Purdy Renovations Inc.

Tayt came over to quote the job and spoke a good game, citing years of experience, trade acronyms, and tips he knew of to facilitate a job of this type. He stated they worked on one job at a time which meant our job would be done in a week instead of the 2 weeks everyone else who leapfrogged multiple jobs at a time were quoting. He was pleasant, prompt and professional.
They began the job a week earlier than originally agreed to take on a coupel small additonal jobs for us as well; installing MDF window casings and boxing in the stairs for drywall.
They started on time, but didn't bother to tell me not to remove a window in order to get 54" wide board into the basement. Removing the window took me a half day as I'd never done it, and now requires re-parging. they used 48" board which shocked me on the first day. Whatever.
They had a good approach to a couple tough "spots" to drywall, but their finishing was poor. They had someone over for many, many extra hours to get the finishing to a level which was still only what I could have done myself. then we noticed entire seams showing through mud, cutouts which are so large that electrical outlet tabs have ntohing to rest against ot spaces so large that mud is required to not have gaps between the wall and decora plates, assumptions about where baseboard would be placed resulting in sloppy finishing against stairs and a shower base and window casings which stick out from the wall so far I'll have to rent a planer.
The work was done within the specified contract window(2 weeks as opposed to the 1 week verbally put out), but on the last day of work our house key was left on top of a final invoice inside the house; no final walk- through was done with us.

Overall it's not quite a hack job but unless they're the cheapest quote you receive I wouldn't reccomend them. It's no better than the average handyman could do themself, only faster if you have to work during the day.

Followup to job completion- Feb.8/11
I'm not quite sure where to start. After fully paying out the contract and fufilling our end of it, we were unhappy with how Purdy Renos left our basement (visible seams, holes cut too large for junction boxes, wavy corners etc. We called Tayt back and all of a sudden an owner/operator has a customer service manager?!? This was on top of him hiring an independant drywaller to provide guidance to them? Hmm. He walked around our basement uttering "Oh my God, what did they do to your basement?" and "This really needs an entire re coat. I wouldn't be satisfied with this." Hmm again.
Anyway, when the CSM got around to calling us we found the worst violations, drew them up and made arrangements to fix them. His CSM told me stories of past employees poviding them with bad information how to drywall. Wait- what about all those years of experience you quoted having? Must not have been in drywall. Some of thre problems got fixed, some didn't. Some are worse than when they began (the hole for the light over the shower was cut sloppily, and has a large flap of drywall paper which seperated from the gypsum, and now has some sort of 'gorilla mud' on it too?). Some of the patches never got sanded.
It took me 4 days after the CSM was supposed to contact us and have a walk-through, when Tayt returned my calls stating "We're done". What? Where did 'Mr. Contract' go? What happened to "I'm not THAT contractor, Kevin. I promise you will be happy with this job when I leave, or I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy"?
He went as far as telling me I had to finish sanding the repairs myself. I had indicated there were more (I'm STILL finding clearly visible seams, cracks, and 'swiss cheese holes' every time I go down there) and he said he would not return to correct any defects.

SO I have a basement that looks like a group of overly ambitious teenagers completed it which I'm embarrsed to take people into, and a signed contract from Purdy Renovations to substitute for toilet paper.
He makes excuse after excuse "I have an email stating you're happy with it". Yes- from before completion. And "You waited almost 2 months to tell me". SO? 1) I emailed immediately afterwards and your wife resonded that you would use my listed deficiencies at that time to improve in the future, and 2) You have a 1 year guarantee.
The ONLY thing that should matter is a customer told him politley and clearly that they are not happy, and he refused to correct it. People like this should not be allowed to do business.

We're SO bitterly dissapointed. And if you read this Tayt, I gave you those cigars because during our talks, I said I would. Not because I was happy with the job. My word means something to me. I guess that's not the case for everyone.