Chi Renovation & Design

This was our second time working with ChiRenovation. A few years ago, they helped with finishing our basement and we were so happy with the results that when we were ready to give our scary porch a face lift into a proper three season room, we got in touch. Ron was our project manager both times and was so patient with two people who wanted lots of options and had a lot of opinions about what would and wouldn’t work. Having someone who can quickly bring in experts when needed, is able to put together estimates, narrow down options and tackle scheduling and coordinating crews takes so much stress out of large-scale renovation projects. For updating the porch, we asked for help with the “heavy lifting” – additional supports, reframing the interior, window replacement, electrical, drywall and interior door and window trims. While we handled the finishing touches (painting, flooring, door installation, siding) once everything was wrapped up and could not be happier with the results. The crews we worked with were a delight. Punctual, very respectful of my working from home (right next to the construction zone to boot), and careful to make sure our dogs didn’t accidentally get out of the yard. In addition to that they were always careful to leave our space tidy and safe when wrapping up work. We are hopefully done with major renovations for a few years but wouldn’t hesitate to work with this group again.

When I decided to remodel, I looked at about 50 companies. My list came from Yelp, Angi, Yellow Pages, and Google. I narrowed it down to five and scheduled them for interview. I was looking for a remodeler who would give everything to me straight. No lies, no BS. I wanted someone large enough to have a designer and a manager assigned to my job who could keep things moving without making excuses. CHI Renovation did exactly what I was looking for. I can attest that the people they assigned to my job were outstanding. Tops on the list are Designer Julie Hermanson and Project Manager Gene Leonard. Julie did an amazing job of settling our nerves while helping us with the design of our kitchen. And Gene was here for us at every step in the project. He dealt with the suppliers and held the workers feet to the fire. Each time we called him during the project he answered his call on the first ring. Really dedicated. I knew in advance that there are supply chain issues. I heard about homeowners getting caught in a mess and getting stuck in half done kitchen for months. CHI said they would not begin work until their project manager personally viewed each part. This is exactly what happened. (I received no compensation for this review.)

Gene, Lior, and their team were amazing! We had multiple contractors ghost us for structural work in our basement (replacement of wooden beam and posts with steel). The team did EVERYTHING for us - from the architectural drawings, to Chicago city permits, to the work. Their estimate was exactly what we paid, and their timeline was correct. The thing that stood out the most was their responsiveness. We asked a lot of questions and Lior and Gene always responded right away with clear answers to all of our questions. I have and will continue to recommend Chi Renovation and Design!

Over the last two years, Chi Renovation has helped us transform our home. We have had two large projects managed and delivered by Chi. We gutted three bathrooms (primary, on suite, guest), refinished our kitchen cabinets, changed all the kitchen stone work, added a second island, removed a wall and re-tiled our front porch. The work completed by Chi was excellent and definitely met our expectations. Our project manager, Tom, was excellent to work with. He spent hours with us going over design choices, explaining engineering elements, providing examples of similar work and helping us throughout both projects. Our first project with Chi started during the pandemic. We gutted our guest bathroom and made kitchen upgrades (including replacing counters, backsplashes, and fixtures). Tom helped us through all the major decisions and the end results were excellent. In February 2021, (after the epic Chicago snow storm), our kitchen ceiling collapsed from water damage. This event kicked off the second project with Chi. First off, Tom and Chi were with us every step of the way to help with stopping the water leak, remediating the problem and then ultimately incorporating fixing our kitchen along with additional work in our second project (two bathrooms, kitchen, front porch). It is extremely hard to know who to trust in the contracting business. Before working with Chi, we talked to friends and reviewed multiple websites. We ultimately picked Chi Renovation because their online reviews were great (and specific) and our first walkthrough with Tom to discuss our potential project was impressive. He was thorough, had great ideas and really cared about what changes/work would add value versus what would not. After two large projects, multiple accomplishments, countless changes and obstacles, we are beyond happy with the outcome and work delivered. Chi was professional, clear, consistent and honest form start to finish. We would not hesitate using Chi again and/or recommending them to our family and friends.

After living in our Uptown condo for 5 years, and being forced to stare at the same construction grade finishes in our bathrooms during this pandemic, my husband and I decided we needed an upgrade. We did extensive research and after several quotes from a variety of firms, Chi was the winner. Julie and Gene were dreams to work with. All we knew going into it was that we wanted a spa like but masculine bathroom, but the designs Julie created for us were beyond anything we had ever imagined. This was one of the main reasons we went with an all-in-one firm. While our design aesthetic is good, we really wanted something that made visitors know that a professional was involved. Julie and Gene listened to all of our requests, helped us trim costs where possible, and also helped us push ourselves out of our comfort zone. The results were better than we could ever have hoped. Not to mention the quality of the work, Marek's attention to detail was spectacular. Ever finish was perfectly placed down to the smallest tile and run of trim. Can't wait to work with Chi Reno for our next project!

They are timely, considerate, satisfactory professional. They are very connected with all the retail outlets around town that helped us pick out our quality fixtures and tiles.

Tom Tishby who was the Project Manager and led the crew of the Chi Renovation and Design on our project involving complete remodel of our kitchen and the powder room have done an outstanding job. Our kitchen remodel project involved removal of the wall to open up the galley kitchen, this required rerouting of the water pipes and installing new plumbing and wiring system. The crew worked efficiently they were very professional and neat while we were living in the apartment during the construction. The products of their work were outstanding in quality and precision. They met all the deadlines and provided courteous service. Communication was excellent throughout the project. Another important factors is that the crew and Tom Tishby in particular worked really well with our building engineer and manager making sure all the paperwork was an order the use of the service elevator and disposal was done according to building policies. Overall I’m very pleased with Tom Tishby and Chi Renovation and Design and would to continue working with them again on our future remodeling projects.

I wanted to share my experience working with CHI Renovations. The process was extremely easy and I am completely thrilled with the final product! I worked with Tania to design a fireplace that would fit a tight space. We have a hidden door closet we needed to be mindful of, so she shared a few general designs with me. She then created a custom fireplace surround to fit the space and my design ideas perfectly. Eric, the project manager, was also wonderful to work with – always responded in a timely manner and was eager to resolve any issues. Eric also made some great design suggestions that we did end up implementing into the fireplace surround. The work was completed in a timely manner and workers were careful to clean the space throughout the process. I did have them come back to do a few little touchups that were missed but they quickly resolved any concerns I had. Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the end results! Added some before and after photos of the completed project!

RAN LIFSHITZ, TOM TISHBEY and LIOR BEN ZUR swindled $240,000 from my 62 yo husband and me for a renovation contract they knew they could not fulfill. Chi Renovation misrepresented themselves as a full service design build firm. Tom Tishbey introduced himself as a trained engineer when he quoted the project. I realized over the year of them burrowing in my home and refusing to leave, that he and Ran were both just salesmen. Neither are licensed interior designers, architects or even contractors. I even question if they actually live indoors in America with their limited knowledge of designing or building. I relied heavily on all the 5 star glowing reviews all over the internet on this company, and neglected to see if these are just bots. I recently found that Tom Tishbey is a supposed ‘entrepreneur’ with alleged $1 million in investments. This would have certainly made me think twice about his intentions if he had a successful entrepreneur company why would he be doing sales for a renovation company in a small chicago suburb. Tom Tishbey seemed knowledgeable and accommodating, until the project started. Tom kept trying to get me to buy everything before the project started, especially buying the kitchen cabinets and extra design hours. The contract already included 2 design hours that were more than enough. The kitchen cabinet designer did not want to accommodate designs I wanted or materials I needed and took weeks to even get me quotes. When I went to their showroom storefront, an upper cabinet door of their kitchen display would not even close. I felt the presentation was pressured and lackluster. The designer only had door panels and color swatches and Larry Lambert just wanted to add more mdf cabinets with high price pull outs. None of their presentations were 3d color as they claim they are in their contract. I was looking for an Property Brothers presentation and received a 1980’s -1 dimensional rollout in a small suburban storefront in a strip mall. It seems after this bonus revenue of designer and cabinets dried up, Tom Tishbey became a bit more desperate to chisel more money out of our pockets. He kept pushing their storage services and purchasing materials through their vendors, I declined. The contract started out at 230, we changed items to bring the price down to our budget of 205,000 before hiring the company. This was under the assumption that we were getting a licensed interior designer and a quality skilled large group of contractors and credit for materials. I have had this in prior renovations with architects. None of this was included. This high price was for (questionable on licensed) electrical, plumbing, subpar drywall, and unskilled part time laborers. Since we did not use the designer, we received Ran Lifshitz as our project manager. They represented the Ran was new to the company and in school for something. I guess this was to excuse his absence of managing the project. Ran was nice and reasonable at first in contrast to Tom , who was always looking for a new ideas to generate a change order for more money. This reasonable Ran changed as the year waned on. As I have said in several posts about their lack of cleaning, disrespect for your property, no desire to empty garbage, especially at the end of the day, yet alone when your house looks like an episode of HOARDERS. They through drywall and framing on my built ins, my fragile light fixture boxes, and bathroom items I was saving. There was no garbage area, the whole condo was unbearable. I almost slit my thigh open trying to navigate through the dumpster fire they represented as a construction site. To this day, I am still covered in construction dust after cleaning the home twice. It’s no surprise with these beginnings that this was never going to go well and that most of my items would end up missing or damaged in the build phase. I felt this hesitance to empty garbage was a tactic to extort us for more money. They demolished, then kept making suggestions on changes, we would agree. Then the work stopped. Tom as the salesman he is had to get a new contract and drawings generated to monetize these changes. This took at least 2 months after they amassed a house full of trash. As I stated prior, this was the first time we felt under duress to enter into a new contract costing us $30,000 more dollars. This was also the first time Tom attempted to generate more money from us while billing us for items already agreed upon in the initial contract. We asked him to combine this change order with the original contract and clearly outline credits that we have removed. Amazing that to move a wall costs $3,000, but credit for this same wall is $200. We added prefinished flooring that we bought and had delivered including glue and subfloor. They removed unfinished floors for 1/2 the unit with refinishing. That only removed $7,000, but Chi Renovation still charged us $24,000 for the plywood, subfloor and installation of prefinished floors.. The atrocities of them parading amateur laborers for craftsmen pricing went on the entire year when they did show up. It was torture coming through the unit finding nothing in place that you spent months brainstorming with Tom. I wanted to believe that he possibly did not understand English more than this was just a HUSTLE. On the second call out of ‘*** are you all doing’ about 6 months in, it became more clear that they never had the skill or desire to do this in depth project. Their was just malicious intent of getting as much money from me as possible to make them do any work. When all that money was paid, they stopped pretending to care. This was like being abused by a spouse and having his friends rehab your house that he tore up while abusing you. Chi Renovation had the attitude and work hours that they were doing this as a charity side project while fleecing me to the tune of a new construction 1 bedroom downtown condo ( several were built and sold while I waited on this abuse to run its course). Viewing the wreckage of my home, I regret every minute of every interaction. As it dragged on for a year and I continued to shell out more money (than most doctors make in a year), Tom and Ran kept parroting that this was all my fault for not giving them more money for more scam products. They could never admit that they had no skills, never measured anything, no manpower and felt no legal obligation to fulfill any portion of the contract in a manner that they advertise. Never hire Chi Renovation, Tom Tishbey ,Ran Lifshitz or Lior Ben Zur. I hope that no one else will ever be hoodwinked as I was. I will be seeking counseling for the criminal atrocity they inflicted upon me. I now am trying to rebuild by removing 27 layers of dust, spackle, grout and glue from my new floors, walls, and furniture. I have to hire a competent LICENSED electrician and plumber to finish installing items that I paid for and never received and repair items that they broke. I will be filing a police report for my missing track light and light switches and I have complained to the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau.

This is my second review of the Chi Renovation and Design. It speaks volumes that I chose the same company to remodel my master bathroom. It was a very extensive and involved down to the studs kind of remodeling. There was a lot of plumbing, shower and bathtub placement changes, tile work, fixtures to name a few things. To start, Tom Tishbey is amazing to work with. He is strait forward, honest, and very inventive. Tom is excellent in dealing with the HOA and building management. His best feature is his ability to come up with multiple creative and ingenious options to fix the initial plan, when unforeseen obstacles come up, and they always 100% will. Tom gives you a best and worst case scenario, doesn’t make promises he can not keep, is very responsive and communicative. He was able to finish my remodeling project as pandemic and quarantine created extremely difficult conditions. I couldn’t say enough to recommend him. The project itself involved removing all the old tile, huge bathtub, shower, double vanity, toilet and bidet, and partial walls. Shower and bathtub switched places. Floor standing toilet and bidet were replaced by wall mounted. A linen closet was removed to increase the shower size, and a regular door was replaced by a pocket door. Floor to ceiling large format 48x48” porcelain tiles covered all the walls and floors. Free standing tub on pedestal with overhanging chandelier and towel warmer wall rack took the place of the old shower. Wall mounted double vanity, back lit mirrors and light fixtures replaced regular floor standing double vanity with a huge mirror. New shower with three different fixtures and bench, mosaic marble floor, niches with glass shelves, invisible glass panels and door replaced the old bathtub and linen closet. The workers did an amazing job. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Tom was able to understand my vision and bring it into reality. The company is well worth the money they charge. Living in a condo building, one has to be very careful in selecting companies for major remodeling. Tom and Chi Remodeling have done multiple projects in my building alone, all based on their reputation and recommendations of very satisfied customers. I definitely recommend them. Please reach out with questions

I don't often write reviews, but it's important for me to single this group out and make it known that they do the job right! I've had countless experiences with fly-by-night contractors who don't really focus on the details. The Chi Renovation and Design team did an outstanding job of walking me through the quoting process, explaining every single line item, why each line item was important to incorporate into the job, and setting expectations of delivery of services. I've lived in Chicago for 13 years, and these guys take the cake. I hate to use a common phrase here, but it's 100% true; if you want it done professionally, this team will get it done!

We are very pleased with how the basement including bathroom and laundry room turned out. This is doubly true since my sons are now home and taking their classes on line out of the basement. The space is functioning very well and warm and pleasant to be in. Its been a real godsend to have the extra room at this time. The team was thoughtful about the particular demands of our remodel as opposed to a one size fits all approach. They were mindful of the budget, prompt and communicative. I recommend Ron and his team very highly.

could not recommend them we had a large project for Chi that consisted of a complete kitchen gut, 3 bathrooms and some additional minor improvements. The high points (I thought) were working with Tom in the initial part of the project and our project manager Gene was nice, but probably too nice to the crew. Gene often ended up cleaning up their messes on his hands and knees which is unfortunate as that should not have been his responsibility. However, it soon went downhill when the work began. there were several delays. the designer was unresponsive. In the middle of kitchen design, we were transferred to another kitchen designer who missed several items of how I wanted my kitchen designed and then tried to pin all blame on us by saying we didn't want to spend any additional money on it. (Keep in mind cabinets exceeded the allowance by almost $5k) I had the items documented via email and still it was somehow our fault. As the work kept on, there were days when no one worked, even in the last few weeks of the project which were down to the wire. should have been working at full speed. it was clear to us that they had over-extended themselves in the amount of other projects they had accepted and we always felt like we were on the back burner in terms of how long it took for people to respond or things to get done. main complaint was with the crew who did the majority of the work. so messy, sloppy, without any pride. uneven tiles, tiles missing grout, wrong drains, sawdust in brand new kitchen cabinets after installation of hardware, frequent calls from the alarm company when the crew arrived and couldn't dis-arm the alarm, a leaking shower door, installation of stair spindles that didn't match the original ones, a wet bucket left on my wood floors over Memorial Day weekend that warped the floors so badly they had to have their floor vendor sand and re-finish. there were so many careless actions that I felt would not have happened if these workers truly treated my house as if it was their own. also much work I had to do on my own - ordering materials, schlepping tile, constant cleaning up after the workers. there was no checklist of which things I needed to select in which timeframe and everything seemed like a fire-drill that I was constantly trying to figure out on my own without any input from the "designer" which is one of the reasons why we chose the company in the first place - because we thought we could benefit from some design help. well, good luck getting in touch with him. brought up all of these issues in an email of feedback to the company and am still waiting on any response over a month later. they don't care about you or your home or your project, just that you have paid them in full

I hired Chi Renovation to do a gut renovation of my kitchen and guest bathroom and the work turned very well done. Their quote came in right at my price range and the company worked with IKEA and Semihandmade unlike a couple of other organizations I researched. This allowed me to keep costs down but still customize things like cabinet color and configuration. The project took a little longer than I anticipated after some unexpected hurdles with our materials but Ron, my project manager, was extremely responsive and kept the project on track. I'm happy with the final product and would definitely work with Chi Renovation again in the future.

My wife and I hired Chi Renovation to renovate our kitchen and we could not recommend them highly enough. We were expecting a baby and were on a tighter time frame to complete our kitchen project before our son was born. We interviewed a few different companies and Chi Renovation was the one that listened to our concerns and said they could complete the project within our timeline. In fact the other companies said they would have trouble completing everything by the end of October when Chi Renovation said they could by the mid-September (and they delivered). Every step of the way they continued to listen to our thoughts. Our project manager Ron discussed every step along the way and provided reasons why they were doing what they were doing, which gave my wife and I a lot of piece of mind. Also the contractors that came in were amazing. Extremely courteous, and we were shocked at how fast they were able to complete everything with the highest quality job. We cannot recommend Chi Renovation enough and have already done so to all of our neighbors and friends. Just wanted to get the word out further about a contracting company that is truthful and sticks to their promises!

I had an unfinished space that I wanted completed. I decided to hire Chi Renovation because of their positive online reviews and price for the work. Ron was the project manager, and he and his team did a terrific job completing the work to my expectations and on time. Whenever I had any questions or concerns, he was easy to reach by phone, text, and/or email. The end result was better than we had hoped. We will definitely reach out to them for any future work that we may need.

I was looking for a place after deciding on Scavolini for my cabinets. I was referred to Chi Renovation from a Scavolini rep. Ron came out to provide me with a quote and I appreciated his offer; throughout the entire process he was a great project manager. He clearly explained every step of the process and what to expect. They knew how to work with the European metric system and worked well alongside the Scavolini team. A very important note, Ron was always in contact with the condo association and kept everyone up to date on the status of the project. Made sure the scheduling worked with the building and met all condo association requirements. I would definitely use Chi Renovation again for future projects.

We used Chi Renovation and Design to completely remove our old kitchen and put in a new one that would look better and would be more functional for our family. We gave our designer, Larry, our wish list, and he came back with a gorgeous design that incorporated everything we wanted. It came at a higher price than we wanted, so we worked with Larry to change things around a bit - changing the size of our island and eliminating the very top row of small cabinets - to get within a better price range. Once we were ready to move forward, most everything went smoothly. Our interior designer joined us in a meeting with Larry to select the cabinet designs and colors, and choose counters and cabinet hardware. Before demo started, our project manager, Gene, even asked us how early we would like the crew to begin because he knew we had kids and that mornings can be hectic - how thoughtful! The only real hiccup during the project was that the island was damaged when it was received, and they had to have it remade. It added a little time to the overall schedule, but our project manager, Gene, was able to readjust to move on to other parts of the kitchen while the island was redone. We had a couple of weeks of a working kitchen without an island, but that was so much better than no sink and no stove while we paused the whole project. We love our new kitchen and can't recommend working with Chi Reno & Design highly enough!

Originally we received 5 different quotes for our project, which consisted of removing a few walls, all new flooring for about 1600 sq ft, a new kitchen, and all new closet doors. Chi Renovation came in budget-wise right in the middle, but Ron, the project manager was so great, and knowledgeable that we decided to go with them. We didn't have a waterline on the wall with the fridge, and to make this happen our building wanted us to put in soffits, but Ron worked through it with the building as he knew we didn't like that option. We also had a phone line in our kitchen that could not be moved since it feeds the entire tier of our building, this would have meant we would have to cut out a hole for this in our new backsplash, again, Ron figured out a way to rotate this, which meant that we would not have to cut our new backsplash. Like every project you know there will be hiccups, and each time there was a hiccup Ron was there with options on how to fix it, he was very concerned with making us happy no matter how small the issue may have seemed, he made sure to get it taken care of. We are looking forward to getting quotes from Chi Renovation on doing our bathrooms in the near future!

Chi Renovation renovated our master and kids bathroom simultaneously. Ryan, Eric and Nicolai were a great team and were able to do a precise, clean installation. We were going for a modern look with attention to detail. The team was able to carry out the design with great professionalism and were always on time and pleasant. Highly recommend!

We requested an estimate for remodeling our unfinished basement. Though we ultimately went with another firm, I give this company an A for their quick response to my call. I sent my design to them via email and a contractor arrived within a couple of days to discuss the project. A detailed proposal was emailed within a couple of days and the price was within our budget. I would recommend this company be included if one is looking for a thoughtful proposal from an experienced contractor.

We had a good quote from the company and appreciated their quick response to our inquiry. However we ended up going with another Angie’s List provider due to a better price for more options. Would certainly recommend as one if the companies to quote on a job.

Went well --quality was excellent, workmanship great. We love the end product. All done on time and to spec. Wrong shower door delivered but fixed within one week. We were able to use the shower during wait for new door too.

I used Chi Renovation & Design to remodel my guest bathroom, and would highly recommend them to others. I ended up going with them because they were the most punctual, professional, and organized throughout the consultation & estimate process, and I liked that they were a combined design-build firm, so the project manager (in my case, Ron) would see the whole project through from start to finish. Plus, their estimate was in line with others, and they came highly recommended by a co-worker who'd recently worked with them. I'd intended to do the remodel in June but then had to push the timeline back to the fall, which they were able to accommodate without an issue. Other things I appreciated were that: the team cleaned up the work area at the end of each day, so I never walked into a mess after work, and I pestered Ron with tons of questions and ideas throughout the process, and he was always quick to provide helpful guidance or answers. The project itself (punchlist excluded) took closer to 4 weeks than the 3 originally planned, but I'd call that an on-time finish for any contractor. As for the project outcome: the bathroom used to have a tiny (32x32") shower, ugly beige tile that was difficult to clean, and an even uglier glass block window. I'm really happy with the improvements.

Chi Renovation did a wonderful job renovating our one-bedroom Streeterville apartment. Everyone we worked with (including Julia, Tom, Ron) was professional, responsive, and attentive to our needs. When we first met with Tom to get an estimate, he suggested design ideas and was very detailed in his approach and really listened to what we were trying to do with the space. Once the project got going, one thing Chi Renovation did that the other contractors we considered did not do was provide a designer to work with us. He was very consultative and helped us realize the design we were looking for -- from cabinets to colors, flooring, hardware -- everything. And Ron was great to work with as the project manager. Always available for my questions, walked me through any issues that required immediate attention. Only a couple of delays that were related to building management and re-ordering cabinets, but everything went smoothly and as designed. I would highly recommend Chi Renovation if you're thinking about any renovation work for your home.