In August 2013 we contacted EcoWest to come give us an estimate to have the front of our house done. When Aaron came to see us we liked him a lot, but we thought his prices were way to high so we had him come back and went over them with him. He came down roughly 10K in the estimate. He told us that the reno could start as early as middle of September but more likely October 7th. We kept contacting him to keep on the time line. This was the first hint of a problem. We were always the one contacting him, He never voluntarily contacting us with any updates. We had initially told him that we needed reno done before end of October as we were going away at the beginning of November to visit out son. They did not start the reno until October 28th when they sent two fellows over to start. When we had originally spoken with Arron he told us that they would cut the stucco. This was especially important on the soffits as the stucco was only coming off the soffit, not the side of the house. It was necessary to cut to keep the integrity of the angle to the side of the house. Well, this did not happen and as a result the stucco on the sides of the house became all chipped off unevenly and is very noticeable. The two fellows removing the stucco where not careful in their removal. They cracked all three window frames on the front of the house as well as a chip out of one of them. These windows had only been replaced a couple of years ago. We had told them we wanted to keep the screen door and frame from the front door to use it on the back. Well, they bent the frame and were not careful on its removal.With the removal of the stucco, it all ended up all over the garden on the front of the house. We had been led to believe that they would be putting down tarps or some such thing so that the mess was minimal and that it would be cleaned up on completion of the job.The guys doing it arrived without any tools so they used some of ours to pry, hammer, cut and smash the stucco off the front of the house and the soffits. There was damage done to the shingles on the roof when they tore down the old facia board. For some reason when they replaced the door they put a smaller door in. The had to come back and take that door, plus the new framing they had done, down and put in a larger door. This was the only part of the job that was done with any expediency. They also put a very large hole on one side of the house where they leaned a ladder up against the stucco and told us that we were responsible for the damage as it was something that could not be foreseen. They did repair it (telling us we needed to pay extra for the repair) but made a terrible mess of the repair, leaving stucco mud everywhere, even all over our ladder that they used to reach the hole. This mess was also never cleaned up. Ladder was left up against the house with mud all over it. We had our front stairs redone at same time, they put slate on them, but unfortunately, not sure if this was done right as there are several pieces of slate that have large indents in them where the water collects. The railings finally got installed this year. There were issues with removal of the old stucco which eventually got dumped into a bin in our driveway. All the mess that they had in the drive way, dust, dirt, stucco caused the drains in our driveway to clog up. We have heard noting from them since the railings where installed this year. The night before we were leaving we still had a bin in our driveway that needed to be removed so that we could move vehicles around. We had to threatened to have it towed away ourselves so they had a tow truck come at 9:00 at night move it from our driveway to the street until the next morning. We left for vacation on November 7th and someone was supposed to come the next week and clean windows and siding from the stucco dust. they never showed up and as we had someone staying at the house they expected to hear from them as to what day. no calls and no cleaning. when they finally showed up we had not turned on outside water. we had to ask them to come back as my husband was just about to go to an appointment and didn't have time to bleed lines. we hadn't done so prior as we thought they were supposed to be there between 8:30 and 9:30 and to be honest, we were going on past history of Ecowest not showing up, that we fully expected this would be the same story and weather had been so cold we were not going through the process for nothing. If they had shown up at time given us then there would have been plenty of time to turn on water. So, job started october 28th still not completed to our satisfaction. It is now left up to us to clean up the mess they have left behind. we have heard nothing from them in two months. What a disappointment. We started out with a very good feeling about Aaron and his company but have been truly, truly disappointed in the job. It looks great from a distance, but when you get up close, you can certainly pick out the problems. Unfortunately we would not recommend Ecowest to anyone else.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $20,000.00