A&H MASTERBUILDERS

Awful experience. Contacted Howard and he sent Alberto to assess the job. Received an estimate. All was fine. Alberto started the work, removing all of our storm windows and getting paint on the glass of every window. When I phoned the next day, hours after Alberto was due to return to the job, neither Howard nor Alberto answered the phone. Instead I received an email indicating that I had changed the scope of work and that they were walking away from this job. In addition, Howard indicated he never received a signed contract from me. I sent the signed copy to him via text message. He indicated it was upside down, apparently not realizing he could print it and look at it right-side up. They refused to speak with me. I've never dealt with such unprofessionalism. I ended up having a fellow I previously hired who cleans windows, to clean up the mess that Alberto left (paint on the windows, 2 windows stuck and re-insertion of all of the storm windows). I highly recommend staying far away from A&H Master Builders.

The experience was horrible, not only due to bad workmanship, but primarily because of the attitude of Mr. Cooper. Among the issues that occurred:
- Steps were repaired with a different color and grade of cement. No responsibility was taken. I am now forced to pay someone else to redo them because they have drips all over them and are two colors.
- Workmen got cement all over our freshly painted rails. We will now have to pay someone to repaint them. Also left cement footprints on our porch, which was pristine. 
- When shower fixtures were installed, it created a leak down into our living room ceiling, and now we have to replace and repaint part of the ceiling. There was no leak with the old fixtures. The damage was due solely to the poor workmanship of the contractor.
- The foreman blamed issues on the fixtures we purchased, but a master plumber was able to repair his work easily, but at a price.
- The downstairs toilet, after installation, started to flood when used concurrently with the washing machine. Turns out the toilet had needed to be snaked. I do not blame the contractor for this problem, but he could have done a diagnostic before rushing into the work.
- When I reported these issues to Howard Cooper he was defensive, blamed me for the problems, and refused to come out and check his employees' work. The foreman, Mr. Avila was very sweet, but unfortunately incompetent. He even had me go back to Home Depot to recover a screw that was "missing" from the box that in fact was tucked inside the shower handle all along. We may have been able to come to an amicable solution if Mr. Cooper had not been so defensive and rude. 
I have never in my life come across such an unresponsive and unprofessional crew. This guy refuses to refund my money or take any responsibility. The only thing they were good at was showing up.

Please feel free to refer to the other review as well. Howard Cooper runs this company. I had no experience with the others that work there. Mr. Cooper was unprofessional and arrogant via email. Further, neither he nor anyone from his company actually showed up to the job, although I waited 2 hours. I do not recommend.

This business is made up of one guy who does the work, Arnoldo, and one who appears to handle the business side, Howard. We were extremely disappointed with the quality of Arnoldo's work and with the lack of responsiveness when we contacted Howard and asked for repairs to be made afterwards because we were not happy with the work. The tiles he installed are crooked and in one instance chipped, and the grout color is uneven (it is dark gray/brownish in places and cream colored in others) and not anywhere close to being smooth looking. The cuts made around trim are rough and look amateurish (I've never tiled anything and I am confident I could have done a better job). The floor is also uneven. When I contacted Howard to repair the floor, he implied that it was probably our fault for walking on the floor with muddy boots (that does not happen in our house!) or for walking on the floor too soon (no guidance was given on this in advance). When I asked him for suggested next steps to fix the problem he never got back to us. Arnoldo is a very nice man, but attention to detail is not his strong suit. For example, he did not install caulk around the toilet when he reinstalled it (we had to ask him). He also did not put any caulk around the new fixtures in the tub and left a hole where the shower head is supposed to connect to the wall (the ring around the actual shower head does not touch the wall, but hangs from the shower head, and if it were connected to the wall there would still be a hole showing). Where he installed the medicine cabinet there are gaps where it does not touch the wall- at least a quarter inch. There is also peeling paint all around the medicine cabinet and the medicine cabinet door fell off after we used it for about 3 weeks. We specifically asked Arnoldo one night if the toilet would be usable that night (we would have stayed at a hotel) and he said it was. When we flushed the toilet water gushed out the bottom of it and it was obviously NOT usable. It was a huge mess. Arnoldo also painted our bathroom. The paint job is pretty much terrible and there are many areas where I need to touch it up (near the ceiling- there are areas where you can see the old white paint). Also, he installed the pedestal sink, but the pedestal does not touch the wall so you can see the pipes. He installed the toilet and the sink faucet crooked- so much so that we had to ask him to fix them (and he did immediately, but one wonders why he didn't notice this to begin with because it was so obvious).

They estimated the job $800 under what I was expecting but they did a very poor job. At first they were punctual and worked around my schedule. But the workmanship was poor and they did a number of things wrong. I have a huge mirror for them to hang over the vanity with a light attached to it. When they installed it they tried to leave the light four or five inches off center. I had to ask them to correct it. They also didn't paint around the light fixture on the ceiling. The light kind of covered the areas they missed but if you look it's very visible. A big problem was when they put in the new toilet they didn't deal with the fact that it's an old house. They didn't adjust the flange for the toilet and it caused leaking from the new bathroom into my newly renovated kitchen. Now I have a pan in the kitchen catching water and plumbers trying to fix the problem. They refuse to come back and they say it wasn't anything they did. So now I'm having to clean up the mess they left for about $700 to $1000. I'm just very disappointed. I'm very unhappy to their workmanship and their responses to my concerns.

I wrote the fixed price on a piece of paper, had the foreman sign it, and he also put his cell phone number on it. I told him that I had not ordered the windows yet, but that I was going to go ahead and order them now that I had an agreement to do the work. I tried to get a hold of the foreman on his cell phone, but I didn't get an answer, so I emailed the owner to have the foreman come out to take a look at additional work. We added the sixth cut out to the existing price he'd given me on his first visit, and then we went over the original work for the windows. I spoke to the window company last week. They said they could probably come this Saturday to install the windows. I attempted to call the foreman to let him know the windows will be in soon, but he never answered. I then sent an email back to the owner, and he replied, but he said that the price originally given was not valid and that he would lose money on the work. He says it was not valid because there was not a signed contract. He refuses to do the work for the original fixed price. I ordered $4,000 worth of windows that now have no where to go. I was originally told each window opening would be $175. Now the owner is telling me it's actually $250 per window opening. There are five windows and one additional opening on an interior wall. I want them to do the work for the original fixed price.If the company will come out and do the work for the original fixed price, I will retract my report.

The did a great job. I would recommend them to all of my friends.

I have used them twice and would use them again. They are very professional though there were some problems at times scheduling the work to be done.

Communication with Howard was spotty. Arnoldo, the guy who did and oversaw the actual work, was great. But it took about 6 weeks to do something they said they'd finish in 2 weeks. Also, they didn't make the stone planter high enough, which I didn't notice until they were done. When I contacted them to finish it, they said they would come back and never did.

They were among the top companies I've ever had the pleasure to work with. They did a first-rate job the first time and on budget. They kept checking with me throughout the job to make sure I was satisfied. They went a little late, but were very pleasant and agreed to work on Sunday and reschedule other jobs in order to finish mine. I could not have found a better company when time was of the essence and quality really mattered.