Albany Home Improvements

The work performed by Michael was of good quality. He did go over budget and it did take a lot longer than aticipated, however, he did communicate with us on a daily basis and if he didn't show up, he always called to explain why. He was clean and considerate. The work turned out very well, and frankly compared to all of our other contractors, he was the most reliable. I hired him again to build another deck and open an exterior wall. He did the job on time and was within his orginal quote. Not a penny over. He is good, but needs a short leash and it's important to talk to him on a daily basis. He hired good trades, the electrical work was of excellent quality, and the person he hired to do the plaster mouldings did beautiful work that cost less than we thought (a 1,000 sf room with many angles was $1,600 for large ceiling plaster mouldings).He is not as experienced as some other contractors, but if you're doing a smallish job, or building a deck, I would call him.

OK - First the contractor - Michael Cooke is not a contractor. He did not communicate with the cabinetry people and even though given a plan did not follow it. List of issues: Took down a wall - put it back up and the important corner where the cabinetry was to go was not square. He was asked to move a heating duct and vent and "forgot" to put the vent back in - this cost us more time and money and the vent can no longer be in the wall or use the original cast iron wall cover. The trim work was put on without being sanded - it was very rough. A shelf on the pass through was not level and he told me it would cost me $1000 to fix it - even though it was his mistake. Then in the next hour he gave me a bill for at least 30 percent more than the original estimate including a bogus PST claim. At this point the work was still not finished. This was one month after I asked for an accounting of the budget. We renegotiated the contract including an incentive for finishing the work early and a disincentive for finishing late - even though he signed this contract he finished late, was rude and did shoddy finishing work. We finally agreed he was "finished" to get him out of the house. It cost us more money to finish his work properly. We were told the work would take 4-6 weeks. It took over 3 months. I am sure there are worse contractors out there but as far as I am concerned this was a very frustrating experience.