Magic Touch Remodeling Inc

“We got the wrong people for the project”

WE looked for nearly a year for a contractor. I loved his services. He came out, we immediately felt comfortable with him. He was honest and very helpful. His crew was impeccable. Clean, conscientious. I actually worked from home through the entire remodel and they made sure that, they would check in with me and they would be quiet when I needed them to be quiet. They would never just sit there they would do other work. Neat, clean, I had none of the stereotypical problems with the remodel. None at all. If they ran into a snag they would check in and offer solutions. They added on other work that we asked for along the way. I'm still in love with the work they did. I couldn't recommend them more highly.
There was one cabinet that had a problem and Wayne personally went back to the manufacturer like five or six times to have them make a new door. He just stayed after them until it was right.

My husband and I had been contemplating a kitchen remodel for many years, but the difficulty of finding a good contractor was always the thing that stopped us. Wayne and his foreman, Aaron, were the answer to our dreams. Wayne worked with us on the kitchen design until we had all of the features we wanted and many more features we didn't know we needed but are now glad to have! The communication throughout the project was excellent with Wayne always quickly responding to e-mails and phone calls. The materials were of highest quality, but competitively priced. The quality of workmanship was very high and to code. The job was completed in a timely fashion on the schedule we agreed upon at the beginning of the project. Wayne's price quote was solid, with no unexpected increases. There were no surprises along the way. We very quickly realized at the beginning of the project that we were in good hands. We would highly recommend Magic Touch Remodeling to anyone.

From start to finish, Wayne and Aaron were very professional, helpful, and shared their views on ideas I had and the cabinet designer had about certain plans.  All of which were valid and I made adjustments accordingly.  Wayne was also very helpful in finding us some non-standard items like the 6' soaking tub, and Japanese style toilet, ALL at store/online competitive prices.   He was very transparent in his pricing and promptly filled in the gaps when we had questions or wanted further clarification.    Aaron was the one who did the work on the house.  He was extremely courteous, thorough, and shared his ideas and status.   I really do appreciate that they didn't just do what we (or the cabinet designer) asked, but came up with interesting ideas and layouts for the island, lighting, cabinet placement, etc.   What a pleasure to work with them both.  I had mixed feelings when they finished:  The kitchen and bathroom are amazing, but now we don't get to see the 2 of them anymore.  :-)   I would highly recommend Magic Touch, and will definitely use them again for future remodels.   Thank you Wayne and Aaron! 

They did a complete kitchen remodel, some greenhouse repairs, bathroom work, and tile work.  They also did a fireplace redo with tile work in my condo several years later.  They were never late and always came whenever they said they would.  They were able to troubleshoot some plumbing and electrical problems as well.  They cleaned ups as best they could at the end of each work day.

My husband and I couldn't be happier with Wayne and his guys at Magic Touch.  Our house is 100 years old and with remodels on an old house you never know what you'll uncover.  Wayne and his men have been unfailingly creative in dealing with awkwardly placed plumbing, floors and walls that haven't been quite square, and dealing with subcontractors who provided products that didn't meet the specs.  On one window replacement for our living room, Marvin Windows' own representative mismeasured and the company built a custom window that didn't fit the space.  Wayne never made this our problem -- he forced Marvin to rebuild the window.  It fit perfectly the second time around and looks terrific.  On one bathroom remodel, we wanted a special glass counter to sit under a vessel sink.  The company making the counter measured and drew a template, but when they cut the hole for the drain, they flipped the glass so it was wrong side up.  Wayne made them recut the piece and the bathroom was still ready on time.
Magic Touch had to be particularly creative with the tile work in one of our bathrooms and in the kitchen because of non-standard sized and shaped spaces.  The tile looks great and no one would ever know that it was a work-around to accommodate the main vent pipe that runs through three floors of the house.
But the best thing that Wayne did for us was to figure out how to fit two sinks into our 1912 upstairs bathroom so my husband and I didn't have to share anymore!  What a great gift to our now 43 year old relationship!!

"I want to share our experience with Magic Touch Remodeling, because I feel that this is a great team and I can't praise them enough.
In 2005, we decided, after a couple of years' deliberation, that the time had come for us to get a major remodel, in our house.
We approached this with real apprehension, because we had heard such horror stories about remodels and contractors. 
A dear friend was just finishing some work on her house and we loved the work done. In fact, she really recommended the Contractor she had used: "Magic Touch Remodeling" and after several discussions with Wayne, the owner of the company, we decided to go ahead.
Were we in for a pleasant surprise! 
This was a major remodel on two floors, including a complete remodel of the kitchen and master bedroom, installing glass flooring in the powder room, taking down a wall to reconfigure the space between the formal dining/living rooms, painting all the areas, including bedroom, kitchen, formal and informal dining and living rooms, utility room. 
Our kitchen was to be closed for nearly 2 months, while they installed cabinets, all new appliances and reconfigured the space for the changes we decided to make. 
And, yes...we lost the architectural plans, so we couldn't tell if the wall to be removed was a weight bearing one!.
The remodel started in mid February and was done at the end of July(5 1/2 months)
Wayne's team would arrive, promptly, at 7am and work till 4pm and clean up before leaving. They worked 4 days a week and by Friday, all of us were ready for our 3 day weekends!
They were completely comfortable with all the materials to be used and made sure that everything was done according to code. We felt assured that they were not cutting corners. Kelly and Aaron were masters at their work. The intricate tile work, in the powder room and the master bathroom  was done with precision and mastery.
On Thursdays, I would bring in some food(pizza etc) to show my appreciation for their fine work, and even there, I noticed that Wayne would discourage any dawdling!
It was a great team, it was a job well done.
Some friends started a remodel, similar to ours in magnitude and at the same time as us, waited for nearly 1 1/2 years to finish!
I could go on about this team!
Perhaps, I SHOULD mention the time, last July(2012). 
We realized that we had a leak on our deck, outside the master bedroom, which was threatening the roof of the kitchen below. 
We called Wayne and Aaron came over THE SAME DAY and started working on it. He continued thru the weekend, because we had our son's wedding Reception, the following weekend. He worked continuously at it. In fact he finished and cleaned up, just as I was driving to the airport to pick up the first lot of out of town guests!
I would be happy to answer any questions about this team. 
They are punctual, professional, knowledgeable and hard working. What else does one want?"

Watch out! We barely escaped having a disaster with work
done by Magic Touch Remodeling. We hired them on a time and materials basis,
and they took their sweet time to complete anything, taking several weeks
longer than we ever expected. When rain leaked through the tarp that they had
installed to protect the house, they blamed us. They never installed hurricane
clips on the rafters per code. The owner insisted that they could saw through factory-built
windows for 6-inch walls to fit them into 4-inch walls (we didn?t let them). Neither
the foreman nor the owner was interested in reading the structural engineer?s
drawings, so the entire structural beam system was installed incorrectly. The
foreman also installed the rafters incorrectly, resulting in soffits being several
inches lower than in the plans. We learned the hard way that the company hired
entry-level workers but charged us the same price for their work as a
journeyman carpenter. We had to fire the company and have their mess repaired.
A lot of the ?A? ratings for MTR on Angie?s List are for
simple kitchen and bathroom remodels, where MTR didn?t have to do major
structural retrofits. We learned the hard way that they can?t successfully
complete larger remodels, and that even after sloth and ineptness, they just
show up every week expecting the next paycheck. We had to hire a lawyer to get them
to pay for even a few of the repairs. We were left holding the bag for the
rest.

The work was started on time and finished on time. 
The quote was extremely reasonable.
several layers of the siding had rotted out.  
 The siding is vertical, and the replacement boards were placed horizontal making the overall look more finished than it was previously.
 The beam in the front of the house holds up the entry and the support beam 6" x 10" x 12 ft, (estimated size)  had some hand scribing on the edges.  This look was re-created to match the rest of the beam and looks like it has always been there.
The side door was thought to be just a replacement of the rotted threshold, but the water damage had seeped in the door frame. There were a few other small maintenance items that were also taken care of.  This was replaced promptly and looks great
We have used Wayne for our complex remodels and his ideas have improved the overall look of our home!

We love, love, love them! They are great! We call them everytime I have a home project! He is also reasonably priced! I have also recommended him to friends and I think my neighbors use him as well.

I was very happy with their level of skill and knowledge in all the areas necessary to complete a full kitchen remodel.  Their customer service and follow through was excellent and Wayne was always easy to reach with any question or concern I may have had.  Aaron is a very skilled, careful and thoughtful finish carpenter with an eye to finish details which was important to me.  He always left the work area cleaned up at the end of the day and was a pleasure to have in my home.  I can't recommend them enough for any job large or small.   My job was done on time and on budget.

We have used Magic Touch Remodeling do do extensive repair and remodeling our home, and have they have exceeded our expectations in every way. I would highly recommend them.
We selected them because they were recommended by a friend who's a professional kitchen and bath designer. She has worked with many contractors over more than a decade, and said they would certainly be her first choice for work on her own home. She said that over and over again she's seen them go out of their way to ensure clear communication with the customer, to plan things well enough in advance to avoid unpleasant surprises, to do an excellent job of keeping to schedule, and to be both responsible and responsive. Our experience has matched that description.
Wayne handled estimates and the business side of things, while Aaron was the primary implementer, doing most of the work himself but sometimes assisted by others. We found both to be very easy and pleasant to work with. What's more, when we had a rush job Wayne came out and installed  carpet himself to ensure that it was done on time, which was really above and beyond expectations.
We never had communication problems; both Wayne and Aaron seemed to be very frank with us. As another poster noted, Wayne does tend to emphasize the things that can go wrong or cause delays in a project, but we consider that a positive: as my friend warned us, it's better to have someone acknowledge that "you never know what you'll find until you take down the wall" than for them to give you firm estimates that keep slipping again and again (which we've had happen with other contractors). When things did go over, they seemed to try really hard to reduce costs for us, even when it hurt them.
Of course, our projects sometimes had delays, either because something proved to be in worse shape than expected, because suppliers were late with tile and the like, or due to sickness. Such things are inevitable, particularly when the Great Recession has caused businesses to reduce their size and thus flexibility.
   
The highest compliment I can give is that I've recommended them to my friends, and when we are ready for further work we'll
certainly continue to use them.

Magic touch was always prompt, reliable, always making sure I was informed of the schedule and made sure I was comfortable with the process.

I have just sent a copy of the letter i sent to Mr. Gohring.  It is pasted above.  Please read that.  His work was exemplary.  What higher compliment can i give.  Good Work MAGIC TOUCH.  Best experience I have ever had with a contractor.  J T S Mullally

In the past 8 years, we have had two occasions where Magic Touch Remodeling did work on our house. In both instances we have been extremely satisfied with their professionalism and quality of their work. In 2003, we were moving from our first house and the house inspection turned up several punch list items that we needed to correct and receive the buyer’s sign off prior to the sale of the house. The work included replacing structural support under the house due to carpenter ants, adding flashing around the porch to stop water leakage into the crawl space and replacing a molded section of drywall in the garage. Wayne came out to review the scope of work and provided us an estimate. He knew our tight timeline to have the work completed and was able to schedule us in to meet the timeline. Throughout the process, all of our questions were answered; they were at our house when they said they would be and best of all the work was completed on time with no additional costs. The work passed inspection and we were able to move into our current home. Fast forward to 2012 and we wanted to replace the white carpet in our formal living room with hard wood floors. Our previous positive experience with Magic Touch Remodeling had us call them again for a quote. Again, Wayne came out and reviewed the scope of the work and provided us with an initial estimate and a final estimate once we decided on the flooring. The initial quote said demolition costs were included but those costs were not included in the quote. When we got the final quote, the demolition costs were added. We called Wayne and he explained the discrepancy between the quotes and honored the initial quote. We received a call from Aaron, a Magic Touch foreman to set the dates for the work. Aaron was always on-time, answered all questions we had throughout the process and was very friendly. He even put our dog out during the day when she wanted to go out. His craftsmanship and the quality of his work has transformed out living room into our favorite room in the house. We are currently saving money to have the kitchen remodeled and will have Magic Touch do the work. Based on our experience with Magic Touch, I would highly recommend them.

We have had the pleasure of working with Magic Touch on at least 4 different projects over the years.  Two of the projects were very large, and involved a complete kitchen/bathroom makeover.  Two of the projects, a bit smaller in scope, involved some tricky plumbing and electrical work.  We would not continue to contact Magic Touch and work with them repeatedly unless we had an incredibly positive experience.  On each project, this company delivered timely results, creative suggestions which improved the project and/or saved us money, and a very high quality of work.
This company is professional, and they hire the best.  The craftsman arrive right on time, work hard throughout the day, and are simply a pleasure to have in our home.  I had absolutely no qualms sharing a house key and having them come and go as needed.  We will definitely have them back as projects come up, and look forward to working with them in the future.

My husband and I decided to update our 20 year old home with a new kitchen/family room and home office remodel.  Magic Touch was recommended by the owner of the appliance store, telling us they were really dependable.  After talking with Wayne, we decided to use his services, and we are extremely happy we did.
The supervisor on our project was Aaron, who went above and beyond everything I expected.  The team worked four ten hour days, coming to work early prepared to work at 7 am and clean up every day at 5:00.  The worked hard and steady throughout the day, the attention to detail was amazing.  Throughout the project little issues would pop up and Aaron would always have the best solution to solve it..his expertise with crown molding is noticed and appreciated by all who visit us.  His professionalism was so appreciated by me as I was in and out of the project many times a day.
Because they did such wonderful work about 6 months later we hired them back to do a bathroom remodel, built a china cabinet in the dining room that went into a new bump out they did, and reface a the fireplace in our living room.  Again, the attention to detail was what we really appreciated.
And then back for our final project, they change out all the doors, retrimmed all the baseboard and window sashes.  Beautiful work again.  And last Aaron took down the brick facing around our front door and replaced it with El Dorado stone.
We felt that their work was so well done that we had Magic Touch do all these phases of our home project without hesitation.  We truly appreciated the professionalism of both Wayne and his crew and if we had any other projects, they would by welcome back in the blink of an eye!!

This company has completed 3 major projects for me. A total kitchen remodel, a complete bathroom remodel and a repair and resurfacing of a large deck. I have found Magic Touch remodeling to do outstanding work at a fair price. They are fast, clean and above all HONEST. They were recommended to me by a kitchen supply store and I have recommended them to my friends.

The work began as scheduled with the workers arriving on time every day, and they immediately started to work. They did not seem to stop moving throughout the day except for a short lunch break. They cleaned up every day which meant not only sweeping up sawdust, but putting away saws and work tables, tools, and supplies. They did this in a matter of minutes. What we especially liked was the fact that they worked four 10-hour days. That gave us a break on Friday which we appreciated. We knew this going in to the project and were hoping this would not delay the finish date of the project. The project was completed ON TIME and we have been hiring them back ever since. We were extremely pleased with the workmanship, professionalism, and work ethic of Wayne and all the workers at Magic Touch. 
After our kitchen was completed, we happened to talk to two separate neighbors in the area and were surprised they had their kitchens remodeled by Magic Touch too! One of them has called Magic Touch back for other jobs in their homes. We were prompted to write this review because just yesterday (7/14/12) we had a realtor friend over who had not been to the house since 2003. She was so impressed with the 'new' kitchen and could not believe it was done five years ago. She said 'it looks brand new!' We think so too.
We have hired many people over the past 30 years to work on rental property and have even done a lot of work ourselves to know that it is hard, under-appreciated and unpredictable work. We never found anyone we would hire back until we worked with Wayne and his team. We have 30 years of records to be able to say, without a doubt, that Magic Touch cannot be beat when it comes to providing estimates, communicating clear progress updates, suggesting the best products to use in a respectful manner (if we suggested a different product that they knew was not going to work in a particular situation), mentioning any issues they could foresee, completing the job in the time estimated and doing QUALITY WORK in return for timely payments. There are not many people we would trust with our rentals and our home but Magic Touch comes through every time.

There were far too many challenges and activities to account for here. However, Wayne Gohring and his team of professionals completed every task on time and on budget. More importantly, they went out of their way to not be disruptive and left everything clean and tidy after each day's work. We marveled at some of the creative touches and craftsmanship demonstrated. When we asked for changes or modifications, there was no hestitation or discussion. We were amazed that many of the things we asked for were accomodated with no extra charge. Wayne and his team were always friendly and responsive, demonstrating a level of professionalism and customer service far exceeding experiences we have had with other contrators. We would strongly recommend Magic Touch and are planning an expansion of our deck. Magic Touch will be doing that work for us, as well. They have earned our loyalty.

I am very confused by, and honestly suspect, of the negative review given by a previous client.  I read the review carefully and it simply does not ring true of this company or Wayne Gohring.  I believe this to be a post from an inexperienced homeowner (with unknown issues).  I also wonder about the motives for such a negative review of a person that I know to be honest, reliable and a true professional.  Be selective of the reviews you read - they are not all accurate.  For further information, you can contact me directly at 206-310-8769.

As indicated above, all of the work went well and we are very satisfied.

A customer service nightmare.  Simply, owner has touble dealing with any type of challenge that comes up or questions you have about price, quality or timeline.  Doesn't seem to understand customer service and got upset and defensive for any question or issue that we asked about. As long as you find no issues or questions, they are great to work with.  Also ironically, the owner was hyper-sensitive about us asking questions about his work/ job, but he demands perfection from you, the customer, when it comes to payments. You better have your payment ready on Monday morning of each week of the job OR else you will get calls, texts and e-mails.   We were out-of-town until late Sunday night one week and forgot to leave his weekly check on Monday morning.  When the workers arrived, owner had them text, call and hound me.  Despite the fact that he had already remodeled our kitchen and we we having him do a second job.We spent a great deal of money with this company.  

They redid our kitchen (Apr-May 2011) and that went pretty well, on a fixed bid (not our lowest bid by any means).  Owner did complain about the fixed bid, quite a bit - that he had to repair the floor and that he had to do some extra work - giving us a guilt trip.  Then, after turning them down for our master suite job (Jul-Aug 2011) due to price and his unwillingness to do a fixed bid job, he proceeded to call us back a couple weeks later - with his guys needing work and basically begged us for the work - convinced my husband and I to go ahead with it.  Should have stuck with our gut instincts.   On the fixed bid work for Kitchen he was meticulous about telling us what was going to happen each day - because it impacted him.  As soon as we were on a Time and Materials contract with the master suite... there was NO plan.  Just an indefinite drain of our checkbook.  When we asked for a plan, he got hostile - seriously hostile.  All we did was ask for a plan and he was furious and said, "fine I'll have my guys out Thursday this week."     He actually got into a shouting match of illogical arguments with my husband and my husband is a mild-mannered, kind, former hostage negotiator.  He can talk to anyone. 

To add insult to injury, he complained about everything - like we were putting him out even having them do the work - everything was a challenge.  Since the Master Suite job ended, the floor has never cured - it was Benjamin Moore porch paint and even today feels tacky to the touch or when high-heels or the like walk on it.    Going with them for a second project was one of the worst decisions we made.  

Not only is the owner tough to have simple discussions with, the work is of marginal quality and definitely not worth the attitude.  At one point, I sent him a text message - as he did like to text.  The text was on Saturday and asked about some marks in the floor that we were trying to work-out ... he responded "Can you do this during the work week.  I dont like getting stressed out all week end. The paint wil take as long as it takes to dry.  We did not pick out the paint you did we just applied it."   I think that pretty much sums-it-up!