Update (8/4/2021): I went through ARS disaster clean up, and they are the ones who hired Sal. Sal himself is very knowledgeable and a hard worker. However, everyone else on his team besides Mario and Fortino were very frustrating to work with. They cut corners, showed up whenever so I basically had to put my life on hold if I wanted my kitchen back anytime soon. Everything had to be done twice. Luckily Sal did it and fixed all the mishaps, but overall it was a very frustrating process.
Here are some of the things that went wrong:
Sal wasn’t able to stain the trim (baseboards and casings) and I ended up doing it, while his team installed it.
When it was installed, it was literally falling off the walls and not secured. They tried to fill some gaps between it and the walls with black caulk and it looked extremely messy.
They tried to level the subfloor with drywall mud.
They didn’t put new insulation back into the wall before finishing the repair so they had to do it all over again.
They scratched up the new floors by sliding the laundry machines on it to move them.
The electrician scratched up the new wall plates, dinged a new cabinet drawer, and didn’t rewire things properly to begin with.
The transition piece for the new floors at the top of the stairs had to be redone twice because it was falling off.
The communication was only good when I was threatening to fire them. Sal was the only one who was good at cleaning up the mess. Things were left by different workers for weeks at a time and never touched (like tool boxes, giant saws etc).
I tried to be kind and accommodating, leaving flattened card board for them to use, always had cold drinks for them, even shared dinner and went and bought them lunches and snacks.
Overall, I wouldn’t choose to hire them in the future. The damage to my house occurred in January, and I’m still waiting for ARS to finish their last thing now in August. Barriga Built finished their part in July.
Original review: Sal, the owner, is wonderfully committed to doing an amazing job. He is really there for his customers, and puts them first. I had them come and repair and improve my kitchen after water damage.
The first worker I had from his team, Julio, was problematic in his work. When I asked that I get someone else as I didn't trust Julio any more, Sal was right on top of it. He, along with Mario and Fortino dropped everything to come and make it right just in time to not mess with the schedule for kitchen cabinet install.
They have a great eye for detail, caught things I didn't, and just did was was needed to make it look good. All very kind and professional people to work with. GREAT communication. I plan on using them again for future projects and no one else. I'd give them 10 stars if I could.