Schafer Brothers Remodeling, Inc.

Our experience with Schafer for our bathroom remodel was great! Nate, our carpenter did a great job with everything! And he cleaned up every day so that everything was spotless. The tile installer Brian was also great. Our bathroom looks amazing! I would highly recommend them!
Mar 7th, 2024

Mar 6th, 2024

Schafer Brothers more than met our expectations for the completion of our master bathroom renovation. Matt, our primary contractor, was excellent in terms of his personal workmanship, communication with us and coordination with the various trades (flooring, plumbers, electrician) and inspectors involved during construction. Matt brought issues to our attention for resolution on a timely basis to ensure that we would be happy with the result. A couple examples: Before plumbers arrived, Matt laid out the potential placement of the shower drain showing that it would be cut into a floor joist and require additional bracing for weight bearing and stability. Building a slender false wall positioned the drain between joists eliminating adverse impacts on floor joists with an aesthetically positive and visually pleasing solution. In another instance, Matt asked us to consider the orientation of the Onyx shower wall subway tile patterns before installing. The Onyx tile pattern originally ordered would have conflicted with rainfall patterns in the shower enclosure glass. The workspace was consistently kept clean and orderly with trash removed each day and the space vacuumed. Matt and team deployed a large, clever, floor-to-ceiling plastic dust control screen/wall adjustable to even accommodate the cathedral ceiling adjacent to the work area. The screen along with extensive furniture and floor covers kept dust well controlled. The project proceeded according to the expected timeline. Pauses for project completion were anticipated to produce the custom countertop and shower enclosures after final measurements were taken with cabinets and knee walls in place. The custom items were completed and installed as expected. Schafer Brothers has a business philosophy to complete projects before starting new jobs. This caused our job start to be delayed a few weeks but, as a customer, we appreciated their commitment to completing work before starting new projects. This held true for our project once the job started work continued consistently. As far as cost, Schafer is not cheap. That said, comparisons with friends who have had similar work done by other companies, and some internet research, indicated that they are competitive when factoring in choice of materials and degree of customization. An additional observation relating to cost is that Schafer exercised real time oversight of their subcontractor (non-employee) trades. Trades met with Matt on-site to evaluate their contributions prior to starting work. Either Matt or a Schafer associate familiar with our project was on-site when the various trades started and for much of the time while they worked. This helped ensure that questions or issues were addressed as soon as possible. In sum, we are very happy with our master bath renovation. Matt did an excellent job and was great to work with throughout. We hope that Schafer can schedule less experienced people to work with him to observe and learn how a master craftsman works and pass along his skills and knowledge.
Mar 26th, 2024

We had our basement finished by Schafer Brothers and could not be happier! We worked with Nathan, Jeff, James, Paul and Nate. We were quoted to have the job done in/around 3 weeks. Our basement was completely unfinished to begin with, and James, Paul and Nate whipped out the framing, insulation,drywall, painting ceiling black, running electrical (12 can lights and new outlets) laying LVP, painting walls, hanging new doors and trimming out new windows all in 2 weeks and 3 days. Im sure much more went into this-but this is what I saw. It was incredible to watch our unlived space transform daily into a place we all love to hang out now! This team of guys were friendly, considerate, tidy, extremely talented and speedy. Nate even brought treats for our labs! We couldnt be happier with how our experience went working with Schafer.
Mar 25th, 2024

I would like start by saying I've used Schafer Brothers before & it was a good experience overall. This time we used them for a basement remodel & a new stairway to the basement. The basement remodel was good also, but this review is for the stairway. First, the person that installed the new treads & risers never sanded the treads, then used one coat of stain & poly. The result was blotchy & unprotected. When I swept the stairs hair & dust would get stuck. Since we have animals, that's an issue. The communication with the office & the project lead to come back to fix it was beyond horrible. Finally the project lead came back. He sanded the treads, applied a couple of coats of stain, & we agreed to at least 3 coats of poly to protect the stairs. The project lead said he used a new product to get the job done quicker, although the time not accessing the stairs wasn't an issue, & it dried white in places. We used a dark grey/black stain so the white from the dried poly was very obvious. There is also stain on the risers & mop boards now so it looks like a child that can't stay in the lines completed this work. The project lead was nice & worked on some walls that he didn't like the final look on while he waited for things to dry, but he then dripped grey paint on the white trim in places. I have called & texted a couple times to have them come look & figure out how to fix this. The first time I was told they'd arrive about 3:30 pm, but I got a text around 5 pm that his day went south & he'd come by Saturday. Then he was sick Saturday & he'd call next week. I had to text him 2 weeks later & he said he'd come by. Nobody has been by or called again to set anything up. In the pictures I circled a couple places you can see the stain on the risers. Schafer Brothers isn't cheap, but when they do the job correctly they're worth it. They charged between $15-$20K for these stairs & the result I have right now is not worth what I paid. I do not recommend using them for stairs. Update 2/13/24: Schafer has come back & basically redid the stairway. The treads were sanded & stained. They also cleaned up & painted the mop board & risers. They look amazing now. At least I think so. I still don't know if I would recommend them to replace stairs, but they did ultimately get the job done the way I wanted. Thank you Matt!! I added a picture of the completed staircase.
Mar 9th, 2024