Jeff made promises to complete all these things related to the basement finish, but all he did was demolish my house and ruin off with the $17,400 that I paid him in cashiers checks. He then filed bankruptcy hoping to not have to refund my money because I had to hire an Attorney and sue him. The inspector from St. Charles County came out to take a look at what Jeff Newman did to my house after he removed himself from my permit. Well needless to say, everything failed. The tiny bit of crappy framing is junk and he left me with temporary stairs that are not at all safe, knowing I have little children in the house. Please feel free to contact me if he did this to you too!

It all went very well. Details in previous response.

Our only complaint in the middle of the job we were delayed for a few weeks. Overall we love it and would recommend Jeff again, he is a great and honest man.

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The were several instances where important details were missed; oversight on several important aspects of the finished project.  Newman's Home Improvement is very responsive --especially to place a bid on your project -- expect them to be there the next day to take a look at the job regardless of whatever else they should be working on.

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Once the contract is signed, beware of over communication -- it will usually not be quality information or clear expectations.  We found ourselves very stressed throughout the entire project, and spent weeks after the final payment was made finding errors in the quality of work and trying to get the issues resolved.  They did a decent job in attempting to correct he numerous issues we encountered, but we have since moved on using other contractors to correcting the sub-par fixes that were put in place.
In all, we are just thankful that we made it out of this project without any significant and costly issues (that we know of, yet). We highly recommend if you use this contractor, you demand he get a permit -- we were so thankful that we did considering the extent of the job that was completed considering we had to rough in the plumbing. 

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You need to know what to look for in errors with this contractor.  It's not that they have ill intentions, but you will have to double check all their work and look for issues after the fact.  If you do have an issue, beware of awkward confrontation in discussing the matter, especially if it deals with determining fault.

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Our issues were:

A poorly installed pipe in a brand new wood vanity had a leak and damaged the wood.  The contractor sent his plumber back out to fix it but never even offered to rectify the water damage. (see picture)The drywall have several blemishes and in some spots were left with gaps until we complained.  These were resolved for the most part but still not a great completion. (see picture)
They dry walled our AT&T Uverse wires in the wall and snapped a few.  We had to get wifi receivers throughout our house (cost $250) and the contractor never accepted blame or offered to rectify the issue.We had serious issues with the quality of work with the paint applied to the walls and painted concrete floors.  Without going into the further detail -- because it would be extensive -- I would highly recommend you do not have them paint anything, or expect that it be of poor quality.

• Project clean up was not acceptable -- the unfinished storage area was a mess with dry wall dust, extra materials discarded on the floor, dirt and broken concrete from roughing in the plumbing.  Our furniture was also literally tossed on top of each other (see picture), and now we have a sofa that we cannot remove from this room because we were never told to remove it.  This mess was left for me to clean up (see picture) -- I was 9 months pregnant at the time of completion.  When I complained to the contractor, I was told, "the storage room wasn't to be finished".
• Electrical work in main bedroom keeps shorting out.  We communicated this to the contractor several times, and were told to "find the fuse box and fix it".  Another electrician came out to fix.

• Caulk has shrunk in several places of the tiled bathroom and around the windows in the bedroom.  We have since fixed this ourselves, although the contractor fixed it once already in the shower already.
• The bedroom walk in closet measurements do not make sense; we were not able to install bi-fold doors and opted to leave the opening without a door because the only other option was a 5 panel door.  The contractor never addressed the issue with these measurements.
• Return vents for the furnace were not installed, which would have been a huge issue if my father in law had not called it out as a problem.  We had to question the contractor, after which it was admitted it was an oversight on their part and they were then installed.

They quoted me for $19500. He was very prompt. He was not pushy. He came in and looked at the basement. He came up and gave us a quote. He didn't try and sit and talk to us for hours. He said he would negotiate on the price which he did. It's why we had a good feeling about him.

They were very prompt in connecting with me. They were very positive and enlightening. They gave me realistic, down to earth, straight forward and feasible feedbacks.

The guys worked efficiently and they did a super job on the siding. They were done in a couple weeks. They cleaned up after the job was done. Jeff came by to make sure I was satisfied with everything.
I paid 50% up front to start the work and the remainder at the completion of the job.
I will hire Jeff again.

Mr. Newman was very helpful, and he's always right on top of things. He wanted to make it absolutely sure that we were completely satisfied. Even after the job was done, he came back a week later and double checked with us. He was very attentive. Carpet and electrical was subcontracted I think, and was very good.
However, Several notable errors were made, some of which were caught before the task was completed and others not caught until much later.
The one that was caught was a top shelf in the closet would not have been even accessible had I not noticed and told the carpenter how to change it. He should have also put additional supports under the shelves to prevent sagging over time. At the time he said they were adequate but they weren't.
The window between the 2 rooms were to have shutters to open/close between the rooms but when the time came to put them in, there were none on the market. One would have to special order them at great cost. Mr. Newman should have researched this when preparing his bid. We were able to figure something out, and quot;jerryrigand quot; so it is OK. Another problem involved opening access to pipes above the ceiling which were installed but not where they needed to be. It had just become a problem for us recently but need not have been if job was done right.
In the bathroom the carpenter cut the hole through the wall board to open to the electric receptacle but he cut it in the wrong place. Patched error is slightly visible.
And lastly the floor ceramic in the bathroom one tile is not completely flat. It's at the edge and may be a problem with the concrete flooring beneath it but I think it could have been installed better. The rest of the flooring is very nice.
As I said to start with Mr. Newman tried very hard to please us and repeatedly asked if everything was OK so some of these complaints may not be fair to him. Some were not noticed until later and some were corrected as best as possible at the time. I just feel like some should have been prevented, thought of by him or his carpenters, first.

Following a phone conversation to discuss products and availability, Jeff Newman came to the house with window sample and measured all openings. He worked up a contract within 2 days that we agreed to. He was paid about 75% upfront to order materials. About two months later, when all materials were delivered, they went to work pretty quickly and were finished in 3 days. Jeff came by a few days later to finish a couple details and walk thru a final inspection with us which I really appreciated. I really could not be happier with the work or the quality of the products he used.

This was our 4th project with Jeff Newman. He is our and quot;go-toand quot; guy for all our home improvement projects. I'm a bargain hunter by nature and Newman Home Improvement has been an excellent value.

Jeff was recommended to do the installation of my kitchen cabinets by the supplier. I talked with several of his reference before agreeing to use him. Each one of the references said they loved his work and would definitely use him again.

All during the planning process and installation, Jeff was very professional and flexible with my schedule. The project did last a couple weeks longer than initially projected, however that was due to a delay in the granite installation (which was not in his control), my travel schedule for work, and my indecisiveness in picking a final color for the kitchen walls. In the end, my kitchen and bedroom look great. I'm so happy with the results.

His price estimate was a lot lower than the other bids I received (I had four total) and the quality was top notch. I definitely would use Jeff and his crew again and recommend him to anyone planning a remodeling project.

A nightmare. He still has our $30K and will not give it back to us. We asked for our house-keys back that we gave him and he refused until we signed a form that he gave us saying that we could not leave negative feedback for him on any forum (I guess that means Angie's List, too!). It was at that point that we paid $128 for a locksmith to come to our home to change the locks. This must be how he keeps people from leaving honest feedback about him - but I told him that it would not work with me. I went to Angie's List and BBB to see if he had any complaints and found none. Now I have found out how he avoids that - by holding unsatisfied customer's money and other property until they agree not to report him. It is my responsibility to prevent others from being taken advantage of. This has truly been the worst experience of my life and it continues. I am having to hire a lawyer to get my money back. Please remove him from Angie's List. Please do not let this happen to anyone ever again.

My husband and I recently bought our first house. Although we absolutely loved it, it needed many changes. We interviewed 5 contractors and quickly decided that we wanted Jeff Newman of Newman's Home Improvement to do the work. Jeff was quite willing to work with us on the cost of the project to keep within our budget. During the entire process, Jeff kept us well-informed of the progress. He always made himself accessible to us and had suggestions to help us with our decisions. He was willing to make any changes that we requested at a very reasonable cost. Jeff and his crew were polite and pleasant to work with. This rehabbing project was very big and Jeff made it much easier than it could have been. The completed house looks fabulous and much better than our expectations. At the end, Jeff walked through the house with us and would not leave the project until he was certain we were satisfied.