Northshore Bathrooms and Flooring/North Shore Design Centre/MLD Signature Series
Our experience with Northshore Design Centre/Northshore Bathrooms and Flooring/MLD Signature Series Renovations started out with lots of big plans, guarantees and promises made by Mitchell but turned into a nightmare. We specifically wanted someone to oversee and co-ordinate our renovation and were prepared to pay for that service as the house being renovated is on the Sunshine Coast and we were living in Greater Vancouver at the time.
After 27 weeks of a proposed 8-10 week renovation, having paid $106,000 to the Northshore Design Centre, specifically Mitchell, the 3 major areas of renovation were not complete and there are deficiencies in every room of the house left from the renovation. No shower glass, no bathroom hardware; an unfinished IKEA kitchen, 25% of which we’ve had to supply, install or reinstall ourselves; flooring in two rooms not done; no doors on our bedroom that is open to the living room and windows facing to the street (because we said no to doors that were too short and too wide for the opening); transitions on top of stairs and from master bath to bedroom not supplied or installed; the carpet his workman installed on the stairs we’ve had to have replaced due to shoddy workmanship; we’ve had to pay an extra $2,000 for the completion of the painting of the house on top of the $5,400 we already paid Mitchell to have the house completely painted, inclusive of repainting with actual finishing paint as the paint Mitchell had supplied to the previous painter for the majority of the house was in fact ceiling paint, alike to primer, plus repainting of all bathrooms using paint specifically for the dampness in bathrooms, not previously used.
16 weeks after we moved in Mitchell and his trades having been here a total of 9 days only during that 16 weeks, and when we questioned the renovation not being finished, he blamed us for not understanding renovations, even though months went by without one workman being sent here to bring the reno even close to completion.
Mitchell’s modus operandi - proven by many repeated instances - is to promise what he can’t or has no intention of delivering to get your money; to abandon a task when he comes up against a problem that requires some thought or problem-solving skill to resolve; not to answer client communications and questions and then to blame the client for communicating too frequently; to take zero responsibility for anything that goes wrong with the renovation, passing the blame to everyone else... his employees, his trades, his suppliers, his tools, his supplies, his clients; to contradict himself and what he has said constantly; and to deliver shoddy and unfinished work requiring finishing, repair or redoing. Even his own trades who worked on our job told us we did not get what we paid for.
Mitchell became very personally insulting in his communication with us, using foul expressions and language and speaking rudely to me in front of workers and to my spouse about me.
Not once did he send a text, email or document within the timeframe he promised, sometimes not at all. We asked for budget updates throughout which were never provided and he has still not sent us the promised 2 year warranty or any receipts for installed items. We have already paid out close to $1500 on what are warranty issues.
We have no doubt Mitchell will answer our review with denial, personal insults and by blaming others, but even he admitted in final discussions that he had dropped the ball and lost focus on our renovation and that it suffered for it. Admitted it, but still kept monies for supplies and services not completed.
We urge you that you do more research than we did, and you can then decide if you want to take the risk of hiring Northshore Bathrooms and Flooring/MLD Signature Renovations. He MIGHT be good for one straightforward bathroom renovation, thus some good reviews, but definitely nothing more complicated than that, and even then, you definitely are not guaranteed. Many of the posted positive reviews are from people who previously worked for the company, friends of his or are at least 3 years old.
All photos attached show just a fraction of the examples of what our home looked like when Mitchell said it was complete and demanded completion payment and threatened us when we did not want to pay the last 7.5% of the overall cost with 20% of the contracted renovation not complete. He even increased the cost of several things after they had already been completed and paid for at an agreed price. No shower glass or window; 90% light switches or power terminations not covered; top of stairs not finished; kitchen undercabinet lighting paid for and not installed; shoddy finishing around kitchen pantry cupboard; all mouldings and baseboards either not installed, poorly installed (even used different thickness of baseboard on one wall!) or not filled or painted; his trusted (as he called them) sub-contractors patching of over spray of the wall spray they used on the ceiling - patched with darker paint colour and left as finished; drawer incorrectly installed; Mitchell’s solution to the kitchen undersink plumbing being in the way of the incorrect drawer he installed - left as finished. No question he has great design ideas but execution is as bad as one could imagine in their worst nightmare. You can decide if this is how you want your home to look when your renovation is what Mitchell called complete.
Northshore Design Centre was sold before our renovation was started, a week or two after we contracted that company to do the work, but we were never informed of the sale. Mitchell has now disappeared without providing the warranties and receipts he promised us he would send so it is clear we are completely on our own after paying over $106,000. We would never have contracted a company for a renovation costing that much had we known there was no chance of any warranty for any work done because there is no liability with the new owner.
Apologies for photos - site turned some sideways and no idea how to correct.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $106,000.00