Up Front Renovations Inc.

We hired Up Front Renovations to renovate our basement into a finished studio basement apartment. We are so very pleased with the workmanship, the constant communication with Marlon, and the quality and cleanliness of the crew. From the very beginning, Marlon's very detailed quote set us at ease. He had great ideas and he was very up front with us. We could not be happier! The crew respected our home and they tried to keep the disruption of renovating to a minimum. Overall we would recommend them to our friends and family!

We hired Marlon and his crew at Up Front Renovations to replace a leaking shower in our ensuite washroom.

We were impressed with the quality of service and workmanship that we received. The crew was very conscientious towards keeping the rest of the house clean and useable during the renovation. The job was completed on time, and on budget. Marlon was continually checking in with us to provide clarification on the progress of the job and to solicit feedback from us. Our suggestions were valued and implemented in a timely manner.

We couldn’t be happier with the quality of service we received from Up Front renovations and would whole-heartedly recommend them to our friends, family and neighbours.

Marlon and his team were very good about demolition and keeping that process tidy and not ruining our hardwood floors when removing the material. From there, the project went from an estimated 3 week renovation to 9 weeks. That is when we asked them to leave our home and we would finish ourselves. Throughout the project there were many errors made which could not be rectified without ripping up the work and starting over. A knee wall to separate the shower area and sink/cabinet was off by 2" and the wall was not built "square". It was off by almost an inch from one side of the room to the other. This was never noticed by Marlon as the "project manager" but by my husband. By that time, the bathroom had been partially tiled. The tiler, Brian, was easy to work with but very, very slow. Marlon did not seem to have the staff or contacts to properly perform this work. He had the tiler install items such as the shower drain and complete the drywall taping, mud, and sanding (our ceiling has a large thick seam which was never sanded and simply primed), as well as install the bathroom cabinet and prepare for the plumber. When this piece was completed, the drywall behind the cabinet had not been finished or painted and the cuts/holes made to the shelves inside the cabinet were butchered. Besides the knee wall being in the wrong location and not straight, the linear shower drain was crooked, many of the tile cuts were off - we had niches put in the shower to hold bottles and they are slanted inward so all of the water pools and leaks. Much of the grout is already starting to fall out too! We have recently had an issue with rain shower head leaking as the tile was cut too tight to the pipe and the shower head could not go on straight so they mis-thread the head to make it fit. We have pictures of all of the shoddy work and could not be more upset or disappointed with a renovation that we saved years for. Some of our new items were damaged and dented. We thought we had done our homework, we interviewed 6 contractors and unfortunately made a very bad choice. At the end of the day, Marlon still had the audacity to show up to do a "deficiency" inspection. He acknowledged the very poor structural, design and finishing, however demanded the final payment on the contract and left us with a mess. We had to hire a construction cleaning crew to come in and try to get grout off of existing tiles and windows and clean. My husband and I both wish we had never renovated our bathroom to begin with. Attached pictures are only a sample of the terrible workmanship and we have many more. We simply would like to save others the upset we just encountered.