Best Landscape Additions in Phoenix AZ

Holtzman estimated its team would begin work on our project in May 2022, with a ‘conservative’ estimated completion date of October 2022. (Timeline was important to us because our first child was due in January) did virtually nothing over the first three months; employees visited the site 6 times during that time period. Work did not begin until September 2022, after we expressed concerns to owner and assigned a new superintendent; at that time, owner estimated December completion. It is now mid-January and work is ongoing. We brought our newborn home to a rental and have no idea when we will be able to return to our house.
We went with Holtzman because of their online scheduling/calendar tool. This tool is supposed to allow the client to (1) get a sense of what is happening when, in terms of the overall project timeline and (2) know which tradesmen are coming to the site on which day. It did not deliver on either account, as the calendar is almost never kept up to date or filled out more than a few weeks into the future. As far as the overall project timeline, we asked superintendents and the owner for a project schedule at least 20 times. The most we got (verbally) was a tentative date. As far as knowing when specific tradesmen and inspectors would be there, people would show up when no one was scheduled (including an inspector who needed a $300 check), or, conversely, we would make sure we were available only to have them not show up. The lack of scheduling was not just inconvenient; it had a big impact on the project itself, because no one seemed to be ensuring various jobs were being done in the correct order. Work had to be undone/redone, wasting everyone’s time.
We hired a residential architect to draft detailed plans for the home addition. Plans were signed off on by mechanical, structural, electrical and plumbing engineers, as well as the city of Phoenix, which permitted the project. The Holtzman team had full-size copies of these plans at the site. Various Holtzman employees and subcontractors repeatedly disregarded the plans, creating a cascade of problems. There are too many instances of the plans being ignored to list them all, examples include (1) discarding an electrical panel that was supposed to be relocated and installing the new electrical panel in the wrong place, affecting where the HVAC unit could be installed (2) installing the primary kitchen window 2 inches lower than indicated, jeopardizing ability to install outlets and switches where indicated (3) building master bath ceiling at wrong height (4) ignoring instructions to slope the slab under the new master shower, later requiring the slab to be redone, and so on.
After repeated attempts to work with our first superintendent, Joe Clark, to resolve concerns about lack of progress and poor organization and communication were unsuccessful, we asked Joe to coordinate a meeting with company owner Brandon Holtzman. He misled us, setting a meeting with Brandon for Saturday at the Holtzman offices. After showing up for the meeting, we found out that Brandon was out of town and didn't know about the meeting. Joe showed up late and we questioned him about Brandon’s attendance, Joe started yelling at us to “Get the f-ck out of here (the Holtzman office.)” He then followed us out as we got into our car and continued to stare at us as we left. Brandon was apologetic about the incident and assigned us a new superintendent, but it was still jarring. Under the second superintendent, the team left our property completely unsecured one day: front door unlocked, back door left wide open, side gate left open, keys to home left in construction area, and lockbox left open with correct code displayed. When we expressed our concern, the superintendent blamed us for not living there at the time (despite being strongly encouraged to move out during bulk of the demolition and construction phase) and told us he “never signed up for being the gate keeper.” Our third and current superintendent, Cory, has been one of the only redeeming aspects of working with the company.

Amazing builder and gc top quality product highly reccomend

We were really at a crossroads with our home. We LOVED the location and golf course lot, but there was no question we wanted more space. We were either going to renovate and expand, or move to a different home. Arthur Gambino really took the time to listen to our wants and needs. During the process we determined there were a few “must haves” - a larger garage, a user friendly mudroom/laundry room, more bathrooms to accommodate the growing family and visitors, a private office, and an entertainment room that would highlight our backyard and provide a separate space from our main living room. With our list and Arthur’s vision, he helped to create a beautifully designed space that suits our family perfectly. Kathy Molnar guided us in selecting all of the tiles, granites, lighting, and finishes that completed the vision. We would have been lost without her guidance. Pete Limon was a huge asset on keeping the project moving along and guiding us on daily decisions.

Living in the home we were renovating with a toddler, husband, pregnant wife, and an active dog had some challenges, but the RWR was outstanding. Peter Limon and Jack Plemons did everything possible to accommodate our day-to-day life, and made the experience as seamless as possible. Even with the extensive project we had, we were never without running water, laundry, and toilet facilities. Our timeline was met with only small finishes needing to be completed a week or two later. We did exceed our budget, but that was mainly due to the finishes and upgrades we chose to do after the fact.

We are thrilled with our end result. Now that it is complete, we cannot imagine not having done the addition and renovation. We use every part of our house every day.

We have and will continue to recommend RWR to many.