Elite Energy Improvements

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I cancelled the contract the next day and still have not received my deposit back. It seems like they were lying about the work that would be done, the whole thing seems shady!

Went extremely well. Started with the inside and did it fairly quickly as to not inconvenience us too much. Completed my entire interior in only 4 days. Then they immediately started with the outside with their fancy coating. I swear I can feel a difference already. I absolutely recommend.

They are great! They are coming back out on Monday to finish the job. They are thorough, professional, on time, and are doing a great job for us.

I had actually called this company for a quote on painting my house, but we ended up hiring them to build us a block wall in the backyard (a short retaining/garden cinder block wall). They wanted more than another company had quoted us, but Dominique Villarreal (brother of the owner) promised us he would also rebuild our 8 foot front gate/fence, which was in really bad shape. He said he wanted to show us "what he could do" to earn future business with us. Well, he totally screwed that up. Everything started out OK. We put down our deposit to begin the work and signed the contract that promised the wall and fence would be done in 10 days. Sounds awesome. The workers showed up on Monday and began working (with half of the remaining cost given to them to start work - we were paying in cash too, FYI). Everything went OK for the next couple of days. The problems began around the day they were getting ready to beginning putting down the base. After the concrete was poured the guys left around 2 pm without a word. Not normally a problem, except that I was working from home for the week (so I could keep the dogs inside while the worked, and also so they had access to the electrical outlets since there are none outside) and no one bothered to update me on the schedule for the work, or anything else for that matter. There were several days during the week I stayed home only to have them not show up. Concrete is setting? That's great. Maybe you should let me know that so I can go back to work in the meantime. At this point everything was starting to go downhill. For the two days the workers were gone they left a huge mess in the backyard. The mess associated with the actual work didn't bother me, but the GARBAGE they left all over the place did. When I went outside to clean it up there were drink containers and food wrappers everywhere. Everything was covered in ants! One of them even left a disgusting ice chest full of water (from the melted ice), food scraps, and trash. It was completely disgusting. I ended up cleaning everything up myself. There were a lot of other problems too... 1.) The communication between sales (Dominique) and the workers was awful. We had discussed everything we wanted, but the workers would constantly ask us again what they were supposed to be doing. We told them several times that the wall was to stop at the same point as the bottom of the fence. My husband showed them twice. They still built the wall one row of cinderblocks too high. 2.) I had just painted my patio (brand new), before they began work on the wall. They splattered concrete all over my newly painted posts and left it there to dry. 3.) Since we're working on the yard I have very few items out there, aside from a barbeque, some tools and one small wooden table. They were using the table to set things on while they worked (which I didn't mind), but at some point near the end of the job they broke it. After they "cleaned up" (I use the quotes for a reason), I found the table laying off in the corner, with one of the supporting arms snapped (it was a folding table). 4.) Speaking of "cleaning up", when the put all of the dirt they dug out back behind the new wall, they didn't even bother to remove the garbage and construction materials that they threw on top of the dirt after they made the pile in the yard. Why would you toss old roots, broken pieces of cinder block, and PVC pipe into a pile of dirt you know is being returned to the planter? That's completely unprofessional. Not to mention they couldn't be bothered to level the dirt out, so I've spent several weekends shoveling dirt by hand from one end of the 60 foot wall to the other. And I was able to pull about 3 wheelbarrows full of crap out of the dirt while I was shoveling, too (empty cement bags, broken cinder blocks, tree roots and broken wood, trash, PVS pipe, and even a whole sleeve of nail gun nails - I'm sure my dogs would have loved to step on those.) Oh, and just to top things off... when they finished the wall the guy in charge asked us for the second half of the money, which we then give to him. He proceeds to tell us that we owe an additional $300 because we didn't give him enough at the beginnning of the job. WHAT?! We had the exact amount of money in a special envelope and I know exactly how much we gave them (including the check we wrote for the deposit). After arguing with them for a while and telling them we weren't paying any more because they couldn't keep tracking of money, they finally took the money and left. At this point the backyard was still a disaster and we still don't have our new fence. Keep in mind, they've already taken the old fence and date down in order to get the forklift on the side yard with all of the materials. So they disappear for a few days again before coming back for some of their tools and to clean up. The guy tells us, "I brought the brackets to fix your gate." I tell him, "No, you're supposed to build a new fence and gate, not just fix the old one." I show him the contract that clearly states, "Remove old fence and gate, approx. 8 feet. Discard. Build new fence and gate." He mutters something about doing it Tuesday, and that's the last we've seen or heard of them! My husband has left a voicemail, and I've emailed Dominique (last time on 11/4), with no response. I can only assume they're not returning to build the fence and gate we already paid for! So now I have a medicore block wall in my backyard, a concrete splattered patio, a broken table, and no fence/gate between my driveway and side yard! Working with this company is a freaking nightmare. Don't do it.