Cr Renovation

Our basement flooded due to water from our neighbour's new construction in Dec 2022.

After talking to a few different contractors that were recommended on HomeStars, we hired CR Renovation in Feb 2023 to complete the drywall and flooring repairs because they gave us a reasonable quote and the lead contractor (Rob) seemed friendly, helpful, and empathetic to our situation. We trusted Rob to do a good job while we dealt with our difficult life situation.

After the initial meeting, we didn't see much of Rob except when he came to collect the scheduled payments. Although the sole worker who was assigned to complete most of the project worked very hard, he didn't speak English, so it was difficult to communicate with him or ask questions.

The work seemed fine until the flooring was reinstalled. We found that it moved a lot and made loud clapping noises whenever we walked on it. The concrete subfloor was uneven and no underlay was put in. As part of the agreement, we were asked to provide the flooring materials ourselves. However, we made sure to ask Rob specifically what types of flooring we should get, and he simply told us to get good quality luxury vinyl, which we did. He also said that his worker would "try" to even out the subfloor. During the job, I observed that the worker did patch up a few spots on the floor with concrete, so we thought everything would be fine and trusted that the work would be done properly. The work was completed and final payment was collected in mid-March. However, we were still unhappy with the flooring, but we convinced ourselves that the vinyl would eventually acclimate and the noise would be reduced after we moved all our belongings back into the basement, because we couldn't believe any conscientious contractor would leave it in such a poor state.

However, the loud noise and movement in the floor persisted in all walkable areas. We were very unhappy with it because we spend most of our time in the basement. So, we reached out to Rob in mid-April to request if he could fix at least a small part of the flooring (a high traffic area around 3' x 20') by lifting the planks, placing some underlay, and reusing the same planks. After much back and forth (communication was extremely delayed by this time, now that all payments had been made, but we continued to be very patient and courteous), he finally provided a quote at the end of May for over $1500 and 2-4 days of work. This was a bit shocking to us, considering it would be obligatory on his part to correct substandard work. Nevertheless, we agreed because we just wanted to have the problem fixed and be comfortable in our home again.

Sadly, before the repairs could start this month, our basement flooded again due to a different reason (sewer backup). We called the City of Toronto and the inspector who came to visit said they will need access to the cleanout valve in our basement to locate and clear the blockage. We searched for it and found that it had been covered up by CR Renovation with the new flooring. The inspector said he could not help and left at that point, so we desperately took out the flooring ourselves only to find out that CR Renovation had poured concrete into the cleanout valve and sealed it. The plumbing company we hired said the area would need to be excavated and a new cleanout valve reinstalled.

We also found when we were taking out the flooring that CR Renovation used pieces of cardboard as an underlay instead of properly evening out the subfloor. The cardboard had come from the boxes that contained the new flooring planks. We would have supplied underlay at our expense if Rob had advised us to do so when we asked about what flooring materials were needed. If they had come to us mid-installation and informed us that underlay was required to correct the uneven concrete, we would have provided it. The requirement was simply not communicated to us.

At this point we were very disappointed and asked Rob to refund us for this poor workmanship. He said the flooding is not his problem and that the floors would need to be redone anyway. He has since ignored my attempts to contact him. When we first met Rob, he told us that he treated all his customers homes like his own. We, unfortunately, have not experienced that.