Chick of All Trades and C.O.A.T. Flagging

There were problems with their professionalism. They were very
responsive in the beginning: the energy modeling went smoothly and I had
a bid within a week. I hurried to get the paperwork signed and then sat
through December waiting for the installation. After 2 weeks of no
contact, I called them to find out my installation was scheduled for the
second week of January. What was supposed to be a 3 day job turned into
5 and I never had a daily update. Additionally, insulation ended up all
over our street, in the trees and in our neighbors' yards. When we
asked at the walk through about the insulation, we were told it was
likely due to a pillow a neighbor had thrown out with the trash.
The work was fine it just took longer than expected and the clean up was
suboptimal. I think CEWO is amazing and everyone should investigate
making their home energy efficient. However I wouldn't recommend Chick
of All Trades to do the work.

This was my second set of projects with Chick of All Trades, because the first set -- kitchen upgrade, lighting update, etc. went so well. Always a good dialogue throughout the projects. Work is done timely and well -- a final walkthough is conducted to make sure I was happy with the results. The original house was built in the 1950s and held a number of surprises for us, but all was taken in stride.Chick of All Trades would be the first company I would call next time.

The crew was outstanding, they were very helpful with all the changes and I would us then again in the future. My backyard has never looked so good.

There is a project run by Energy Trust in my neighborhood that can help you make energy improvements to your house. Chick of All Trades is who Energy Trust selected for our project. The project was supposed to last 1 week but took a little over 3 weeks. This is not due to anything discovered that wasn't planned for like mold or termites, etc. It was a combination of the crew not showing up and things needing to be redone several times.

Water Heater - this was installed on a Wednesday and it was 'temped-in' until the electrician could make a permanent connection the next day, Thursday, which he did. Friday afternoon about 4pm we discovered we had no hot water. I called Chick of All Trades and left a message on their after-hours line. Saturday morning we hadn't heard anything so I found the name of the electrical company from our construction schedule and called them directly. They had someone out within 2 hours and the problem was the electrician cut his own line. Monday morning Chick of All Trades returned our call stating they had the and quot;plumber on the way to fix the issueand quot;. We told them never-mind, we had called the electrician ourselves and they already fixed the issue. Irie from Chick of All Trades was apologetic, explained they didn't work Fridays (they never told us this and their after hours line doesn't say); she said she would cancel the plumber. The plumber showed up at our door anyway and seemed really put out when we told him it was unnecessary.

Bathroom Fans - we were charged about 1100 per lighted fan to install. These fans were to replace existing fans that didn't have lights. The person doing the work installed the first fan incorrectly. The new fans have 3 features: a night light, a regular light and a motion sensor for the fan. The fan is designed to be on all the time, it's essentially silent in it's low mode and it has a motion sensor and goes up to a high fan speed based on motion. It was installed so that the light, night light and fan control were all on one switch so none of the functions could be used separately.....we could only use the fan if the light and nightlight were on too, etc. I pointed this out as soon as it was done but got looks as if I didn't know what I was talking about and was told by Dan (subcontractor I think) and quot;I install these all the time.and quot; I had to consult the manufacturers website to corroborate how I thought it should be wired...with light and night light separate (or else how do you use one or the other??). Dan suggested we could just take the night light bulb out and leave it so the fan and regular light are on the same switch. I insisted it be fixed because regardless of the 2 lights being on the same switch the fan is meant to run separately than the light. Dan said it doesn't really matter if the light has to be on for the fan to be on because and quot;the lights use such little powerand quot;. I insisted again that it be fixed. Dan pointed out that they had already put insulation in the ceiling above the fan so it would be difficult to rewire to which I shrugged. He then fixed the first fan. He went on to install the second fan incorrectly....with the fan and light on the same switch....AGAIN! I insisted he fix this as well and he did.

Drywall Patching - Before we had the new HVAC system installed we were using electric wall heaters (aka cadet heaters) to heat our house. As part of the project we had Chick of all trades decommission the heaters on our main floor (not basement because new HVAC doesn't cover basement). They were to patch the holes, add texture and prime so they'd be ready to paint as well. Our first issue with this leg of the project was that I noticed one of our basement wall heaters was not working after the electrician had done the work to decommission the heaters upstairs. We reported this and were told it's most likely not related to the project but they would look. After looking it was determined that when the wall heater in the room above, a bathroom, was decommissioned it cut off power to the heater in the room below. Basically, the electrician didn't realize that the heater in the basement went through a junction and got it's power through the heater in the room above. The wall in the bathroom had already been patched so the electrician had to open up the newly patched hole and fix the wiring. We had a total of 5 electric wall heaters removed from our main floor and patches put in place where they used to be. We've had dry wall work done at our home before to fix a water damaged area around a skylight and to create a stairwell. Both of those projects were large but the drywall repair, texturizing and priming was done in one day. To patch the holes where the heaters used to be was a 3 day process. They would only do one step a day.....adding patch one day, texturizing 2nd day and priming the 3rd. So, when the patch in our upstairs bathroom had to be reopened for the electrician it added 3 days to our project (we actually had to request Chick of All Trades come out and finish that patch in the bathroom because it was half done when they had us sign off on the project). Another comment on the drywall work is that we have several different types of texture on our walls and ceilings depending on what room of the house you are in but every patch they put in was done with orange peel texture regardless. So when they include texturing as part of a drywall job it doesn't necessarily mean and quot;texture to matchand quot;. It means that they will probably put up whatever sprays out of the aerosol can they bought at the home improvement store.

Another thing I wasn't pleased about is outside of our back door there is an overhang which actually is the floor of the room above. They removed the boards from the overhand to put insulation in. When putting the boards back up they over-drilled almost every screw until it split the boards. There are also chunks of board missing where it was damaged from them prying the boards off. Lastly, there is a 1ft by 1ft piece of board that was replaced by them. We weren't told why they replaced the piece but they replaced it with a piece of cheap plywood that doesn't sit flush with the rest of the boards in the overhang. I pointed this out during our final walk-through and was told we'd be compensated but I haven't heard anything since.

Lastly, several times during the project we were told the crew would be back the next day but they would not show up and we wouldn't get called until the afternoon on the day of. Or the crew would leave with no indication on if they were coming back the next day. My husband stayed home during this project so it was inconvenient and not respectful of our time to break commitments or not let us know what to expect. All in all, everything works: HVAC, new water heater, etc. but due to the lack of communication and poor quality of work I would not use or recommend this contractor.

***update - we just received a $50 gift card for McMenamins from this contractor. This was for the damage done to our overhang that I reported above. My opinion of this contractor remains unchanged but I thought it only fair I mention this.

***update 6/20/11 - about two weeks ago we had the first day warm enough to run our new hvac air conditioning for a few hours. The unit in our living/family room started leaking a considerable amount of water, it was pouring out of the unit. It went unnoticed for a while but, luckily, nothing was damaged. our wall and carpet were soaked but they dried. The owner's manual says water leaking out of the indoor unit is one of 4 symptoms that is worthy of turning off the breaker and to contact service support immediately. I emailed chick of all trades and I received a response within a couple of hours even though it was in the evening. We also called and left a voicemail about the issue. Nancy from chick of all trades came out the next day and had the hvac subcontractor and electrician out by the afternoon. They disco

They didn't measure it correctly. They demoed out the old door. They realized as they were installing that the door wouldn't fit, and they they would have to special order a door that was more expensive. I had sheeetrock covering the hole for weeks while waiting for the door to come in. The door also never locked or closed properly. They apologized and said the person who did the job no longer worked there. The door still does not close properly to this day. Despite the name every single employee that we had interaction with, other than the owner, was a man.

The bid was fair. The job was done on time and professionally.

Excellent quality work - punctual and clean. Very pleased with the job.

The jobs went very well. We initially contracted Chick of All Trades to do our bathroom, and have been bringing them back ever since for additional work. They have done impeccable work, always at a very reasonable cost, always on time or earlier. Because we live outside of Portland, it is often hard to get contractors to come back; Chick of All Trades had no problems, showed up when they said they would, and keeps coming back when we need them.