Tischendorf Contractor Services

Overall the job was well done. My reasons for some lower scoring of items was due to Todd's unprofessional and questionable tactics. He will say it wasn't his fault, but let me clarify it .When the project began, we agreed that my part was to have the kitchen gutted, wall between kitchen and dining room taken down, and kitchen cabinets/sink and flooring removed, down to studs on walls/ ceiling. I asked Todd to have a dumpster delivered so I could begin. He kept dragging his feet getting it to me, so I had to start tearing out and throwing material on the ground behind house, since I couldn't wait any longer for him. He did admit to 'dropping the ball' with dumpster, but later, when the billing came around, he tried to charge me a lot more than his estimate for the dumpster rental. I questioned it, and he said it was due to having to get a different size due to limited space. I told him that from the beginning, that the driveway is narrow. If he didn't take into account, that's not my problem. Just throwing in added charges at the end of the project with no communication to me is not professional. These types of issues went on throughout project. I understand that the scope can change somewhat during the project. Some things added, some removed. That's understandable. But when the final billing invoice came to me, a number of the items that should have been removed were not.  Then, when I called him out on them, he tried adding in other items that he claimed were left off, to try to recoup what he wasn't getting from the things they didn't do. 
Then after I complained, he stated that I should have contacted him if I didn't agree, instead of withholding money. To me that is a cop out, and it works both ways - if he'd have contacted me to review the original scope and what was actually done, it could have avoided the issues and it would have shown me that he was being honest.  As a result of not confirming many of the items on invoice, it created a distrust from me. But personally, I don't like the idea of feeling taken advantage of, and being billed for items that weren't done,  I'm sure Todd will have a different perspective. Bottom line is better communication and accurate billing could have avoided the problem. Some simple communication among his crews and some customer communication would've helped also.  
Another for instance; In our original meeting on the job, I suggested that I could do the electrical, since I am an electrical engineer.  He stated that he would only use licensed electricians due to his fear on a customer having problems, or worse, a fire. Funny thing was, his crew did all of the wiring, no licensed electrician came in. Also, when the job was done, I had an outside light that worked fine before the job started, and after they completed it didn't work. They tried to figure out why, but gave up and never did fix it. The electrical work was a little shoddy too. Wiring in the basement was taped together, nothing to support the wiring, and looked unprofessional. I've said enough, and all I can tell prospective clients is get his changes in writing for clarity and billing purposes, or he WILL take advantage of you. The one time Todd was punctual was when it was time to collect money. That was the only time he showed up at the job site, to collect the money. He insisted on it even before it was time to get it, according to his contract. Again, unprofessional behavior.
Finally, I will say that the kitchen remodel came out well in the end, and looks great. My issues lie with his billing tactics and sloppy records. I feel that other customers who don't track the work as closely as I did would surely be taken advantage of, in my opinion.

everything went well.  The main concern was the safety issue with the broken railing in the stairwell;  I called Todd and he offered to come out right away to fix the safety issue.  Todd came out on a Saturday which was a holiday and fixed it the railing.  Amazing!

His quote to replace it doubled after a minor change. We went with another contractor who ended up quoting what Todd originally did and completed for that price.  

Good

We were satisfied with the project.  It went smoothly. 

It went well.  Due to the cold winter and so much demand, it was difficult to continue to get the contractor's time to finish the project, but we got it finished in a reasonable amount of time.  His team are trustworthy and have a good work ethic,   They went beyond the  original work list to repair a few extras, which we very much appreciated.  I recommend them.

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The service went fairly well.  We are still waiting on the final completion because countertops are being made at this time. Once the countertops are installed, they will put the appliances in place and finish it up. If need be, I would use them again.

His workers laid tile without first applying thinset.  Now my tile is cracking and he stopped responding to phone calls.  I would not recommend his services to others.  He did try about three times in nine months, but ultimately could not fix it properly.

They can and do excellent work. They appeared to be somewhat in a hurry at the end, which seriously compromised one aspect of the work. Communication was at times difficult.
We had kitchen completely redone. Todd was one of several contractors that I interviewed. His pricing was about average, but he impressed me with knowledge and openness during the interview. The impression was affirmed later. He is knowledgeable and energetic, and employs good people.
He came for estimate on 7th of November, and sent the estimate on 26th. After some questions about the estimate, he sent us a revised estimate on 2nd of December, which we accepted on 16th of December.
The work was scheduled to begin March 3rd. In ensuing months we were preparing for the work, and so had some minor questions to Todd. He was generally responsive, but often we would need to prod him quite a bit before getting a reply. It was clear that he was busy with projects, but it still meant that there was a communication difficulty.
They work started a day later than originally planned due to snowstorm. Todd showed up with his crew and rapidly started working. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to review the work plan in detail before work started, for it turned out that his and my ideas of the project had diverged slightly over the intervening months. His crew (Jamie, Kari and others) proved as knowledgeable and well-meaning as Todd. It was clear that they aimed to do the job right. As an example, let me mention the time that countertop contractor carelessly drilled too far into the cabinet, piercing the finish. Jamie kindly fixed that other contractor's mistake by attaching a matching piece of the wood atop the hole.
The project involved demolition of a non-load-bearing wall, stripping the old flooring, stripping the old wall tile, framing an arch in the new opening, laying tile on the floor and the wall, erecting the cabinets, painting and assortment of other tasks. I would like to single out the arch part of the work. That was an important part of the project, and some contractors that I interviewed were uneasy about handling it. Both my wife and I were much impressed how well Todd and co. managed to match the shape of an existing arch in their new work.
While the work quality was good, the communication was suffering at times. We did not live in the house during the remodel, and so could not watch the work everyday. When problems arose, we would usually not get a call from Todd. Generally Todd and Jamie preferred to make decisions on their own, which were usually sound decisions, but occasionally went too far. A particularly bad example was when we discovered, a day before the countertop contractor was supposed to measure the cabinets, that one of the cabinets was not installed because Jamie could not figure out how we wanted it installed. A simple phone call could have saved me from worrying about it, and them from having to redo the work urgently next morning. (What happened was that due to pipe placement that was discovered during wall demolition, plans got altered, which we communicated to Todd and Jamie, but somehow that was forgotten by the time cabinets were to be installed.)
The only real problem with the work that Todd and co. performed came at the end. Apparently they had some difficulties with the wall on which the tile was supposed to go. That delayed their work, but they assured me that it would not change anything. The result was that the tiling of the said wall was postponed till after installing the counters, and most importantly the wall was not properly evened. When queried about the latter, Jamie assured that he can still place tile evenly. Given the good quality of workmanship I had seen from them before, I believed. To compound the issue, Todd scheduled very little time for Jamie to finish the tiling and other remaining bits (I guess it was middle of another project for them). The result: Jamie stayed in the house until 9pm, finishing the work, and tile ended up all uneven. It really looks awful. When I mentioned this in final e-mail to Todd along with another outstanding problem, Todd sent someone to fix that other problem, but failed even to respond to the question about the tile. That is a poor communication.
If, for whatever reason, the work on the wall was more difficult than anticipated, and a job could not be done as planned, then that should have been promptly communicated to me.

Todd and his crew did an excellent job and pulled off a tough schedule to meet our cabinet and appliance delivery dates. His work is top notch. Always available to discuss issues as they came up. Was very fair with changes from original scope of work. We highly recommend Todd and his Company

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We are very very pleased with Tischendorf Contractor Services.  At all times, they were curteous and professional.  They did an excellant job with the tile work and installations and both bathrooms look fabulous.  They also created a built-in shelving unit which looks just great.  They worked cleanly, were detailed oriented and just did a fanastic job.  We are very happy with the results.  We will be contacting them for a kitchen remodel bid soon.

.At first. it was fine....then the grout started to release from the marble due to lack of additive used by installer.  4 months later a piece of marble cracked...turns out the installer did not put thin set on 80% of the ditra used under at least one piece of the marble.  The disaster went on for a year, one thing after another,  and we are still not certain of the stability of the remainder of the floor/marble.  Updates will follow as events occur.

Todd did a great job.  He is very collaborative and has excellent suggestions.  He has a good balance between cost and quality making him an excellent value.

His team is great and he has excellent contacts for work in the south hills.

Our project was done while we were still living in another state so it the completion date slipped a little.

I cannot say enough good things about Todd. He went ABOVE AND BEYOND to not only help us, but to put us in touch with some wonderful colleagues. He is punctual, reliable, and quite talented. You won't be disappointed.

When I first met Todd Tischendorf, I felt an immediate connection to him and his way of conducting business.  He was conscientious, personable, courteous and very professional.  He gave me ideas as to what could be done to bring the bathroom up-to-date and was very patient with me as I made-up my mind, then changed it, and then made it up again.  I had several contractors come--Todd was by far the best.

The two professionals who did the work (Jaime and Joe) were quality men in their fields.  Always on time, neat, and great people  to work with.  They went beyond the call  of duty in  many aspects of their work.  Jaime designed the placement of the floor tile and tile on the wall.  His artistic ability certainly came thru.  I had an electrical panel that needed updated and Jaime and Joe explained to be what needed to be done and why.  A recommendation was made to me and I followed thru with that contractor.  Jaime and Joe are truly professionals in their field.  I enjoyed having them here and the bathroom looks absolutely beautiful.  I plan on having Todd update my kitchen in the future.

I have no complaints about the workmanship or workers--they are great!  We need more contractors like this company.

We started our bathroom remodel with a different contractor, who ended up being completely unreliable.  In the midst of a demolished bathroom (down to the studs and floor down to cement) and our first contractor MIA, we called in Todd and his team.  They were great from start to finish.  Seeing the pickle we were in, Todd fit us into their busy end-of-year schedule, and did so at a reasonable price.  I was impressed from the start because I had already decided to use the Schluter line of waterproofing products as the underlay for our floor and the wallboard that the tile would be placed on.  Up until Todd, none of the other contractors I had spoken with had even heard of Schluter, let alone exclusively used it.  I was pleased to hear that Todd not only knew of Schluter products, but always used them in his bathroom remodels.  I am always worried about mold in the bathroom, so his knowledge of Schluter products came as a relief.  The overall work done was top notch.  They re-leveled the entire floor before laying our new marble floor, and Jamie did a great job tiling our walls.  They also uncovered some knob and tube wiring and promptly had their electrician in to fix it.  Todd was very professional and kept us up to speed through the entire project.  Also, they worked each day from 8:30 until around 4:30.  There were even a few days they stayed late to finish the day's current task.  From dealing with other contractors that show up at 10 and leave at 2, this was a nice surprise.  I finally feel like we have found a contractor who is honest, reasonably priced and reliable.  No more searching for an honest contractor for our next project!

We had a plumber discover there had been a leak under our toilet and advised us we would need to tear up the entire floor in the bathroom and redo the bathroom floor. (Brookline plumbing which I got off Angie's list and they are EXCELLENT as well. We were grateful they caught this before the leak went through our first floor ceiling).   Once this was discovered,  I called about 3 contractors. All three were busy. However, Todd took the time to explain that they were busy due to the amount of jobs they had coming in and said that he had just hired more guys to expand his crew. The fact he was hiring people in a slow economy showed me they were getting good customer reviews and consequently, more business. Todd normally doesn't work on Sundays, but due to me and my husband's conflicting work schedules he made a special trip out on a Sunday to give me and my husband a quote.  
The week they were scheduled to start working on our bathroom, Todd called to say that a couple of his guys got sick working at a  family's house with a sick family member and they would have to push back the project one day. We appreciated he didn't want to send sick workers over to our house. He even sent me a letter to state the construction would be going   a day later than planned so I could show my boss and take off another day so he could finish construction (Another brownie point for Todd). Todd and the two guys he brought over from his crew were very professional and courteous. They did a good job at keeping the place clean. We were hoping to move a vent in the floor, and when they were unable to, due to the location of pipes in the floor, they did a very good job of explaining what the issues were that they encountered once they opened the subfloor and why the vent could not be moved. They also kept the whole thing on budget. One thing that saved us some money as well as that we were able to buy the tiles we wanted ahead of time.  The actual tile layout looked great once it was done. We also wanted to get a better fan in our bathroom. Todd knew of a great Panasonic fan with a light, so we got a fan that works, with additional light that we needed in the shower area. My husband and I painted the bathroom over the weekend. We were impressed that Todd said we would be able to use his drop cloths if we wanted while we were painting...which we did and turned out to be very handy.
Jamie laid the actual tiles, and they looked great. (Turns out he was an art major in addition to being a contractor). He also did the finishing touches like adding in the ceiling light, and then putting the toilet back in and finishing the overall project. I was at home while they were completing the work and in between was taking pictures to text my husband. They were very patient and all of the guys were great to have in our home. It was nice to have contractors in our house who know how to treat clients, and provide excellent customer service. As a financial and housing counselor, I always hear horror stories from my clients who have gotten ripped off by bad contractors. It is such a relief  for us as homeowners that the people who came in are experienced, knowledgable, and courteous.  Any unforseen circumstances were explained in great detail, and there were no surprises with the contract or payment plan. My husband and I without a doubt will be calling Todd and his crew again for any other projects we anticipate and I would recommend Todd in a heartbeat. Wish I could have posted this review sooner, but again, they exceeded our expectations.

Todd met with my husband and I so we could talk with him and get an idea on how a bathroom remodel was to go since this was our first. He was very polite, courteous and listened to what we wanted. Once we approved his estimate he gave us a list of what to purchase which helped a lot. I like that they started when they told us they would and completed when they told us they would; which was a huge plus since I had to go out of town with our son during the remodel. They contacted me with any questions they had if my husband was not around to answer. I would recommend Todd and his crew to anyone looking for a trustworthy, affordable and professional work to be done.

overall, it went very well and I am pleased with the result.

He is a good contractor, his prices are great and he does great work.

He was very good. I could not be more pleased. He was wonderful. I could not be happier. I was totally pleased. It was very nice. They were on top of things. They were prompt and polite. I could not say enough about them. I would certainly use them again in the future.

We had three contractors in to give estimates. The first never did supply a dollar figure; Todd came in at $6,800, and the third, Clark Renovations of Bethel Park, came in at over $13,000. We liked Todd's ideas and detailed description of what he'd do, and signed a contract with him for work to start Dec 4. At the time of the first meeting, in September, he had a 6-8-week backlog, so you need to give him some time to put you on the schedule.

He showed up within 20 minutes of the appointed time every day with Jamie, his assistant, and stayed basically on schedule, or worked a long day to make up for lost time. The demo was done in a day, but he found that the room was badly out of square and he painstakingly put in new studwork to square everything up. He also made recommendations on what hardware, fixtures, and ceramic tile to buy--but let us go off and make the purchases on our own since we're comfortable doing that. This saved us quite a bit versus Clark, which wanted to sell us top-of-the-line materials and mark them all up. In turn we let him do his job and tried to stay out of his way. Whenever there was a decision to make, he tracked one of us down and explained the options clearly and honestly. He definitely didn't try to upsell.

When Todd hit a challenge that was going to put us over budget, he worked with us on tradeoffs that would get us back on track, which kept the overall number right where he said it would be. He's a true artist at putting in ceramic tile in the shower area and floor. The remaining walls and ceiling were drywall and he did a competent job on that. The plumbing and electrical work were topnotch and he spent a lot of time tracing the wiring and junction boxes in our 55-year-old house and in some cases he fixed things we didn't even know were broken.

Todd and Jamie worked on our house during some cold and wet weather, and they had to go in and out of the house often to bring in materials and equipment.  They were very conscientious about keeping doors closed and always protected our floors with runners and drop cloths.

We paid in increments beginning with 30% down at the start, and we think it is the best money we ever spent. We highly recommend Todd and plan to sign with him to do our kitchen starting June 1.

He does great work and is very personable. He goes the extra mile. It was just him the last time. This time he has two workers who are fine. The job went fine the last time.