rating 1.8
Wilma from ErinPosted: Nov 20, 2021
Basement Renovation
Wow, don't even really know how to start reviewing this company. Shoma is very professional... At first. Our basement renovation was started in early January 20 21 and they had an empty house to work with as we were out of the country at the time. We had our daughter and son in law in town to more or less supervise the job. I believe Shoma gave us an 8 to 10.week timeline. We were the only job they were taking on. We last saw them the third week of May so it actually took them twice as long.
Cleanliness - no dust curtains or barriers put up anywhere. Our home was completely covered in dust. The trades used our main floor bathroom like an outhouse. We came home to empty toilet rolls lined up on the counter and a filthy sink and fixtures. When the trades ran out of toilet paper they simply went in search of more in our other bathrooms. I now know why people have outhouses at the end of their driveway during Reno's.
Project Management - Shoma comes off as very put together and articulate. That goes downhill quickly during the job. Having her respond to you is a chore in itself. Lots of personal drama comes into your renovation project and affects it. That's all I will say about that. Shoma would say she would meet up with our daughter on a certain day for flooring colours, paint colours. Very rarely happened. Most times the material was just dropped off without consultation. When you are not happy with something, be prepared for her to be outright rude. We asked repeatedly for drawings for our kitchenette and wall unit. Constant excuses about why Shoma could not get that done. In the end we had to settle for her little sketch. The cabinet makers still got it wrong.
Trades- 95% of the time unsupervised. Fireplace had to be completely redone as tiler did it while Keion was not there. Wrong French doors ordered and hung.
Shoma said we should put in linear drains in the two showers which we did. The tiler promptly grouted them in. They are not meant to be grouted in as the entire point is to be able to remove the debris basket. You can't do that if the Tiler grouted it in. He did so in both showers. When the shower was first used the bathroom floor completely flooded because of all the debris in the drain. It was there and then we realized it was a completely grouted and so we had to literally chisel the top free and remove the debris. It was completely full of grout and even the protective lining of the drain itself was still in place, We have yet to tackle the other drain.....
Trades used our garage as their work area (sawing, cutting) and left everything in our garage covered in dust. We came home to overflowing garbage cans and debris everywhere. The trades used our wet/dry vacuum and it was completely covered in dust, inside and out. Keion felt bad about that and said he would take it and buy us a new one. It was the last time Keion was ever at the house so we never saw him again or our vacuum. Still waiting for the new one to arrive!
We had a gym put in which has a mirrored wall. There is a crack in the mirror in the lower corner. It clearly came from the outlet cover being screwed on too tight (we had another contractor look at it). Shoma was told about it and her response was that it was not there when she left so that's on you! She finally relented and said the mirror guy was coming to fix it - he never did show up. Final insult - the receptacles in the mirror wall and side of gym don't work.....
I could go on but you get the gist. We finally installed the lights that were left hanging and will use our holdback money (not nearly enough) to fix outstanding items.
The floors seem to be fine and I think that's what they do best because they certainly are not renovators.