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"We did an almost-gut renovation of the top floor apartment of a brownstone building in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Scott Chatel was not the only contractor we solicited, but his vision of the job and his pricing were the most realistic. Scott is very easy to deal with. He was available for consultation both during and outside regular business hours. While he had several jobs going at once, his son Paul was in charge of our renovation, and one or the other of them was always available to discuss the construction and to answer questions. Scott did not let little glitches get in the way, and he took care of minor problems without extra charge. For example, we needed to move everything out of the apartment for the renovation, and on the start date we still needed to get rid of some furniture items. Scott's demolition guys took care of moving everything out. We had a tight 10-week schedule to make, and Scott was sensitive to getting the job done as scheduled. Scott met with us to schedule the timing for when different items (bathroom fixtures, appliances, etc.) needed to arrive both so they'd be available when needed, and also to make sure they were not in the way too early. It is impossible to anticipate everything that can crop up during a project, and Scott was flexible in dealing with the smaller issues and accommodating in dealing with the larger ones. The major unforeseen issue we faced was that our subfloor was in worse shape than anticipated, and needed to be rebuilt before the new floor could be laid on top. Despite the extra work, Scott stuck to the overall schedule to finish on time. Scott was helpful with design suggestions, such as adding a small soffit over some of the kitchen cabinets and creating a bar area by building some shelves in a corner. Scott's electrical, plumbing, and tile subcontractors all did good work. (Initially the tile work in the master bath was not up to snuff, but Scott had the tile contractor return, and he did an excellent job fixing everything.) Scott made sure to clean up the work area and the entire building's hallways that got dusty from the work. Scott returned at a mutually convenient time to take care of everything on our "punch list," and we anticipate one more visit (a full year later) to handle one or two smaller items that have cropped up. In a century-old brownstone, no corner is exactly square, and no surface is perfectly level. Scott's crew did a skillful and professional job of working with the building's quirks to make the work look right. We are very happy with the quality of the workmanship. He built closets to our specifications; he fit a bathtub into an area that previously held an oversize stall shower; he fit recessed lighting around existing skylights. Overall, we think we received great value: very good work at a fair price. We think Scott is a gem."

"Air Rescue replaced two HVAC systems and some duct work in my new home. They truly did an amazing job and were the most pleasant an respectful of any contractors I have worked with. The systems work well and as designed."

"Mayanda was very easy to deal with and the work was fantastic all around. I recommend Mayanda to everyone for all kinds of jobs. They really worked hard each day, ended on time and the work was perfect."

"Professional from the first text! He contacted me immediately, provided me all credentials required, had extensive experience with the Midea AC installation. He was on time, fully prepared, clean and efficient. He explained everything about the new AC & took his time to make sure that it was safely installed. He removed and took away old AC. He explained cleaning & service care needed to keep it working. Also, he was masked & fully vaccinated which was important. On top of all that, he was really nice. When I thought our cat got out of our apartment, he helped me look for her—until I found her hiding. I highly recommend Cooper Cooling And Heating!!!"

"Super helpful, went above and beyond. Thank you!!"

"I rated them a 5 based solely on the conversation of him explaining the potential problem without being hired. That showed me he wasn't all about getting your $$$. He was definitely concerned with heat not being currently provided. The only reason I didn't hire him immediately was that I already started working with a contractor from HA. However, I felt comfortable speaking with Divergent and will call them 1st moving forward."

"I needed a contractor to safely move a hot tub from a second story deck down to ground . My mover told me I needed a contractor because it involved building a structure to transfer it safely. It would not fit any doorway . It was done expertly, safely, on time and on budget. Very happy with results and professionalism."

"Excellent contractors! We keep hiring them. They are extremely efficient. And they do it all. They worked on our bk condo by adding a staircase and building a second floor from scratch., as well as a total kitchen remodel. They also did a complete cosmetic update renovation to my mom’s house in queens. You know you have great contractors when you go back to them to get more work done."

"It was great. He told me when he would be here and he arrived on time. He took down the old fan and installed the new one in a little more than an hour. He was neat, polite and reasonable. I would highly recommend him. Five stars!"

"Apologize in advance for the length of this review, but it was my very
first time contracting any work of this kind, and my experience was
complicated.
|Chris came about a month beforehand to survey the job and give us the
estimate. He was punctual and very courteous and professional. When we
got the estimate the next day it was quite a bit more than I was
expecting, but really I had no frame of reference and figured it was
probably fair given the amount of work involved.
|I had held off on buying the fans, wall controls and other fixtures
because I was not confident in choosing the correct items for everything
and figured that Chris could advise. He showed me online exactly what
we needed for the track light so that was no problem, but he said we
needed remote control transmitters for the ceiling fans. I had no idea
what those looked like or how to get them, but figured I would probably
find them at Home Depot with no problem, along with everything else. But
the Home Depot salespeople didn't know what I was talking about. So I
emailed Chris back to ask where I could find them, or could Altman
Electric source them and just add them to the bill? No response. I then
learned more about lighting and electricity than I ever wanted to know
in finding the correct wall switches and fan controls, such as that you
can't use a multi-location switch on a single-pole thingie. Who knew? I
called Lutron, the company that makes the wall controls I wanted to use
to ask them which ones would work, and got help from their customer
service team. Found attractive Lutron fan controls that came with
transmitters, but in the course of my research, read that a seven-level
control for a 3-speed fan would produce annoying noise. Emailed Chris
again to ask if ithat was usually a problem in his experience. Again no
response. I go ahead and order the controls from the Home Depot website,
hoping they will be okay, then later finally get an email from Chris
saying that they will not, in fact, be good for the job, so I had to
return them and find different ones; ones which, again, I got no help in
finding.
|The only other remote controls I found - online or in stores - were
ones that got bad consumer reviews, came with lead warnings, or had been
discontinued altogether. I got the Hunter remotes; the ones with bad
consumer reviews. I also got wired controls from Lutron in hopes that we
could install those instead.
|Very frustrating trying to get any guidance or help on this part, which
was a main reason why it was an entire month from estimate to work day.
At first I thought that my job must be small potatoes for them and that
that was why I wasn't getting the responses I needed,but then I saw
their other job sizes and charges on Angie's List and realized that it
was actually quite a sizeable chunk of work for them; at least in the
residential arena. Not complaining about the amount charged. It was a
lot of work. But relative to the size if the job, I didn't feel that I
was getting the help I needed with the material sourcing.
|On the day that the work was scheduled, Rafaello and Abdul arrived on
time with Chris and did a great job installing all the items. They both
were also gentle, courteous and professional.They were able to install
the first fan with a wired control and it continues to work like a
charm, along with almost everything else they installed. In regards to
the other fan, however, they said they had to install it with the remote
control because there wasn't enough wiring in the switch box for both
the fan and the light. The Hunter remote control works well for the fan,
but for the light it is every bit as unreliable as the online reviews
indicated, so I asked them to come back and hoped they could just
install a regular light switch next to the fan control. They said it
could not be done, again because of the lack of wiring, but one of the
guys suggested that a wire for the fan could in fact be run from the box
to the outlet to the fan/light without having to run a second wire mold
across the ceiling, but that they would have to come back and it would
be another half days' work.
|Well, this was what I'd wanted in the first place. Not really sure why
it didn't happen on the day that the rest of the work was done, except
that maybe the company just wanted to squeeze all the work into one day.
On the day I'd asked them back, I had already returned the second
wired fan control to the store, was about to have the drywall repair
& paint done and didn't want to hold up the rest of the work.
|When it came to the billing, there was some confusion about what the
final amount was. Jeanette was actually charging me less than the
estimate. That was of course great by me, but I wanted to know why the
discrepancy. I thought it might have been because I had supplied all of
the light dimmers even though they were included in the estimate, but
I'm guessing that wasn't it because she quickly adjusted her total to
match mine, and did not supply a reason as to why our totals differed. I
am still wondering how she got to her total and whether I'd missed
something. In all fairness though, the estimate did not include the
installation of the kitchen light fixture or the dimmer switches in the
kitchen & bathroom. I get the sense that those were thrown in
gratis and I appreciate that.
|I get why some reviewers have said she was rude to them. She does often
sound stressed when she answers the phone, but if you keep your own
voice even and neutral, she will respond in kind.
|All in all, I am happy with most of the actual work that was done. I
would probably even use them again based on the strength of their work
on site, but still think that they need to listen more carefully and to
be more responsive to clients' questions and concerns."