ADVANTAGE HOME REMODELING LLC

There is really almost too much to write up, too many issues. I will summarize the biggest issues as I cannot detail all of them because we experienced DAILY issues with this contractor for at least six months. This remodel which was only supposed to take 3 months took far more than double and was never completed. After 6 months we had to hire a lawyer to cease any further work because of the lies and deception from this contractor. After months of agonizing dealings and decption with this contractor and trying to get our project to a point that we could at least finish up ourselves, we had to hire an attorney. This contractor had the audacity to submit a bill to us for overages, mostly due to his incompetence (incorrect framing that required it to be redone, incorrect measurements that resulted in special order items instead of stock items we specified, and more). After our attorney stepped in, we never heard from him again - thankfully. The owner/contractor started our project almost two months after the agreed upon date, stating that the holdup was the city permit. We later found there was no hold up at the city. The city confirmd the date of the application to begin construction was submitted two months after he told us. The contractor's employees told us they were finishing up other jobs before they could begin ours. The late start would have been fine if he had been up front from the beginning instead of telling us each week that work would start the following week. Why lie about that? It was just the first of many, unfortunately. The first major issue was this company framed our new roof with 2x4's, saying that trusses were back ordered and couldn't come in time so they would have to hand frame. The 2x4 framing was caught by us mid-way through completion, fortunately in time and ended up having to be removed and reframed. I doubt this would have even passed initial inspection had we not caught the issue. As a result of having the roof uncovered for so long and generally unprotected, we got water in our basement from subsequent rain that ruined our ceilings. This was aside from our fear security issues and rodents getting into our home because of the open walls and no ceiling. It remained in that state for at least three weeks. The workers were only at our house 1-2 days per week, and sometimes not at all within a week, and the contractor even less leaving unfinished work consistently. The owner consistently said work would pick up or resume next day, but we were consistently disappointed. His crew sat in our yard smoking (leaving cigarette butts and Mountain Dew cans) a good portion of the day and were too inexperienced to be working without direction. His contracted electrician and plumber were the only saving graces from this job. They were experts, but they were contracted, not his employees. Even these contractors pointed out workmanship issues and were appalled at the lack of progress and the issues going on. Many of the mistakes caused issues for the plumber, such as placement of the bathtub too far away from the wall that the facet wouldn't reach. Other issues were: walls that are not square, lower grade windows installed than what was in the original estimate and specification (and lesser than what we paid for), they used large nails for molding and finishing work leaving huge holes in our woodwork for the finishing work they did complete, carpet was never ordered (he kept telling us is was on back order) until we caught on and went to the carpet store ourselves to find out the order was never placed, the bathroom vanity top we purchased (and he knew about ahead of time) did not fit the customized cabinet he ordered to be built (he was not specific on the dimensions to the cabinet maker) and thus he had to provide a lesser grade, special order material vanity that fit the cabinet dimensions. He didn't check our house plans from the city before starting the project and found there was a main header beam that he could not move only after tearing down the surrounding walls. They used no insulation in the soffits of the new roof over our dining room addition resulting in major ice dams and subsequent water issues. The floor of dining room addition is not level and slopes down. The sliding door is not the door we ordered and I'm unhappy with it to this day. The list goes on and on, some issues more important than others. This contractor also did our neighbors addition at the same time and they too experienced major delays and workmanship issues. Neither of us would recommend him or use his services again.

Overall the subs and carpenters did nice work, but there were long delays due to the project manager ordering supplies late or incorrectly. I was promised that the job site would be swept up daily, that only happened a few times. The painters who came to do touch up after the carpet install did a sub par job. Electricians, sheetrockers, original paint crew, heating guy, and plumber all did a fantastic job and were very professional. The owner of the company made a laminate counter for wet bar area. The wait for this to be installed caused long delays for the plumber and it did not turn out well. He fixed some of the problems but I was still not happy with the finished counter.