i hired 310 reno to renovate a second bathroom on the second floor of an old victorian townhouse in toronto. the reno was scheduled to take place over a few weeks in august / september 2012. the reno included: 1) removal of an old bathtub and conversion to a stand-up tiled shower with a glass screen, 2) replacement of floor tiles, 3) replacement of wall tiles with drywall, 4) replacement of toilet, and 5) replacement of vanity / sink
i have very mixed feelings about 310 reno, as they did perform some things very well. on the positive side, 1) they were very responsive to provide a detailed quote and spent time walking through exactly their process / timing, 2) they were very transparent regarding their pricing, where the costs were, and what would cause them to increase, 3) they scheduled a very fast start date that worked for our schedule, 4) they guided us to tile / fixture retailers where their name as a contractor would lead to attractive prices (15 - 20% discounts), and 5) when actually doing the work, they were very careful and conscientious - they kept things very tidy and did not damage any parts of the house, even during demolition and scrap removal. also, importantly, 6) the finished bathroom looks very good and we are fairly pleased with the final result. 7) they stuck to the original budget and there were not any cost surprises...
However, the process to get there, and the resulting mess we still have in our kitchen (below the bathroom) to me is unacceptable and led to the relatively negative review score.
on the negative side: 1) nicolas as a project manager, while a nice guy, he does not inspire confidence at any point in the process - we were often left with the feeling that he was not paying attention to detail and that we would end up disappointed - which we were. specifically, he was not a great communicator, and often times when he said they would show up on a specific day, they would not turn up (with no follow-up or notice). also, he missed a number of instructions during demo (ie: they discarded our sink faucet, which we instructed them to keep - to their credit, they replaced the faucet at their cost), he missed some instructions related to the tile direction (which, while it looks fine completed, was installed incorrectly), and three they made some finishing mistakes that i can't quite understand (ie: they installed a rainfall shower head at the same height of a traditional shower faucet so that the rain head came out of the wall at shoulder height. they came back to fix the height (as there was plenty of clearance), though the relatively expensive wall tiles look a bit unfinished where they had to cut them to move up the faucet - not a big deal if that was the only issue).
perhaps more frustratingly, the purpose of the entire renovation was due to leaking from the plumbing / old tub that we noticed in the kitchen below. we were insured by 310 reno that during the renovation project that they would repair the leak and we wouldn't have to worry going forward. unfortunately, the first time we had guests use the new stand up tile shower, we noticed fresh leak stains on the ceiling of our kitchen below (we knew they were new because the faucet of the shower had changed walls in the bathroom, and the leak stains moved an equivalent distance on the ceiling of the kitchen). when questioned about the leak, 310 reno waited over 2 weeks to respond (following a number of purposely polite voice messages to nicolas) to have a plumber come in an examine the problem (i suppose once they've cashed the final payment, its no longer quite the priority).
upon review, the plumber said that there was not a problem with the renovation, yet the next time the shower was used, leak stains reappeared. the issue, it seemed, was that during the renovation, the floor tiles around the outside of the shower had not been sealed, and water run-off outside the shower was leaking down to the kitchen. again, to their credit, 310 reno came in to seal the floors and did a nice job of it. they also said they would fix the water stains on the ceiling of the kitchen.
the day they turned up to do the work, we returned to a nicely finished bathroom (albeit this was the end of november, well after the 3 weeks they quoted at the start of the process in august) and the kitchen drywall had indeed been patched. however, the drywall patch was never finished and is still exposed waiting to be sanded down and repainted. 310 reno was not heard from again...
so, in conclusion, we 1) have a nicely renovated working bathroom, 2) it was very painful getting there, long overtime, and 3) we still have an ugly mark on the ceiling of the kitchen, it just moved over 3 feet from where it was before we paid $10k (in labour) for the bathroom renovation....
