Last summer we hired Living Space Improvements (LSI), Stephen and team, to renovate our Kitchen and main floor living area. The project was scheduled to be completed in 4 to 5 weeks time but ended up taking close to 10 weeks total. We were completely DISAPPOINTED and FRUSTRATED with the end results. The unlicensed electrical, plumbing and overall careless workmanship conducted was extremely unprofessional and performed by incompetent staff.
At the beginning of the project Stephen appeared to be very professional and knowledgeable. The quality of the work was in every aspect lacking in preparation, planning, quality control, and quality workmanship. In the end we were left having to spend close to $5000.00 to fix safety and quality errors that were not addressed by the Stephen relating to plumbing and extreme electrical problems. After numerous attempts to contact them via phone, email and text over 2 months we have heard nothing back!
In the beginning we were told by Stephen (and his designer at the time, Kailee) that all work would be performed by licensed and experienced workers. Our timeline went way over and with the aggressive payment plans we were sucked into giving the company thousands of dollars in advance. When we learned that LSI had walked away from other jobs owing clients money here in town (Stouffville) for unfinished or poor work quality, including a supplier (Aurora Marble), we got very nervous and had to monitor the rest of our project extremely closely.
On completion (?), we had to hire an electrical company to fix all of the wiring issues. As our house has some aluminum wiring we monitored the work very closely, especially when Stephen began to use devices not rated for aluminum wires in his connections. Also when issues were brought up directly to him we were told that they were not code issues, but were “wish list issues.”
In the final stages, we discovered that our 24 pot lights were not up to code (IC rated and a fire hazard with our attic insulation), and had to spend close to $4000.00 fixing their incompetent errors. No permits were taken out which LSI claimed they would do when we signed up initially. We worked with a licensed electrical company to monitor the situation and correct their potentially life threatening work once we realized what we had gotten into.
After the install of our new kitchen sink that Stephen himself hooked up, we discovered it was leaking. Stephen then fixed the piping using extreme amounts of silicone which was wrapped in about one entire roll of electrical tape. We had to hire a plumber to come and re-pipe the entire system.
The mudding, taping of the drywall, trim work and painting are poorly done and we will need to have our entire ceiling patched and painted. Stephen made several mistakes cutting the pot lights as he clearly didn’t measure and simply repacked our ceiling holes which are all showing!
When cutting for the floor boards for the vents, the boards were not measured and no standard size of vent would fit. What was supposed to be a 3 by 10 was nearly 6 by 12. We were required to repair this ourselves cutting from cut-offs to insert into the area to properly fit a register in. They also did not put an underlay under the flooring, which almost seems comical now as they have posted “How To” videos on their website recommending a vapour barrier, which is completely misleading with the work they did considering the manufacturer states a barrier is mandatory on their website.
During the renovation period Stephen would disappear days at a time claiming to be sick in the hospital, out of the country, or that he would not come to our house and work for free.
We are in complete SHOCK that they claim to have 20 years experience operating the way they do. We also never received our receipts for half of the reno payments. Finally, we do NOT recommend this company to anyway as it has been a very unpleasant and stressful experienced. They will take your money and run!
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