Advanced Home Improvements

We bought our house in late November 2012. We were not in a hurry to move and wanted some things done to the house before we moved in. Advanced Home Improvement was a local company so we hired them to turn what had been an open deck off the kitchen into a screened in one. They put in a door to the outside and added a ramp, as we have a dog who has trouble with stairs. The work was done in a timely fashion, but I thought the workmanship a bit lacking. The ramp railing is not even and had a very rough edge at the bottom. I pointed that out and the owner did come out to sand it down, but I was not overly impressed with the work. They put a plywood ceiling in, which took more time than was anticipated because it was not square, but they did that at no extra cost to us. During installation I mentioned having a doggy door. The owner told me to get one and he would be happy to put it in. He charged me for the labour of installing it, which surprised me, but that was my fault since I didn't ask. All in all our screen porch is nice, but I felt the work could have been better. There was a hose tap that we talked about moving so it would end up outside the screened in part. That did not happen, and it is pretty much useless now since who wants to turn on a tap inside a room? I do not think I would use this company again, but we did not solicit bids, so perhaps we got a great deal, I don't know.

This is the very best contractor I have ever hired. We will never use another. Work was on-time, on-budget and suprior quality. His design was awesome. His men were professional, courteous and polite. Never had such a great experience. I will recommend him to everyone.

Things looked fine, but once the rainy season hit, it was obvious that the leak wasn't fixed, and the bottom of the porch also leaked. Called owner twice about problem, and was treated very rudely. He made it clear he was not going to do anything about the problem.

We have been gathering estimates from general contractors to finish a pool house by adding a bathroom and finishing walls, floors, electrical. Charles was the only contractor who returned our call immediately and came out within a day to give us an estimate. He gave us a fair estimate to cover everything except the plumbing, and gave our contact info to the plumber he works with. The plumber called the next day and came out the same day. Unfortunately, because of the layout of the house, it would be impossible to tie into the house's sewer system, so a grinder pump would have to be installed. This resulted in an estimate of $6,000 just for the plumbing, which was more than we intended to spend, so we are not going to do the project. However, while he was there, the plumber fixed two plumbing problems and charged me only $85. I will use him again, and will use Charles as a general contractor in the future if the opportunity arises.

Contractor was hired Saturday, April 6,2013 to do a home addition on the back side of my house starting on Monday, April 8, 2013. He was told that neither me nor my husband would be able to be there, so he asked that we leave the signed contract in the back yard for him. So we did. Monday morning comes, and he calls my husband and ask him: and quot;Where is the money?and quot; My husband told him that he will call me since I was the one dealing with him and find out what is going on, and then will call him back. My husband called me, but I was unavailable to answer his call at that moment. So My husband called Don Storozuk, the owner of Advanced Home Improvement and the one who I was working with, and told him that he did not reach me and that we will work this out in the afternoon and if money was promised we would pay him in the afternoon. Don told my husband and quot; I am just floored!and quot;, and and quot;Projects that start this way, do not end well.and quot; So when I was able to call my husband back he told me what was going on, and I informed him that the contract stated that the payment will be as follows: and quot;1/3 deposit of $...due upon complete framing of $...balance of $... + tax on materials at completionand quot; I told my husband that he did not say anything about wanting a deposited before he started the job and I was not going to leave a large sum of money on my back porch. I called Don as soon as I was able to and he did not answer the phone, so I left a message asking him to return my phone call. When I arrived home Monday afternoon, I saw a copy of the contract and he wrote and quot;VOID no deposit 4/8/13and quot; and signed his name. I also saw that he had jack hammered my back porch. So I waited for him to call me back, but he did not. So I called him on Tuesday and asked again that he return my phone call so that we can discuss the events that occurred on Monday and get this issue resolved. He has yet to return my phone calls.

My experience has been excellent so far. He is there whenever I call, he answers all of my questions, and he shows up on the job site. They are here when they say they are going to be.