RENEW INC

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The work is meticulous. One afternoon I came home from work to check out the exterior paint job and noticed it seamed a little sloppy. Before I even had a chance to mention it, the owner had the crew reworking the trim painting and caulking., All of the projects didn't happen all at once, except when mother nature had other ideas. Since I was out of town the upstairs furniture was moved downstairs and the carpeting was going to be done next.. Unfortunately the sump pump failed during some of the worst storms and the basement flooded. The flood was discovered very early one morning and I called Greg for advice and help. Greg was at my house within an hour and performed all of the mitigation, worked with the insurance company, removed all of the trash like the old carpet. Greg gave suggestions for new carpet and new paint colors at my request. I have to say that the basement looks much better than it did before the disaster. I haven't mentioned everything, but I am pleased with all of the work. I haven't met a contractor who completed a job in the time frame that was given. But at least this time, the work was done well and progress was steady. Renew was referred by a friend. I was very surprised by the other rating that I saw. It certainly was not my experience.

I originally met Greg McCarthy in October of 2007 and asked him to give me an estimate for painting the first and second level of my home. While he spent over an hour and a half measuring the house (showing up during the dinner hour), he never gave me an estimate and only waiting until I received 2 others to submit his bid. He bid the job at $3400. He began work in late October and told me he would be finished in 2 weeks. These two weeks turned into 9 weeks of utter chaos. He constantly badgered me about how I needed to do more than what I had contracted with him to do in order to sell my home. At the time, I was very naive regarding real estate issues and began to believe what he was saying. He told me that I needed to paint the trim, paint the basement, change the colors of my shutters, paint all ceilings, etc. I told him I would consider doing all of these things if he would just give me a bid for his services. He told me to trust him, that he was basically "working for about $7/hour" and that he wouldn't go too high from my original contract. Despite the fact that I asked him for ballpark figures repeatedly and informed him that I could not go over $9000, he steadfastly refused to give me an estimate for the additional work. During the course of this 9-week project, I bought $2,500 worth of materials and delivered them myself to my home, hoping this would help defray costs. Nine weeks later, he handed me a bill for over $15,600 for his labor alone! Even after I paid his bill, he would not remove several large items from my garage despite my repeated requests that he do so. I finally had to call bulk pick-up to have them removed at additional cost to myself. In addition, several months after the project was completed, I discovered from a mutual acquaintance of ours that he had hired several drug addicts to work in my home, providing them with my security codes! Coincidentally, my car was broken into during this period and my purse stolen. Over the past 6 months, I have purchased a number of properties and have served as a general contractor in their renovation. This experience has taught me just how much Mr. McCarthy over-charged me. It is nothing short of criminal. While the quality of his work is passable, Gregory McCarthy is manipulative and a fundamentally dishonest contractor. In addition, he knowingly provides convicted felons and drug addicts with entry into his customer's homes. Beware.