Howard Construction LLC, Orange Park FL

We hired Howard Construction after having a house fire in September 2022. They did a fantastic job of repairing the house and completing changes in the house during the process. Working with Mike Galaska was also great. He notified me when I needed to make decisions during the process. He was provided helpful suggestions. The home is actually better than it was before the fire. Mike was also responsive when we identified a few areas that still needed to be touched up after we moved in.

After a small fire in our home we we presented with Howard Construction in partnership with Herring Cleaning. We were not offered much of a choice. They appeared to have some kind of partnership with our insurance company. They all talked a great sales pitch and swooped in so fast. But once workers started showing up I was questioning their qualifications to myself.
Long story and 1 year later the new "high quality water resistant flooring" they put in is literally coming up and falling apart. I contacted Howard Construction and surprisingly he came out right away. However right from the start he just started insinuating the floor issues are our fault. He provided one faulty hypothesis after another as to why it was happening "moisture". Because clearly we made our home an indoor pond for the last year. (Sarcasm). I'm sorry under no circumstances should a high quality water resistant flooring be coming up after just 1 year. Believe me we did not turn our home into a pond.but that is the kind of ludicrous tale he's telling. Contact your insurance he says. Hmmm they arent even going to listen to me because of this unprofessional under the table partnership they got going on. Very sad after they collected thousands from insurance to put in this flooring, 1 year later we are going to have to put in a whole new one ourselves. Don't use Howard Construction.

After experiencing a house fire in February, we chose Howard Construction to take on the construction of our home. First of all, they were highly recommended by everyone we spoke to and they proved their work from the first time we met with them. Mike Galaska managed our project and he was so wonderful to work with. He was very professional, honest, prompt, and extremely easy to communicate with. All of the people who worked with him were compassionate, hardworking, and did an excellent job. We are forever grateful for entrusting them to put our house back together even better than it was before!

My home was flooded from Hurricane Ian in September of 2022, and my insurance company messed around and switched adjusters (7 of them) until I finally got one that started working for me in January 2023. They assigned Howard Construction to rebuild my home. I had to have 4 feet of every wall taken down due to mold and every outside door replaced. Howard Construction was there to help. Mike Galaska, the project manager, was right there with me from the start. He would explain everything that he proposed and listened to me if I had any suggestions and would not proceed unless he got my ok. I made changes and he would give me his professional advice if it was a doable change or not. His crew of many talented people worked with me and called or texted me with any unforseen problems that arose. Mike would always let me know when anyone from his team was going to be at my house. I now have my home back and it's so beautiful and I love it. I would 100% recommend Mike Galaska from Howard Construction if you ever need to have any type of construction, be it a rebuild, remodel or new build for your home. Thank you so very much, Mike.

EDITED TO ADD: When Mike Galaska (project manager) saw this review, he called and asked that it be taken down.

I have never run into a company that behaved more incompetently and produced such a subpar product while overcharging us and not building things up to code.

Not only did we pay them for a rebuild after a fire—we only got what was essentially a gut remodel—but they charged us more than the house cost to do so. They used up every last bit of the allotted insurance money that entitled us to rebuild the house from the ground up minus the foundation.

Some BUT NOT ALL of the grievances.
-They pretended to not be able to find blueprints (for 4 months!) for the house so that they could use a engineer to avoid certain rules and regulations (most specifically, I’m guessing the first few inspections that they definitely weren’t going to pass).
-They wanted to leave in the waterlogged and burnt framing until I demanded otherwise and then when they put a new frame in—
-they didn’t even mitre the edges of the framing or the weight bearing roof trusses
-It appears there was never use of a nail gun and nails were hammered an bent over halfway
-They did not properly/fully insulate the house
-they cut up pre-fabricated trusses or provide verification from the engineer, per requirement, that he authorized that
-they did not build the roof up to code (as verified by a city inspector I called out) but snuck on the shingles before inspection
-they did not level the floor so much that certain furniture can’t be placed against walls
-They did not build even the interior walls 90° straight up causing numerous issues
-they applied for further funding for the speaker system that they knew we did not want and we did not receive, but they received the money from the insurance company and had I not noticed they would’ve just kept that (and didn’t even fully refund us for it in the end)
-They left a ridiculous amount of construction materials in the yard, refused to take responsibility for it and submitted to the insurance for an additional summary so that insurance would pay for it.
-They left the lintel off the garage header enough so that it was sagging in the middle and we had to fight to get them to put it back in, while they acted as if they couldn’t see the gigantic dip in the center of the garage frame.
-they lied every time a question was asked, and if they weren’t watched and things didn’t get noticed, they were happy to do a job I could’ve done better myself. They purposely did work when no one was looking even though they were requested to let us know every time they would be working.
-I could not get verifiable information from Don Towery about the business as he pretended there was no silent partner, Howard Cummins, who is the sole proprietor of the LLC, and he would not provide me with any documentation like a drivers license and was incredibly rude when I requested one.
-They are not BBB accredited and as far as I can tell only get jobs through State Farm because no person paying out of their pocket would ever accept a job like this.
-their workers do not hold the right certifications for the jobs they do.
-The project manager Mike was deceitful and arrogant and condescending.he eventually would not even communicate with me, and bullied my mother continuously, blaming both of us for his ineptitude.
-They change business structure and registered agent (to a probably morally-flexible business attorney) every three years, making information hard to trace and allowing for little to know accountability
-They have an intermingled relationship with Herring Cleaning, have had the same registered agents, owners and work ethic
-Dating back to 1993, there is a troubling pattern of shady real estate transactions, filing liens on customers, and sealed documents- Don Towery, Howard Cummins, Regina Mizell (of Herring) and Howard Construction Inc and then LLC

If State Farm recommends them, DO NOT BITE.