CMRS Construction

CMRS is excellent. Daryl is professional and punctual. His office staff are very friendly, professional and responsive via email and phone to help coordinate scheduling. Even his accounting department let us know when the check was cashed after the job, it was very nice to be notified. CMRS does have a handful of handymen that work for Daryl (the main guy), but he came out himself to inspect the job with his employee and insured me the work would be done well. Sure enough, Jose (the contractor on the job) did a fine job. He was very nice and even modified a door frame when we asked to change out a piece already installed. Daryl also came back to do an extra set of light bulb changes a few days later, and also inspected the final work. He's honest and knows what he's doing. He's quick and efficient as well. I will definitely use them again.

They were professional start to finish. Was very happy with the experience and would hire them again. Communicating with Liza via e-mail makes things so clear and easy. I had them bid on a kitchen remodel as well, but after a couple of financial setbacks have had to put that project on hold.

Overall, it was a very good experience. Liza was very responsive and always returned my calls and emails almost immediately. Plus, any question/concerns I had about materials, costs, and schedule were always answered and handled professionally. They are very organized and their follow through is excellent. Plus they left the work space clean at the end of each work day. The project was completed quickly as they had promised. They came through on every level and my studio looks awesome.

They were great and did a phenomenal job. We called and they came right out. They gave us a bid a day later and had the job done in two days. We would absolutely use them in the future.

I had a very good experience overall. Daryl, Liza and their employee were very responsive and professional throughout the process. I had a minor issue with the paint job on the new downspout, and they resolved my concerns immediately. I will definitely work with them again.

Overall professionalism I experienced was very satisfactory.

The work went very well. Everything was completed as promised, even when there were unanticipated problems. Daryl was very professional and courteous and displayed genuine creativity in solving unusual problems left by a prior contractor. He was always on time and generally left the house cleaner than when he arrived. I would highly recommend him to my friends and family.

Liza at the office was pleasant to deal with and very responsive with e-mails and calls. After the initial estimate call, there were three work sessions at my house. Everything was explained to me in clear terms, and I was consulted where I had options of different ways to complete things. Since it must have been difficult to know how far into my wood the rotted areas extended until things actually started to get ripped out, I was very impressed by the ability to adapt and respond as things turned out to be somewhat worse than expected. I had not purchased enough tile cement to finish replacing all ten of my cracked bathroom floor tiles, and there seemed to be no problem making a trip out to buy more. Daryl did most of the work himself, but had a helper for the one full day of work. He was so pleasant and extremely hard working, and seemed to take anything that went wrong in stride. The sections of my French door frame that were replaced ended up being matched in all aspects of the trim to the rest of the frame. The wood for the threshold ended up being a piece of oak about ten feet long that Daryl ordered and picked up at Lowe's, and it looks very nice. I really felt that there was a strong sense of responsibility about doing the job well, and that came through in all aspects of the work. The price seemed really fair for the amount of time that was spent, and the quality of the finished job I will be happy to continue to use this service in the future when I need help.

The biggest positive with The Live Handyman is their prompt and consistent communication with you. It is clear through out the process that they want your business and are available to you for questions, etc. I purchased a loft (1100 square feet) in downtown and needed a few things done. I sought quotes from several companies for painting, electrical, and installing drywall to complete a wall that did not reach the ceiling. Liza, from The Live Handyman was the first person to respond. Within the week, Daryl and an assistant were out to quote it out. Two days after that I received a written quote. $2500. $950 for painting. $1,200 for electrical, $350 for the drywall and glass install (I provide the glass). I went with a much less expensive painter (me and friends), used another electrician, (the preferred guy from the HOA), and used The Live Handyman for the drywall. Based on the reduction of projects from the quote, the price for the drywall portion jumped up to $550, which I was cool with as long as they did a good job. Jose was the drywall wall installer. He was on time and professional. I even gave him the keys to the place as I was not able to be there the entire time he was working. My two gripes about the project are that it took three weeks to complete, (I was expecting it to take only one), and because I was fed up with the length of time it was taking, I ended up having to sand it down myself before I could paint it. But despite the little bit of frustration I had, I absolutely would recommend this company. As a consumer dealing with contractors for the first time, I needed to deal with people who were professional, courteous, and who valued my business. Ultimately, the job got done and dealing with every person who represented The Live Handyman was a pleasure. They're good people.

I called the Live Handyman because of the positive ratings received on Angie's List. I called and talked to Melissa on 3/5/10 to setup an appointment for an estimate. She said she would call by 5pm. After hearing nothing from her, I called again on 3/10/10. Melissa said an estimator would be out the next day between 5:30-6:30pm. No one ever showed up and I never received a call from them. I am amazed that this company has satisfied so many customers, and yet was so totally unresponsive when I called them.

Liza and Darrell were efficient at providing a quote and scheduling service. The first day that Darrell arrived, he identified that the door and the threshold would require some additional work due to the door not being exactly the same size as the exisiting door. He did not have all the equipment required to do that job properly, so we rescheduled. The rescheduling and new quote was provided right away. The day of service, Darrel brought an additional helper with him so that they could manage the job efficiently. They were on time (within the window for arrival that was provided) and provided good work. They cleaned up the area prior to leaving. I would recommend Darrell and would use them, again. Thank you!

Daryl and his assistant were great. He worked around my schedule on many occasions and showed up on time and did an excellent job and was fairly priced. I would definitely call Daryl again.

A little misunderstanding with the guys who came to do the job if the bathroom floors were included in the price however after a call to Liza all cleared up.

Liza in the front office makes the whole thing work: she is excellent at communicating about whats going on with your job, what to expect, when to expect it, etc. Generally, these guys show up when they say they will and do what they say they will do - which is rare. Quality of work is good. A few minor issues which came up where handled promptly. Overall: a positive experience, no issues, fair price.

Daryl and Liza Vidal are consummate professionals. Daryl cheerfully and patiently performed each of the tasks listed above in short order, while Liza was able to deftly field all of my questions and typically responded to emails and voicemails within an hour. Correspondence was quick and detailed, and the entire experience spoke of both a great familiarity with the craft and also of tremendous interest in the satisfaction of the client. Having exhaustively researched the options available for an individual or organization to contract with on Angie's List in preparation for the cabinet project, I can happily add my voice to the many testimonials of satisfaction already present. I highly recommend working with Daryl and Liza to accomplish whatever work you have in mind, and indeed have lent emphasis to these words by continuing to work with them on further household jobs. These too will no doubt result in another superlative review on my part.

The whole house and ceiling fan went smoothly and on time. Daryl even came back to help when there was a problem with a faulty remote control. The microwave involved taking out the M/W, having a cabinet cut smaller, new doors made (this was contracted out by Daryl and went smoothly - one of the doors was not quite right and was immediately taken back and redone). When the cabinet and M/W were reinstalled, Daryl then replaced the tiles that had holes from the earlier installation. New lights replace old square recessed lights and then track lighting was added in the hallway. This involved more extensive electrical than anticipated (so one of his electricians was called in). This raised the price but not due to any fault on Daryl's part. All the jobs went reasonably well but the price did creep up as problems arose. Communication with Liza was outstanding. We were very happy with all the work done. My only issue would be for more careful and thorough estimate of the total cost of a project. We would definitely use Daryl and Liza again

I wasn't very happy with them. They were very responsive and very nice, but I wasn't too pleased with the quality of the work.

Daryl was able to come out and give me an estimate within about five days of my initial call. He was able to start a few days later. Daryl, Randy and Francisco arrived in the early afternoon to clean the rain gutters and install the gutter guards. Daryl gave instructions to Randy and Francisco and then left for another job. He told me he would probably have to return the next day to finish the repair of the support beam on the patio. Randy and Francisco finished the gutter work by the end of the day, however they didn't have time to repair the support beam on the patio. Randy scraped out some of the rotted wood and left it to dry so that Daryl could finish it the next day. Unfortunately, Daryl was not able to return the next day so the project started to become delayed. When he did return a few days later he found he had to remove more rotted wood and allow more drying time. With a combination of a couple of rainy days and conflicts with a bigger project he was working on, he wasn't able to get back to the project for several more days. When he and Randy did return late in the afternoon they discovered they still needed to remove more rotted wood and allow more drying time. By this time the Christmas holiday was an interruption. He was not able to return between Christmas and New Year but I used the time to thoroughly spray the affected area with termite poison. Finally on Jan. 4th Francisco arrived to finish the job. His work was extremely careful and professional. He explained to me how he would do the job and reiterated that his work would not be "Mickey Mouse." He took extra care to finish the ends of the beams with redwood and cut and sand so it looked like original construction. He sprayed additional termite poison into areas he recut, and he carefully painted the repaired surface twice. Francisco's attitude and work was excellent in every regard. The project took about 3 weeks from start to finish.

Communication was great. Liza was always there to answer any questions I had and to immediately address anything needed. Rey was awesome and has an attention to detail that you want from someone who is doing your tiling. Our tile supplier gave us slightly different white tiles for the border of the shower walls. I saw this after they were already installed and they fixed it for us by removing them and installing the correct ones. Also, Daryl was generous enough to offer to install the custom 2-sided curtain rod we had bought, which was not part of the original quote. When I saw him do it, I realized that I would have been in far over my head if I had attempted to do it myself, as I had planned. Lifesaver.

Overall, it was a very good experience in terms of cost, speed, customer service and quality.

He came out on time and gave me a quote, but I never used him. He did not apply a certain percentage of discount that Angie?s List members are entitled to. The quote was too high for the kind of work he was planning to do. I also don't think he had given me correct information. He had fallen short in providing me the information that I was looking for. I didn?t like that. I chose not to go with The Live Handyman for these reasons.

They were very responsive, but I would not consider getting an estimate from them again.

This was a complex job and a very custom fence and overall we're thrilled with the way it came out. It looks amazing and was are impressed with the final product. Liza in particular is a shining star to work with and even during the rough spots she always came through and helped work out any issues that came up. During the negotiation and bidding process, I went back and forth with Daryl and Liza in person, on the phone and through multiple e-mail messages to clarify the details of the fence's construction. They had never built a fence exactly like this one before and initially were a little vague about how it would be assembled since it involved vertical pipe supports connected to horizontal wood planks. They were similarly vague about the grade of wood they would use. But when we pressed them for more information they eventually provided it and included most of the details I requested in the contract. Their price was competitive with other bids we received and they demonstrated during the negotiation phase that they were flexible and always responded promptly - sometimes within minutes of receiving my e-mails. We went back and forth at least 20 times over 2 months to get all the initial details squared away. I appreciated their patience but the process might have been a little quicker if they had been more clear initially with what they intended to do. Once we started the project, Gabriel came out to dig the post holes and install the pipes. He did a great job making sure they were deep enough (because some of the poles were quite high) and ensuring that they all lined up properly. This part took 2 weeks of part time work for the crew. After that, Albert came out to attach the upright pressure treated 2" x 4" posts to the poles. This turned out to be a delicate job lining up the posts so that the horizontal faces were aligned, but Albert worked out a method and got most of the posts and some of the planks done before he left the project after 3 weeks of part-time work (which was slowed down at our request due to a concurrent project below). After Albert left, Ray came on and continued to assemble the fence and attach more of the posts and planks where Albert had left off. During this phase of the project, we had another company onsite to do repairs to our foundation since the fence was down and this facilitated access to the stem wall. After the foundation company excavated the wall we discovered more issues than we anticipated and the foundation job increased significantly in scope. This meant that Daryl's team had to be put on hold after working for a month because they could not continue into the area next to the house where the foundation was excavated. They were not happy about this at first (neither were we) but eventually agreed to put the project on hold for a month until the new foundation wall could be poured, cured and reburied. After the foundation work was done, Ray returned to continue assembling the fence. This phase moved much faster and after just 2 weeks they were ready to do the UV coating and build the gates. Ray had mentioned giving the fence a light sanding to clear off any major surface contaminants before the UV coating was applied so we let Liza know we'd do this part ourselves over the weekend. We both got sick, however, so we asked Liza if they could do the sanding instead. For an additional charge they agreed and Jose and Randy arrived the following Monday to do the sanding and start the gates. Jose began sanding the fence to a finer finish than we had intended and when I saw this after he'd been going for awhile I decided not to protest it because it looked great. But Jose failed to finish the sanding in 1 day as Liza had estimated and that night she e-mailed me to say Jose had done the finer sanding at my direction and an additional charge was due as a result. I had not told Jose anything, however, and when I let Liza know this she agreed to finish the sanding job as they had started for no additional charge beyond the original increase. We got a much nicer finish on the fence than we paid for and although the confusion about instructions was unpleasant, we appreciated their flexibility once again to fix the situation. Randy built both gates very well and they tie into the fence beautifully. We had a metal gate frame on our old fence that we thought we could re-use and when it became clear it wouldn't fit, Daryl and Liza brought Randy on to build the front gate from scratch. We added the back gate later in a separate quote and both of them work well. Overall we got a great fence that was built exactly to our specifications and it will probably last a very long time. Daryl's crew did very good work and the quality of the fence is excellent. Liza was very communicative and always gave me daily updates to let me know when people would be arriving and what they would be doing. Sometimes it was clear that the crew had not received detailed instructions, however, and Daryl came by infrequently to supverise them. This meant that I ended up seeing issues myself and communicating concerns to Liza who would get Daryl involved to resolve them. And while Liza is an excellent customer service person, Daryl seemed highly capable but somewhat impatient with us and was a little terse in explaining his plans to us. But they put up with our detailed requirements and specific requests quite admirably. Most significantly they endured the forced project delay due to the foundation without much complaint and returned on schedule to finish everything quickly. We plan to hire them again if we decide to continue the fence on the opposite site of our property.

Daryl came to my home at the time we agreed on, and gave me an estimate. The job included removing the old railing, and building/installing a replacement which was more or less the same as the original. Daryl and Randy showed up a few days later (on time), and started the job. Most of the work was done by Randy over two and a half days. Randy did a very capable job, and improvised a solution to a broken piece of concrete which supported one of the railing's posts. He was also kind enough to fix an unrelated problem (a gate which had come loose from one of its hinges) without any additional charge. The cost of the job matched the original estimate. All in all, I was pleased with the final result, and would recommend their work to others.

All work was completed satisfactorily and everything was cleaned up afterwards. Daryl provided some good advice on a number of issues I had around the house. He is a pleasure to have in the house and Liza who organises everything is very helpful and returns calls promptly.