Artistic Wood Crafts

unknown

The good news is that the end result was very beautiful and the guy did beautiful work. He's really a true craftsman and takes a lot of pride in what he did. We live in a historical district and the original cornice that was falling down and rotting had to be recreated which was exactly what he did and he did it flawlessly. The bad news was that from the time he gave us the initial estimate until the job was done he kept finding more things that he said was seriously wrong than he anticipated and so the price kept going up. It ended up costing a good deal more than we thought in the beginning and the other thing that he did was kept insisting that he needed to charge us tax even though it was a capital improvement, so there should be no tax. He kept saying there was a tax and my husband said he'll pay it and he wanted us to pay him the tax and in the end he relented and we didn't pay and of course on a job that expensive it would've been a great deal more money, so it was a mixed experience. It also took a tremendously long time because he came for the first look in June and didn't finish until the end of October and a lot of that was just foot dragging and he'll disappear for a while. Once he got started it got done, but it took a while. He always responded to me although we had some communication and language problems, but it wasn't his fault. Whenever he said he was going to show he did and usually on time.

The two jobs went well. The custom door's and frame were built to accomodate a new washer and dryer that was larger then the previous model . The custom cabinet was built accomodate the narrow space left over in the closet to hold cleaning supplies and utensils. They did a good job fabricating new bi-fold doors to match our cabinets and framing it out. The install went well. The custom cabinet was built to my design to accomodate plumbing and electric (shallower depth on bottom part of the cabinet). The cabinet included caster's to allow for roll-away access to plumbing. They were thorough in following through on the purchase and installation of specified hardware (casters, drawer runners etc.) The custom cabinet was not really "their thing" and although the cabinet ended up being built slightly shorter then I had specified, they were willing to take it back to the shop and fix their mistake. I felt that I could live with the slightly shorter dimension and they agreed to reduce their price. They communicated in a timely fashion, were easy to work with and more then willing to accommodate. I would use them again.

We could not be happier with the experience we had with Omar and Belda. They were so friendly and easy to work with, and the finished product came out exactly as we wanted it to. The process took longer than expected due to the walls in our place being very uneven, but they came up with creative solutions that ended up looking flawless. They obviously have lots of experience doing this type of work, so don't be afraid to ask their advice -- they know what they are doing.

Beautifully! Omar and Abdellah are the greatest! Their team is a most pleasant, professional, and agreeable group to work with?and, before leaving for the day, they always took care to clean up the entry area of our home, where they had worked. Most of our contact was with Omar, and from the first, working with him was a complete pleasure. As a customer, you are invited to visit their workshop, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and to participate in making decisions as the work progresses. For example, Omar was not certain that the old glass could be trimmed (to fit the slightly new openings) without risk of shattering the panes. After considering alternatives, we elected to try to stick with the old panes, and they were successfully trimmed. Omar also made recommendations about where to purchase the hardware and the lock cylinder and have the glass trimmed (or buy new panes). The companies, and the people he suggested we contact at each, were also good to work with?we review them separately. Once work had begun, Omar discovered that there was greater damage to the lower portion of the door panels that was not evident at the time of the estimate, requiring work that resulted in increased cost of $900 above the original estimate. From Omar?s perspective, it turned out that this method of restoration was more difficult and time-consuming than to have simply built new doors. However, having begun the restoration, he adapted to the conditions that had now been identified. In doing the work, he demonstrated his appreciation for original fixtures and architectural features, as well as a commitment to accommodating his customers? preferences as much as possible. Another unexpected development arose in connection with the relative position of the two doors in relation to one another. Prior to the restoration work, the doors had been installed with the more active entry door on the left when approached from the outside, and the more stationary door on the right. On one of our visits to the Artistic Wood Crafts workshop, we found that the positions of the reconstructed doors had been reversed, which Omar pointed out is the more standard approach. Reversing the positions of the doors made it possible to reinstall the hinges on the door edges that were not marred by previous installations. Though we had not anticipated this reversing of the doors, we are pleased with the result. In fact, it has made it easier to enter the vestibule and open the inner door to the house.

It went flawlessly. The work product is excellent and these guys were a joy to work with. I enthusiastically recommend these people for any projects you may have.

It went very well.