Horrible Experience - DO NOT USE - BEWARE
This was unfortunately a horrible experience. I would strongly recommend against using Greystone Custom Homes/Greystone Projects in Calgary and area. This was my first Renovation of any kind and Ed seemed great from the start, very nice guy, personable and had the availability to do the project.
I will do my best to keep this concise but, I'm sure from what I list you will make the smart choice and find a company that will have higher reviews and no risk.
Our contract stated 3 months to completion at the very high end. It took over a YEAR for things to be finally completed. Working with them and getting them to come in on time and fix problems was just impossible. They would say "We will be there next week" and it would never happen.
My bathroom sink was ripped out of the wall rather than professionally removed, the wall was not fixed (drywall replaced, holes mudded etc) but, was just painted with 2 large holes and ripped up drywall still in place.
Painters spilled paint in many areas, on lights, on carpet, on the flooring but, after over 10 requests to have their team come in to fix and every time a "Yes, we will get this tomorrow/next week" it was never done.
They went absurdly over budget. To give a fun example. It was made clear to not go over in the electrical area as I would have reviewed and looked at other options. We were quoted $1,500. Everything was agreed. (Fair disclaimer we did talk about certain adders but, the overage consultation was always made clear that when we got to $1,500 we would speak). When I got my first invoice (well after the whole project should have been done) the Electrical portion was ~ $4,000. We had to ask them to not bring the electrician back and brought in our own people to finish because they still were not even close to finish. It took multiple full days to finish what they left outstanding.
We asked to have ONE bathroom fan replaced (cost estimated was "a few hundred"...Sure, we knew it absolutely needed to be replaced so gave the go ahead. Got the first invoice and were charged $1,800 because they decided to replace all of the fans in the house without telling us, or us even being able to verify that they needed to be replaced.
After a year of dealing with this there were still multiple issues outstanding (paint problems, dip in the flooring that was bad, sink ripped from wall not fixed, and more) that had not been done. We were pestered to pay the final invoice which we held back 10% until the final parts were complete. They had not been in our house for months. At this time we gave them one last chance to look at what was left, give us a solid time to complete, and get it done. Since they had not been in or done any work for months their time to place a lien on the house had expired. We had a meeting at the house to show what needed to be done with the explicit agreement that no work was to be done and this was just a contract discussion (this was recorded for proof). He came, looked and we had a great plan. Again I was hopeful that we would be able to walk away happy.
We received an email after a LONG wait...that met none of the expectations we had discussed. I asked for some clarity around it at which point I was told that we had not spoke about any of this....and by the way we put a lien on your house. I could not believe that they did this when they clearly had went much past their ability to do this.
At this point I gave up...I had enough of dealing with them...it was not worth the stress. I paid the bill and now have to fix everything else on my own.
Again, Ed definitely was a very nice man but, I feel much of it was completely fake. They went close to a year over in time, over budget with no discussions, and did not conduct themselves in an ethical manner at all. There are much better companies to use...do not risk ending up in the same position I did. Please beware.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $90,000.00
- Company Response
We have built our reputation on taking care of our clients, but in this case we came up short but not for a lack of trying. We have always felt strongly about taking care of our clients in the over 250 projects we have completed. In this case, we are not sure what more we could have done and the end result was a fairly strong feeling the clients were looking to not pay the full invoice, no matter what we did. We can address a couple of points for reader clarification. Clients were back into their house within 4 months of starting the project including the Christmas break. We kept them up to date on time line and progress. As part of the agreement the house was supposed to be empty until completion, but they had people staying at the house during the latter part of the project and did not notify us. With the electrical costs, during the electrical walk thru, the clients added a number of items to the project scope but then did not want to pay for the additional items when invoiced. In trying to take care of our clients, we did not charge them for the extra items and charged them only their budget amount. They decided they would have a friend finish the electrical items. We were instructed to replace faulty items in the walls and ceilings, even if they were not part of the project scope. We replaced all of the bath fans in the house as they were not connected properly, running properly or not working at all and would cause issues in the future. Going on the instructions received, we replaced the bath fans. When it came time to pay the invoice, the clients did not want to pay the invoice. We ended up splitting the costs of the invoice, to try and take care of the clients, even though we were following their direction. The bolts on the powder room sink were rusted and locked in place. The only way to remove the powder room sink was to pull it from wall, in order to save it for re-use. The holes were patched anywhere the sink would not cover and then holes left where the original bolts were located. The homeowner was using a friend for the plumbing so we did not re-install the sink into the original location. We did offer to patch the holes, which would be covered by the sink. We also offered to install the sink, to make sure the holes were covered. Neither seemed to be an acceptable outcome. The dip in floor was an issue created from the original builder putting a bearing post on the subfloor without blocking under the subfloor. In order to properly fix the issue the subfloor would have had to be removed, which would have damaged the joists and added more cost. The clients did not want to do this, so we leveled the floor as much as we could. The flooring had a slight dip in this area, but without replacing the subfloor, could not be level. We could have leveled the floor with a leveling compound, but would have added more cost. Clients were involved in the discussion and final decision. We offered on 15 different occasions to fill in the sink holes and take care of any paint issues and provided a couple of options for the floor dip. The 15 different offers were never at a time which worked for the clients, even though they were during the day, evenings and weekends. We also met on three different occasions to discuss the few outstanding issues, even offered to bring the trades with us to the meetings, which was rejected. We always had a plan but then when the dates were provided, they were never acceptable to the clients. This took over 8 months of trying to get the last couple of items completed. After our last offer to take care of couple of issues, we were told they would take care of it themselves.