I can only comment on our experience and it is as follows.
Our first impressions of the owners were very good. They assured us that they were open, honest and plentiful with communication. They seemed to understand that we had a budget that we needed to stick with and they had no real concerns with the scope of work for our budget. They were going to put a quotation together for demolition and reconstruction of our house. By starting in late August, Transform believed they could be completed before our December 18th requested completion date.
Everything was going great, we were excited to get our custom cabinets ...build by *** personally as indicated on their website. Heck their website even points out that:
...custom cabinetry in Calgary can increase your home value. They usually fit better in your home and offer a more unique and personal feeling that manufactured cabinets dont offer.".
We were in luck! None of those lousy manufactured cabinets used by other renovators.
We were still in the demolition phase when we became concerned with a lack of communication and building schedule. We only ever received 1 building schedule that covered 2 months of a 4 1/2 month renovation. From August 9th, to October 26th (11 weeks) they only managed to complete demolition and 12 work days according to their building schedule. When we requested a pause in construction and a statement of account, they walked away from our project with no notification until we heard from their lawyer and received a lien against our house.
During demolition/construction when we requested more communication and weekly onsite meetings we were told No news is good news and never got weekly meetings or more communication. Often our emails went days unanswered and requests for more information and clarification were met with snarky replys. We were told to just trust them and they would let us know if there were any problems.
As Transforms ...fixed and guaranteed price (according to their website) continued to climb we soon learned quotes remain the same but change orders drive up the price dramatically. Funny that all the change orders were always out of scope in their favour. Soon we needed to de-scope our entire basement (which was now demolished) and our master bedroom cabinets.
At this point we were becoming very nervous and afraid. We started to look much closer at the quotation and contract presented to us. Our contract had a 1 year warranty but their website had a 2 year warranty documented? They even have a PDF download of their 2 year warranty.
Weird.
In our quotation it indicates:
- supply and install new custom cabinets in the kitchen, laundry and all bathrooms, cabinets as per layout and design.
We then soon learned custom cabinets by their in-house cabinet maker ACTUALLY means cabinet doors, drawer fronts, as well as the drawer boxes are OUTSOURCED to a different cabinet manufacturer.
This is confusing as their website indicates:
As a certified journeyman cabinetmaker, all custom cabinetry requests are built by *** personally.
Their website also specifies:
"Our in-house cabinet maker sources local materials and personally handcraft every piece with pride and precision."
In an email we received from Transform it indicates:
*** is not only the contractor, but a journeyman cabinet maker that custom builds to fit your needs.
We found it interesting that personally handcrafted custom pieces from Transform came from somewhere else.
To date we have paid Transform $184,762.97 CDN and they never got so far as to have a final
rough-in inspection for electrical nor plumbing/mechanical. Framing required from the engineering report has not been completed as required. I have 2 used toilets sitting on my front driveway (since August) and refuse left in my yard that never made it into the renovation bin Transform removed.
I have attached pictures to show you what almost $185,000 will get you from Transform.
I will leave it up to you to decide if another renovator could do better.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $184,762.00