The Home Improvement Group - THIG

The Home Improvement Group was hired to manage demolition, drywall, painting and tile for our kitchen renovation. I have outlined a few of our problems below, trying to be completely factual and withholding the frustration felt while working with them.

1. Item was missed in the initial quote. Finally get a quote by phone. No problem. Several days later, get quote by email - it is significantly higher. A 12x12 area of popcorn ceiling was eventually going to cost me over $3,000. It took less than a day to remove the popcorn, plaster and paint. Price seemed excessive. The part that I had done by someone else was less than 1/3 the price quoted by THIG. Make sure that you get all prices firmed up - with EVERY detail listed - before you sign anything.
2. Inadequate workmanship. A portion of our ceiling meets up with a higher ceiling and the drywall patch was done incorrectly. The initial contractor did not put in any corner bead and now the ceiling looks warped and wavy. After 3 attempts by THIG painter, I gave up. In order to correctly finish the area, the drywall would need to be removed and completely redone.
3. Demolition dragged on. Demolition was scheduled to take 3 days. It took 2.5 weeks. The contractor responsible for this area sent an inexperienced employee for the first couple of days. When someone experienced finally did show up they would only stay for 2 hours a day. After 2.5 weeks the contractor left - meanwhile there was still debris all over the floor, drywall unfinished and other items not even started. After several promises for completion, I gave up on one item and I was still required to pay the project management fee.
4. Painting done before demolition and drywall complete. All of the plastic protecting the bedrooms from dust needed to come down. It also meant that the fresh paint was covered in drywall dust. I expressed my concern several times before the painter came and was promised repeatedly that the demolition and drywall would be completed before the painter came. The main reason that I hired THIG, and paid the Project Management fee, was for the coordination of trades.
5. Be wary of Material estimates. Actual costs ended up being over double the estimated price - estimated $710, actual $1638. The scope of the project never changed. With the actual price being so high, comparing quotes becomes very difficult.

I gave THIG a 1 because I thought the tile guy did a good job. I also liked the painter, but he had the impossible task of trying to fix the ceiling mistake left by the drywall contractor.

Overall, I would not recommend the Handy Person Services of THIG because of they did not meet their own service standards; although, the quality of the work was largely acceptable. I chose THIG because of their i) stellar HomeStars rating, and ii) favorable expected start and finish date. Administratively and logistically, it took longer to get a quote than expected (72 hours is their standard), we waited a week. Thinking it was just a rough start, we pushed hard to sign the contract and begged the company to take our deposit so that we can get scheduled in. All this took 3 weeks.

A competing firm, THIG sales manager, and the handyman assigned to us all opined that 2 full days of work would be adequate to complete most, if not all the work. After three full days (spread over 2 weeks), and with a reduced scope, we are roughly 75% done. It's frustrating having to make arrangements to get so little work done over so many weeks. I'm not an expert, so I would leave it for readers to assess the timelines and the work completed:

Day One [Contractor 1]: Paint single single door exterior frame, fill one brick size hole in exterior wall, install house numbers and mail box, screw down closet door track

Day Two [Contractor 1}: Install two drain covers in the basement, create backwater valve cover in the basement floor, add floor transition between hallway and bathroom, and remove one protruding nail from cabinet

Day Three [Contractor 2]: Install 4 closet floor guides and 7 closet pulls, 4 toilet paper holders, and 2 towel bars

My contact was Les Jarosz and he was wonderful to work with: quick to come by and provide estimate, prompt to respond to my inquiries and very solutions oriented. The job took a bit longer than expected because there were a few errors done with the first person we worked with (overall the job was done 90% to our satisfaction). I should specify that the job
was not simple: old house, we knocked down a couple of walls to open it up, so there was lots of drywall to replace, match with existing old drywall, then lots of plastering to make everything uniform. When I contacted Les to explain my concerns, he immediately scheduled an appointment for him to come by with his ACE painter Fabio and he assured me the issues would be resolved to my complete satisfaction. Fabio did a wonderful job in resolving all issues and I am incredibly happy with the results. Any company can occasionally experience quality issues. It's how they respond that differentiate the so-so companies from the great ones. And with how THIG responded, I would not hesitate to work with them again nor to recommend them.

Than was our handyman. He was very friendly and efficient and was able to complete all of our requests. He takes pride in his work. Booking our service was also a good experience. Very professional and trustworthy company

Although we are not proceeding with THIG, it is more reflective of finding an excellent competitor who better fit our schedule than it is any shortcomings of THIG.

Patrick was courteous and responsive in coming to the site to meet us and prepare an estimate. He had to come back with someone with more subject matter expertise and quickly submit a revised quote for the project.

Even though we went with a competitor, I would recommend that you give THIG an opportunity to bid on your project as they are competitive on price, provide very good customer service, and have a large network of trades they can bring in on projects which allows them to manage many concurrent projects with good project management oversight.

The vendor of our $3000 replacement fiberglass front door blew it. Instead of making it in dark walnut inside & out, they made the inside in white. In truth they should have remade it and eaten the wrong door but offered the door to us for just the $300 deposit. We figured that we could try to stain or paint the inside. Our research told us that it was possible but not easy.
We found the Home improvement Group and spoke to Melanie. She thoroughly researched the project found out what was needed. She discovered that the job would require a skillful and experienced painter and she needed some time to match the job. She shared what she discovered with us and sent us a link to a video describing the job and how to do it. She recommended Perfect Painters and specifically one of their most experienced painters, Fabio to do the job. She told us it would require two separate half days with a few days apart to do the job. We accepted the price and set a scheduled. Fabio showed up right on time and did an outstanding job. He's a really nice man who explained each step of the process. The door looks absolutely terrific.

The job was not big, but the Home Improvement Group treated me as though it was. Very professional, timely service, and very talented workers.

We have used Home Improvement Group for various projects around our house, from stair repair and refinishing, painting, deck repair, garage repair, stone work and tuck pointing. Les Jarosz is our contact there. He is professional and honest and we enjoying working with him. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them (and have) to all my friends and family.

I contacted Charlie last fall about renovating our eyesore of a detached garage. We'd hired Charlie's company (Mr Rescue) for a number of jobs over the past few years and were always very happy with the results. Charlie gave me a quote for what the job would be but, unfortunately, he sold the company and left before the work began this spring. He was good enough to text me to give me a heads up. I'm disappointed he left because I liked working with him.

Once the work began there were a couple of added charges that I was surprised by and this put us over budget.

The guys who did the work (Than, Juan, Arek and Karam) did an amazing job. Than, in particular, often worked diligently on the project even when it was raining outside. Arek, who also built our deck with Than last summer, came back a number of times to fix details I was not initially satisfied with. They all were very attentive to my requests and did their best to make the garage look great.

There was a bit of a delay in picking up the debris created by the project but at the end of the day we are very happy with the way our garage now looks. The end result surpassed our expectations.

First Patrick came to look at the job we wanted done and gave us a quote and also checked in after the job was done. Juan was here to fix the walls and install quarter rounders along the staircase. He did a fantastic job. After the prep the painter came and also did an excellent job even though he missed a small spot. We are also glad that they worked without leaving a mess. All three were very polite and friendly and we are very happy with our beautiful walls and their service.