ACE HANDYMAN & REMODELING OF THE PENINSULA INC

unknown

Horribly. Took over 6 months, not nearly on time, schedule, over priced. Other work promised never got done. Paid and although he gave back some money, I probably lost a thousand dollars, was happy to be done with him.

I had to watch them every moment. There were some things not done to spec. so they had to redo them. The project was supposed to take three weeks and it took 6 months. They did not do anything right. The experience was awful.

Overall installation was excellent and Ace Handyman personnel were generally prompt in meeting program goals. Only exception was in ordering special German tile for Bathroom #1.  The contractor was reluctant to put a deposit on tile order, which resulted in International Tile (Newport News) cancelling our order without notifying us. Thinking tile was on the way, the contractor gutted Bathroom #1 in anticipation of the work. When we hadn't heard anything after a month, we inquired at International Tile and were told the order had been cancelled due to nonpayment of deposit. Worse yet, there were now insufficient quantities of the special German tile in warehouses in U.S. and now we had to wait for another production run! This resulted in total work stoppage, as we could not find a suitable substitute tile from any other manufacturer in the color desired. The bathroom remained unusable for 5 months until new tile was once again available and we could finish the work, and was a lesson for us as well as the contractor that you can't dally on paying the deposit for special order items. Once construction resumed on the bathroom, it was great workmanship and is now a showcase bathroom but the 5 month delay was tough because we were unable to have guests stay with us during that time. The only other problem we had was inadequate bracing in Bath #2 for the new tub, which is deeper and wider than original. That means additional stress on the floor when tub is full and should have been anticipated by the contractor. Now, when the tub is used, it causes about 1/8" separation between bottom of wall tile and top of tub at one end, which returns to normal when tub is emptied but is slightly crumbling the grout edge. Again, it would have helped to beef up the flooring or brace the joists together to improve load bearing capability for the tub. Other than those problems and annoyances, most of the work done by Ace Handyman was decent quality and we are happy with the overall results. Sidenote: I researched wall soundproofing and introduced it to the contractor, who now knows how to install it. It was definitely worth the expense (about $500/bathroom) because it cut down noise from showers and whirlpool and makes them less obtrusive elsewhere in the house.

The group of guys that came out kind of knew what they were doing, but they could have been better. The boss had to come over to see what was getting done. They were not on time and the work they did was just an okay job.