Ohl Tyme Renovations

In October 2023, I had Ohl Tyme completely renovate my spare bedroom. This included removing an old wallpaper border, patching up the walls, removing the old trim, baseboards, windowsills & carpet, painting the ceiling tiles, installing a shiplap wall, painting the walls, installing new vinyl plank flooring, installing new trim, baseboards & windowsills, and replacing all outlets, covers, and light switches. Basically everything in that room was gutted and replaced. Bill from Ohl Tyme did this job solo and I have nothing but great things to say. I could tell that he paid attention to every small detail and did not skip on quality of work. He knew exactly what to do and the final result is a room I am so happy with. Even more, my house is pretty old, so nothing in that room was even or had perfect angles (in fact there was a 2 inch different in the floor from the back to front of the house). Bill took the time to make sure he cut everything precisely so that the shiplap and trim were parallel with the slope of the house - something that I am sure took more time than expected. Would definitely recommend his services to anyone looking to renovate a room!

We have an old but very well maintained historical house. Our water pipes froze – for the first time in our 40 years in the house- during the 2 week cold spell. We had the company come out to figure out what it could be and what could be done. The estimator thought that the faulty pipes were those, which were on the kitchen ceiling, under the second floor. A handyman came, made a hole in the ceiling drywall but there was no temperature difference. My husband suggested that he make another hole further along the pipes. Sure enough, cold air breezed in in that spot. He said that the company would come back at a different point and blow in insulation in the space above the ceiling. I had prepared for a real job and covered everything with plastic sheeting but to my surprise it was not needed. I removed everything. The job was done about two weeks later. The company scheduled the day in advance and called in a timely manner when they had a delay due to snow and had to reschedule. I covered with plastic sheeting everything in the kitchen from floor to ceiling so that the dust and insulation “fluff” would not get into the kitchen cabinets and shelves. The repairmen made several holes in the kitchen ceiling and blew in the insulation. At one point my husband helped to troubleshoot a situation, where the hole was too large and the “fluff” was flying back- he made a cardboard square with a smaller hole so that the job could be completed. Then a “handyman” – and the quotation marks are due to the lack of quality of his job, patched the ceiling and painted it. When my husband and I walked in when he was finished, we were flabbergasted: there was a wide glossy area across the ceiling where he had done his painting job- it was like a mirror. We said that he had clearly used a wrong kind of paint. He claimed that it was color matched and matte and it would get duller when drying. It did not. The reflective 2 feet wide band in the ceiling was clearly visible. My husband took photos of it and sent them to the owner asking him to get it fixed. My husband said that we had not taken down all the plastic sheeting and repainting it now – and not later- would be much easier than if the company had to redrape everything. The owner called back several hours later and said: “Mike (the “handyman”) said that he did not see any difference”. My husband reminded that he had sent photos, which showed a clear difference in the paint- one could see a shiny glossy band across the ceiling. The owner told that he would come back after the weekend but we should not remove the plastic drapes. You can guess what a miserable additional two days it was. We had no access to the microwave, we could barely could get milk out of the refrigerator and all kitchen cabinets were inaccessible because of the plastic sheeting. The work had taken 2 days and now it was two additional days of waiting. Monday morning the owner and the “handyman” Mike came. The owner said immediately at the door, that he could see the problem. Mike was standing under his paintwork staring stubbornly straight up and claimed that the color was exactly the same. I asked him to step aside to see the glare and the reflective strip he had painted but he refused to do so. No apologies. The assessment was that that strip could be repainted (with no guarantee that it would be any better) or to paint the whole ceiling. My husband pointed out that the “handyman” had not used ceiling paint. He just used regular “flat” paint- which is different that the “super flat” paint used for ceilings. This guy was obviously totally ignorant that such category as “ceiling paint” existed. The owner told that we had to buy the paint and pay the painting job as the contract mentioned that the original job included painting with “matching color paint”. (The agreement did NOT say that it had to be matching gloss!!). The owner promised to try to get hold of a real painter and did so a couple of hours later. This time we got a fabulous professional who is retired from his regular job- he used to work for this company before. He came exuding warmth, competence and cheerfulness. He knew immediately what ceiling paint is. He painted the whole ceiling in an hour or so and the results are fine. We paid, the job got done (and hopefully the insulation works), but I am extremely unhappy with the company’s customer service and selection of their “handyman” and would NOT use them again: 1) They sent a totally inept, unskilled and rude “handyman” who was not competent enough to paint a ceiling decently, did not know what ceiling paint is and on top of that never said “sorry” or expressed remorse for the poor results. He turned around, left totally unapologetic and unmoved in his opinion of “the paint being the same”. 2) The owner did not arrive mid day Friday when my husband contacted him about the problem, despite getting photos of the poor quality job. He “wanted to talk to Mike first”. My question is, why would he ask this “handyman’s” opinion when our photos clearly showed that there was like a mirror on our ceiling. 3) There was therefore an additional, unnecessary two days delay with an inaccessible kitchen 4) We had to pay the re-painting and the new paint as the original agreement mentioned painting with “matching color” (but not matching gloss) IF you decide to use this company – which I do not recommend – make sure that you get a handyman who does not have two left hands, and make sure that you read between the lines what means “matching color paint” - and what it does not mean to the owner.

The job took longer than anticipated, through no fault of Ohl Tyme Renovations. I selected vinyl tile to replace the damaged tile. Unfortunately, that tile was no longer available. I then selected porcelain tile which involved a lot more work than the vinyl tile because my basement floor was not level and grout had to be used. What impressed me the most about the people who work for Ohl Tyme Renovations was how they kept me abreast as to how the project was going and the professionalism of each person that came to my house. Hats off to this company!

Very good good on time very professional and very quick