Baeumler Quality Construction And Renovations Inc.

If you think you're getting a different kind of contractor or the quality and experience of the company's HGTV star when you hire BQC, you're not. BQC is just like everyone else in the industry: they over-promise and under-deliver. You're told during the sales process that they use a cloud-based software program to manage the project timeline and budget, but no one in the company appears to know how to use it properly, so after 2 months, the information shown is useless and out-of-date. We were also told that BQC 'owns' a cabinetry company, called Baeumler Custom Cabinetry (BCC). This is not true. BCC is a cabinetry design service only; all cabinetry is manufactured by a third party in Quebec, which created a number of problems throughout the project.

Where BQC really fails to deliver is in the selection and management of their trades. They claim to only use highly skilled, "Baeumler approved" trades, but several of the trades they used delivered sub-standard work. Much of our custom millwork is cracking and pulling away from the walls (which they claim is a humidity issue, not an installation issue) and the final bill for electrical work was more than twice the original quote (despite zero increases in scope).

The actual project timeline was 6.5 months, vs the original quote of 4.5 months. During the two month delay, there were stretches of several days (in a couple of cases more than a week) where there were no trades on site and no work performed. We're now more than 2 months past the date when we moved back in and we're still dealing with repair issues.

On the plus side, we found most of BQC's on-site personnel to be very pleasant and they generally want to do a good job. This statement does not extend to the company's senior management. The senior partner on our project never once called to ask how the project was going and never visited the site to assess the status of the project or quality of the work. The only times he came on-site were when we demanded a meeting to address concerns over the budget and/or timeline.

At the end of the day, I expected a company bearing the Bauemler name to be as capable and skilled as the personality we see on TV. Unfortunately this is not the case and I would never recommend them.