Kerr Design Build

My wife and I recently hired Kerr Construction to complete a reno of our living and dining room on our family home in North Vancouver. We used Kerr from beginning to end, starting with their architects Derek and Nisha for design and using them for the construction and finishing as well. We initially chose Kerr because they seemed established and capable and we really liked our impression of Derek who took the time to listen to what we were looking for even when we didn't really know.

We feel more knowledgeable and experienced with renovating now and love the finished product.

With our busy lives, it was nice to have the customer service and hand holding through the whole phase of the project.

We would recommend them to anyone!

David and Joanne G
North Vancouver

Kerr Construction has been consistent in quality work and good service. They kept us up to date, showed up on time, provided good time estimates, and completed work on time.

I had mold in my bathroom, which I was quite concerned about. I called Kerr Construction to do an estimate on dealing with that and some other problems. They were very prompt about giving me an estimate. They were knowledgeable about the problems I was having and helped by giving different suggestions and options of how to handle it. Because they were so friendly and knowledgeable, I gave the job to them. The man who did the work showed up on time, was friendly, polite, professional and most important, very good at what he did. The job was completed on time, on budget and delivered everything they promised. I would not hesitate to recommend this company, and indeed have recommended it to friends and clients, and they in turn were happy and impressed with Kerr.

Kerr Construction did a major renovation on our home, we got exactly what we wanted with no corners cut. The job took a little longer that first planned but quality work takes time. The few small problems that arose were taken care of quickly. I would use Kerr construction Again.

good comprehensive work on project from initial discussion of concepts to architectural design to execution to lockup. Work was well done and has stood up well over time. Wok was completed in timely manner agreed to in advance.

All trades were wonderful, cleaned up every day, on time, pleasant to have around, and the finished product was totally up to our expectations. Have seen other Kerr projects and all have been very well executed.

I would not recommend Kerr Construction your projects. We originally started out with roofing/flashing that needed repairs, and it became evident that because of the stucco siding, that would need to be replaced on our old home to ensure the roofing/flashing would work. The roofing company we used, Absolute Roofing (who were fabulous!) recommended their sister company, Kerr Construction. Kerr was great at coming out to look at the project, quote, and get a deposit, but after that, it fell apart. Their "project manager" (Dave) forgot to order the window, so by the time they did, it was already almost winter. This was November 2010, when we had an early snowfall, and Dave was insisting that he was sending people out, regardless of the snow and -15C temperatures, to do the work. We had to insist that they didn't, for their own workers safety, plus for the quality of work that couldn't be done in such low temperatures. They finally started in May, and what was supposed to be a 3-4 day project, turned into over a month. In short, they subcontracted it out to Tim, who although a nice man, did not have the skill set to do the entire project, especially by himself (no helper even). It was clear that Tim was putting personal projects that came up first, and fitting Kerr's in as he had time. He was obviously being paid a set price from Kerr, so although our contract with Kerr was clear about what it included (eg. restoring the inside of the window casing to the original condition after the window was installed), he was trying to get out of putting in new casing, painting it, etc. In the end, he did a half-baked job on it, but we decided the inside we could fix ourselves later. But the outside we had to insist several times that they complete (they didn't paint all of the dormer, they didn't close off open parts of the dormer, where wildlife could get in, etc). Dave, the "project manager" did not seem at all interested in our concerns, always referring us back to Tim. The only thing Dave did was collect money. He got really aggressive about it, emailing us an invoice one evening, and showing up at 9am the next morning for the cheque. Weird, as we never had an issue with paying them, yet he treated us like he was a debt collector right from the start. I'm sure Kerr puts more qualified people (and doesn't sub-contract) larger projects, but obviously they felt ours was too small to be worth doing themselves. It's shortsighted of them, as we are in an old house (1930s) and will be needing to replace all of the stucco within a short time, in addition to about 15 old windows. That would likely have been a project that would have been worth their while, and which they may have put competent people on, but they will not get the opportunity to bid on this.

Kerr Construction came out and fixed a water leak I had in the front of my house. By using special equipment they found out where the problem was without having to rip everything out. I was so happy with the work I had them do some minor renovation work after that.

I would be happy to recommend them to anyone for large or small jobs. Their employees were very nice and worked around my schedule. I think you will be very happy with them, I was!!!!

AVOID KERR CONSTRUCTION AT ALL COSTS!! I used them a few years ago to do a reno on my downtown condo and it was the worst experience of my life. I've been a part of many construction projects, and this was the biggest disaster imaginable. A 3 month project was extended to about 7 or 8 months due to the incompetence of their project managers, and the unwillingness of the owner himself, Doug Kerr, to step in when needed and fix things. They had a project manager that was showing up to work intoxicated and even when informed of this they wouldn't assign someone else to complete the job. They had to tear things apart and redo them multiple times, and in the end still things were not done correctly. They hide behind their contracts, and instead of resolving things, they tie you up in court and try and shake you down. I don't want to waste too much time going into all the gory details, but just wanted to put a warning out there that you will be very unhappy (and poor) should you choose to hire them. There are several bad reviews and other similar stories on the web so do your research so that you are not their next victim.

This company has made so many mistakes on our renovation, I really would need a book to describe it. We eventually had to get one of the partners to come in an manage the job as no one else apparently had the authorization to deal in a full, frank and fair fashion. In point form:

-put the footings for two structures in the wrong spot
-put the siding for the entire house on wrong (even the manufacturer would not warranty the installation...we had to argue with them to redo it correctly
-they did not dig out the crawl space to save time and money, but when it came time to give a credit for the work not done, they then said, "we were never going to dig out the crawl space". We had to fight them for it and it was CLEARLY written on the quoted plans. They finally gave us a credit of $7000 after we refused to pay them anything further and threatened them with mediation through the home owners protection act.
-they failed to insulate the new floor up to code. One worker told the inspector that he had done it properly. However, when we and the inspector checked...it clearly was only half of what code required. We again had to have them rip up the floor and put new insulation in (since there was no crawl space).
-they altered plans without our authorization
-they are unable to manage their sub trades. All of which made mistakes that we, as homeowners, had to supervise ourselves.
-they have misquoted their contract so utterly and completely that the job could never had been completed as signed.
-we were supposed to be done in July....as we are 4 months, going on 5 months overtime, they now are saying we have to pay for a heated tent for them...even though they are the ones that are late??!!!!

I cannot stress enough...DO NOT USE KERR CONSTRUCTION. I will try to update this again if we ever do get finished!