Moved to Calgary 2 years ago and purchased an 890sqft 2bed+1bath apartment that we had Frycor do a full renovation on. It was a time sensitive renovation and we had set some hard deadlines for when it needed to be completed. Ultimately they went over by about 2 weeks. We didn't have it quoted by any other companies because we were foolish. They were carrying the upfront cost of the renovation, as the additions were going to be rolled into our mortgage and we didn't have the capital to work with. This made us feel like we couldn't be as demanding with our expectations. The whole process started with them saying "if you want this done quickly, it's best to just stay away from the property while we work." Should have been a strong red flag. Over the course of the reno we did pop by frequently and made note of things that definitely did not seem 100% legitimate. For one, there was never a building permit that was posted on the property. Not sure if they got one and just didn't put it up, or if they didn't bother getting one at all. We also never received a detailed quote with specific line items and associated budgets. This led to a lot of surprises when we would be asked to choose fixtures etc. basically the day before installation and would have what felt like a very small budget compared to what we were paying for the whole project. During the progression of the work we did luckily catch a number of issues and had them sort of rectified before it was too late. Some things were never rectified though, like the fact that the grouting on our bathroom tiles was never properly cleaned off of the tile faces, leaving hundreds of chunks of impossible-to-remove grout all over the walls. They also never bothered putting in cement backerboard in the tub/shower surround, only water resistant drywall, which I know for a fact is going to be bad news down the road. They made promises about design decisions, but would call on the day that they were implementing those choices to tell us that they could no longer do it and that we have to figure out something else immediately so that they could continue working. For example, we were told that we could get an undermounted sink in the bathroom. Found out the day of that they weren't going to do it and that we now needed to choose a top mounted sink ASAP. Ultimately they still mounted the vanity at the same height that you would have an undermount sink though, so the now topmounted sink sat about 6" too high. Ultimately they just seemed negligent on the project. We ended up having to replace our floors a year later due to flooding and when we pulled up the boards found screws all over where we could feel lumps and bumps. They left our dishwasher out in -20C temperatures for days before they installed it. They didn't fully grout the tiles in our bathroom in places that you couldn't readily see, and they left spacers in the tiles and just grouted over them, but you can still see them everywhere. They installed our oven vent hood too far forward, which we caught and told them to move back. They left out our pot lights while they were painting, which ended up getting covered in paint, and we had to clean, but we could never fully clean them and they still installed them anyways in this condition. They oversprayed their wall painting onto our ceiling in several locations where it is clear that the colours are different. Once they were finished and we had a long list of deficiencies, they were very resistant on which things they would fix and we had to push hard to get most of the changes done. Throughout the year as we found other issues and tried to contact them to have the issues corrected under our 1-year warranty, it was like pulling teeth and ultimately we just stopped bothering to try. I'm fairly certain that we overpaid for the renovation. We rushed into it because we were under time constraints and they were willing to front the bill until the renovations were complete and the mortgage reimbursed the expenses. It was a hard lesson learned, but at least we know not to work with this company again. With all of this said, Jeremy was great and was always willing to go the extra mile when we asked him to.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $50,000.00
- Company Response
I am surprised by this review as you seemed very satisfied at the time. I am very sorry you feel that we took too much time, 5 weeks to do a complete condo renovation seems to be quite adequate. As far as asking you to stay away from the property, we had asked you and your wife to come by numerous of times to go over the details to ensure that you were getting what you would like.
As for the cement backer board you mentioned that was not installed in the tub/shower surround, Mold resistant drywall is a standard practice of installation around showers and have had no problems with this in the past. As well, ripping this and the tile out to install the cement backer board is not considered a deficiency.
The reason for the installation of the top-mounted sink that you state sits about 6" too high was due to the fact that you picked out a Ikea floating cabinet that didn't work with the buildings rough-ins.
The discolouration of the ceiling is not due to the overspray. Its because you had scraped the ceiling and its the old texturing was flashing through.
Once finished and we had a long list of deficiencies, you were very resistant on which things we would need to fix and we had to push hard to get most of the changes done.
Again, I'm sorry you feel this way, but if you remember correctly we came by and did not 1 but 4 deficiency walk-throughs with you and your wife as well as the repairs. There was tape on all the deficiencies and all were taken care of.
I'm glad you felt that Jeremy was helpful and willing to go the extra mile because that is what we at Fryor want to be known for and again we apologize for any frustration you may have felt.