HANDY GUY SERVICES

This handyman practices inhumane ways of removing squirrels from his own personal property. He has been seen taking a cage of live squirrels and drowning them as a means of removal. He should be shut down and charged for animal cruelty and torture.

Good for small jobs (replacing faucet), but apparently not for larger jobs. Contractors obviously were not skilled at what they were doing and caused more long-term damage. Also cheap materials were used despite request to use quality materials. Looked terrible in short time. Very displeased. Will not use again.

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) installation was a disaster. These guys are handymen who continually aspire to be legit contractors, but when you're mediocre you're mediocre, and that aspiration ain't gonna happen. Noticed the worker laying the tile wasn't preparing it for the grout; he had hastily laid several LVT down when I called Guy, the owner or whatever, and told him about this. I couldn't have emphasized the grout enough, and instead of taking responsibility I got excuse after excuse after excuse; but of course he assured me it would be taken care of. Next day his boy Jimmy, assured me it would be taken care of. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," he said. He didn't or didn't care.. No grout channels were used, no spacing of any sort was used to separate the tiles the standard quarter to half an inch, which is right in the tile instructions, just like they laid the tile on the existing sheet of vinyl, which once again the manufacturer warned to not do in order to achieve maximum performance (i.e. longevity). The space between tiles doesn't even register on the tape measure, with a pitiful amount of grout penciled in, although the entire bucket of grout went missing. To add insult to injury, no plastic was laid when the refrigerator or toilet were removed; so not only did the place smell like sewage during the nearly 2 weeks it took to do a 2 day job, but when the fridge was moved, a copious amount of rusty, stinky water soaked the already dilapidated carpet, ultimately totaled, and later we found water stains on furniture and other objects not moved out of the way or protected. The real contractor I'm having come in to finish the rest of is now having to clean up their mess. The transition, for instance was literally nailed to the LVT, leaving exposed holes in the tile. What a bonehead move--would this have been done with ceramic? Of course not! The real contractor, someone who's actually a tradesman and not some mediocre "handy man," confirmed how shoddy the work was; the tiles also just tore apart from one another when the transition was removed, and no evidence of grout at all. I warned my father not to use these guys; we share ownership of the house and I'd wanted to use someone else; but his goal was to do it on the cheap, even though the costs were inflated as usual, as they have been for years, taking advantage of my elderly parents with the old up-charge trick and what not. The End.

Fantastic, showed up on time, did not leave a mess, and talked to us before leaving.

This was to be a two day project and it took 8 days. I will give them a day and an half because it did rain. They would show up for 30 min. and then gone. I had to make calls to get them back on the job. I guess they were stretched between jobs. Jason does great work. You need to keep an eye on them to make sure it gets done the way it is supposed to be done. They said they were finished and I had to have them back to redo the finish trim inside the house as they tried to cut corners with the material and fill with caulking. They meet with me and finished the window the way it was to be done. I would like to use them again on another project but not sure if I should.

I had home services done by Handy Guy Services. They were here in the last part of November of first part of December. I think I paid him for the complete work, I think I paid him twenty seven hundred dollars. The scheduling was good. I think I waited about a week and a half. They were very personable. I liked them all. They were very knowledgeable and helpful. I was satisfied. I didn't have any problems. They did a good job. It wasn't exactly perfect, it wasn't over the top. I would tell others I recommend them just keep an eye on them like you would anybody else.

I made an agreement with Guy (at Handy Guy Services) to clean my gutters. The first gentleman who came out was not able to complete the job but he did let Guy know an Guy came to the house and completed the job to my satisfaction. I will use Handy Guy Services again.

Working with Handy Guy Services was very easy - they were very responsive and came close to the time they quoted. I was surprised at their efficiency and desire to get the job complete before leaving at night. It took a little longer than expected, but the two people working on it were very nice to work with. There was a little discrepancy on moving items and wanting to charge me more, but after a discussion with Guy, this was resolved. I will definitely use this provider in the future, and we've already discussed future projects.

He was punctual and very pleasant.

I have done work like this in the past, and have worked with construction companies in multiple states. I have to say that Guy and Jason did an excellent job and did it at a fair price. They were easy to talk to and discussed with me different ways of accomplishing the job. Frankly, I am not sure why they received negative ratings form others. We tried to get quotes from other companies, and only two got back to us. Handy Guy responded in a reasonable time frame with a quote. If people do not want the job, just say so. If you are to busy, just say so. It's ok to say the truth-"I don't have time to do what you want done right now. Maybe we can schedule it later." Fargo/Moorhead- passive/aggressive capital of the world. I look forward to working with Guy and his crew putting in new lament flooring for us.

They did a nice job but his crew seem to be a group of part-timers who have other jobs so they were here later in the day, interrupting part of our evenings.

For the last service, it was $145. They're top of the mark. Their prices are good. I would highly recommend them. I stick with them because they're conscientious, dependable, they have good prices, they do good work, and they're very punctual and very responsive.

They did okay on the painting and easy stuff. Some weren't done well. They were just cut and screwed and not repaired correctly. They were a little bit expensive. I would only use them for simple stuff.

BEWARE. This guy is a con artist with serious staffing issues. Guy bid the job but did not do any of the work. Unfortunately, he did not share the job overview or any details of it with his crew manager, "Jake," who came in blind and frequently complained about Guy's utter lack of communication. First, our brand new $395 steel front door, purchased locally, was installed improperly and had to be adjusted five times before it actually closed. It still hangs crooked, the interior latch is cockeyed, you can see daylight around the edges, and there's a significant gap between it and the exterior siding. The whole thing needs to be caulked (at a minimum.) Guy told me all doors do that. When the garage access door was installed, the handle and lock assembly was put on backwards and is missing one of the two inside screws. When the bathroom exhaust fan was installed, the ceiling hole was overcut by several inches and then "patched" with a wadded up plastic bag. And nothing else. The exterior painting caused the most problems. The bid was for full prep, including scraping, power washing, and priming the house as needed, as well as high quality primer and paint. We'd already gotten really expensive paint and asked Guy several times to remove that from the bid. Crew Manager Jake told me the entire house needed to be primed but, in order to cut corners, Guy instructed his crew to scrape and spot prime minimally. At the same time, Guy supplied a tiny rinky-d*** power washer that hadn't been started in a year and, according to Jake, was woefully inadequate for the job -- so the crew used ours. Guy's crew power washed the house and then immediately sprayed on the exterior paint instead of waiting at least 24 hours for the composite board-and-batten siding to dry. As a result, apart from the paint job being generally uneven, the paint started peeling days later and the entire job needs to be redone. Guy said all houses do this. The top-of-the-line trim paint, included in the bid, never materialized and my husband had to go buy some at Scheels on 13th Ave on his lunch hour. On the heel of all these headaches, my husband was pleased to learn from Guy that a "master trim painter" would be doing the finishing touches on the exterior. When the Master showed up, he was a 20 year old kid with no experience who'd just blown into town from Rockford, IL and responded to Guy's employment listing on Craigslist. The Master missed a lot of spots and completely painted all our windows shut. You can imagine this caused problems requiring box cutters and a ladder. (At the end of the day, the Master realized he'd locked his keys in the car, so he did what any other intelligent man would do. He broke the car window and drove away, never to return.) Guy sent Jake out to do other people's jobs simultaneously while working on our house, so he was often hours late or left mid-day without notice. Maybe this is standard practice. One day Jake came back and asked me if he could take some of our materials from the garage because he ran out on another job and Guy wouldn't return his calls. I don't think this is standard practice. Meanwhile, my husband was uncomfortable coming home to a wide open garage and no one here. Worse yet were the unsupervised new guys sitting on the front steps, waiting for Guy to pick them up, while smoking and throwing their cigarette butts all over our yard. That's not acceptable in our neighborhood. Or any other neighborhood. In spite of all the problems we had with the revolving-door crew (Jake quit) and the questionable workmanship, Guy was very eager to get paid. Right NOW. I'd given him $3,000 before starting the job and he expected another $2,900 on completion. When we did a walk around of the house and I told him he'd screwed up the exterior of my house, his response was, "If you'd paid me two days ago before the paint started peeling, we wouldn't be having this conversation." No kidding. I was floored. Our final exchange ended poorly, with Guy becoming frighteningly aggressive in my living room (in front of a witness) and me telling him numerous times to please leave my property and not come back. Instead of being disillusioned with Angie's List, I decided to post this review. I've waited a couple months because I needed to calm down and put everything into perspective. Now it sounds almost funny. I see that Guy rebuts all negative Angie's List reviews with ridiculous rhetoric, excuses and finger-pointing. As I said before, BEWARE. This man over promises, under delivers, treats his employees poorly and, in my opinion, is as unethical as the day is long. Don't make the same mistake I did. UPDATE: As expected, Guys response was ridiculous. I used the name "Jake" because I didn't care to identify the gentleman that subsequently severed his relationship with Guy. Yes, I was in Montana the last week of the job (as I told Guy I'd be before we contracted) but my husband was home the entire time. (So were my neighbors, and they were taking notes!) Nobody SCRAPED the house after painting. Rather, the paint bubbled up on the wet siding and peeled off in strips with nothing but my fingers. We did no work on the door. In fact, I'm now trying several types of weather stripping and haven't found one that's substantial enough to fill the gap. As long as Guy is accusing me of being dishonest and not a quality human being, I'd like to point out that over $1200 of equipment was stolen from our garage during the time Guy's crew had access, including tools, an air compressor and a very expensive multi-extension ladder -- things specifically used by handymen and not generally targeted by wandering teenage vandals. Granted, I didn't see the stuff walk out the door....but the stolen items had been securely stowed in the locked garage and not easily accessible. It makes us wonder.

The gentleman who came out did not always show up so it took a long time to get what I needed done. He kind of said, "I will be back," and then I would not here from him and I had to call him back several times. Altogether, since when I first talked to him, it took him probably a month to finish the service. It was something that I would have done but I do not want to get up on the roof.

All jobs, except the flooring installation, were done above average. The finishing work around doorways for the flooring was not neat. They did not undercut the molding, but cut around the casement shapes which left large gaps that I needed to fill with putty. There were some areas where gaps were evident after the casement had been replaced along the walls. I did not mention this to them as I figured if they knew how to do it correctly they would have done it in the first place so there was no sense in having them redo it. They are a very pleasant crew and are prompt, clean and efficient. I think there are some jobs they are better at than others.

Although disruptive to daily existence, as with any construction, all went well. The window wells were in place by late fall. Then the cracks and holes in the basement, next the bathroom in the basement and then the upstairs basement. Only hold up was when we ordered a new window for the bathroom with blinds between the panes. It was delivered 6 weeks later than promised. Since we purchased the majority of the materials, cost was lower and they did pick up the bigger items from the retailer.

When Handy Guy crew tried to put in the door, they discovered it was bowed. I was home at that time and I saw they were having difficulties getting it adjusted so the door would latch. I left the house and didn't return until later that evening after the job was done. Guy stopped by to be paid just a short time after we came home that evening but in that short time we did notice it wasn't a great job. Guy did adjust threshold when he came and knocked off $45 for some other problems. After he left we found more problems: One side of the casing was not pushed all of the way in leaving a v-shaped gap by the threshold which we temporally filled with rope calk to keep the cold air out. The vinyl cove base on the left side of door was not trimmed and glued down. The casing is cracked on the bottom left and top left. Nail holes in the casing weren?t filled. While installing the lockset, they did not chisel out the deadbolt and lockset correctly. The deadbolt plate was bent as a result. The screw for side plate of lockset was snapped off in the door. They tried to correct it by drilling another hole next to it and screwing the plate in crooked. I cleaned up quite a bit of construction dust in the garage. Guy had told me there would be no dust front he drywall patch but there was dust all over the main floor of the house. The kitchen sink was dirty from when they cleaned up after the drywall. We will need to have the door removed and reinstalled. I tried to call Guy after he left. No answer so I sent an email listing the problems. I didn't have a response from him by the next morning so I stopped payment on the check I gave him. His response to the email was "my cost is $200.0 and the work was done fine enough with the door that was". I offered him $200. Part of his next response was "YOU GAVE US PERMISSION TO INSTALL A DOOR THAT WASN'T HARDLY INSTALLABLE. BUT WE DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB WITH WHAT WE HAD TO USE." "THERE WAS NEVER ANY DRY SANDING DONE IN YOUR HOME, YOUR DUST IS YOUR DUST. " From this I felt it was being suggested I was responsible for them continuing to install a door that was giving them problems. When something I'm doing at work is not going correctly, we do not keep going and then blame the client for the poor results. As for the dust, any other contractors we have worked with have put up dust barriers when needed. He threatened to take us to court over $100. I was tempted to take him up on it because I think we could have won but decided it wasn't worth the headache. We paid him.

He was very courteous and professional and got everything done just right. Will definitely call him for our next project.

Used wrong color paint in living room[we had the right paint] but---in a few months the work came back as before now it is the same as before maybe worse! Can't believe it!!! Larry isn't here to ask the right date of service it's around that time.

Had Guy come over and give a quote on fixes some drywall in my garage and putting in insulation. Allowed him to spend as much time as needed. Gave him the job based on his quote. Near the end of the job, I recieved a call from Guy stating that he misquoted and the price needed to go up. This represented a 15% increase in the cost. Said he forgot to measure a portion of the garage. Not sure how as it is just a garage. Guy said he would only charge "cost" but not sure what that really means. End result is the cost increased 15% for him to finish. In my opinion, if a contractor gives a bid he should honor the bid. If I had known it was 15% more, I probably would have gone elsewhere. Likewise, at a minimum, it should have been communcated at the beginning of the job, not a surprise at the end. In my line of work I would NEVER call a customer at the end of a job and tell them the price went up. I would honor my bid.

12-27 - Guy came out for estimate; verbally said he could get to it "early next week". I repeatedly told him the water pipe froze in below zero weather. He insisted on quoting for a job I needed at a later time even though I made it clear that would NOT be done. 12-29 - I e-mailed that I would like the first two items on the list done (weatherstripping and water pipe). The estimate stated the water pipe would be wrapped in heat tape. 12-30 - E-mail response that he could not get to it until late in week if one of employees came open. 12-31 - Call from Matthew that he would be out at 5pm to measure (why was this not done fully at estimate?). He was late with no call letting me know. I told him on the original call only the first two items would be done. He also stated that he wanted to do the work around 10am tomorrow. I reminded him it was New Year Day and he said that was fine he wanted to work that day. I told him verbally that I needed the pipe to not freeze but that if he didn't want to do the drywall patch on wall that could wait. He wanted to measure for items 3 & 4 and I again had to reieterate that I would not be doing those items at this time and had never stated I would. 12-1 - No call No show 12-2 - Call from Matthew at 3:30pm that he would be there in an hour. He was significantly late again no call. He did the weatherstripping and went down to wrap pipe. Completed and left. 12-3 - My water pipe froze. E-mail response from Guy was that he told me to do the heat tape ( and it was rudely typed in all caps). Never once did I tell anyone not to use heat tape only drywall. I have the estimate and all emails to prove what was asked to be done. Never once did I say no heat tape. I was told by another company that he should have known better to wrap a pipe that froze like that as it prevented heat from getting to it. This was the second time I have worked with him and the first experience was just as bad but at least the work was good so I tried again. Well as the saying goes, fool me twice shame on me.

After setting up appt the employee went to the wrong address. He called me to get the right address and arrived on bike. I was told the installation should be around 1-1.5 hours. This was supposed to be done on my lunch break. Over 7 hours later he was done. While the job he did was quality work, I do not believe he had ever done this type of request before and struggled very much. Since he rode a bike he had to ride that to the hardware store to get supplies even though I offered to drive him. All of this was a half day lost from work. Yes the unit functions and I have no difficulties but he experience was horrible. I gave them a second chance with even worse results. There won't be a third chance.

Firstly, I had to wait for months to get the project started. Guy's first employee kept me waiting for hours on two occasions when he did not show up or reschedule our appointment. Guy did not inform the second employee of how the repair work was quoted or how it was to be done so the plaster crack "repairs" are unfinished. (If you see the crack just as much after the repair as you did before it, and contractor guarantees it will increase in size over time, was it repaired? I'm going with a resounding NO.) Lastly, this matter of estimating low to get the job and billing high is unethical (if not unlawful) in the construction industry. Contractors are hired through competitive bid and need to be able to do the job for the price they quote, barring unusual unforeseen circumstances. This business of "I had to raise the price of painting the room because I didn't realize it would need two coats" suggests either a lack of expertise (when don't walls need two coats of paint or at least primer + paint?), a lack of professionalism (didnt know how long it would take to paint a small room), a lack of integrity, or any combination of these. Guy quoted odd jobs around the house at $37/ hour when I told him that I would need some light fixtures attached and then raised it to $180/ hour to be applied retroactively *after* the work was completed. He then raised it *again* to $210/ hour on the mid-project bill. Guy handed the mid- project bill to me out of the blue and expected payment immediately, on the spot; suggesting that he cant pay his worker unless I pay him that minute. He has yet to check the (incomplete) work but has nevertheless called thrice since for a check to pay for it. (And in the age of internet banking, who carries checks anymore anyway?) I work in the construction industry too and can attest that this behavior is profoundly unprofessional. He might just suffer the illusion that female clients are gullible enough to accept this. If he treats other clients as he has me, I honestly don't understand how he could possibly have received so many good reviews here on Angie's list. It makes me question the reliability of this forum.

I called Handy Guy Services for a quote and Guy was here right away to look at the job. One of the ceiling joists was cracked, and a couple others were bowing. He explained they would sister up another joist and install joists in between the existing because the span between joists is over 3'. He called me with a quote the next day and said they could do the work within a day or so. He left me a written quote and a couple of guys came out Thursday afternoon and worked late to get the job done that night. We feel much better about the sturdiness of our garage ceiling and pleased with the work.