Des-Met Construction, LLC

The job was done back in June, I didn't have time to write review until now, negative review doesn't feel very rewarding to write anyway so I will keep it short. - It was originally an angieslist "Big Deal" purchase, took almost 2 months to schedule an appointment for estimate. Unresponsive, took long time to recieve email replies. Phone call often went to voicemail without call back. - Demand full payment on the morning of the scheduled work-day (before the work begin). - Stair nosing starts to fall off a week after repair, he (Charlie) promised me he will come back to fix the issue. He did not kept his promise. No longer return emails or phone call. - Promised to email me invoice of the work, never did. No longer return emails or phone call. - The price was good but I will never use Des-Met again. Not worth the trouble.

The job went fine, but I had to pay another $75 in adddition to the $75.00 I paid for the big deal. The work was fine, but I had hoped he would have finished all the jobs I wanted done within the time period.

It went very well- he even came back 2 days later to put a smooth coat on the ceiling. Beautiful job and very pleasant to work with.

I had a little problem getting in touch with this company but once I did, all went well. Charlie and his assistant arrived early in the morning around 7:30 and began work shortly after. They worked tirelessly until the job was completed in the afternoon; I don't believe they even took a break. The new steel doors are a big improvement and I am very happy with them and feel much better about security. I rated the quality a B (there is no A- grade) because I am having an issue with the locking system so I will have to contact Charlie to maybe adjust it. Both he and his assistant were very personable and I would hire this company again in the future. UPDATE 10-28-2011 Charlie contacted me within a day or two and came out to my house and corrected the issue with the locking system.

After several reschedulings for the big deal, the roller shades were not able to be installed because he needed a hammer drill. He installed the towel racks and said that he would stop by to install the shades the following week. Never heard back from him again. Left several messages and never received a response.

They were quick and professional.

The coupon was set to expire, so I called them two days before expiration to redeem my coupon. They responded by email and asked me why type of work I needed to do. I didn’t respond quickly, because I didn’t know what handyman service I wanted done. Des-Met Construction LLC advised they would honor the coupon after the expiration, but they did not say how long they would extend the expiration for. I contacted them five months later, but they refused to honor the coupon, advised me to call Angie’s List and hung up on me. I just want them to complete the work that I paid for.

It went well. The only thing that I had any problem with was that I asked for the big chair to be placed in the dumpster. I noticed after Charles left that it was placed beside the dumpster. I had to take action and remove it from that location to my property. I was lucky that I did not hurt my back. Then I found a company to pick it up.

He contacted me promptly after I bought the deal. I explained that I needed his help with replacing a small piece of siding that was over my window air conditioning unit and needed help replacing the air conditioning. Some weeks later he said that he came by the house and didn't have the right kind of ladder to do that work. I then was able to get the siding replaced by someone else and then told him that I just needed the air conditioning unit replaced. After he expressed he couldn't do that, I mentioned that he could do touch-up work on the paneling in my family room. I have yet to hear from him. He was very unresponsive, except when he said that he couldn't do the work that I had asked him to do.

He came up to provide initial service right away soon after we called and that was several months back. He was very good in that work. The second job which he did do and he took a little longer to get that do. Third job which he was supposed to do for us and which we had talked about six weeks ago and we haven’t heard anything from him. He stared off really good. He was really reasonably priced, did good work and was very thorough. In the beginning he was very responsive. He was a “can do” kind of guy because if there was a problem then he would find a way to get it done. The last job he was supposed to do was to clean our deck furniture and he came up with a clever idea as to how to do it without using soap furnish on it. We told him to go ahead and do it but its six weeks now and we haven’t heard from him.

Charlie did a great job all around. He clearly knows how to fix a million things. He was pleasant and caring and very capable. I am working on a new list of things for Charlie to come and fix. A gem among Angie's Listers. Charlie was more than reasonably priced and also did me the favor of using his connections to get a good prices on the products he bought to make the repairs. He had very good advice to offer as well as common sense attitude.

Mr. Charles Straining (Owner) was wonderful. It took a little time for us to connect, but I was prepared for that since I'd purchased this as a Big Deal. The owner arrived on time and was very personable. He went through each room with painstaking accuracy installed each rod and then hung the curtains. It was a very successful visit. I wouldn't hesitate to have him back.

Requested repair of the leaky faucet and additional estimates for other work in the house both large and small. After phone contact to discuss the faucet repair and the need for other repairs Mr. Straining did come to the appointment we set - on time, as I best recall. The first visit we reviewed items needing repair, walked about the house; Mr. Straining offered some good suggestions. I felt positive about hiring him for the proposed work, although I had expected him to do the leaky faucet repair that day. He was to provide estimates for the other work. He did return at another time to repair the faucet, but the estimates were not ready. I had told him and repeated on the second visit that while I was not ready for him to do the work until May, I needed estimates to determine what my budget would allow and to compare with other estimates, so that in May ( this was March) I could begin to get these repairs and upgrades done. He said he understood and would have the estimates ready in a week. Request for services ( not the total list) ranged from repair of back door lock; new ceiling in a bedroom and hallway; replacement/ installation of new kitchen sink; replacement / installation of new front storm door; basement wall repair; new sidewalk in front of house; flooring installed ( carpet or engineered wood over hardwood) in 3 rooms. None of these items did he say he could not do or have done by his company. The rest of March and April went by - no estimates. I was in a very busy period at work, realized after several weeks that the estimates had not arrived, but decided to re-contact the company in May when I would be ready to focus more on the work to be done. On re-contact in May by phone, Mr.Straining said he did not have the list given previously nor his notes -would I resend the list. I did do so, and indicated that I would want a separate estimate for each of the major jobs to be able to compare with other estimates; no acknowledgement. I called that Saturday, he said he could do the estimate on Sunday and get it to me. Several days went by, no word. I then resent the list with 2 added items, no contact or response; sent another email the next day and asked that he acknowledge the emails - just in case I had mis-typed the address - no response. I then called again a few days later to ask if he did receive the emails. He said yes, that he "had been meaning to call me". I told him that he did not seem to want the business I was attempting to contract. He gave some sort of weak response to the affect that he would still give me estimates "if I still wanted them", with no indication that these estimates were yet ready. At some point he mentioned a serious illness in the extended family. I asked if he were unable to work, or to take on work contracts secondary to family responsibilities (thinking this was the reason for the delays and willing to excuse at least some of the delay in responsiveness). He said to the effect that he was working regularly, had not stopped or reduced his work. I then told him I must conclude from his lack of communication and follow through that he did not want to dothe work at my house. He said to the effect that if that was my take on the events, then he would basically remove himself from further consideration. If he would have been in communication and given some reason for the delay ( heavy workload, etc.) I could have decided to wait for him to do the work, as I did have a positive first impression, or look for other companies. Then again, when I saw his company again listed on Angie's List for "special deals" ( early May, I think?) I assumed that a company inviting special deals is not very busy and is seeking additional work projects. Where did that leave me???

I called him right after I purchased this Big Deal. He asked me to write an email with information about the work that I needed done since he didn’t have time to talk, and he’d get back to me. He never responded to that email, so I wrote him another email after waiting about a week. I never received a response for that email eith, so I called him and he was very abrupt, offering no apology, and just informeubg me that he was overwhelmed and hadn’t planned on contacting me for at least a few weeks. If he would’ve just sent me a quick email or phone call to let me know this, I would’ve understood.

The price was reasonable. It was an Angie's List promotion. He did a good job and we are very happy with his work. He stayed until the job was done, and we appreciated that. We had to keep rescheduling with him. The first time was fine. He had a scheduling conflict, and that was not a problem. The other times I had to call and ask if he was coming even though he was supposed to come. It was a little frustrating. I think he could've done better with that. Other than that it was a good experience.

Mr. Straining, the owner of the company, is an amusing individual that truly puts people first. I was very impressed with his level of expertise and the number of years he has been in the home improvement business. He did the repairs for my home and even upgraded the replacement baseboard to wood as the existing baseboard was ply board/cardboard like material. He repaired the rips in the drywall and left the area feeling smooth and clean. I was very pleased with the finish product and would definitely use this company again.

Bought the Angies list special to get French doors hung. Charlie had to reschedule a few times but always did so well in advance so that I was not inconvenienced. They did an excellent job with hanging the French doors and then he also diagnosed a dishwasher problem that I had, I paid him for the extra time for that.

It was a difficult job because the house has settled quite a bit and the door frame was not level. He was very personable, kind and trustworthy. I truly enjoyed working with him. I will certainly hire him again. Based off of his other Angie's List reviews I felt confident in hiring him, and I definitely agree that he is a great contractor.

I became aware of this company via an Angie's Big Deal. In general, this went well. It completed jobs I'd started (caulking) that I was unable to wrap on my own (low motivation for the large time investment it would have required). The screen door repair and caulking were the most important and the caulking looks fantastic. My only issue was contractor responsiveness. My initial appointment was 11/2/2010. I took a day off work to accommodate him and another contractor. Unfortunately, the handyman had to postpone due to a funeral in another city. While I understood that, what was tough was I couldn't immediately reach him to reschedule. After three emails and two phone calls, I finally got a response. He scheduled me for Saturday (much appreciated) and he picked up the caulking material on the way. He arrived on time and completed the tasks in about 3.5 hours. I would use this company again.

I called them back and told them that I decided to wait. They were fine. They returned my calls properly, I did not get a voicemail and they showed up on time, so that was good.

They did an excellent job. It was actually construction work that they did. I thought of hiring them in the future because I've got some landscaping work. The price was very good. It was $100 and it's a special price I've had. They are very responsive, they get in touch very quickly and they had a group of people who were quick and clean. They were very professional in what they did. They did everything perfectly.

Charlie is the guy who runs the company. He is one of those who you name it and he will take care of it sort of people. Building the dog gate was pretty complicated as it was free standing so he had to figure out how to make it and put it in that particular place. He made it out of wood and it came out to be actually lovely compared to what most dog gates look like which are not lovely. He made this wooden gate that went up so I could walk through it and click it in to keep the dog in or play with him. It was cheaper than what I would have spent if I had bought one. He has a lot of carpentry skills and he can do things that are out of the ordinary. It is just hard to find someone who can do these things. Fixing the doors is a fairly usual thing. You go buy the doors, you replace them, and you paint them. I don't know where you would find someone who could custom make the doors. He does a lot of general handyman work but if there are some things that are very odd or that are not the usual tasks, he is actually pretty creative at coming up with approaches. He was extremely reasonable. It was high quality work. He likes to stay away. I certainly would use him again in the future.

He did a very good job. He was very professional and responsive to our requests. I would definitely use him in the future.

Very professional and courteous. We had very bad weather that would have prevented anyone from working outdoors (especially on a ladder), but Charlie called each day to confirm that he would be out as soon as the weather broke.

Perhaps the best example is the kitchen renovation. Charlie came and looked at the kitchen. He suggested painting the cabinets and replacing the hardware, rather than replacing the cabinets. It saved me a bundle and the effect was as good or better than new cabinets. He put in a new countertop. For three days of work, I had a new kitchen with a fraction of the expense and disruption of the usual renovation. Charlie was on time every day, cleaned up completely and was very reasonable. I call on him now for all handyman repair or renovation work.