Handy Mensch Home Remodeling

It went very well, They are very good and honest with the pricing.

Absolutely wonderful. Lenny was straightforward and authentic; his written proposal was clear and fully represented each detail of the project. Project Scope: Removal of load bearing walls, installation of massive 24’ beam, foundational footers, electrical (new 110 and 220 lines), HVAC (movement of ducts), paint/drywall, lighting. Legit amazed in how good the team was at keeping the dirty at bay. We highly recommend Handy Mensch for whatever your home project may be. We will absolutely look no further than Lenny and his team for our next project! Keyword time: #building #construction #home #remodel #quality #honest #contractor #good #great #on-time #builder #kitchen #load-bearing #remodeling #general contractor #handy man #handy-man #integrity #satisfied #pro #best general contractor

Once again, HandyMensch did an excellent job. The deck extension was built on a slope which meant that special care had to be taken to ensure the deck was level. The guys measured, remeasured and measured again before they actually built each part of the deck. We have used HandyMensch for a variety of remodeling projects and have always been impressed by the friendliness and technical abilities of the workers. They aren't the cheapest, but we prefer to pay a bit more to be sure that the work will be completed to our satisfaction.

We have a house that was built in 1950, and we had a large, second floor porch that needed to have a railing added (!) and to be screened. We also added ceiling fans. The only thing that was difficult from my end was finding a contractor who was a willing to build what we wanted. Because we look down from our porch to see all the wildlife, and not out, we wanted to make the railing as unobtrusive as possible, and our solution was to use steel cables. Lenny listened to what I wanted, and came up with a drawing that accurately captured what I had in mind, and then his crew came out and built it. They were really easy to work with, and the job came out great. I had a hard time finding a company that wasn't trying sell me something that they wanted to build vs. what I wanted built. So, it was really nice to work with Lenny. The porch was rebuilt during the pandemic so the crew came and went by ladder on the outside of the house, and whenever I talked to the super he was wearing a mask.

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The result is a gorgeous kitchen and beautiful floors. I have worked with HandyMensch before on other projects, such as repairing and updating a water damaged basement and building a new deck.  So I knew, going into this project that Lenny Berger, Chief Mensch and each of his staff would be a pleasure to work with and that the results would be top notch.  Lenny always made sure that he and I were on the same page as to what exactly I wanted done.  He has the ability to communicate clearly and to explain things in terms that I can easily understand.  He answered any questions clearly and patiently, both before and during the process.  He made several suggestions that improved what I originally had in mind for the kitchen.  I was always notified in advance what was to be done next and who was coming to do it.  The work was completed in a timely fashion.  I never had to worry for a minute that all work would not be done correctly.  Based on my past experience with HandyMensch,  I was sure that everything would be completed in an efficient, professional way and would be up to my high standards.  And, indeed, the HandyMensch again met my expectations and did superb work.  I do not hesitate to highly recommend Lenny and Handymensch.

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Fine. He was very polite but we thought the price pretty high

Great!

Excellent, as always.  They were quick to put me on the schedule, came to take a closer look at the work to be done so that they would have the right equipment, and did the work on the day scheduled.  The work is excellent - better than before repair was needed, and I am completely happy with what they did.

Lenny and the HandyMensch are the best contractors we have worked with since moving into our house.  Lenny and his team are upfront, put everything in writing, and are easy to communicate with.  They remodeled our entire guest bathroom, which included moving plumbing and installing everything new (tiles, vanity, sinks, soaking tub, accessories, shower, fan, lights, etc).  Everything came out perfectly.  Lenny and his team are very detailed and don't try to rush in and out to get the job done.  If we did notice something off or had a question, his team would immediately respond or adjust the problem.  Also, he kept us informed on status real-time, which enabled us to go about our daily lives.  At first, we thought his price may be slightly higher than other contractors, but used him based on other recommendations - It is well worth it because of his attention to detail and the fact that he sticks to the budget up front and any changes are in writing so we avoid all "surprise" charges that other contractors throw in on a regular basis.  We highly recommend using Lenny.

We picked HM off of Angie's list, and were sucked in by his name and motto. I did not feel like he was a mensch at all. We also liked the idea of a fixed price, but that ended up only being true if it cost him less rather than a little more than the amount listed. I think in the end that it came out in the wash, but I didn't like how he dealt with us.
1. We were charged $250 to install each fan/light. The results look unfinished (he said that wasn't included). I thought that was a high price for what we assumed would look finished.
2. He tried to squeeze the wrong size faucet into our sink by bending the plug. It wasn't until I kept complaining that he fixed it.
3. He charged us $800 to remove carpeting that took less than an hour. We kept asking about it and he would say, oh, we spent more time on something else. In the end, they did replace some tiles in the bathtub for no "extra" so maybe it was fair. But, I'm not sure. And the whole reason we used him is that we wanted to be sure what we were paying for.
4. He had a really nice and good guy doing the dry wall. He offered to fix the area around the fan/light, but HM wouldn't let him. Nice guy was there when we had an emergency having to replace a rotted floor asap. Nice guy offered to do it, but HM made him leave, showed up himself, and offered no help.
No, we would not use him again.

We were very happy with all aspects of working with Handy Mensch and highly recommend this company. We hired HM to expand the current closet space in one bedroom and get that and another closet cleaned up and prepped for installation of a new closet system. Lenny Berger came out to do the estimate and was very thorough in asking questions, making sure he understood our needs. HM staff were always very responsive to calls or emails, and we had no problems with communications. The HM crew were friendly, explained their work's progress, and sought clarification as needed, and tidied up well at the end of the day.

I can't say enough good things about Handymensch!
This was our second time using Lenny and his guys, and they were everything that you want a good company to be.  They were cautious about promising anything until they saw the work that needed to be done, but provided a good estimate right away.
Dan, the personable and professional handyman they sent, was on time, tackled and completed all our jobs, worked efficiently, was thorough, cleaned everything up, and was in every way a pleasure to work with.  You can bet that when we next need handyman help, our first call will be to Lenny at Handymensch!

I was very pleased with the entire experience. I am also very pleased with the results. Lenny, the Chief Mensch, was knowledgeable and accountable. If I had a question or needed to make a change, he was always patient and cooperative. Any worker that came to my home was professional and efficient. I have used HandyMensch on previous jobs, such as building a wooden deck. I will definitely use them in the future. If you want quality, hire HandyMensch.

Do not use this contractor for large projects! Lenny, the owner, is a really nice, respectful and communicative guy, but his subs are horrendous and he does not do what needs to be done to fix situations properly. I have never written a bad review like this and I waited a very long time to write this review because Lenny was a nice guy and I take reviews like this seriously.... but 3 years later, on a roughly bi-monthly basis, we are still finding shoddy workmanship, things done NOT TO CODE, and deeply regretting the day we hired him!!  We have pretty much had to redo (or unhappily just live with) EVERYTHING that The Handy Mensch did, except for painting and some of the electric....seriously.

Many of the things that were done wrong, broke, fell apart or stopped working were within the FRIST year, while the project was still under warranty.(some while the project was still ongoing!) We finally chose to pay other workers to come in to the fix the problems after Lenny's people just kept making things worse.... that says a lot I think, no one wants to spend more money when they don't have to, because things are under warranty- but we did. Having the Handy Mensch come back to fix things always resulted in more problems.

Here is an incomplete list of the things that have gone wrong, MOST of them within the first year, many of the second and third year issues were "discovering" things out of code and shoddily done=falling apart or shorting out (yes, shorting out!!!):

~Kitchen Cabinets- that BTW, took NINE extra months to be installed= falling apart within 2 months of installation.

~New dryer vent not only installed so poorly that it fell out of the wall vent opening, but also the flexible duct work was FAR too long and just coiled up behind the dryer, quickly leading to blockage and a fire hazard.... It would have taken 5 extra minutes to cut the vent to the proper size for proper air flow.

~Improperly installed faucets and drain pipe for bathroom sink. After several attempts by their plumber, we paid to have someone come in to fix the leaking water and sewer gases.... our plumber immediately pointed out where things had been improperly installed and surprise, problems fixed!

~Improperly installed toilet, resulting in a slow leak, resulting in water damage on our new kitchen ceiling, also within 2 months.

~During a dinner party, our newly installed front porch light fell out of the ceiling with a horrible noise and was found swinging (still lit!) by its wires.... classy! Come to find out, the next week when we had it fixed, it was installed totally wrong, shoddily (one tiny screw holding it up)  and definitely not to code!! (this light was installed by one of the Handy Mensch's crew- not their electrician).

~Basement door threshold lasted in place for less than 6 months and light shined in under it from day one.

~Sunroom carpeting never installed right, came up in several areas immediately after installation, never fixed properly.

~Garbage disposal installed wrong, leaking after a few months.

~Numerous places (kitchen ,bathrooms, basement) where there was no caulking, where there should have been.

~4 out of 5 main floor new windows leaked with heavy rain, had to all be removed and re-installed by another company.

~The original caulk work on the above motioned windows was horrible. It looked like drunk monkeys did it (trying to keep my humor here). I pointed this out to Lenny on one of our walk-arounds and he just ignored it. (and at that point I was so tired of dealing with all the issues, it was just too far down on the list to follow up)

~New trim around windows was also very poorly done, about 1 out of 3 corners matched up properly.

~Refinished wood floors showing excessive wear (only two of us in this house), a company we brought in to look at them stated that not enough coats of polyurethane were applied.

~Outer glass door for the front door was installed incorrectly causing metal to rub on paint and look unsightly and not always close/open properly.

~And our favorite story (this is a long one)= We chose to have the tiled walls, showers and tub in our bathrooms resurfaced (from pink in one bath and green in another) to white. The first people that came in to do them did a ridiculous job. So Lenny had the first guy's brother come back to "fix it". I happened to be on site this day (Thank GOD!!!) I understand that workmen do not like fixing other's mistakes, but over the course the day this sub became more and more angry, aggressive, and odd acting. I could hear him cursing and complaining upstairs. Next thing I know he is outside, in front of our house, by his truck, on his phone yelling dozens of expletives (most starting with F) at his brother (the original workman) and how bad it was and how he didn't think he was getting paid for fixing the job, and threatening to "burn the bathroom just to burn you!" (the brother) (I still have this on video). A little earlier I had already been getting concerned for my and our home's safety and I texted Lenny to get over to the house ASAP. Before Lenny arrived and before I had time to lock the front door, the sub came back in the house with paint thinner and a lighter in hand and marched up to the bathroom and started pouring the flammable paint thinner into the tub!!! I am a petite woman, and though I followed him up the stairs, I was very frightened that either he was going to become physically violent towards me and/or dowse me with thinner, but I also felt I needed to at least see what he was doing before getting out of there! I didn't want our "new" home going up in flames! As he was pouring the thinner into the tub I was yelling and pleading with him to stop, (as I was backing out to escape!). Luckily Lenny showed up just in time to talk the guy down a little and physically remove him from our house. I had already had my phone out to dial 911 as Lenny arrived. I was then left to clean up all the paint thinner in the tub before it ate through the resurfacing! What a mess and very, very upsetting. Part of me really wishes I had called 911 anyway, between the threats and refusing to leave when asked and attempting to burn our bathroom, what that workman did was illegal and he should have been held accountable. For a long time we were concerned he would return, he really was crazy!

The brother eventually came back to fix the bathroom again..... he once again did a bad job, made it worse and to this day there are drips, different colors of white and different "finishes" (shiny, mate, flat) to the tile. After a certain point we HAD to move in NINE MONTHS AFTER THE ORIGINAL FINISH DATE, so we had to accept what was there. Resurfacing two tile bathrooms has just not been something we wish to try and redo. But we get to remember this story every time we look around our bathrooms.

At the very least, we always win at cocktail parties when friends start swapping bad contractor horror stories!

There are/were many more issues with this job and I truly understand that bad things happen. We were more than forgiving of much that happened with this job- crazy subs, long delays and shoddy workmanship. It was the continuing discovery of shoddy work, electric not to code and things falling apart since that has finally "broken the camel's back" and has gotten me to write this bad review. Maybe we were too nice and should have written sooner, but please be wary, do not do a big project with this company. Again Lenny was a really nice guy, maybe he was in over his head, maybe he had bad luck. He didn't, however, address things like he should have and certainly didn't fix the final bill as much he should

Called and requested to speak with Lenny to discuss the project. The individual who answered the phone was rude and unprofessional.

Dan, the handyman , was terrific. He went over the items that were listed on the worksheet and started the job. I was impressed by his efficiency. He put needed supplies for the task in a bucket, readied everything needed and proceeded. This minimized trips to the truck and ultimately the time it took him to complete a job. He worked steadily with a lunch break the first day and completed the entire job on the second day. He did the following:  replaced two outside front lights, tightened a shelf in a powder room, bought and replaced an under-cabinet light in the kitchen, replaced one tile and grout around two tiles in a bathroom, fixed a cabinet door hinge, spackled a damaged area on a wall and re-caulked where needed, replaced the ceiling fan/light  on a porch, replaced a full section of fence, cleaned an area on the roof that accumulated leaves and debris, nailed loose pickets on the fence around the entire perimeter, replaced the screens on two porch doors and installed sweeps on both doors." 

I highly recommend this company and especially Dan. It could not have been better.

I have an Insurance Agency and have referred The Handymensch to my clients who sustain damage to their home interior from wind and water damage a number of times, with great success. They are responsive, professional and always communicate with us and our clients very well. They do an awesome job.

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he did it  in steps with professionalism

We contacted The HandyMensch about a task that no other handyperson was willing to take on during two years of intermittent
searching: replacing the now-defective Blum Compact 33 hinges in our kitchen cabinets.  The response from the first
call was positive and encouraging; the return call (from Mr. Berger) confirmed that The HandymMensch could do the job. 
The Handymensch works on a time and materials basis, but in this case we had the materials and needed someone with the tools and expertise to replace the hinges and rehang the doors.  Mr. Berger mentioned that if we had any other tasks that ?our? HandyMensch could take care of while there, to simply ask them to be looked at.  The net result was the cabinets are all
repaired, AND we have a cranky bi-fold door replaced and behaving better than the old one ever did, AND we have a new storm/screen door (another task hanging in space for two years due to lack of someone show up and do the job), AND we
have a new doorbell. 
The last two items required Dan, the HandyMensch for our oy veys, to go to a hardware store, purchase the items to be installed, and return and complete the installation.  He disposed of the old storm door too. 
All this came to a total of time and materials of three-quarters what we?d been quoted recently for just the hinge replacements.  In addition, Dan was personable, polite, informative, responsive, and a steady, no-nonsense worker.  Altogether one of the best service experiences imaginable.

The job went very well. They were able to match our existing woodwork. Their work also enabled us to pass a home inspection. The contractors were very professional and friendly.

They did a nice job, and were very upfront with costs and what would be best for our situation.  The type of attic stairs we wanted would not work, but they suggested some that would, and put it in.  We are very happy with the result.