Top Notch Construction Review

Very disappointed by the company

We hired Top Notch Construction because we want our house built. We have a budget of 3.5 million pesos. We paid 15,000 pesos for the offers.

The first offer we received was around P3.8 million plus taxes and by P420,000 plus taxes for the fence in an extra contract. That would have been a total price with taxes of around P4.6 million - over P1 million peso above our budget. In addition, the offer included a single small window (!) at a price of over 30,000 pesos.

Including in this proposal was already a 15% discount - for house and fence.

Attention: If a company allows you a discount of 15% from the beginning, then you know in advance that the company is too expensive! Because nobody has money to give away.

We were surprised that two contracts are necessary and that the fence had an extra contract. Therefore we wanted to build the house first and then the fence in a few months. Here we were told that this is not possible. But why then two contracts? To charge double costs?

Now we asked to reduce some of the costs so that we are closer to our budget. The high number of lamps could be reduced, expensive doors could be replaced by cheaper doors, the number of windows could be reduced and expensive material could be replaced by cheaper alternatives.

After a few days we received a new offer. Here only the roof of the carport was cut in half and a part of the kitchen and the walk-in cupboard was removed. Our wishes to reduce the costs based on our suggestions were completely ignored. Also the 30.000 Peso window was still on the proposal.

Now we wrote down all desired changes in detail, so that our wishes would be considered. After one week (!) we received an e-mail in which excuses were looked for and improvements were promised, which are included in a new proposal. Now we waited for the new proposal. After 5 days we received another e-mail asking us "if we have any updates" regarding our project.

What kind of update? We were waiting to get an update from the company! So it was a pure waste of time.

In the meantime we asked for offers from other companies. These companies are able to realize our project within the budget and in a better quality, including taxes.

Our conclusion: Top is only a part of the name in this company. So it should probably be changed to "Flop Notch"!

Edit: We just checked and compared some prices for the materials Flop Notch are using with offers from other companies and sales prices in the Philippines. Flop Notch giving you 18 sqm polycarbonate roof for the carport for around 76.000 Peso. The real price for 18 sqm is around 17.000 Peso. The same with the panel doors 14.000 Peso / real around 7.000 Peso; Pin Lights 1.100 Peso - real 600.- (the labour is by all prices included). Do not forget Flop Notch is charging you this prices exclusive taxes, which you have to pay on top!

This means that the company not only earns money by building your house, but also sells the materials to the customers. Now it is no longer surprising if they give a 15% discount when the price of the material is over 50% of the actual purchase value. Shame on you, Flop-Notch!

I think we are lucky that we did not assign the project to this company - so we only had a loss of 15,000 pesos.

Been looking for a contractor that will help us build our home. Thankfully got a contractor that will assist us from start to finish. Though building it took a bit longer than we thought since we really want it to be successful. It really was tough, from designing, preparations of documents, in choosing finishing materials, up to construction, but Top-Notch Construction made it easy and simple for us. Top-Notch was able to guide and gave us their utmost services and assistance that we need. We really appreciate Top-Notch Construction for being creative, professional, and being patient until our home finished. They build us the home that we really want. They build not only houses, or buildings, they also build dreams. Will recommend Top-Notch Construction, and rated five-stars. They deserved it.

I highly recommended Top Notch Construction. The money is all worth it! The staff is so accommodating. They have insightful advice and they did a great job of really listening to what we wanted. They guide you through every step and make an overwhelming process stress-free. Looking forward for more projects with TOPNOTCH CONSTRUCTION! May you build more houses! Thank you and Godbless you!

Staff are very accommodating. A very wholesome workplace. One of the best companies you'll find in Cavite.

I have them built my house in 2015. They have offered 1 year warranty. But after a little over 1 year problem arises one after the other.

1. Electrical. The main line going out from the main breaker to the Meralco Post burned at the foot of the concrete post. I found out that they used 1inch electrical pipe and in the Meralco Post they used 2 - .5inch blue pipe (yes this is a water pipe). It could be they run out of materials and they improvised. How the hell in the world they just covered with electrical tape the joining of 1inch electrical pipe and 2 .5inch water pipe.
2. Granite tiles. As of this time 75% of tiles in the ground floor pop out. They have a very poor workmanship or they simply don't care. I will end up removing all tiles in the ground floor to install a new ones this summer 2019.
3. Gutter and Facia boards. Leaks are all over the gutter joints thus affecting facia boards which have already a bubble paint and lot of dirts due to the leaks.
4. Granite countertops. When comparing to my neighbors I now realized that the did a very poor workmanship. They don't have proper tools and skills.
5. The owner Ruben Quintal visits the site during the construction not more than 12 times. Imagine a 11 months construction and it was only visited once a month by the contractor. By the way I am always on time when payment comes.
6. Cabinets. I need to hire a true carpenter to fixed those misaligned cabinets they have built.
7. The last beam supporting the roof steel trusses. There are exposed steel and are not covered by concrete completely.

You can PM me if you need more. This is to warn prospective home owners. Ruben is a nice guy but I think his foremen and workers are only after the kickback.

I will not recommend this company. First, they are too expensive compare to the other companies. Second, the quality of material that they like to use to build in your house is not good (low quality compare to other company). Third I don t like the staff, you re not feeling them that they are serious in their job. Especially the one from the Marketing, instead to sell their company what they can offer, she s marketing herself. Good that we found other company that suits for our needs.

I really love the Design of my House. Thank you Top-notch

What a great experience working and dealing with the whole team of Top-Notch Construction. They make the process of the whole construction less hassle for us especially we are working abroad. Starting from the planning stage, processing of permits up to construction itself. The team really did a great job! Designs are also great.

Picked the right contractor. I will be certainly working with this company again for my future project.

I really recommend this contractor, very accommodating and responsive from start and end of the construction of my house. More power to Top-Notch.

Visited a number of their projects. Good quality, nice designs.

some minor issues during and after construction. but still worth your money. highly recommended. they have their own carpentry team, own glass installer and their own hardware store which gives them more control of the project. the construction process is not as smooth as i wanted it to be but is considerably much better that other contractors that i encountered. Project management is organized and with fast replies to queries. Provides proper documentation for every site instruction and change orders. Kudos to all the team members who participates in building my dream home. Very happy with the results. Thank you and more projects to come.

We would like to send our gratitude to all Top-Notch staffs who made my dream house come true. Finally we re comfortable live here as what we call our Home. Start for Design until in Construction you never failed us. Even though there s some little problems but you give an action and solve it accordingly. Again thank you and more blessing to your Company.

I was looking for a company to build my retirement home. What I ended up with was a house with a leaking roof (Should never happen in the Philippines) and it took over 2 month for them to come back. They have a lot of rework projects due to very poor workmanship. They tried 3 times to stop the leak by patching here and there and never fixed it. Then warranty period ended and they walked away from the problem. I ADVISE EVERYONE NOT TO EMPLOY TOPNOTCH. NOT EVEN TO BUILD A DOG HOUSE!!! The company's name should be Botch-Notch. In order to send this review, I have to give at least 1 star. If I could, I'd request them to return the star.