Starlight Remodeling

The tile floor was improperly laid. The grout did not match and clumps of grout were on the actual pieces of tile. There were broken tiles. The shower was completely installed wrong. The pipes were moved to the outer wall of my house with no insulation. The shower basin was cracked. Water leaked all underneath the floor and sub floor. The tiles were not cut evenly. They were not laid evenly. Was an absolute nightmare. I had to have another company come out and gut the entire bathroom and start over.

Sloppy job. Josh initially started the work relatively fast. Had a deck that needed to have ledger board removed to allow tuck pointers to repair brick. This required top deck to be pulled down. Josh initially gave me the impression of a fast contractor with a quick repair. We patiently waited a month for a city permit on the deck. Josh kept delaying the submittal of the permit, which was eventually submitted. The process took well over a month alone. To make things worse, the city was extremely slow at processing it. Once we got the permit, more delays. About 6 weeks in, he finally started rebuilding the top deck. Bid was to include a flashing to protect the brick. What was installed is absolute garbage. Flashing might as well not be there. Ledger attached to brick had about 2" gap between brick and board. It was not fastened tightly and snug against the outer wall. Informed Josh that this would not fly and would fail inspection. Decks don't look like that. Inspector showed up after Josh initially completed the job. Immediately he saw the gap running the entire ledger and failed the deck. Josh then returned 2 weeks later to tighten the ledger (because I hadn't payed him in full). This should of been done right the first time. One of the wood posts supporting the handrail was rotted. Instead of buying a $20 wood post, Josh decided it was good enough and reinstalled it. In short, I got an 8+ week project. $3,000. Permit runarounds. Garbage flashing that doesn't protect against water. Deck that failed initial city inspection. Rotted wood post. Only thing acceptable in the job was new composite board that he cut to length. This is a bottom dollar contractor. I have some pretty large projects in the event this went smoothly. I'd never, let this guy touch anything on my property after this experience. You get what you pay for with guys like this. Bottom dollar bid = bottom dollar job. Not worth the stress.

I would never let these people in my house again. They left our house unfinished, took our money, and ran. I should have noticed the red flags when the co-owner, Josh, kept making jokes about my house, saying "Why don't you just tear it down and rebuild it?", but I just wanted to get the work done so we could move into our home. 1. The bathroom remodel: the drywall was installed crooked so the walls slope inward at the bottom; grout job was horrible (many holes in some grout lines and in others the grout was laid on super-thick) and they didn't even bother to clean up the grout haze; installed new tub with jets, and they cracked it at the base upon installation and did not inform us; caulk job in corners looks terrible, and they even used wrong color caulk in 2 of the corners and when they said they would fix it, they just caulked over it with a taupe-colored caulk that did not match our grout at all, or the white caulk they used to caulk the tub (which is the worst caulk job I have ever seen, I could have done better; huge gaps); They were supposed to put a new window in the bathroom, and did not, leaving the window casing completely open and unfinished; they didn't even bother to install a mirror in the bathroom, and this was supposed to be a remodel. 2. They were contracted to move a light switch to accommodate the kitchen cabinets to be installed, and didn't bother to do so; they painted all the rooms on the first floor. We could have saved money and done it ourselves they way it looks. They left scratches and paint splatters all over our new wood floors. They left holes unpatched in the walls. The only thing they did halfway decent in the house was the tile floor in the kitchen (they told us the grout didn't need to be sealed, but it does) and the ceiling fans. Any time my husband tried to contact the project manager/owner, Josh, he would never answer the phone, would not return phone calls or texts either. He had one young man working on our house doing all the work. After nearly 2 months of work, Josh told us they were finished (they were not even close to being finished), and asked for the rest of their money since it was a week before Christmas. My husband told Josh twice that they still were not finished, that they had more work that was not finished (outlets left hanging out of the walls, the kitchen light switch, the bathroom window and casing and a mirror, among other small things). He insisted they were finished and said they would have to charge us more money. Then his father, Al, the company owner came by and insisted we pay them, which we did. Another contractor who was in the house at the time, installing our kitchen cabinets, heard the co-owner, Josh, and the young man working on our house "Get this s*&% finished, let's get the money and get out of here." When he told my husband, my husband contacted the father, Al, and told him there was still work that needed to be done. He pretended like he didn't know what was going on, so my husband asked him to have Josh call us. Josh called and after my husband confronted him about the unfinished, subpar work, he told my husband "Take us to court then." Hiring Starlight Remodeling was the worst mistake we have ever made. We've had six different contractors and craftsmen in our house since they left our house unfinished, and they've all commented on the "subpar, amateur work" they did throughout the house. We have since had to hire someone to come in and fix their mistakes, to the tune of more money. My husband is a newly-retired, disabled veteran and I feel they really took advantage of our kindness. What they left behind has been a nightmare for us to fix, let alone the fact we have not been able to move our household goods into our house, which we bought in September 2016. I would never recommend them to anyone.

Contracted with Starlight in early June, 2016, and work was finished by late July, 2016. I was remodeling/expanding my kitchen and wanted a contractor to do the heaviest work, the electrical, and the drywalling. No other contractors were available on my schedule so a friend recommended Starlight Remodeling. They were available on short notice. Within a few days of my first call, we had a contract and they began work a week after that. Along with the kitchen, I also needed a ceramic floor laid in my basement. Every part of the experience working with Josh, Starlight Remodeling and their subcontractors was positive. Josh was flexible, knowledgable, and responsive to my communications. He and all of his crew were courteous and on time. If they were going to be late or had to postpone a day, I was informed. Text and email questions from me were answered quickly. Josh handled all of the dealings with St. Charles County and the permits and someone from his crew was there to meet inspectors every time. I am extremely happy with the work done and have recommend Starlight Remodeling to several close friends already. I will be calling them again for the next remodel job I need done.

Liars and Thieves. They contracted to install a Moen posi temp valve in our remodeled bathroom. Josh put it in my shopping cart at Lowe's and told me I needed it. Al took out the cartridge from the new valve and installed just the cartridge and kept my new valve while charging me for the full installation. That is theft of services and theft of property. Al also stole one of the shower heads that was included in the kit. The valve costs over a hundred dollars by itself, but it came in a shower kit. I will now have to repurchase the valve and hire a new plumber to install it. A hole will have to cut in my wall to access it too. They were also contracted to paint our stairwell. They spilled paint all over the carpet, it will need to be replaced. Lowe's is going to charge me $780,00 to recarpet my stairs. There is up to an inch gap around the ceiling where they did not cut in the paint from either the wall or the ceiling. The hand rail was painted so poorly that there are dried paint drips all along the bottom of the rail. Their painter also got paint all over our chandelier. I am going to have to hire an electrician to remove the chandelier so that we can clean the paint off of it and then to reinstall it. To save $2.50 cents on a 5 gallon bucket, they cleaned out the mortar and grout and poured it in my driveway and onto my street. I will have to hire someone to power wash my street. At least another $100 to fix one of their mistakes. They installed my upstairs shower backwards. Al and Josh thought it was funny that they screwed it up and did not offer to fix it. They put a gouge into the side of my new linen cabinet that they were paid to install. It looks as if they dropped the granite side splash on it as they were installing it. The end row of tiles that they installed in our bathroom have all broken off. They did not run the concrete backer board all the way to the end of the room and installed the new tile pieces hanging off the edge of the backer board. Once again more money to another contractor to fix their mistake. On the bathroom door that Josh installed, he tore chunks out of the trim at the bottom and tore a huge chunk out of the door stopper. Not to mention it is installed an inch too high. I can literally place my toes under the door. While Al was installing the wall tile in our bathroom, he would stand in our new porcelain tub without any cardboard to protect it. He put a chip in our new tub and refuses to acknowledge it. There are also huge gaps in the grout, places are completely missing it. They installed an exhaust fan in our bathroom that is either put in backwards or is not attached to the exhaust tube in the ceiling. We turn it on and insulation from the attic comes shooting out of it onto the floor. It is a shame that I can not attach pictures of the quality of work they performed. If you have the misfortune to hire these people, never pay them in full until they have finished the touch ups and repairs or they will never return.