Philip S.
1/5
-What they are ok at: preliminary design plans and prefabrication of the shell
-What they are bad at: everything else
-It took them 2 years to complete my 1,800 sq ft home with no materially significant Covid delays. They projected 6 months to complete the project, but it took 4 times that. The final punch list dragged on for 6 months and was only completed after I made it clear to them they were in breach of their own contract, out of compliance with Wisconsin Right to Cure Law, and built some items out of building code parameters.
-The actual build cost was ~15% higher than their contract price due to them under estimating costs of key items like well drilling and excavating and neglecting to properly include all the necessary scope in the estimate (missed insulation, framing details, etc). They manage their risk of underbidding by putting as many items as possible under ‘allowance’ so the cost overages just flow to the owner. Further, they track very little electronically and are not even able to provide weekly reports on actual spend against budget/allowances - they just assume you’ll be fine with whatever costs are incurred. Take their bid and add at least 40% to get the actual end product you are envisioning by the time you account for their underbidding and account for upgrades to the entry level doors, cabinets, trim etc that they estimate in their base bid.
-They submitted payment draw requests to the bank for work that wasn’t fully completed and then turned around and charged interest on the payments they didn’t receive for the work they didn’t fully complete. When I questioned their admin about the invoices, she responded ‘I can’t help, I just mail the invoices’.
-Their overall communication and professionalism was poor and they would regularly not respond to texts, calls, and emails. They also struggled to track items that were picked out for the house, which should be a standard process when their company name includes ‘custom’.
-There was no project schedule or attempt to create or adhere to a schedule. There was no urgency or concern about getting the project done to meet the timeline they originally promised.
-During my project, the Cornerstone owner allocated subs to complete his own personal condo development in Minocqua, even though it was started months after my project and subsequently completed almost a year before my house. The Cornerstone owner even asked me if I could find my own subs while he used the available ones on his own project. Clearly their business investments were a higher priority than their customers who signed direct build contracts with Cornerstone.
-Most of their subs were reliable and generally capable, though they generally only had one sub for each trade, which was problematic when that sub was already booked up. Cornerstone just simply doesn’t know how to project manage and coordinate their subs around efficient timelines.
-While their reviews online are relatively high, there is a small number of reviews and they are outdated. If you want additional feedback or reference information, write a social media post like I did (though I should have done it before I contracted with them) on local Facebook groups and ask if anyone has used them and you’ll find the same feedback I’m posting here.
-Unless you are fine babysitting them everyday and having your time, money, and life tied up for many years while they fumble around, my recommendation is to use a different builder, even if you have to wait. At most, I would only use their design/pre-fabrication services and do all the subcontracting myself.
-While they ultimately finished the project, it came at my own personal financial, mental, and physical well-being and was the worst most drawn-out experience I’ve had with a company.
