Pankow Construction - Design/Remodeling - PHX, AZ

I have been in the real estate/development/design industry for over 30 years. Rarely is an experience as great as this one for my large project. I am a very tough customer when it comes to my own home and Pankow (especially Mat Truman) exceeded my expectations.

We worked with 3 different contractors for 3 large projects in and around our home and if it weren't for Pankow's amazing planning, communications and attention to details, I would forever think all construction companies were horrible. We shopped several contractors to help us re-work the interior of our home, even had plans drawn with one and dropped them, nothing felt right. We were so leery to use someone we didn't personally have a reference on due to previous nightmare projects. Two of us live in 2000 sq ft and we have no kids. It's a 1950's block home that had small bedrooms and tiny closets. Every contractor we spoke to insisted we needed to add more sq footage in order to get a bigger Master Bed/Bath. We only live in 300 sq ft of the house daily and didn't want MORE house. Pankow's designer heard our frustration and came up with ideas for changing the existing space to make it more roomy without adding more house. We got a huge Master bedroom, spacious Master bath, new tile and paint throughout, updates all window treatments, fixtures, and built storage space that also houses our 120 gallon fish tank, the focal point of our great room. At one point, we had to move everything into the garage and sleep outside of our home for a month which felt unbearable. Pankow really worked to stay on schedule, communicated constantly and remain flexible with us. The respect they paid us really set them apart from our former contractors. We had a couple unique areas within our home that weren't useful and left us scratching our heads. Their designer stopped by and came up with amazing ideas that turned out both beautiful and functional. All internal remodels are stressful, especially if you need to live around it. Pankow made the experience really workable and flexible for us. We both have really busy schedules and Pankow was thoughtful about when we needed privacy or a break from the crew on our property. With any big project, things can settle a bit and we needed minor repairs about 7 months later. They were out within the week to fix them, fast and efficient. They were much more than just our "contractors", they became our friends and that relationship of trust and communication they subscribe to will carry their successes for many years. I recommend Pankow to anyone planning a home project. This review is past due so accept my apology Rob, Mat and Mel!

We had four separate home improvement jobs completed by Pankow. First was a steel patio cover which was two stories high and over 1,000 sq. ft. of coverage. Second was painting exterior of my house, barns , perimeter/retaining walls & fencing.. The third job , we had a 24 foot slider/door installed. Lastly, we had our formal area (dining & living room) tiled. I continued to use Pankow because Matt, our project manager, was amazing to work with. He worked with us with regard to design and products and did his best to keep the pricing down. He stood by his work and it turned out breathtakingly beautiful. I would highly recommend Pankow to anyone that wants a high quality job done by high quality people.

I would highly recommend Pankow Construction. I hired them for a bathroom addition onto my historic home. While other contractors either gave me an unrealistic proposal (inflated) or never returned my calls, Mel and Rob worked with me until we came up with a proposal that fit within my budget and my plans. Once the job started, Mat and the various crews were amazing to work with. They were professional and kept me updated on what was going on during the entire construction process. Yes, we did have some bumps in the road- it's an old house and no matter how well you plan, surprises happen, but they were dealt with quickly. By the time an unplanned issue was brought to my attention, Mat would have a remediation plan already prepared, and he was ready to execute the plan. He even went so far as to contact my roofer from the prior year and worked with him directly on a few things in order to make the new roof line and the work done last year "work" together so we wouldn't have any issues going forward. He saved me numerous calls and a lot of headaches. I greatly appreciated that "above and beyond" effort. Since I was on my own with this project, it was nice to be able to hire a contracting team that I could trust to do a job correctly and not overrun my budget. I'm happy I found this team and I've already recommended them to a few of my friends!

The most incredible Contactor I have used for home remodel. Attention to detail, superior quality, timely and follow through of all aspects of the job. Always there to help and answer questions.

We have been working with Rob and his team now for one year. They have exceeded out expectations on most details. As we see the plan come together now and the home we purchased remodeled and transformed, we will be posting pictures and updates on the progress. The designer Mel has been a real bonus in helping us select the interior finishes and looks. Ray, the designer, has the experience and talent to bring our vision to light. And finally, Rob Pankow is passionate about meeting customer needs and really listens...Stey Tuned...

We had our main bathroom remodeled with Pankow Construction. We had everything redone and replaced. We had a great experience and the designer as she was always available for help with design and any other questions or concerns we had about the project. The cost was very fair. Our bathroom turned out beautiful and we are very happy with it. Our only complaint was the project going over time due to plumbing being on back order but we also started over the holidays.

My current job is the third job in which I have used Pankow Construction. It will be completed in about 6 weeks. My first remodel with Pankow was over 20 years ago with another 11 years ago. I am one of a few who, when telling others I am remodeling, can say it is pleasure to have a responsible, caring, creative, professional, on-time and especially accountable contractor. The professionals working for Pankow are knowledgeable, supportive, and quality-oriented. Tom, the supervisor, runs the job onetime with quality, Ray's designs are fabulous, and Mel has gone beyond to assist me with design, layout and products. Their input and suggestions have been invaluable. In addition, the sub contractors are reliable, helpful, and courteous, and complete their parts on time. Rob Pankow is on my job not only checking workmanship but he has a wonderful eye for design, color and flow. Seeking his advice gives me a great backboard from which I can make decisions. It is a pleasure to give Pankow the highest rating.

I hired Pankow for an extensive design/build renovation project, but was disappointed by the quality of work, lack of professionalism, poor communication, and inattention to detail during the design process. Thus, I didn’t use their design or hire them for construction. After weeks of emails, on-site meetings, and design discussions, Pankow asked us in to their office to present their initial floor plan. But their bizarre drawing did not remotely resemble the project we had discussed. Later, the designer admitted what happened: she didn't give the architect the detailed info we provided — she just printed out a basic list of floor plan goals and left it on his desk. It was double-sided, and the architect didn't read the back. Then, no one noticed or fixed the problem before we showed up. (And much later, the owner actually tried pass off this first design as a legitimate effort, as evidence that they had done great work for us... as if his employee hadn’t told us what really happened.) We hoped this was an isolated mistake, and continued the process without making a big deal of it. But problems persisted (too many to list or detail here), including: drawings with wrong property setbacks; frequently ignoring or forgetting significant aspects of the project that had already been discussed in detail; failing to provide promised or requested information; minutes before a scheduled meeting, they had to delay because they were unprepared; only after I specifically asked, did they say they don’t help select or source any appliances (even for a project that gutted/relocated the kitchen and replaced every appliance in the house). I asked other local builders if this is typical; they said it is not. In general, we were underwhelmed by their design services. But worse, the documents we received were vague, contradictory, and incomplete. I wrote out a detailed list of questions and clarifications about the proposal so we could figure it all out. More than two weeks later, when I asked whether a response was coming, the designer told me she had not even read my email. After a month, our questions were still unanswered, but the owner suddenly told us that he recommended tearing most of the house down entirely and building from scratch. This came out of the blue, since there had been no significant change in the project since our last discussion (when they proposed renovation). Not only that, but they intended to use the draft renovation drawings for this brand-new construction (which makes no sense since that floor plan was based on existing walls, etc). At this point, we lost confidence that Pankow would be able to produce a complete or usable design, and eventually asked for a refund (instead of having them do the considerable additional work necessary). Unsurprisingly, the owner was not happy about that; but the level of vitriol that we received was excessive. He entirely refused to acknowledge any mistakes (much less fix them), and insisted that the company's work was flawless (despite obvious evidence otherwise). He responded with false knee-jerk accusations and finger-pointing, rather than offering any solutions. At that point, the owner decided to keep our entire pre-paid design fee, but explicitly refused to finish the design or answer any of our many unresolved questions. Even though we wasted time & money, I’m incredibly glad that we didn’t have them start construction. We did more research and found well-qualified professionals experienced in large projects. [The "project cost" noted here was for design services only, not the total anticipated project cost, which was several hundred thousand dollars.] *Updated - This review was written as diplomatically as possible, given the absolutely horrendous experience I had with this company. I did file a BBB complaint, seeking a refund of the design payment, due to a specific contract issue (separate from but in addition to the other problems I described in this review). To be clear, the BBB cannot force a company to appropriately resolve a customer’s complaint. All it can do is require a company to submit an “answer” responding to the submitted complaint. That is all that happened in this case. The BBB does NOT make any determination as to who is “right” or “wrong” in these situations. It just provides a process for the customer and company to communicate directly with each other. Pankow suggests that the BBB somehow independently determined that our complaint didn’t have merit. This is 100% incorrect and extremely misleading (which is what I have now come to expect from Pankow). At the end of the day, they took thousands of dollars upfront, failed to deliver the products promised, refused to answer questions about their proposal, provided unprofessional and substandard service, and delayed our project by many months. It was an abject disaster, for which they take no accountability whatsoever.

The good: the work that was done well was done very well. The bad: failed to produce plans to work from, and kept contract language very vague. Anything that wasn't spelled out explicitly in the contract was left up to the discretion of the project manager. When I expressed dissatisfaction, was blamed personally for their failure to convey plans or ask my input. Contractor was 100% un-involved once the project started. The ugly: emotional breakdowns, yelling, red faces, and at one point, fear of physical assault--all due to delays and confusion in the process. I was told a number of times that I was one of the "nice customers". So maybe I was just a whipping boy. Just a lot of disrespectful and unprofessional actions that made it an unpleasant process and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Pankow did a great job in the construction of this beautiful kitchen along with Moxie Designers . The Architecture was designed by Stephanie Espinoza, of SE Studio Architecture.

Pankow Construction completed an exterior remodel on our 1963 year ranch. It was in dire need of an update, and from design to completion the project turned out impeccable. Our old home now looks fresh and updated. We love it! The use of stone work around our home, including areas around our front door, gated doorway and planters become a favorite feature of mine. The original estimate was in line with the final cost and we were able to stay on budget. When problems arose, as they will with any construction project, the Super was always available to advise and remedy when needed. I would be happy to recommend Pankow Construction.