Remarkable Renovations

Cheapest is not always the best route to go.  While the owner is definitely a nice guy, he's not a "professional" contractor.  A former mechanic, he's lacking in the ability to quote a remodeling job accurately enough to give a price that's even close to the final total.  

The original quote for replacement of T-111 siding (two sides) and totally repaint a 1986 sq.ft. house was just under $1700.00.  When he recommended that we go with HardiPlank siding instead, he assured us that the added expense was negligible, and that the underlayment and fabric wrap wouldn't run more than $10.00 a sheet.  All together we shouldn't be out more than about another $1000.00 or so over the original quote, even when including replacing the siding on the addiitonal third side gable area.  

Well, needless to say, the final bill of just shy of $5,000.00 caught us completely offguard.  Now consider the incidental items, such as the job taking 4 weeks, rather than 1 1/2 weeks (because he kept losing his helpers), overspray on our plants, teak lawn furniture, walk stones, porch and bricks, asking my husband to run errands for him to purchase drill bits (for which we were not reimbursed), using our open trailer to haul away the debris AND running all of his electrical equipment (nail gun, drills, various saws, fans, microwave, radios, paint gun, power washer, etc.) during three weeks of one of the hottest parts of the summer so far, blowing the circuits multiple times...I think you probably get the picture.  He also never got on the job until after 9:00 a.m., which is when the heat of the day is just starting to kick in.

We can't complain about the final product or the overall quality of his work, except for the detail work regarding the paint job on our house (he only paints the surface of the trim areas and I'm having to do the columns on the front porch because he decided that was going to cost extra when he finally got to them due to them needing to be done by hand).  However, we do take issue with the completely inaccurate estimate (or as he glibly put it when presenting the final bill, "guess-timate") and the other items mentioned above.  We've used other contractors and know what a professional standard is.  Remarkable Renovations doesn't have it yet...maybe one day.  For now, our regular contractor is available again, and we'll go back to him with a huge sigh of relief.  If you use Remarkable Renovations, be prepared to double the estimate (at least) and maybe rent the guy your guest room.  Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.