Ditmas Park Renovations LLC

Buyer Beware. We hired Thomas to do a remodel of our apartment in 2021. Initially Thomas talks a good game and comes off as responsible and cares about the work that he does. Once DPR gets in the field all of a sudden his true colors show, slow to make progress and finding any and all opportunities to charge you for a change order. Work quality is average at best, Thomas and his team are slow, unresponsive and stick up for their clients best interest. Run far away from this guy and his company.

We procured DPR for the renovation of our home in NYC (Brooklyn – Ditmas Park area – Victorian home). It was a partial house gut renovation and DPR was contracted to do the following projects – ALL electrical and plumbing was NOT in their scope as we contracted those trades as part of the larger reno. So this review is based on framing, tiling, trim and doors. - Master bathroom and walk in closet, 6 new doorways and doors, Harwood flooring throughout the 2nd and 3rd floor , Guest bathroom, first floor landing , new stairs to basement. We moved in September 2019 and renovation completed in Jan 2020. This is difficult review to write as we try our best to not adversely impact someone’s livelihood and we have thought about this for more than a year. Since moving into our home, a host of issues have surfaced as a result of DPR’s failure to do an honest job. - leak from the master bathroom onto our first floor. Upon inspection, the Wedi shower pan where the drain is fixed, debris was left in it such that it wasn’t a clean tight fit DPR’s scope and install. DPR also failed to do final waterproofing inside the shower space which then also caused another leak. - A leak from the guest bathroom onto the kitchen below. Due to the lack of grouting along the perimeter of the bathroom where the wall tiles meets the floor – we slipped a paper under to see how far it went! WOW! same issues around the edge of the tub where the tub meets wall - insufficient waterproofing - First floor landing reconstruction was supposed to be a custom carpentry job, they refused to honor the words that were explicitly in the with us contract to provide custom parts. Took several weeks to get a credit so we could procure the correct parts FOR THEM! (they charged us 5K+ for the parts!) the spindles were installed with visible spacing and level issues – not able to fix this unless we redo the whole thing. - built the stairway to the basement but refused to put up walls to make it safe! we told them we’d let the city decide if it was up to code when they came for the walk through! Sure enough walls went up promptly. - created 6 new doorways and we paid for custom doors. A year later the doors don’t close well, other carpenter we have brough into ***** have all said it is a framing issue. DPR also brought in a retired electrician friend to install them who ended up CUTTING THE CUSTOM solid wood stained doors! Light leaks out through gaps when doors are closed. Don’t be fooled when Tom comes in to do the initial quote and comes off as very capable because that’s where it ends as we’ve come to understand - their lack of experience, lack of right quality sub-contractor contacts which delays the job for weeks and weeks and MONTHS! They really depend on making a lot of money off the smallest change orders in the most desperate of times! They never show up to do the job unless you force them to after weeks and week of asking, don’t pick up the phone, offensive and aggressive attitude because they have a another job and don’t want you on their back despite taking the client’s money. The subcontractors they hire, especially the tiling company is incredibly shady and wants to try to do the absolute minimum. I hope this helps someone. BUYER BEWARE!

We were due to go on vacation the next day and because of the weather our front door had warped so much that it could not be locked. Obviously this was worrying but after calling this company they sent a wonderful person (Thomas) round the next morning and within 20 minutes he had assessed the problem fixed it perfectly and tidied up. He was very pleasant to boot and extremely knowledgeable. And refreshingly he spoke perfect English! Great experience.

Great experience! Our renovations included new floors, wall removal, painting and a new kitchen. Because of permitting delays, we wound up with about half the time we expected to have to complete the project. DPR work extra hard and went above and beyond to make sure we were ready for move in day. They are consummate professionals willing to do what it takes to make their clients happy. We are so fortunate to have found them.

They are a wonderful company.

unknown

Arrived on time and did the job

it went fine

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The guy who came out was the owner. He was very professional. I felt very safe with them there. They costed generally reasonable. I have been quite happy with them.

unknown

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG! TILE LOOKS TERRIBLE AND STARTED CRACKING IMMEDIATELY. COMPLETELY AMATEURISH WORK.

I struggled w/writing this review for a long time, not wanting any bad karma/or to put any negativity in the world. But as this is what Angie's List all about, I feel compelled to share the incredibly frustrating and disappointing experience I had--especially as I'm looking to hire someone to redo the work they did this spring.
I needed a bathroom gutted and a completely new glass-tile bathroom installed. These guys completely botched the tile work. What's the one thing you expect with tile? That it looks great and is completely pleasing to the eye, especially at the seams/where the walls meet. The corners are exactly where the tile looks the worst. The corners look dark, uneven, and, honestly, old.
Within weeks of them leaving my house, the tile started cracking all over the bathroom.
This "company" is really just Thomas and another guy who helps/assists, and both seemed overwhelmed by working with glass tile. While they both seemed like nice fellas, they really seemed in way over their heads.
What I'm most upset about is that Thomas couldn't figure out how to cope with a gap between the back of the tub and the wall, so he started slapping inches of spackle on the wall, eventually creating a SLOPE!!!?!?!?! at the back of the tub. Literally, the back wall of the tub is sloped, instead of coming down straight and meeting the tub. It looks AWFUL and EMBARRASSING. I wish I could upload photos to show you!
What's more, on that whole wall, the tile is bumpy... i don't mean SLIGHTLY bumby, I mean, it looks like a wave when you stand at the toilet... Instead of going straight down from the wall, it looks wavey---the tile should go straight down and be flush against the wall. This looks more like an art project.
We were shocked that he considered the job done. When I said to him that if we sold the house, the tile work is so subpar that we'd have to redo the bathroom again, his response was to tell me that when every person he knows sells their house, they redo their bathroom before selling?!?!?!?!? I mean, really? That was his response: That If I wanted to sell my house tomorrow, I should completely redo the bathroom that i just paid thousands of dollars to redo.
Every time I complained about something, I was repeatedly told that I didn?t understand how the construction business worked. Well, I know how customer satisfaction works, and there is none with this job.
While I found Thomas to be well-intentioned and likeable, I found the whole process of him remodeling my bathroom to be completely frustrating.
One of the most maddening elements of working with him is that he only works with one plumber, his relative (cousin or brother in law?), and while that guy is a nice human being, he has a full-time job and other commitments, which means that the plumber can only come at night or on weekends. Thomas started this job on a Tuesday, spent about four hours that day, and four hours the next day gutting the bathroom (I was sort of baffled as to why they arrived so late and left so early), then on the Wednesday evening I?m told that no work will be done until Saturday, when his relative plumber can come to put the tub in, so nothing happened for two days, due to the plumber?s day job. And we're left without a single shower.
I had explained to him from the start that I was on a tight time schedule, and we even signed a contract saying he would be done no later than 14 days later. Well, the job spilled into four weeks.
Here's what they're going to respond with:

They had to drive all the way from Ditmas Park to Staten Island every day and pay bridge tolls (if it was so inconvienent, then they shouldn't have taken the job)
That they cut two holes in the wall for free---for shampoo and soap (I never asked them to comp me for that, but obviously I appreciated that... but I also had to tell them to redo it, because it looks so shabby the first time.)
That they offered me a 500 discount on the final payment. It will cost me twice that to re-buy the screwed-up tile alone! And then probably three or four times that to have someone fix their "work."
That I was difficult or unreasonable: All i asked is that my bathroom look nice and professional. It does not.

An Iron fence was to be painted with rustoleum. They didn't scrape off the old paint and now the fence peeled and has to be refinished again. As proffesional painters they should have know the fence needed to be scraped with an iorn brush to remove excess worn paint. Total waste of time and money

.

They did an excellent job.

Everything went very well. Ditmas Park Renovation provided us with their available dates and a time line and they were here and punctual each day. The work did take a couple extra days then anticipated, however, they did clean up and attempt to leave the apartment in working order as much as possible.  We realize our job was a relatively small job and as a first time renovation for us, we were happy with the work that they did. The room looks great!
The only constructive criticism I would throw in is to cover up more personal belongings in the apartment to protect from the dust. The space is small and we were finding dust in places we would never have imaged weeks after. In addition, there were some details that were over looked, like the finishings. We purchased silver door knobs for them to install (which they did) but they finished the doors with gold hinges and nails which seemed strange. They corrected it  at our request with no issue  but I would just make sure to go over all the details, don't assume it is understood, which was a learning experience for us. 
Today, the doors are working great, we did have a small split in the wood at the top of where the doors lock into place with the frame but all of the doors in our apartment swelled during the very hot summer. We have not had a chance to call Ditmas Park to help us correct the situation, which I am sure we could when we get around to it.
I would definitely call them again.

Ditmas called and said only white grout was available.  I acknowledged that white was what I needed.  When repairman arrived he didn't have any grout with him at all, so he used clear silicone on my tiles.

It was a good service and they were prompt.

Caulked my bathroom tub area and sealed some tile in another bathroom. This was an Angie's Big Deal - $150 for 4 hours of work (although the job didn't take quite that long). The work was fine, well-sealed and efficient but a little bit messy, with a little bit of caulk on the tiles and not smoothed out well in a few places. If you are not super picky, detail-oriented, these guys are very nice, professonal and responsive.

Quality work for a very good price was completed mostly by 2 guys on the job.  Excellent responsiveness by with co-owner who bid on the job, was generally flexible generous and honest. Workers did extensive overtime to try to complete work by deadline.
New hardwood floors polyurethane did not dry in a very long time and it still scratches much more easily than refinished floors in a other rooms of house (perhaps a poor quality product used?). To be fair they did the floors for much less than flooring specialists and I didn't think I could afford new hardwood. I would recommend using pre-finished wood if you can get it.
Consistently honest and good to work with. They really worked hard and did beautiful work. Thank you Ditmas Park Renovations for my beautiful new home!

I had an appointment scheduled on the 15th of October.  I tried to call them several times to verify the appointment.  I left several messages with no response.  I am disappointed and would have appreciated some type of feedback regarding the appointment missed.

He came on time, explained to me exactly why the grout gets to look the way it looks, and the caulk as well. He explained what he will do. He was very detailed and kept me informed throughout the whole process. He cleaned up nicely after himself and the grout looked really great and the caulk too.

I had the company come in to plaster and paint my living room ceiling.  The guys were very young who were sent out but they did a  good job plastering the ceiling.  Because the weather was so humid they advised me that the plaster needed to set overnight and they would need to come back and paint the ceiling.  In addition, to the plastering and painting of the living room ceiling.  I also was going to have them paint the trim to my terrace door and paint the exterior walls on the terrace.  This required them to come back the following day.
And that's when things unraveled.  I left them to paint the ceiling, the trim and paint the outside wall while I was at work.  I received a call from my building that the two young men who were painting had decided to climb up onto the water tower above my apartment.  A neighbor saw them and wanted to know who they were and why were they up there.  I had to have someone come over to my apartment to have the painters finish the work they had to complete on the inside ceiling then pack up and leave the building. This meant I was left with the outside wall halfway done and the trim not done at all.
I am very torn about the company because when they were informed what had happened they reacted swiftly and interceded with my building and provided all necessary insurance and additional paperwork.  They were extremely apologetic and immediately returned payment for the second day.  The work that was done was acceptable  and looked fine but I didn't get the work done I needed and caused needless aggravation with my building.

difficult reaching them but good final product