ADVANTAGE RESTORATION and CONTRACTING INC

Everything off kilter in kitchen, floors had to be replaced. Deck had to be redone, ended up having someone else tear it down and start over. Made excuses for subs mistakes. Must have appliances reinstalled as none are flush. Fridge can’t be removed from custom cabinet as was built too small. Tile backsplash crooked and had to be redone. Would go 2 or 3 weeks between projects. Would add charges without discussing first. Many more problems. Too numerous to mention. Run, don’t walk away from this company.

We were shorted on the length of the fence by around 26 feet and charged for a 6' fence, we received a 5' fence. It was supposed to be rectangular and one area was pushed in at an odd angle. It then took 2 or 3 weeks before they did the demo on the kitchen. When they finally did I was introduced to a man who was supposed to be there every day to oversee the work. Never saw him again, Many months later he told me he quit. Larry told me he was fired, The parking pad that was put in was 2 " short. May not seem like a big deal, but we were putting a steel garage on the area. Had to pay extra to have additional concrete poured. Dirt used to fill in a sinkhole is so acidic, nothing will grow there. Someone on the crew broke off the bottom of one of our downspouts. Heavy rain caused a lot of erosion. Took 2 months for it to be replaced. Not even the correct type of downspout. The tile backsplash in the kitchen was put in so crooked it makes me dizzy to look at it. He hired someone off the street with no experience. We were out of town and came back to find that and huge problems with our floors. The kitchen cabinets are off kilter. They never put the finishing trim on one end. Refrigerator cabinet is so off squared we can't remove the fridge to clean behind it. The dishwasher was installed incorrectly. Its at an angle and the top tray keeps coming out on its own. The wallpaper was supposed to be removed. Instead, without my knowledge or approval they put plaster over a vinyl, ribbed wallpaper. Didn't use any sealant so it didn't stick well. I asked for it to be done properly and Larry said it had to be taken down to the stubs and start over. He just couldn't afford it, even though he could afford to by a brand new 4x4, fully loaded dodge ram. They had to go over the walls with plaster 4 times. It still looks like crap. The painting was the sloppiest job ever seen. I could have done better. The floors were not acclimated to the house. they were put in our garage in 95* weather with 100% humidity. They actually cut the wood in the rain. It took from July to January before the floors were replaced. In Larrys defense I did not have to pay for the new floors. But they cost about $1000 less, and I'm still waiting to see my refund. Then we have the nightmare referred to as our deck. It was a screen porch. When the first wall was pulled, the entire porch pulled away from the house and collapsed. Larry had 1 person doing the job, but said he had no idea they weren't able to use the original joists and posts. Then he said his sub was using a new person and they knew nothing about him. He didn't speak much English, drank beer on the job, brought his 12 year old son without permission (who was wandering around the property), and complained that he was told it was an easy job that should only take one day. After the drinking, I told him to leave and called Larry and told him he couldn't return. He was back the next day. Again I sent him home. The deck is completely out of square, posts are not secured with cement and have been used before, the railing was 46"high, stairs were so steep you could barely walk down them. The steps were all loose, boards were upside down, spindles were upside down. Larry sent another crew to fix it. The boards on the side of the house were different sizes and placed at odd angles, and the roof had the wrong shingles on it and were missing boards underneath. The new crew fixed the wood on the side of the house satisfactorily, but all they did was take the railing down and put new railing up. There were spaces between the joists and floor. Nothing was really holding it up. I showed everything to Larry and told him it needed to be torn down and started over. Instead he sent the same guy that was either fired or quit to redo the railing again. They redid the steps and put down a few new boards on the floor. The deck is still completely out of square and it sags, they continued to place boards upside down, anywhere they cut the wood, it looks like a kindergartener did it it. In on spot the spindles were cut short so they put a piece of wood over the bottom so it couldn't be seen. The railing on the stairs are 1 1/2 " higher on one side than the other. Most of the floor is warped, the wood above all the railing is warped. They didn't screw in a couple of steps and there's way too many nails in places. The wood not replaced was nailed in and some of those nails are already pushing up. We are having to replace the whole thing. It's not secured to the house. They only used half of whatever it was that is needed to secure it properly.

Worst job. Ever. They were very responsive when we called and could do the job right away. They completed reframing and replacing the new sliding glass door. When they were done I saw that they had reused the trim, which was 30 plus years old, even though I asked for new materials. On the inside there was alot of spray foam insulation used on top of the door and it had dripped all over the glass and floor and the workers did not cleanup after themselves. I spoke with Larry about it and he apologized and sent someone out to scrape up the foam and cleanup the piles of debris they had left. Everything seemed ok. I started to paint the trim around the top of the sliding glass door and noticed the molding was loose. I pulled the 6ft piece of trim off and noticed it was held in by the spray foam insulation, no frame or header. The foam was also the only thing supporting the top of the sliding glass door.The entire top and bottom of the glass door were not attached to anything. They basically stuck the trim up there and sprayed some foam insulation to cover it up. I emailed Larry and pretty much said this is what $2000 gets? He apologized and offered to help but his workers were horrible and I did not want them doing any more work on the house. They had already been out there once to follow up on work that was not done, and it still was not right.. Fast foward 1 yr later. I shut the glass door and it shattered all over on the ground. I call Pella, who manufactured the glass door, to check on the warranty and they said to check the installation. I took apart the Advantages work and discovered that 4 drywall screws were holding up the entire 6 foot sliding glass door. 4 drywall screws. Also the walls they framed in around the door were not anchored to the concrete floor and basically were moving every time I opened and shut the door. Pella sent me their installation guide and Advantage did nothing close to what they recommended. I ended tearing down and replacing everything that Advantage did. I not only paid them $2000, I ended investing my time and another $1200 in materials to replace the Advantages mess. Completely shoddy slapped together, and unsafe workmanship.

This past summer the old cedar siding on the South side of our house was in desperate need of replacement. With an older home the hot summers and full sunlight cause cedar siding to warp and even pull the siding nails out from the studs. Every few years we were hiring handymen to replace various siding boards on our 2-story home. After having several quotes for vinyl siding in the 20K range we decided a more inexpensive and permanent fix would be to have fiber cement siding installed. We found this company willing to remove the old cedar siding and water damaged backing board. The old backing board was actually some sort of fiber board that crumbles when wet and over the years had disintegrated in places; especially the chimney. The team of workers arrived as expected. We were also very pleased with the quality and timing of their work. Then in Oct. we experienced flood damage to the downstairs level of our home including our garage, 2 rooms, and a bathroom. We did not hesitate to call this company. Luckily for us the company was able to arrive within a few hours and setup 5 industrial fans and 1 industrial dehumidifier. Good for us we called them early since hundreds of homes in our area were all looking for help. The company was in contact with us for the next three days as our carpeting and baseboards were drying out. We decided to replace the oldest carpet in one bedroom. The company provided us with samples and came out a few days later to replace it. This past Nov. we wanted to surprise our parents by remolding their bathroom while they were away for a week. They live an older home and the main bathroom was in desperate need off repairs. The company helped us determine what we should do and provided us with a few ideas to upgrade things. We decided to replace every square inch of the bathroom including ?textured? walls, ceiling, and sub floor. The company laid tile around the bathtub (surround) and flooring. They also installed a new window, bathtub, faucets, commode, sink, and created a new closet within the bathroom. During the construction a plumber and an electrician were also called in to upgrade things as necessary; apparently some of the old wiring had signs of past problems. By the end of the week the team had performed a great job.