Burlington Contractor

For our small basement bathroom renovation (11 ft by 8 ft), we hired Burlington Contracting (also called Burlington Contractor it appears). The actual name of the business is Burlington Contracting and Investment and Import and Export Inc., and we have since learned this business name was only registered in August, 2012.

We were completely unsatisfied with Burlington Contractor's (Burlington
Contracting) work and terminated his services before our bathroom
renovation was complete. We have filed a complaint with the BBB and they
have given the company a D+ rating.

The work on our basement bathroom renovation began on November 14, 2013. By December 16, 2013, the project, which was to take two weeks to complete, was still in the drywalling stage. Muro (actual name is Murat) of Burlington Contracting promised the job would be completed before Christmas.

At this point the bathroom was nowhere near completion, and we had already paid out $12,020. We were compelled to stop the project because we had number of concerns and complaints, including Muro not being able to produce a comprehensive project plan (despite MANY requests for one), numerous instances of not following what had been agreed to as far as layout, and poor written and oral communication with Muro that resulted in time delays and much frustration.

The images below show what Muro completed after four weeks and $12,020 in payment: roughed-in electrical and very roughed-in drywall. NO shower, NO tiling installed, NO vanity installed, NO toilet installed, NO doors, NO laundry sink installed. Not even our washer and dryer was put back in its place. The last time we spoke to Muro in person, on Dec. 16, 2013, about the costs, he yelled at us that he does not keep receipts and would not be able to provide information about the project’s costs.

Here are some excerpts from the BBB complaint we filed against Burlington Contracting. We encourage you to go to the BBB site and get the full accounting of this project. The complaint’s status is “unresolved.” We are now taking our case to the Ministry of Consumer Services.
1. At the very first visit to quote on the project, we asked Muro if he could complete this project by Christmas and he said “yes.” By the time we stopped the project, he claimed to have no knowledge of any timeline for it.
2. During demolition, Muro and his crew only took down half the drywall in the room. When we insisted that it all be taken down as per the quote, Muro wanted to charge an additional $500 on top of the $1,500 quoted for that part of the project.
3. After repeated requests to Muro to produce a project plan, he asked us – his client – to draft one up. We spent hours itemizing all the work to be done and the materials to be used. Despite that, Muro did NOT appear to follow this plan at all; in fact, many of our requests were disregarded and no explanation was ever provided unless we asked Muro directly. The description of the project that Muro eventually supplied was poorly written, hard to understand, and full of errors.
4. Despite telling us that he would be use a licensed plumber and electrician to complete the plumbing and electrical work, once the project began Muro told us he would be doing all the work himself. We made repeated requests for proof of certification and licensing needed to upgrade the electricity and plumbing. When Muro failed to provide this we insisted on bringing in a licensed contractor for the electrical and plumbing. Muro has made this his central excuse for the delays in the project, but in fact it caused only a two-day delay, and it was because Muro had to find licensed tradespeople to come in to do the job.
5. After having to break up the old concrete floor to rough in the new plumbing, the new concrete was not properly poured. It is now crumbling and uneven around the area where the toilet is to be located.
6. We had requested the installation of a pocket door between the bathroom and laundry room. Muro claims to not have been aware of this fact until Dec 13, 2013, when in fact it had been noted in our emails and verbally with Muro on several occasions and is noted in his original estimate.

As can be seen by the above concerns, we think we were MORE than justified in terminating this contract. We were very concerned that if we continued to work with Burlington Contracting (Contractor), not only would the project not be completed on time, but it was very likely that more mistakes would be made with the rest of the job, and that these could be very costly to fix. Consumers, be warned.