Auker Home Improvement

DON’T WALK … RUN AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By far, the worst contractor in Lancaster, PA possible! There have been so many issues with this project, that I will actually only list a few, or you will be reading until next Christmas! We received his name from a local fireplace store as their installer. He is also a contractor. He had been to our house twice to look around and give us an estimate. We ordered crank windows to go on both sides of our fireplace. He ordered the windows and as he was installing them, he said to me “Hey, you know you’re not going to be able to open this window because of our deck rail, right?” WHAT??!! Do you really mean that you didn’t see that in the first place? Why would we order crank windows if we couldn’t open it? So, we discussed about how we could cut down part of the railing and work around it … then I noticed an additional charge of over $100 for this additional work. The fireplace we ordered comes as a natural gas and you need to convert it to propane, as we have propane. He didn’t know how to do this and had to call the fireplace store to have someone do this. I called the store where we purchased the fireplace to ask them about this, and they said, “Ma’am, if you have an installer telling you he cannot do this, you may want to think about having another installer do the job.” I should have known then! Also, the fireplace company that came out to fix this charged us $200 (we called to check the price) and our contractor told us it was $300! So, he overcharged us for something that should have been his responsibility in the first place. The mantel – WHAT A FIASCO! I chose a mantel and texted him the picture so there would be no confusion and told him I wanted it in Espresso. He told me I could get it in any color I wanted and I told him (again) Espresso. First, he ordered us a pine mantle – yes, pine. Our whole house is trimmed in oak and he ordered a cheap, pine mantel (he informed me that he always uses a pine mantel and no one has ever complained about it and I told him that's because most homeowners wouldn't know any better. The only reason I knew is because my husband is aware of wood types). Then, he gave us a new mantel that was not the same as the picture I sent, so he redid/reordered it. Then, he delivered the mantel and I noticed it was not stained and was raw wood. I asked him about this and he informed me that it was the homeowner’s responsibility to paint/stain and that it was in the contract. Well, I looked in the contract and I found “Homeowner responsibility for additional painting.” I interpreted this to mean that I may need to paint around the fireplace wall or any other area around where he was working. Never in a million years would I have expected that I would have to paint/stain my own mantel and be given a raw piece of wood. Totally ridiculous! Another issue (the last that I will mention) - the windows!!! WHAT ANOTHER MESS. These were supposed to have extension kits that are ordered at the time of window purchase. They usually take a little bit longer to manufacture because they are done in one piece, but they were trying to cut costs and tried to piecemeal this together. I got this information from the manufacturing company when they asked me why wasn't the extension kit ordered when the window was - what a great question! We have GREAT painter and he said, and I do quote, "This is a terrible, terrible, terrible, mess - I would have never paid anything until this was done right. and this was NOT done right. Terrible!"

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They were good, honest people and very friendly. They were very professional. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. There were no surprises, no muss, no fuss. They cleaned up when they were done. Their craftsmanship was excellent and I had no issues with them. I would recommend them to anybody. I have nothing negative to say about them.

Everything has been great. They are extremely prompt. They are very courteous and easy to work with. I kept changing my mind so many times about things and they did it without any problem. All the sub-contractors who came out for different jobs like lighting, plumbing, etc have been very effective in doing their jobs. They have all cleaned up after themselves. I am very happy with them. They come in at 10 a.m. or 7 a.m. in the morning and they stay till 4:30 p.m. which is very much over the average. They were here to start within 2 weeks of me contacting them. They scheduled the appointment on October 5th and they came in that morning. They completed the job by the end of day and they were ready to go.

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