Had bathroom and some work done in kitchen and found him to misrepresent himself. For example, we had purchased stone counters from a large company and he said he could get the same thing at a much better price "20% less:-so as we were not yet bound by contract, we went with him. In the end, the price we got from him was the SAME as the company. When I mentioned that to him, he replied that he was "surprised that his supplier did not offer a discount. In speaking to his supplier ( they only deal with contractors) I was told that contractors do get a percentage of sales for bringing in business in ( which I knew having worked in that business in the past) and as they only deal with contractors, no discounts are offered to individual clients.
Another issue was the membranes that needed to be installed before
putting any type of flooring. He charged an extra $500.00 which he had not account for (which is fair) for an area of 32 feet (size of bathroom minus the tub). As we were considering him to install another vanity (7 feet) which required the same membrane underneath, his price again was $500.00. When I asked how he came to that conclusion since the area was 13 feet, he replied he was tired when he did the estimate-yet the next day, he sent it again, unchanged. Least but not last, we needed wallpaper removal in a 10X10 bathroom (2.5 walls as others did not have any) and paint thereafter. His estimate for this came at $1,500.00 for this part of the job. We looked elsewhere and received an estimate for $800.00 from a recommended company, so we went with them .
Interestingly enough, it took one girl and 5 hours to remove the wall
paper, fix what needed to be fixed on walls and apply a coat of paint (including ceiling). She will be coming back to finish the rest when the
rest of the bathroom are ready. Lastly, he failed to mention that he had scratched (2 small scratches on one of the drawers that could not be
repaired with just paint)-did he not think I would notice this?
I was able to get another drawer front to replace the damaged one.
All in all, I did not find him to be meticulous for the work he does and have since hired someone to finish an area of back splash that was missing a tile and another larger area that was missing edging in the
kitchen . I also found that he was not transparent with pricing and even
deceitful (he really wanted that commission for the counters and he was going to say whatever he needed to get it, & at over $6000 for counters, not a bad commission!) and felt he was price gouging (which he can do
-his prerogative and my right to refuse) . All in all, if you hire him, ensure you have a very detailed estimate which covers all costs, who will be doing the work ( He knew the condominium corporation required a plumber as he had to submit information about the plumbing company doing this work and of course charged us for it which is normal-however, one morning he said he would be installing the toilet but when he opened the box and it had additional parts not usually found with regular toilets, he had to call the plumber after all). Also beware that he can get you better prices-20% NOT.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $10,000.00
- Company Response
Very disappointed in this review the original quote and job was to remove an existing bathroom on the 17th floor and assemble new. The additional cost was 500.00 in materials not including labor to install a sound proofing membrane as required by the condo corporation which was not know at the time of the site visit
This issue was conveyed to the client and the extra funds were paid right away
The plans for this bathroom changed by the day quite literally and when the promise of more work was given much more work was turned away
With the large amount of indecisiveness in the bathroom more charges for almost 3 weeks of sporadic down time could have been charged and wasn't
In order to stay on whatever timeline was left and not have to wait for the plumber to arrive in a couple days and relieve the stress of the whole renovation process on her elderly father I suggested taking a look at the toilet and if simple enough I would install it myself saving both time and money for her elderly father already stressed and once the box was opened it was discovered not to be a conventional toilet and it was decided to rely on the plumber after allAs for the kitchen the countertops were chosen at Lowe's and when they mentioned the almost 2 month delay with Lowe's I offered my granite connections to help speed up the timeline and gave them the contact info along with a price upfront which matched Lowe's but could get it installed in approximately 10 working days
This price was given by the granite company to the client and the client payed the granite company directly with no money changing hands through Vail renovations. Another delay was a discrepancy in price because when the final measurements were taken the edging was changed adding 2000.00 to the price and then changed back We do not accept commission or kick backs of any kind whatsoever and never have. All our costs are charged 100% to the client with no markup and even mentioning or accusing us of that is unfairEvery job they wanted done was quoted and then changed multiple multiple times and when asked to quote was made to feel like a crook each time Lowe's or someone else came in to give a quote even though we were onsite
The 500.00 for the second bathroom was to (supply and install) sound proofing and new tile in the vanity location so once again when that work was complete and they actually decided to move forward with the balance of the floor it would tie in properly and be at the proper height as there was only concrete slab under the existing and to add soundproofing and tile after the fact to the balance of the room changes the vanity elevation to a non-ergonomic height
The two small scratches to the drawer were mentioned and a new drawer Face was ordered and we were to be called upon its arrival by the client to change it and that never happened
Vail renovations works on pride of workmanship and 100% transparency and always when given discounts those discounts get applied to the clients final cost and not pocketed
At the end of the day this client is very fortunate that we were so understanding and patient with the large scale indecisiveness and constant battle between family members changing plans hourly quite literally causing huge amounts of unrecoverable down time that wasn't charged back and maybe should have been
as for the one girl removing wall paper patching and painting we did give a price and if a client can find cheaper than great and good for them but there's a difference between a fully insured company and a 20.00 an hour girl and also no timeframe was given for the work just a price which originally they requested we add another layer of drywall over the existing wallpaper and start from scratch and it was US who convinced the client that that was unnecessary and it could be simply removed. Which for all intensive purposes price comparisons on work that was never done shouldn't be included in this review and any defects weren't even brought to our attention and given the opportunity to address or fix
The work was completed and paid in full with no mention of any defects or issues making this review extremely unfair and is more about work we didn't do than the work performed.