completion date on either the project or the outstanding warranty items, we were instead provided with a story and a lot of explanation of the process, without a commitment on a timeline.
Suggest Meridian hire a part-time ceritified PMP project manager with good communication skills, who is able to provide clarity on scheduled dates, and mitigation plans when dates are at risk.
3. Subcontractor quality assurance
* Many times, subcontractors simply did not show up when scheduled. Other times, they showed up far outside agreed-upon working hours, in some cases working until 8 or 9 pm.
* Meridian and its subcontractor, Macadam Flooring and Design, recommended engineered hardwood for our remodel. The engineered hardwood began showing significant quality-of-installation issues (squeeking and deflection) within weeks of installation (about July, 2016). When these issues were reported, the process was explained to us, which entailed having Macadam perform not 1, not 2, but 3 different inspections spanning months of waiting. Over the course of 1 excruciating year, 3 different attempts were made to fix the flooring with what were clearly stopgap solutions involving epoxy which failed within days of its application. The flooring was not fixed, Meridian ignored our attempts to contact them, and **we are now looking at footing a $15-$20,000 bill to fix the flooring ourselves.**
* Many of our personal tools and equipment were pulled out of personal spaces in the garage and used by Meridian's employees or subcontractors: ladders, vacuums, pliers, etc.
* On many occasions, our personal property was damaged or went missing. In most cases, Meridian did address this, often only after weeks or months of us following up.
Suggest Meridian use much higher quality subcontractors.
All in all, this was a very negative experience that affected our health and sense of safety and security. I hope that others can avoid this same experience, and that Meridian can significantly up its game in the future.
All USA
Do not use Meridian Build Group for any type of home building or renovation work without major changes to their business, communication, and financial practices. We hired Meridian Build Group to perform an extensive remodel on our home in 2016. Unfortunately, the process and the results did not go as expected, resulting in a project over 2x its original schedule, a large number of quality defects, and a lack of follow-through by the contractor. Remodels are obviously stressful, and emotions can run high, so I’ll keep this review focused on the factual events that gave us great concern and unfortunately cause me to not recommend Meridian. This review is broken into 3 areas that matter most to homeowners thinking about building or remodeling their home, along with suggestions for how Meridian can address these areas in the future: 1. Financial management A number of financial irregularities occurred throughout the project. Among these were: * On the date of the contract signing, Meridian had “forgotten to include framing labor,” stating, “This is not like me." A $6000 line item was added to the budget that we'd been reviewing for the preceding month. * Attention to detail on invoices. We were double-charged for the same line item on 3 separate occasions. In one of these cases, it took 3 attempts to get the line item removed. * Many items, totaling over $10,000 were left off the original bid, and only added on or discussed after the project had begun and there was no choice to refuse. I suggest Meridian hire a full-time bookkeeper and schedule manager to prevent issues like this from occurring again. 2. Schedule management * The project was scheduled to complete in 3 ½ months. Instead, substantial completion happened 7 months after project start. * While the project was technically over at the 7 month mark, over 6 significant quality and warranty issues remained. In almost every case it took us several notifications and weeks/months of waiting to have Meridian address the issues. * Nearly every time we asked for a completion date on either the project or the outstanding warranty items, we were instead provided with a story and a lot of explanation of the process, without a commitment on a timeline. Suggest Meridian hire a part-time ceritified PMP project manager with good communication skills, who is able to provide clarity on scheduled dates, and mitigation plans when dates are at risk. 3. Subcontractor quality assurance * Many times, subcontractors simply did not show up when scheduled. Other times, they showed up far outside agreed-upon working hours, in some cases working until 8 or 9 pm. * Meridian and its subcontractor, Macadam Flooring and Design, recommended engineered hardwood for our remodel. The engineered hardwood began showing significant quality-of-installation issues (squeeking and deflection) within weeks of installation (about July, 2016). When these issues were reported, the process was explained to us, which entailed having Macadam perform not 1, not 2, but 3 different inspections spanning months of waiting. Over the course of 1 excruciating year, 3 different attempts were made to fix the flooring with what were clearly stopgap solutions involving epoxy which failed within days of its application. The flooring was not fixed, Meridian ignored our attempts to contact them, and **we are now looking at footing a $15-$20,000 bill to fix the flooring ourselves.** * Many of our personal tools and equipment were pulled out of personal spaces in the garage and used by Meridian's employees or subcontractors: ladders, vacuums, pliers, etc. * On many occasions, our personal property was damaged or went missing. In most cases, Meridian did address this, often only after weeks or months of us following up. Suggest Meridian use much higher quality subcontractors. All in all, this was a very negative experience that affected our health and sense of safety and security. I hope that others can avoid this same experience, and that Meridian can significantly up its game in the future.