York Enterprises

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We were very pleased with the experience. The estimator was on time and on target with his estimate. The carpenter was on time, pleasant to deal with and professional in his appearance and workmanship. He explained what he was doing and gave us some tips in working with rake cedar shingles. Cleanup was good. An all around satisfactory experience at a reasonable rate. Best part was that they made us feel confident they knew what they were doing. We will definitely use them again.

I have been working with York on multiple projects over the past three years to do major repairs on this 1929 Victorian stucco house that has developed multiple leaks in the stucco, around old windows, and in the basement. They have installed new windows, wrapped and re-stuccoed the entire front of the house, wrapped parts of the basement foundation, painted, installed a backyard fence, rebuilt the back porch, built and installed a deck and now this most recent job sealing the walk-stucco connection. This relatively small job is just the most recent of many. As usual, the workmen did a very thorough job and were very responsive when I wanted to do some add-ons as another leak appeared between the time I recieved their proposal and the time the work was to be done. The heavy rains, as ever, provided the evidence that there was still a hole somewhere. Rehabilitating this lovely old home family home in a great neighborhood has been a challenging and expensive journey but Dan Watsek, the General Manager, the owner, and the front office staff have been great to work with, as have the workmen who did the jobs even when one of the leaks kept eluding them. They are not cheap. But I believe you get what you pay for and they guarantee their work so, when there were problems, especially with the larger jobs, they came out multiple times to search out the elusive leaks and redo what needed to be redone at no additional cost. They are experts at dealing with these older homes and that expertise matters to me. We have established a relationship that I value and they have earned my trust.

The site managers (changed in mid-stream) were excellent.  But there did not seem to be any urgency to complete the project.  Plus, they seemed to want us to use their vendors even though we knew we could get comparable quality and better prices elsewhere.  Duke York is good people; some of his people - not so much.  We were in a hurry to finish the project.  We were paying just interest on a "Rehab" loan.  There was no urgency on their part.  The General Manager had joked in March that it would take until August and sure enough it did - the end of August.  Uncertainty of when sub-contractors would show-up and how long they would take to finish even a minor task was frustrating.  Constant vigilance was required to ensure charges were correctly billed.  Overall, good quality but poor execution.  For example, we had a three tone stone wall installed around a fire place insert. York's people measured the opening incorrectly. When the mason came back to add the finish stone to cover the error, he used concrete colored finish block.  Ugly.  We had to have the mason back out, two weeks later, to stain the block. That escapade cost us over $1000.00.  Again, good quality but poor execution.

The York workers were very professional.  They were prompt, worked hard and did a fantastic job.  They even preformed some complicated math to make the border for the door curve around an existing light.  We were very pleased with the work performed and the way in which it was completed.,  We would definitely use them again for future needs.

Work was completed in a timely manner, great quality and very nice employees. Would not hesitate to hire them again.

The sales and investigative phase was good. 
Once the project got going the project manager was, at times, disrespectful to homeowners.
York had several security violations, leaving doors unlocked, etc.. where York took no responsibility or even apologized. 
Communication was poor to lacking when concerns were communicated to the general manager at York. We were made to feel like the enemy and not the customer. Excessive hours of my time were required to manage the project that I hired York to manage. 
York left a homeowner without hot water for over a week because of an electrical problem. York took no responsibility for the problem. The York solution was to make repairs to the electrical panel, with no guarantees for a fix, and with extra cost to the homeowner ($600-$2500). The homeowner's electrician found the problem, a loose wire, in 10-min. York's response was to criticize the electrician, implying that he was incompetent, and that the electrical panel was unsafe. York did not communicate to the homeowner that the panel was a problem until they could not fix the problem. After the fix, York threatened to send the HOA a letter that the panel was unsafe, that I felt was some sort of retaliatory measure. The letter was not sent. 
Bottom line: very nice sales job; we think and hope the plumbing work is good, sheetrock and paint are good, the communication and lack of responsibility appalling. Lots of excuses.....

Overall the quality of the work is excellent, which was our past experience. Slower than we'd planned but we're used to that now.
Good advice on counter tops (quartz since I do not like granite). Beautiful back splashes and the overall final product is great. Not cheap, but great. They are also good about not upselling, and about coming back after the work's done for minor issues (not uncommon with remodels). 
The only issue I have is that the person estimating the allowance for the backsplash was a nice young woman with limited experience and her work was not reviewed closely by Duke (by his own admission). The tile company said no back splash existed for the low price she estimated, which made the final price significantly higher than we'd planned. What made me  mad was Duke's unwillingness to "give" on this and discount the price at all or offer us some consolation (I suggested an under-cabinet light or two but no response). There is this edge of arrogance that I don't like, and that I don't find with anyone else from the company. It makes me wonder if someone else should take over the initial conversations for the bids.

Everyone I had contact with at the company was prompt in replying to messages, polite and professional.  The workers always showed up on time and got the job done in the time they said they would.  They cleaned up after themselves nicely.  I would definitely call on this company again for any future remodeling needs.

They were absolutely awesome.  I highly recommend them.  They said exactly what they were going to do when they were going to do it.  They were extremely kind to my mother who is 90+ years old.  They did a fantastic job too.  I would hire them again in a heart beat.

They have been very timely, very easy to work with as far as scheduling around my schedule. They ask questions that I hadn't thought of to make sure we end up with a nice end product, they have been very flexible.

They were super. They are very professional and all of their crew is top notch.

Replacement of barges on home

Pressure washing of home

Replacement of gutters on home and shed

Update (10/28/2013): I sent this review to the company and let them know I was posting it on Angies list. I did so they would know what I wrote, and would have a chance to let me know if anything was inaccurate. They quickly wrote me a note explaining that the owner would be calling me because it was not okay that I was so unsatisfied with the work, and they asked that I wait to post the review until after I spoke with them. They indicated in the email that they are always working to improve and appreciated my feedback. I wrote back to them saying I had already posted the review and I don't know how to take it down. I told them that I could update the review, if there was something that changed. I still have not heard from them, and its been almost three weeks. I guess their desire to make sure I was satisfied with the work was dependent on if I posted the initial review. Sad. 

Update (10/8/2013): This job was done while my wife and I were on vacation, and overall we were very satisfied with how everything operated while we were away. However, there was one hickup. We were told that they didn't order the vinyl flooring that I wanted from Home Depot because they thought it was in-stock. We had to make a choice from in-stock options or have them come back after a couple of weeks to install the ordered flooring. I opted to choose a similar vinyl a company had in stock. I decided to do this so there would be no more interruptions in the bathroom since both my wife and I work from home. Although we had to make this adjustment, I am happy with the flooring  that was installed. It looks really sharp. In addition, the tub surround, the tub fixtures, the new light, the electrical outlets, the toilet, and the drywall and texture job were pretty well done. One small problem happened with the vanity. The worker cut the whole too big for the vanity and had to do a patch job (Although I had to fix some streaks left from the mudding knife, the patch job was done pretty good.)

When we returned from our vacation, lots of garbage was sitting on the side of our house. I asked about this a couple of times and the worker and the project lead assured me that it would be removed the next time he was there. Finally when it was removed, there were many debris left that I had to clean up myself including wax from the wax ring under the old toilet that was accidentally smeared on the door to my crawlspace.

What follows is what tried my patience and is probably why I will not be asking York Enterprises to do any more work for me.

The trim and wainscoting was installed, but it was done like a DIY remodeler who knows nothing about trim and installing wainscoting. First, the trim he installed did not match the rest of the house. The wainscoting had a big bulge just above the sink. There were gaps in the trim from cutting them too short, and they were installed poorly. I pointed out the problems to the project lead and he assured me it would be fixed. So the trim was all repaired and looked good, aside from one piece still being too short and in a difficult place to caulk well. Thankfully it is behind the door. To fix the bulge in the wainscoting, the worker tried to jam more nails into the bulge to force it to flatten. He was finally successful after he purchased some old-fashion nails. After it was done it looked horrible. The worker told me that when I painted it, I would barely see it. We painted and it still looked horrible. We asked that it be fixed appropriately, so he came out again. Took off the a second time time and replaced the wainscoting. He replaced it, and this time he was able to do it without a bulge.

When he left there were still several things that needed to be done before painting could be finished. Nails needed to be sunk, holes in the trim needed to be filled with wood filler, and gouges in the wall needed to be repaired from where tools were used to remove the wainscoting, and some recaulking around the wainscoting needed to be done to make it look cleaner.  

What bothered me is that when I asked about this work being fixed. I was sent an email that I interpreted as follows:  Since I was trying to save money and paint myself, I need to fix those things myself because the painter would normally sink nails, repair gouges and do some caulking in preparation for painting. (Although I would normally expect that to be true, my problem was the gouges and calking problems were caused because the wainscoting and trim was not installed appropriately the first time. I felt that because it was a mistake that needed to be fixed, the consequences of the mistake should also be rectified. I guess I was wrong.  

I am capable of making the repairs and so I will make the repairs and pay York 100% of what they charged. If I complained again, I am sure York would have done their best to fix it, but I really did not want to go around with the worker or the lead again. It should have been done correctly the first time, or if it wasn't it should have been fixed like the mistake never happened, in my opinion.

After all York Enterprises states on their website that they are committed to "excellence and integrity."

We are just beginning our remodel; but have spent the past 18 months searching for a general contractor.  We looked at 4 different companies.  York won our business because:
1. They were recommended by a friend who is very picky
2. They were punctual, professional and specific during the bidding process
3. They text and email with the clients that desire it (we do)
4. Our architect was impressed with their knowledge and experience
5. They employ most of their workers and only use subcontractors for specific things, like tile and electric
6. Within 36 hours of signing the contract, they had their job supervisor (assigned only to our job) out to our home
7. Their contract spelled out exactly what work is to be done with our approval so there are no surprises
8. They offered to provide lien releases as work is completed
So, we have yet to see how this remodel will transpire.  We are beginning work in 2 weeks; but I have confidence in York Enterprises. I will submit another review when the job is done.

Using a garden hose we tried, and failed, to find the leak.  The plan was to remove the door and install a proper flashing over the top of the door and also on the bottom of the door to the deck stair.  The wood trim above the door was found to be rotted and all door trim was replaced and the flashing installed.  The crew worked approximately three days.  Each day the area was thoroughly cleaned and care was always taken to ensure no damage was done both inside and outside of the home.
They were professional in all respects and I would highly recommend them for small and large home repairs and remodels.

A little slower and took longer than planned but I've come to learn that's how it is with remodel. High level of integrity, good follow-through, pleasant staff and leadership. You get what you pay for.

UPDATE: UPDATE ON OUR BATHROOMS FROM 2011: Upgraded two bathrooms, replaced old doors with new ones. a few other things. 3 years later the flooring in one bathroom is coming up and we're being told "oh, it had to be maintained" but no one says what that means, nor were we told on completion of the job that we were supposed to be  doing something special with the floor and caulking other than what we've done in every house for 40 years. Now they want $600 to replace the floor. AND, since the kitchen remodel in the fall, one bathroom shower faucet makes noise; they tell us there's air in the lines. another problem.  Do these kinds of problems keep popping up after any remodel? We're tired of this!

Very professional from start to finish. The office staff was knowledgeable. The work crews were professional and  on time.  Work was completed when promised.

It went fantastic! Will definitely use them again!

They're very professional. They explained what they were going to do, and what needed to be done. They did a great job. I would definitely recommend them.

York Enterprises was very efficient. They had different people for every job and they had them all lined up so it was done pretty fast. They were all friendly and nice people as well.