BETTER HOME REMODELING

I bought a house with two old sheds that were decent structurally, but needed work. The first shed, about 12x14, was listing to the side, had two walls where the sheathing/siding had rotted, shingles that looked like they had been there since the 70's, and a ramp that was too steep to get my tractor into the door. I was weighing just having the thing demolished and getting a "home depot" shed delivered, or fixing the old one. Joel at Better Home Remodeling convinced me that 80% of the shed was still fine, and to rebuild it would be much cheaper. In one day, he jacked up and releveled it, installed new plywood and Smart panel, retrimmed, and installed new shingles. On the second day he built a much longer ramp so the tractor would not get stuck on the door threshold. It looks great. On the second shed, which was in better shape, the shed had sunk quite a bit, making the door lower than the grade. The 48" barn door was completely rotten and literally falling off the hinges. I did not need a 48" door, so Joel jacked up and re-leveled the shed, removed the old door, reframed it, installed a 36" steel entry door, trimmed it and installed shakes around the now smaller door to match the existing exterior. For about half the cost of a new delivered shed, I now have two sheds in great condition. Better Home Remodeling provided written estimates for the work, the final cost was about 5% more (not bad considering the age of the structures). It's largely a one-man show, so you need to be a little flexible with the scheduling, but in exchange you get good work at a great price.

The process was drawn out and burdensome. Too much work on my end just to get an estimate.

In the course of doing this work they did some additional repairs, including repairing the wall and base cement of the garage floor. They installed floor support to the rear stairs. They replaced the platform board in the front entry. They also had to replace the shutter on the front of the home. They were very pleasant and didn't give me a hard sale.

We had begun the work of removing siding and sheathing ourselves but had reached the limit of our experience and comfort level. Joel arrived promptly, diagnosed the water leak problem accurately, produced an estimate quickly, showed up for work early, and completed the job a day ahead of schedule. The quality of work was excellent. He advised us we will need to replace the door assembly in a year or two but did what he could to extend the frame's life. He warned us of potential complications he might find when discussing the work, but once the work began he quickly determined there would be none and let us know. Overall it went very well.