Callen Construction, Inc. — Local services in Muskego

We needed a window removed from one of our second story dormers, the wall needed to be rebuilt due to rot, and we needed new siding put on. Everything started out fine, the people who worked on our house were professional. When they got further into the project there was more rot than expected Callen contacted us and told us it would be an additional 3-4 thousand dollars. This was unfortunate but we understood. The work was finished in mid December, we called for an update on our bill and were told not to worry about it and to enjoy the holiday season. In January we finally got the bill and found our Callen had gone $8000 over their estimate on a project that was originally quoted at $6000. They had not communicated that we would owe any additional money over the estimate since they had told us about the extra 3-4 thousand so this came as quite a shock to us. They did tell us they took $2000 of the actual overages which is nice, but it is still a crazy amount of money to go over.

They were nice enough to meet up with us and go over the additional costs and all of the extra money seemed to be legitimate but it would have been nice to know about much, much earlier. They also took about another $200 off during this meeting. The person we were dealing with told us he understood it was a lot of extra money and while they were not a bank that they would give us some leeway on how soon we needed to get them the money. We wrote them a check for the remainder of the original estimated amount and told them we would get them the rest when we acquired additional financing. A few days later we got a call from this same person saying that accounting wasn't happy about it and that we needed to get them the money by at least the end of March because that was the end of their fiscal year. A few days after that we got another call saying if we did not get them the money by the end of the week they would send us to collections. This was extremely unprofessional to tell us something one day and then threaten to send us to collections a few days later.

I wish I could say our dealings with Callen ended there, unfortunately I cannot. When spring came around I finally got around to more closely inspecting their work. They had taken out these pieces of wood that sat between the rafter extensions and never had replaced them. This left our wall open and any sort of insect or animal could have easily gotten into our walls. When we called them they came out quickly and fixed the problem but we shouldn't have had to call them, it should have been done right the first time.

Overall they did a horrible job when it came to communicating with us. The work they did on the walls looks great though. I would have given then a better rating for quality if they had not left parts of...

2024 UPDATE: We were so happy with Callen that we decided to remodel our main kitchen, primary bathroom and guest bathroom. Projects went as smoothly as the initial project highlighted below. Marie and Ryan did a great job again! Additionally we continue to have Callen replace a number of older windows/doors and are very happy with Marvin Infinity products and the professional installation. Great company, so glad we found them!

Exceeded Expectations - 5 Star Review.

My wife and I have built three homes and recently moved into a lake home that has been built out (from a small cottage) over many years. We hired Callen to help us design and renovate the oldest part of the house; 1200 square feet, entryway, kitchen, living room and bedroom. This area of the home had several vintage plumbing, electrical and roofing systems. Our designer Marie was extremely helpful in helping us develop a plan to support our vision of opening up the space (great lake views) and updating materials to match the rest of the house. There were several challenges with this and Marie was great at iterating ideas on 3D software so we could visualize our changes and build excitement about the potential of the project. Once we had the plan formalized the Callen team came in to confirm if the building structure supported our ideas, of course it did not (removing some walls and headers to open things up). The Callen team came up with a few work arounds and clearly communicated our options so that we could make a decision on how to proceed. Once the project plan was finalized Ryan was assigned as our project manager - lucky us! He is a very clear communicator and was on site almost every day. We always knew what was going on. No one likes strangers in their house but Ryan kept us informed regarding who was onsite and what was happening. All of the contractors were friendly and professional. Site was kept organized, safe and tidy. Once underway, Ryan identified some changes that could enhance the project and this allowed us the opportunity to improve the end result. Sure there were some delays and material issues but nothing unexpected (especially during Covid).

Now, regarding budget. They finished the work right on budget. Any changes were clearly communicated and any changes to budget were our decision. The contracting, billing and administration of the project was excellent.

Also: we also had Callen replace several of our older windows throughout the house. This work also exceeded expectations - great windows, fair price and the finish trim to match existing space...

Our first interactions with Callen on a remodeling project were wonderful, we were excited about working with the company, and felt their experience shined through during our initial conversations and consultation both in office and at home. Slowly, communication with the company stalled. We did not feel like our time frames were unreasonable, it had been weeks between communications. So much time had gone by that the team had to come back by the house to confirm their initial consultation. We even made the assumption that perhaps the team or the company partially shut down due to Covid and were very understanding about that possibility. Nearly 3 months after that, we finally got a outline of what our project might look like. Again after weeks of miscommunication, we stopped hearing from the company. After some time it felt like this project just wasn't good enough for them. We were always open to the fact that this was a Milwaukee city remodel and likely not as profitable. What was most upsetting was the fact that we reached out two to three times over the course of 4 to 5 weeks before getting frustrated. For us it's about communication. Even if Callen did not have the time or resources for our project for a few months, that would've been fine. If they were choosing not to move forward with our project, that also would've been fine. At least we would've had a resolution and been able to locate another vendor. Most of this happened before Covid, so we felt pretty strongly that we were ahead of the curve, since then, resources and chain supply are low across the industry. It's very upsetting that a local, well-known, respected company, stopped communicating with any of its potential customers. It was a shock. We even allowed the assumption that the company had closed full-time for a bit, and none of its team members were visiting homes. Totally understandable. But apparently none of them were on their emails either. What was so bizarre is to finally heard back from the team, I had to resubmit an inquiry through their website. So apparently the marketing team is on top of it, but their operations team is stalling. Either way, our project is now a year in the making even though we had known exactly what we wanted from the get go and we have zero rebuttal or back and forth on deliverables and expectations. It was a straight...