Riverside Remodeling

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There are many plus's and minus's relative to Tim Evans and Riverside Remodeling, but in the end I think it comes down to you get what you pay for. Let's start with pricing. Tim was very willing to work with me on price. He didn't start out as the lowest contractor of the five I met with, but he worked with me to get back to where I wanted to be. He also did a great job of passing his discounts on to me, and getting me good deals.
Tim was relatively responsive to emails and phone calls, but his punctuality was very lacking. His typical day started between 10 and 11am, followed by a daily trip to Lowes and lunch an hour or so later. He typically told us he would be here between 8 and 9, but that rarely happened. Related to this, he is a very unorganized person, hence all the trips to Lowes to pick up pieces and parts. He just doesn't move very fast or effectively.
I've done 8 different tiling jobs (floors and counters) over the years, so I know a little bit about how it's done. The things mentioned above are things I can deal with if the project turns out in the end to be something you're proud of. But knowing something about quality tile work, I'm a little disappointed in the end. The tile joints in the shower floor are at inconsistent levels (he finished it on 2 different days...no wonder), the grout literally looks to be a different color in certain areas, and the tile surfaces were not properly cleaned after grouting. There is a haze on many of the tiles where it was not wiped off well when grouting. Also, the day the shower was finished and he packed up to leave and let it cure for a couple days, there were 2 gaps at the base of the wall where he hadn't even filled it with grout. Fortunately he had left some extra grout there, which I mixed up and filled the gaps before the grout began drying. I also tried to buff the haze off the tiles. I should not have had to do that.
All in all, Tim is a very nice guy, and I appreciate him working with me to get this project done on my timeline, and at a cost I could live with. But buyer beware. I believe my shower is stucturally sound and will last a long time. And more importantly, my wife loves it. But if you look closely, there are imperfections in the finishing touches that bug me. Especially for this kind of money.
In the end, I went back and forth as to whether I would recommend Riverside or not. I settled on yes I would, but only after preparing the friend for what I had experienced, and suggesting that they keep a close eye on his work and be very demanding as the project rolls along.

The layout of the tile left HUGE spaces on both end that met the wall and no grout line in other areas. I spent days REDoing the drain which was left too high, and had to dig out all the excessive mortar/thin set so I could grout. Left me w/dirty floors and cleaning up mortar off wall....

We love our new kitchen! Most folks comment on the zebra bamboo floors first - but when I mention that the custom cherry cabinets were originally in someone else's kitchen and purchased from Craigslist - they are totally amazed! Tim Evans (Riverside Remodeling) is a joy to work with. We began working together for our bathroom remodel (see my other review for Riverside), but we originally found him because we wanted someone who would be able to rework the cabinets we'd purchased through Craigslist. He was installing the new cabinets in the home where we purchased our cabinets (homeowners were adding onto their house, enlarging the kitchen and wanted light colored cabinets). In any case, while working on the bathroom we had time to toss ideas back and forth about how we might modify the cabinets we'd purchased to fit our needs. He removed our old cabinets, demo'd the soffit and repaired the sheetrock. He installed zebra bamboo hardwood floors, (and, later, painted and reinstalled the base boards and installed bamboo quarter-round as well as cherry heat vent covers which he finished.) He installed 6 recessed lights, the pendant over the sink, the island light and the new fan/light (on an adjustable wall switch) and replaced the ceiling fixture in the utility room. He also added several new receptacles (including one on the front porch) and switches and moved many others. He also installed the undercabinet lighting (came with the cabinets). He relocated my phone line to another wall. The sink wall was the only wall where the cabinets, as purchased, wouldn't fit our kitchen. Tim had to cut down one upper cabinet and extend another so that they would fit our space. He also installed shelves in the lower cabinet areas to the right of the sink in order to fill in the space where my window (and therefore the sink) was 9 inches further left than in the original. I found baskets 8 x 18 inch baskets online to fit these shelves. Also, the original cabinets had routed end panels which had to be filled and covered in cherry veneer, stained, and varnished (in our kitchen we had to swap sides for some of the cabinets - so what was a finished end before was now an unfinished end, etc.). We had extra space on the interior (refrigerator) wall so he built me a pantry with several electrical outlets and a light with switch, installed plywood shelves, and veneered the exposed sides of those as well. I ordered a cherry door for the pantry - he stained and finished that and built a door frame for it. He added three toe kick drawers to one cabinet so that I had out-of-the-way storage for my cutting boards and cookie sheets. We were installing new cherry crown molding - he fabricated the buildup, stained, finished and installed all of it. He installed my new faucet (after granite installation), installed a new push button for disposal and relocated the dishwasher from right to left of sink. He installed the new microwave (came with cabinets) over the new gas range (newly purchased) which he ran the gas line for (we previously had electric range). He installed a new 20 amp circuit for the microwave/gas range and ran two new electric lines. He installed soft-close mechanisms on all the cabinet doors. He painted the kitchen and the utility room and installed our limestone backsplash. I'm sure there are lots of details I've left out - but we couldn't recommend him more highly. It was really hard once he finished the job and we knew we wouldn't see him every day - we threatened to hang a Christmas stocking for him! We had one cabinet door that needed to be made to order on the cabinet that was reworked. He interviewed several cabinet makers, took one of the original doors to them with the specs to have them get one, took the stain to them when the door arrived, and then, when they couldn't get the finish to turn out the right color, went and bought the correct finish and took it to them. Then picked up the finished door and came out that evening to install it prior to a party we were having the following afternoon. He really stands by his work and will do anything for his customers!

and quot;It looks like something from a magazine!and quot; This has been the reaction from three separate visitors. From two others, there was a jaw-drop reaction and the only comment was and quot;Wow!and quot;. We're so proud of our new master bath, my husband has started bringing in delivery men and anyone who comes to the door to show off the bathroom.
Tim Evans IS Riverside Remodeling. He does everything I've mentioned himself (with a helper as necessary). The only thing he did not do on our bath remodel was the glass shower enclosure and the vanity countertop.
Tim initially came out to see what we wanted done in order to give us an estimate. He gave us several good suggestions (like adding a linen cabinet) and outlined various options that we might want to consider. He sent us his estimate in about a week and a half to two weeks. We had already picked out our tile, lighting and plumbing fixture choices. I had found several great websites for the lights and plumbing, I had done a lot of plumbing research online and had also ordered those. Once we decided to proceed ahead with Tim, he came back out to give us figures on how much of each type of tile to order. I found a wholesale outlet to order the tile through. We did run short on tile, however, and Tim called the original showroom where we picked out the tile, got a discounted price (which he passed on to us), and went and picked the tile up for us. He is happy to call his sources to get installer prices and pass the savings on to his clients. I ordered cabinets from a big box store and he picked them up and installed them. He relocated the plumbing for the shower, built the curb and a half wall in front of the toilet. He laid the shower pan and then tiled the walls, shower floor, and bath floor. He wired for and installed new heater/light/fan combo. Installed new receptacles and switches, can lights, and light fixtures. He installed LED lights under the vanity cabinet, and installed an occupancy detector switch which cuts them on when we enter the bathroom at night for a nightlight. He also painted the ceiling, walls, and trim. At the end of the job, we decided to use some extra floor tile to put a tile floor in our half bath as well.
Every time I'm in the shower I feel like I've gone to a resort somewhere! As far as using him again? We moved straight from our master bath into a second contract with Riverside Remodeling for our kitchen remodel. We couldn't recommend them more highly. I'd give them an A+.