Advanced Restoration & Design

They were professional, punctual, and had a high quality of service.

I have hired ARDI (Advanced Restoration & Design Inc.) in the past (2013) to perform an abatement (mold removal, carpet, wall and paint restoration) on my property in Avalon Park. The owner, Maureen, personally tended to the project and was engaging and kept me informed through the process. The job was completed satisfactorily and I was pleased with the overall cost of the project. Due to the previous performance, ARDI was as the top of my list when I needed to find a contractor to patch the numerous cracks to the stucco of my home. The cracks in the stucco had compromised the outward structure which caused a couple of the windows inside the home to compromise the walls - causing bubbling. I spoke with Maureen - she remembered me from the previous project, and we scheduled the repairs to take place at an agreed cost of $1,183.22. The project was completed, and the interior repairs were performed satisfactorily. The exterior was repaired as well, however, my home now looked like a jigsaw puzzle due to the numerous repairs that were implemented. I spoke with Gwen and requested to have the patches match the existing home color. She mentioned that it couldn't be done due to the patching compound and instead suggested that I have my home sealed and patches tainted for a cost of $1705.44. The alternative was to have the entire home painted for $3481.94. I was not prepared to spend that amount of money to either seal or paint the home , in addition to the initial expense of repairing the home. To add insult to injury, my tenant called me to inform me that there were several windows (exterior) that were not repaired and still exhibited cracks from the outside. I contacted Gwen to find an agreeable solution to these shortfall - either send a rep. to address the shortfall or refund part of the cost. My request fell on def ears, and Gwen informed me that there would be no partial refund or any other type of solution. This was completely unacceptable and unprofessional. In the end, I contracted a different company to paint my home - at a more affordable rate, and the new contractors reported that the repairs were not done correctly - ARDI used the wrong compound, the new contractors fixed all issues at not extra cost. I re-contacted ARDI (Gwen) regarding these shortfalls, she was less than understanding and accepted no responsibility or offer any feasible or further solutions to address the all the shortfalls - either send a rep. to address the issue, or refund part of the cost for the repairs; again, my request has fallen on def ears. I am bothered by the lack of professionalism, empathy and follow through displayed by the ARDI team and will no longer do business with the company. Take my review as a cautionary tale, and inspect what you expect; I did not have a choice on the latter due to currently being out of state.

In the middle of our floor installation, we were alerted to a potential mold problem. We ordered a test and found out that we had mold coming from a leak under our kitchen sink. The mold tester referred me to Maureen as one of the best in the industry. I had a total of 4 people come out to the house and received estimates and suggestions that were all over the map, but Maureen was the only one that was both thorough and optimistic (no scare tactics and no "don't worry about its" like some of the other companies). Her company also does the build back, unlike some of the other companies I called. The first team that came out was very nice and worked quickly. They were able to remove our granite countertop without breaking it, which was a major concern of mine. I had mentioned to one of them that I was a little concerned about mold hiding inside the walls (which is where the floor installers thought it might have been), so he moved the air scrubber out of the containment area to "clean" the rest of the downstairs. I found out later that night that it should have remained inside the barrier, so Maureen authorized me over the phone to move it back. Once the initial cleanup was done, I ordered a mold clearance test to verify that the source of the mold was gone. Turns out, we were above acceptable levels on a variety of different molds, more than the 3 that showed up on the initial test! When I discussed the issue with Maureen and asked whether we should have done the fogging before doing this test, she said "yes, that should have been done. I spoke with the team about it and he said he forgot." Apparently, air scrubbers should be wrapped in plastic and taped up before being moved (which he didn't do), otherwise the mold spores trapped in the filter can be released into the air again. However, she apologized, sent out a different team to do another thorough cleaning (and fogging), and paid for the next clearance test (about $300). Luckily, the last mold clearance came back that we were indeed clear. (It must have been the air scrubber.) She was able to have her team come out the next day and they completed everything within 8 hours. The only other complaint I had is that the guy who installed the faucet put the handle on backwards (I had to point it out to him), lost the tiny metal cap that covers the screw on the faucet (he said it didn't come in the box and I wasn't there overseeing everything, so I don't know where it went), and installed the faucet itself kinda weird so that the faucet swings about halfway into one side of the sink and in the other direction it swings all the way to the windowsill. We are still able to use it and it is only a minor inconvenience, but I had hoped that the person in charge of my faucet install would actually know how to install a faucet correctly. It's fine for now, but I will probably have to have a plumber come out in the next few months to correct it. They got rid of the mold and fixed the holes in the drywall, which were my biggest concerns. When I considered not getting the house fogged after all, Maureen threw in that service free of charge, so that was a nice perk. Overall, I felt that we got the work we needed at a fair price, but it just took longer than needed due to the first team's mistakes.