Herb Lodde & Sons Roofing Ltd

Roofing
Burlington ON L7L 0C1
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HomeStars  >  Basement Renovation in Burlington  >  Herb Lodde & Sons Roofing Ltd  >  Two bdr apartment renovation
Joe from St. Catharines
Joe from St. Catharines
1 review Saint Catharines, ON
2/10

Two bdr apartment renovation

I wanted new floors, new kitchen, new washroom, front door, closet doors and two bedroom doors, all trim and baseboards, all painting, and some soundproof insulation between two walls. The workmanship is very 2nd rate.

The floor has gaps between the jambs and the floor, no undercut done. They used normal insulation between the walls, so I can still hear my tenants and they can hear me. Lots more painting needs to be done, you can see where it needs it. All the doors need more paint, brush strokes everywhere. Caulking not done properly, gaps everywhere. Counter has chip marks at the edge where it was cut. All the plumbing leaked. I had to have it fixed right away, no one would come so my tenant who is a plumber fixed it so they could use the water and the sink the first night they moved in. Work space was very messy. Little scratches on the new floor since junk was all over it. Thinset splashed onto the washer and dryer and the laundry tub where it was mixed, the tenant cleaned it. Not enough of the same tiles in the washroom, so a different tile was put down, you can see the difference. No tiles were sealed to make it more water resistance, they said they don’t do that, so now I will have to seal it. They like to dictate what a customer should have. I wanted it sealed, he said no. Backsplash doesn’t have edges put with it, so sharp edges are present. Wrong counter top for the counter, so it didn’t fit properly. Paint on all the new hinges and on the fixtures. Square cuts, rounded hinges, except two hinges are square. I was told the painting of the doors wasn’t included in the contract and they did it for free. This wasn’t mentioned at all in the beginning. I thought when you install a new door, part of it is to paint it. I asked for a new front door, and asked him will you do everything on it. He said yes. They left the trim unpainted and just plaster around the door, so I have to get a tall ladder to finish sanding it and paint the trim and wall. All of the new trim feels grainy with bumps on it, not smooth at all. No grout under the baseboard in the washroom. I fought with the boss to get them to remove the toilet to at least grout underneath it. He kept saying that no one does that. Can’t talk about any issues with fighting or being accused for wanting freebies even though I said I will pay for extras. Some of the paint will come off the jambs since it wasn’t prepped first, it is already bubbling ready to crack. Some of the baseboard heaters were not screwed back , I now have to do it, but there is a big space behind it since they removed some of the baseboard and didn’t put nothing back there. Dust was everywhere, so the tenant cleaned it all. Screws and a smoke alarm backing was painted over. Above the kitchen counters, on the ceiling is unfinished, you can see where the existing cupboards were, like a lot, it’s bumpy and yellow. Some of the mudding wasn’t sanded and it’s all bumpy and painted over. A switch plate was cut in half and now is cracked. The tenants have a daughter that could get a finger in there and be cut or electrocuted. I will have to either move the box or cut the trim and put a new plate on. Two closet poles was thrown out so I had to buy two new ones. The tub spout shot water backwards and went in-between the new wall and into my basement. They took almost a week to fix it, so the tenants had to take baths everyday, which is more money for us to pay.

When I hired them he said he would get a few guys in there, but most of the time it was one guy working from morning till night. I could have done it myself if that was the case. I hired this company to get the job done on time and with “Quality.” The job was not done on time, and even before it was finished, I kept getting phone calls to come in and sign the papers. I called the boss to come and look at the job. he would not come and when he did, it was because my wife told the secretary that we won’t sign till he comes to look. When I was telling him about the tile, he just said it was a different box of tiles, but the same tiles. And when I was going to tell him about some other stuff, he said that I got freebies like the painting of the doors that I had no idea about. The contract is very vague and when questioned about it, he grew upset. I felt I couldn’t tell him about anything since twice it was a fight on the phone. I didn’t want any more confrontations, so we signed the papers to be able to rid them from my house. I now have to fix all the problems, it’s a good thing I used to be a renovator and a painter and have the tools for it, imagine if I was an old lady. I don’t know anything about the roofing side of this company so I won’t talk bad about that, but do not trust them in your house for any work. The quality is very low, 2nd rate. For $30, 000 I expected a lot more, and more perfection, not where I have to go and fix everything. The boss would never check their work and see if it was done right. I know I can’t do anything about it since we signed the papers already to say the work is finished. But I couldn’t take the stress or the arguments anymore. This review is to save others stress and their money. I told them if you do a good job I will hire you to do a full basement reno, I have a large unfinished basement. I also told them that my dad needed a drop ceiling put in, but he wanted to see what kind of work they do. After he saw the work, he refused to have them in his house. He hired someone else to install the drop ceiling. Since the injury of my arm, I am not able to continue to do renovations jobs for other people. Now I have people calling me asking me to recommend someone else. I told them not to hire Quality interiors that is part of Herb Lodde. I told them I don’t know about their roofing but for indoor renos, hire someone else besides them. I got a call the other day to install 700sqf of hardwood flooring. I gave the job to another company. Quality Interior took my money, and I will pay, I’m good for it, but we are not happy with the work at all.

The workers were very nice and respectful and hard working. If anyone wants to see if I'm truthful, you are more than welcome to take a look. docj4life@gmail.com

Approximate cost of services:
$30,000.00
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Company Response

Hi Joe,
I want to apologize for taking so long to reply to your review. I have to say, I took the review very personally on both a professional & personal level. I have worked in the construction industry for over 20 years and have never been accused of not doing a quality job. I take great pride in the work that we do as a company & great pride in the people we employ. I’ve read your review numerous times so that I can approach your issues with our work on a professional level, rather than an emotional level.
I feel as though we have a very detailed contract outlining the scope of work to be done, but perhaps we could become even more detailed as the issues you had with our work were not part of our contract. (sealant, back splash, door paint) We feel it’s important for the customer to know exactly what they can expect & perhaps there were too many assumptions made on your part, that we were not clear about.
It’s also difficult to work under an extremely tight time line. Inevitably in construction, things don’t always go as planned, so it is also our job to let the customer know that although we will do our very best to get the job done on schedule, there has to be a little room for flexibility to offset such constraints. The more constraints we have for time, leaves us with no additional time to do any extra’s the customer might want done. I believe I was at the job site on at least 5 occasions to go over this with you.
I refuse to go into any mudslinging about what was said or done on your part & am more than happy to go over your issues with you. I am confident in the work we have done for you. Our employee’s are very experienced, knowledgeable, and pleasant and I will stand behind all work set out in our contract. As I have said before to you, my door is always open, & my phone is always on.
Thank you,
Manny DeMelo