PJM HOME IMPROVEMENT INC

THIS IS PART TWO OF MY REVIEW Fri 9/12/14 Derek arrived at 8 am. Max had not yet arrived, although the day before he said they would arrive between 8-9 am. Max had the truck with the green board, and Derek couldn?t go any further with the project till the green board was up. At 915 am Max still had not arrived and was not answering his phone. So Derek left to see if he could go to Max?s house to wake him. Derek said they also had to go to Hines Lumber today to get materials a crew needed tomorrow, and Hines was not open on Saturdays. Note that the Wheaton and Warrenville Hines? stores are not open on Saturdays, but the St Charles lumber yard is open from 8-12 noon on Saturdays. Also note that they did not come prepared with materials when they arrived at my house ? but made trips to Lowes to get the materials. A little after noon, since I had heard nothing from either of them since Derek left at 915 am, I called a cell phone number I had for Max from when he called me the first morning. He answered and said they still had to deliver lumber to a job site. I mentioned that Derek was already gone for three hours and that I took two unpaid days off from work for this project. He said that he and Derek should be back to my house around 130 pm and would stay till they finished the work. There were no calls from Derek or Max after I called them a little after 12 pm. Derek arrived at 140 pm ? and again did not have the truck with the green board. Max arrived at 150 pm. At that point there was only one hour put in at my home on Friday by Derek stuffing insulation in the 13' opening. It had now been 48 hours since I have had use of the kitchen, and since they did nothing and wasted the morning and part of the afternoon - I asked them to leave. I emailed Paul Minakov to advise him what happened. If you use PJM Remodeling, be sure your CONTRACT states that Paul Minakov will personally be on the job site at all times and supervise the work of his employees. I would expect with that you might get a PROFESSIONAL and EXPERIENCED job if that provision is in the contract. Sat 9/13/14 On Saturday 9/13/14, I emailed the owner, Paul Minakov (who was out of the country) advising the details of what transpired. He emailed me back the same day stating that he was sorry and asked if there was anything he could do. I emailed him back stating that if he were in town he might be able to help, but since he was out of the country, he couldn?t. I surely did not want his crew back in my house. I called a plumber about the leak in front of the water pipe coming from out of the concrete slab, and the plumber had to jack hammer out my kitchen floor to get to the leak to fix it. When the concrete floor was re-poured and pretty dry on Sunday , I called in two handymen to finish the job. I also had to call in Mr Duct to suction out the dust the crew created which was now thru my ventilation system and Stanley Steemer to again clean my carpets. I was thoroughly disappointed in PJM Remodeling.

Received a $3,600 quote from Paul Minakov (PJM Remodeling) on 8/1/14 to remove kitchen cabinets from the lower portion of a kitchen wall and open up and re-insulate the wall. Cooking odors from the owner of the duplex next to me kept flowing into my house, and to me the smell was not pleasant. The area to be worked was the lower kitchen cabinets (approx. 13? x 3.25?). Materials needed were around $125. 3 rolls of R-30 insulation ($45) and 2 sheets Mold Resistant Moisture Resistant Fire Resistant Drywall Panel board, tape and patching compound ($50-$60). I had 20 large cans Great Stuff spray foam left over from another project for all of the small openings and to seal the floor area in the wall, the mold preventing caulk for resetting the counters and sealing the bases of the cabinets at the floor. The quote was high compared to other contractors, but Paul Minakov (PJM Remodeling) had high ratings on Angie?s list and I wanted a PROFESSIONAL and EXPERIENCED local contractor. I wanted to be sure that I only needed to remove base cabinets and tear open the wall behind them only once in my lifetime. Although I checked Angie?s List and the Better Business Bureau ? you will see this did not insure me a satisfactory job. Paul said he was backed up with work till after Labor Day so could not start right away. I sent Paul a ½ deposit of $1,800 on 8/18/14. The work was to begin on 9/2/14, but I could not get time off from work right after Labor Day, so the two day job was scheduled to start on Thurs 9/11/14. Paul mentioned that they should be able to get the cabinets off the wall, the drywall removed, new insulation installed and the green board back up by the end of the day on Thursday. That did not happen, as you will see from the daily notes below. I took two unpaid days off from my new job for this project. Paul advised on was going to be on vacation for three weeks after Labor Day, and I told him I would wait till he got back, but he said he was still overloaded with work and would be when he returned from vacation and assured me his experienced crew (including his son) could handle the project without him. On the evening of 8/28/14 Paul came over to show his contractor Derek the scope of the project and make notes. Thurs 9/11/14 Max (Paul?s son) called around 8 am to say he forgot to call the day before and asked if they could they still come and start working. He said they would be at my house at 830 am-9 am, but Max and Derek didn?t arrive till 930 am. They came in separate vehicles. When they arrived they thought about covering my carpeting with drop cloths, however the drop cloths were not clean, so they put these dirty drop cloths down on rugs I just had Stanley Steemer clean. When they took the drywall off the wall, Derek was carefully removing it, but Max was tugging it off in pieces. It caught my attention when I heard a loud clang noise while he was sitting on the floor and pulling at the wall with his hands around the dishwasher and sink area. Drywall pieces, particles and dust were flying everywhere.) The exposed insulation was either very dirty or moldy, so they pulled it out and were going to replace all with new insulation. Again, they were not careful when removing the insulation - so that more debris and particles were being disbursed into the air and therefore going throughout the house. They left for lunch at Noon and came back around 145 pm, as they had to go to Lowes for drywall and insulation. Lowe?s is approximately 4 block away. When they went to Lowe?s after lunch they did not get green board for the wall behind the kitchen sink but got regular drywall, so Max had to go back to exchange what they had just purchased. When they disconnected the sink, a water shut-off valves was dripping, so I asked that while they were going to Lowe?s they pick up new ones. They advised that Lowe?s didn?t have any which seemed odd. They said they had a plumber friend that could come over, and I said I had a plumber as well and while I was on the phone with my plumbing company, they advised their plumber was on the way. So their plumber came and replaced valves, and I paid him $150 for his services. Shortly after the plumber left, Derek and Max noticed water on the floor by one of the pipes and thought there might be a leak in the pipe under the concrete floor. (Note that there was no leak and no water before this team started working, so it may have been the tugging on the drywall to get it off the stud or something the plumber did to create the leak?.) As such, the plumber came back and asked me to watch the area round the pipe in question and let him know if the leak got worse, but did not leave me his number ? he told me that Derek or Max could call him. I thought perhaps when Max was pulling and tugging at the drywall by the pipes, he may have caused some damage. (As information, there was no water in that area for the rest of the day or the next morning. However on Saturday morning I woke up to a lot of water on the floor in front of the water pipes. On Friday I thought that water may have dripped down in the area when the plumber was changing the shut-off valves, and hopefully I won?t have any further leakage?..that was not the case. The pipe was broken and had a leak below the level of the concrete.) Derek and Max finished for the day around 4 pm on Thursday 9/11/14, as they didn?t want to do anything else till we knew if there was actually a leak in the pipe from the sink down into the concrete slab foundation. The area with water pipes was between two studs (approx. 16 inches), so not sure why they didn?t want to keep working on the other 11-12 feet of opened wall or at least stuff insulation up the empty wall cavities? They did a quick sweep of the floor with a dirty broom, which I washed out for them that evening. I asked if they had a shop vac and they said they did in the truck, but never pulled it out. At this point my kitchen drywall was off, the insulation pulled out, and there were mouse droppings between the studs in the walls. I didn?t like the idea of having the wall exposed with loose pieces of dirt and insulation between the studs and also since I didn?t want any uninvited mice or insects coming into my house, or my cats investigating the area and getting insulation bits or residue on them, I asked Derek and Max to seal off the area, and they putt plastic up and stapled in a few spots. Because they had only stapled the plastic up at the top of the opening and down the top part of the sides, there were no obstacles preventing me from vacuuming between the studs and floor area of the opening and washing the floor of the construction area. I did not want any more of the debris and bits of insulation carried thru the house or harming my cats. Mice still got in the house that evening, as the area was not sealed up and there was no insulation in the wall to make it harder for them to get in. When my cats were going crazy, I figure out it was mice - so I had another problem to deal with. The ?Crew?s? actual combined working time inside my house on Thursday 9/11/14 was 8-1/4 hours. Derek was 4-3/4 hours and approximately 3-1/2 hours for Max as he was the one making trips to Lowe?s. This 8-1/4 total hours included the time when their plumber friend changed the shut-off valves and showed them how to do the task using plumber?s putty and time spent talking with the plumber on his second visit for the possible leak. SEE PART TWO ON NEXT REVIEW

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Within a day or two of calling Paul, he came out to see the ceiling to be painted (on a Thursday). Two days after that he emailed his estimate. (This was our 3rd and final estimate to get.) Paul's price was the best. The other painting companies were working on a 6 to 8 week out schedule. I called Paul to tell him to let me know when they could schedule. The following Wednesday he called to ask if they could come the next day (Thurs) to do the patching, and then they would be back to do the painting the following Monday & Tuesday. The patching work was done very well. They re-did the bad patching work that had been done previously, and they also did other work to make the ceiling look great, including caulking where the crown molding had separated. The following Monday morning they arrived on time, moved furniture, covered it, and began the sanding process. Much of the painting was completed on Monday, and Paul's employee arrived on Tuesday to finish up. He also helped to move the furniture and other heavy pieces back in place. The paint job looks fantastic. The places that had been patched are invisible. We're very happy with PJM Remodeling!

I asked Paul Minakov if he was interested in doing a small job of crown molding in my bedroom and he said that he was. He made an appointment with me to look at the space. I waited for him a couple of hours past the appointed time but he never came and he has not contacted me in any way since then.

If Mr. Paul Minakov wasn't interested in the job because it was too small, he should have been up front with me.

He was very polite and worked hard to fit my needs into his schedule. The work was done on time. He probably should clean up after himself a little better though. Left a lot of sawdust.

Paul did a great job. The work was completed in a day by Paul and a helper. The only negative was the clean up could of been a little better. Nonetheless, we plan on using PJM in the future.

THIS WAS A VERY STURDY, HEAVY DUTY BENCH AS REQUESTED. I GOT HIS NAME FROM A FRIEND WHO HAS USED HIM FOR MORE SOPHISTICATED REMODELING. HE SHOWED UP WHEN HE SAID HE WOULD, WAS PROMPT WITH HIS QUOTE, PLEASANT TO HAVE IN THE HOUSE, AND GOT THE JOB DONE ON TIME. I THINK MY ONLY LITTLE ISSUE IS THAT HE DIDN'T CLEAN UP AFTER HIMSELF VERY WELL, BUT THE WORK WAS BEING DONE IN A CLUTTERED MESSY BASEMENT SO I WOULD GUESS HE IS BETTER ABOUT THIS IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT.