House renovation and extension
It is not really our style to give 10/10s but based on our experience with East-to-West Carpentry vs. other contractors, it would be impossible not to give this rating. Simon managed a major renovation on our house involving a 90% gut including removal and rebuild of the back half of the house (essentially all but 4 of the original rooms in our house are new). When we approached Simon to do some finishing carpentry we had a general contractor lined up to take us to lock-up (i.e. demolition, excavation, foundation, framing, sheeting, doors, windows) and we were going to take it from there (in terms of general contracting). When that contractor backed out we asked Simon if he wanted to quote on the lock up and he said yes. Because his quote was competitive in terms of price and the best in terms of promised service (i.e complete project management including management of the plumber and electrician that we had already hired), we decided to go with him. As the project progressed Simon gained our complete confidence and we ended up giving the whole job to him.
East-to-West Carpentry is completely competent and professional and are a shining example of how this type of business should operate. Communication was completely open and honest throughout the project so that we always felt we knew exactly what was going on and why (even when there were problems). The quality of the work was impeccable and we certainly feel that we got the best value for our money. Overall, Simon and East-to-West made the renovation as low stress as one possibly can for a project of this scope. Below are some of the extraordinary highlights of his performance.
1) At the beginning of the project we notice the architectural and engineering diagrams were deficient with one of the bathrooms designed to be about 5 feet in height and insufficient support beams. Simon redid the design turning the bathroom into a mechanical room and the mechanical room into the bathroom and did all the work for the engineer so all he had to do was sign off on the changes.
2) When we noticed our plumber placed a bathroom drain on the wrong side of the wall (i.e. in the living room rather than the bathroom) at 7:00 pm the night before they were scheduled to pour the foundation, Simon didn’t flinch - he dug up pipe and got the plumber back in at 6:00 am to fix it before the concrete truck arrived on schedule.
3) Relationship management with the neighbours. Simon seemed to know all our neighbours by name and they all seem to like him – no complaints.
In the final analysis, East-to-West Carpentry is the real deal. They got all points covered including cost, quality, timing and reliability and it is unlikely that you can do much better. We recommend East-to-West to all are friends with 100% confidence.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $400,000.00