seegz

We contracted with Cactus to remove part of existing deck and build a new porch (deck material) and patio stone in the backyard. The project had some hiccups, including damage to our irrigation system and a misalignment of the deck positioning. With that being said, Kirill and the team addressed all the issues. This is a younger company that does good work, but I think would benefit from a few minor process updates to their projects. They provide clear and detailed contracts but I think including drawings would be helpful. Some of the miscommunication was because the team working on the project did not have accurate drawings that we had seen and could communicate. Some of the workers did not speak English either so having a picture with detailed measurements would be helpful. Secondly, the workers go fast, which I understand why they need to, but it did cause for some sloppy work that had to get fixed near the end. It all got fixed and we're happy, it just could have been avoided in the first place. Overall we're happy with the end product.

We had a racoon access our finished basement ceiling. We knew that the racoon was accessing it via some sort of old vent or access point under our backyard deck. We called SWAT to investigate and Randy came to visit and immediately saw evidence of a racoon under the deck but since he could not visibly see the access vent he pushed me fencing off the entire deck area or installing a one way door at one entry point. I ended up paying $500 for a one way door on one access point under the deck but the racoon continued to visit our home without every leaving through it. When Randy came back to remove the one way door, he realized that there were many more way to access under the deck but he already got my $500 so who cares I guess. Randy inspected the basement, said he saw no evidence of a racoon in there and he thought it was a male that was just exploring once and left. A few days later we heard some weird chirping noises in the basement...turns out mom moved in and had babies in our ceiling. I called a second company to come and investigate. They were able to remove the babies and mom, find the actual access point under the deck and seal it and seal up all other entry points around my house. I learned several reasons why using SWAT was a mistake through this experience. 1) SWAT does not offer any sort of guarantee, whereas the other company is providing me a lifetime guarantee for their work against all animal intrusion. 2) The other company immediately rejected any idea of fencing off my entire deck as a waste of money. SWAT kept pushing me to do this which, with no guarantee, tells me they care more about getting paid than actually solving the issue. 3) There were many access points into the house that SWAT did not notice or care to even attempt to call attention to. Maybe part of their strategy is to ensure that animals can access my house so they keep coming back to remove them? I am shocked that SWAT has such high reviews on Homestars based off of my experience.

We hired Encore to paint prior to moving in to our new house. Original scope included all bedrooms, living room, dining room, and drywall repair. We added the family room and some other walls the day the work began. We had a tight timeline for a lot of work and Encore worked day, night and weekends to get it done! The duo who led our project were respectful, neat, provided excellent communication and worked very hard. I would 100% recommend Encore for painting.

Small renovation job in our Victoria house to remove a window and replace with drywall. The crew was polite and cleaned up when they were finished. The job was finished ahead of schedule, which was a nice bonus. Louis was great to work with and would not hesitate to recommend him.