City:

Spring Lake, NJ
Project: Carpentry Framing - Install

Customer: Pete S.

BrickTown Ground Level Deck Customer Review

	"I am extremely pleased with the deck that Dave built for me. It's exactly what I wanted and the price was unbeatable. No one else even came close. Dave and his guys do excellent work, and if I need work done in the future, I'll be calling him. I highly recommend David J. Festa Carpentry LLC. "
	Customer: Bill S.   Customer Rating:   City: Barnegat, NJ Project: Carpentry Framing - Install   "I have really enjoyed having David Festa work on my project. He has been totally professional, reasonable and helpful. He has answered any questions that i may have had and has gone out of his way to be helpful, including above and beyond the origional project. From the time he did the estimate to completion I have know that the project has been done correctly and with no shortcuts. I will definately use David Festa for other projects, and will refer him to others as well."   Seaside Park Garage Addition Customer Review

We recently purchased a summer home with the intention of renovating and making this our permanent residence.  We were referred to David Festa who came to us as highly recommended by General Contractors at Lighton Industries. 

We met with Dave for the first time and were immediately impressed by his professional knowledge, experience, and expertise in framing contracting.  After comparing Dave’s proposal and professionalism with several other contractors he was awarded the job.  He has proven himself to be dependable, fair, honest, and a master at his chosen profession.  He and his crew are of the highest integrity and we have been delighted with the experience of working with them. 

Dave worked tirelessly to accomplish the renovation on our home in an astounding thirteen week period.  His efforts included demolition, framing, and finish of the renovation.  We could not be happier with the tremendous workmanship and detail that Dave and his crew put into our home.  Dave’s suggestions and improvements on our original design are greatly appreciated. 

It is without reservation that I would highly recommend David J. Festa Contracting to anyone interested in home improvement.  Dave is highly trained and skilled in the construction of new and remodeled homes and at all times a complete professional.

Sincerely,

Robert and Ann Marie Smith

 Belmar Garage Build

Would you recommend David J. Festa Carpentry, LLC to a friend or colleague? Yes

Describe Your Experience with David J. Festa Carpentry, LLC:
All of the work was reported to us periodically with pictures (jpg files) and email. David was wonderful to work with and very reliable work. Any issues were handled immediately and efficiently. I would highly recommend David Festa to anyone that needed work done in their home.

Project: Addition to Existing Structure

Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

"Great to work with and was very helpful with suggestions. Work quality and timeliness was top-notch. The project turned out better than we had hoped. Will absolutely consider using again for future renovations and additions."

Customer: Jerry W.

Job request: build a temporary wheel chair ramp in garage

I suggested to the home owner to rent a lift instead of applying a permanent fixture to the house

Home owner response:

David,

I wanted to thank you for your sincerity and honesty
and giving me information about temporary ramps and lifts
that might better suit my parents. I did find a temp ramp from
a vendor- thank you thank you thank you!
I mentioned you to my sister who lives in Marlboro, NJ about
40 min north of Brick. I told her that if she or her neighbors
needed any work done on a house, that they should call you.

Again- you were a HUGE help, and if my parents EVER need
any carpentry done, we will be calling you.

Cathlyn

Brick Town Deck Repair Customer Review

Hi David,

I spent some time going over your proposal and I am truly grateful for the time you spent in coming out and giving me the estimate and preparing this proposal.  But unfortunately, as I indicated to you on the phone, this is much more (by several thousand dollars actually) than I had anticipated it would cost to do this project.  Obviously, I'm not "in the business" so I had no idea how much these kinds of projects cost, and I'm aware that prices have gone up over the years for everything (I still remember a 5 cent Reeses Peanut Butter Cup and going to the movies for 50 cents!)

Anyway, again - thank you for your proposal and for your time, but I'm going to have to say no to your proposal.  I do wish you the best of luck with your work.  Viewing the work you performed on my neighbors' homes, you clearly do great work and I hope you take pride in the jobs well done.

CTO

I would like to add a special note to this posting

While I was in the building Dept submitting permits for another job, the township code enforcer was telling me about a home owner who hired an unlicensed/uninsured contractor.

It seems the homeowner chose a contractor with a lower price and made the ultimate sacrifice.

The contractor had no license no insurance and did not apply for the proper permits.

The homeowner now has to pay fines, as well as the contractor, and have another contractor come and pick up the pieces.

Unfortunately the homeowner did not call me for help.

If you the homeowner are having trouble with your current contractor, please don’t hesitate to call me.

Forked River Deck Builder

Dear David:  Thank you so much for all your help and input concerning the deck replacement.  I could not be happier with the way it turned out.  You guided me through the project and was very prompt in answering my questions and kept me posted throughout the re-build either by telephone or e-mail. Everything was done in a professional way and in a timely manner.   Your work was impeccable.  I would have no hesitation in recommending you.  Thanks again - Jennifer

Room Addition Stafford NJ

Angie’s List report

Report Date: August 01, 2010

A customer who hired the wrong contractor:

Were the choices I made right?

In late winter 2010 we began plans to add an addition on to our home for my 87 year old Grandfather who was in the process of having his home foreclosed on. Budget was a huge factor but we wanted to create a separate space from our existing home to accommodate his needs and to give him a quiet place away from our young family. We decided on a 900 square foot addition consisting of a bedroom, living room, bath, walk in closet and eat in kitchen. In order to accomplish the transition from a single family home to a mother/daughter home we also needed to section off the rear of our garage and turn it into common space. This is now a laundry room that connects the existing house to the new addition. We worked closely with our architect, Richard Gaffney, to ensure that the project would be functional, cost effective and a fairly easy structure to build. I am an HVAC technician and overall am a very handy person so I decided that I would do the mechanical work (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, cable, phones) and finish (roofing, siding, flooring, cabinetry, painting, install of bath fixtures, etc.) on the project myself.

We started pricing contractors to work on our building and decided to go with AJR Construction for the excavation and foundation. Not only were his prices the best around but he put in long hours and his work was phenomenal. Did I make the right choice there... Without a doubt, I did.

During the course of the excavating and foundation we began looking for a framing contractor. We got estimates and interviewed at least 15 local contractors. Most of which were seriously overpriced or under qualified. I believe in small business and wanted to give the work to a less commercialized contractor. Which left us with 2 choices out of the 15, Level & Square Construction and David J Festa Carpentry. Their prices were both comparable to each other, they were both local contractors and they were both eager to do the job in the time frame we needed it done in. Our initial choice was Level & Square because their bid came in $1000 less then David J Festa Carpentry. Well.... Let’s just say that the old saying" Penny wise and Dollar foolish" gained new meaning to us. By the 4th day on the job Level & Square made so many mistakes and wasted so much time and material that we had them removed from our property by the police. There was absolutely no chance of us EVER passing inspection for the work they had already completed. We then called David J Festa Carpentry in to assess the situation and evaluate what needed to be done to correct the mistakes and finish our project on time without putting us into bankruptcy. 2 hours after the call Dave came over and began looking over what had been done. He was non-judgmental, he started ripping things apart right away and REMEMBER ... at this time we still haven't even signed a contract with him! To me this was a pretty noble thing to do. After talking with Dave we then realized that the reason his original estimate was $1000 more than Level & Square because he had spoken to our architect several times about changes that needed to be made to the plans in order to pass inspection and to make the building more structurally sound. Obviously, if we had known that we would have used him from the beginning. So we got the contract drawn up and signed the papers to have him complete the job right.

So the project was back in motion now and finally running smoothly. Not only were things progressing properly but Dave also gave suggestions to make the addition more esthetically pleasing and transition it into the existing home more smoothly without any additional costs to us. Aside from the excellent work done by David J Festa Carpentry, he was always willing to help out or answer questions with the many areas of the project that I took on myself. To this day Dave still stops by on occasion to see how I am doing with things and lends a hand if I need it

My view on David Festa the man.... He is a hard working, motivated individual who loves what he does. The harder the project the more satisfied he is when he completes it. Very rarely do you come across an individual like this. There are far too many people in the world who go to work to just collect a paycheck and don't care about quality or craftsmanship. Dave is not one of those people!

David J Festa Carpentry did an excellent job of correcting the mistakes that were made by Level & Square Construction. Thanks to David Festa Carpentry our project was finished by our deadline. The work performed was extraordinary; Dave and his crew were meticulous and put a lot of pride into getting the job done the right way. He worked closely with us to ensure that we would be satisfied with the final outcome of the project. He took the time to address any questions or concerns we had through the project. I would certainly recommend him to friends and family (in fact I have) and would not even consider using any other contractor but David J festa Carpentry LLC in the future.

A compliment from another well known general contractor  

We are in the same business. My father started the contracting business in the 60’s as a framer.  My 3 brothers and myself worked with him from the time we were kids.  We all learned the business from the bottom up.  We are framers by trade. We all went into different aspects of construction.  My one brother and myself do exactly what you do. We do the general contracting but also do our own framing.  Everything that is on this website is 100% accurate --- from making sure that you are not just taking the cheapest price, comparing apples to apples, making sure you go through the contract in detail, making sure that the workers on the job are licensed and insured, better yet making sure they are legal citizens.  It has been very hard to compete the last few years. Like you said contractors are just giving the lowest bid just to land the job and then running out of money and walking away.  We have heard that so many times.  We too have a good working relationship with the building inspector from our town who tells us the same exact stories that you hear in the building department.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to improve the business on the contractor side to make the playing field even.  We pay our guys legally on the books, pay the payroll taxes and take the hit from the workers comp because we believe that the framing is such a crucial part of the building process.  Every part is important but in the framing is where you will make the important changes to make things better.

As I read your topics on your website I felt like you were saying the exact things that we say and go through. Even with all of the knowledge and expertise it’s not always easy to convince that homeowner that there is a reason that you are a bit more money.  They do find out in the long run but its frustrating to lose that job and know that you lost out on that work and someone else is not going to do right by the customer. 

Good to see another dedicated and passionate contractor out there who cares about the customer and the quality and not just the paycheck!

Take Care and good luck

Mike

Home addition Monmouth Beach NJ

3-2011

I am writing this letter to thank your company, David J Festa Carpentry, for the job well done on finishing the framing of our house, as well as deck and interior trim work. Within the time of the construction project, your company has shown diligence and dedication to finish work in time, which greatly benefited the time line of my project.  You and your company have gone far beyond squares and levels with the craftsmanship and quality of your work. The attention to detail you've shown from exterior structure framing to small interior trim work is remarkable!

Even though there were several problems with my architect and design during the course of the construction project, your company was able to maintain the efficiency of the development. Thinking on your feet and problem solving are great traits you bring to the job everyday. Your attention to the specifics of the construction as well as proper scheduling has been very remarkable, resulting to a job well done. 

Again, I would like to express my gratitude in providing your expert services for 100% completing your part of my construction project. I would definitely not hesitate to refer David J Festa Carpentry to family, friends, or anyone in need of quality services from a great contractor.

I hope that this would be the start of our continuous relationship and future success.

Sincerely

Kevin O'Connell

Deck repair contractor Monmouth Beach NJ

Customer review: Apr 1, 2011

I would highly recommend David J. Festa Carpentry for a job well done -- he and his assistants worked diligently to reconstruct our beautiful new deck on our home, here in Monmouth Beach, in a timely manner. His craftsmanship and attention to detail resulted in a quality job for which we are very appreciative. Thank you, David and crew, for such a great deck!

Bill & Lucille