Cut out the middle man and save...
Do your research and don't be fooled, as we were, by his business statement, website testimonials or the references he provides which all give him glowing reviews...this was CLEARLY not the case for us.
We recently purchased our first home and were excited to do some minor kitchen renovations prior to moving in. After researching and interviewing 3 or 4 other local contractors, we decided to go with Mr. Build as he seemed the most efficient, competent, reasonably priced and seemed confident that he could do the work required within our budget while meeting our shorter time demands. However, once the work began, we found out quickly that this was not going to be the case. Though we were fully aware that no reno project goes 100% smoothly and we anticipated some issues, we encountered SEVERAL hold ups within the first couple days, despite our attempts at organizing as much as we could to be efficient and painless for everyone. Each time we tried to contact him to discuss our concerns, we found him difficult to track down and IF we were able to reach him, we received rushed and abrupt single sentence responses to our lengthy emails (which was the ONLY way to find him) I think he visited our home only once throughout the project, contracting the majority of the work to other independent contractors who either were not fully informed of the work requested or did not understand the job at hand (ie: drywalling an entire wall that was meant to be left open and framed, which we intercepted before it was mudded - thank GOD!)
When the job was 'finished' and we moved in expecting it to be paint-ready as per our contract, we found the work was done very sloppy in most areas and required us to spend 5-6 hours of our time and more of our money to complete the work we paid for in order to paint.
All in all, the entire job was fully completed more than 3 weeks later than originally anticipated, and WELL over our original budget due to inaccurate estimations, bogus additional charges and clerical errors. We discovered AFTER being invoiced that the rates for each independent contractor were about $30/hr, where Mr. Build was charging us $69/hr for work that he didn't even see let alone do - a 60% mark-up seems absurd! Moreover, we found dealing with Mr. Build extremely frustrating as he was often very short, abrupt and insisted on communicating through quick, rushed emails the entire time we worked with him - not once did we feel like were valued clients, that our project had his focus or that he 'knows what customer service means'. Though we were, and remain very appreciative of the work that was done in our home, and we were able to reach a compromise in order to compensate us for the additional time and money we had to put in, our final conversations with him were arguments where he resorted to harsh, condescending tones, accusations and defensive tactics; we were left with a terrible final impression of this company, which ultimately overshadows the final result of our newly renovated kitchen.
Suffice it to say, in hindsight, we feel we should have done the job ourselves, hiring independent contractors and paying them their rates directly - which is basically what Mr. Build did for us, tacking on additional fees on the back end. If you're considering using his services for your upcoming project, our suggestion is to save yourself the headache, stress and money and cut out the middle man.
Do your research and don't be fooled, as we were, by his business statement, website testimonials or the references he provides which all give him glowing reviews...this was CLEARLY not the case for us.
We recently purchased our first home and were excited to do some minor kitchen renovations prior to moving in. After researching and interviewing 3 or 4 other local contractors, we decided to go with Mr. Build as he seemed the most efficient, competent, reasonably priced and seemed confident that he could do the work required within our budget while meeting our shorter time demands. However, once the work began, we found out quickly that this was not going to be the case. Though we were fully aware that no reno project goes 100% smoothly and we anticipated some issues, we encountered SEVERAL hold ups within the first couple days, despite our attempts at organizing as much as we could to be efficient and painless for everyone. Each time we tried to contact him to discuss...