If you're considering hiring Platinum Sand Construction, here are a few suggestions from two people who had a bad experience with them on a whole-house renovation:
• Spend a few hundred dollars to have a lawyer experienced in construction and contractor issues go over the contract before you sign. Make sure that the contract is specific about ALL of the work that needs to be completed BEFORE each "progress payment" is required. Don't pay them just based on some vague benchmarks while they tell you that smaller things will be taken care of along the way or during "punch out" at the end.
• Do not pay them more than 5% when you sign the contract, and no more than another 5 - 10% when demolition is complete (let your lawyer guide you on those numbers). They will probably tell you that they need more in order to buy materials and get the job started, but we found that months later they hadn't ordered things that they told us had been ordered. We made the mistake of paying them too much at contract signing, and then too much after demolition. Then they demolished our kitchen, leaving dirt and dust everywhere, and leaving us with no usable kitchen for over 4 months - until we finally had to fire Platinum Sand and hire a competent contractor to give us back our kitchen and finish the job.
• So be sure they don't get too far ahead of you on payments - our project cost us tens of thousands of dollars more than it should have because we made that mistake - ultimately having to hire a new contractor.
• Even though Platinum Sand claims to have their own crews, most of the workers (painters, plumbers, electricians) are likely to be sub-contractors. Make sure that each one provides a C.O. I. (certificate of insurance) with your name on their policy before they enter your house.
• In general, be aware that Platinum Sand is either not as careful, or not as knowledgeable (or maybe both) as you might hope they would be. In our house they made mistakes in electrical, painting, and plumbing which we had to pay the new contractor to fix. One example is that they painted all of the doors in our house with latex paint, before properly prepping the old oil-based finish. As a result, paint is now peeling off the doors, and the only solution is to remove the doors, strip them completely, and re-paint (that little mistake alone will cost us thousands to fix).
• Be aware that they may promise things that don't exist or that they can't deliver (like the color and finish we chose for our bathroom vanities). And don't ask for anything unusual, because they seem to be incapable of thinking "outside the box."
• Do not let them talk you out of getting permits, because if you end up with substandard electrical or plumbing, at least the inspector will be there to catch it.
• During the hiring process they introduced us to a person who they identified as our "project manager." That person came to our house exactly 2 times in the four months before we fired them.
If you do decide to hire Platinum Sand Construction, good luck!
1 review 