ADVANCED BUILDERS

We used Charles Onorevole many years ago to replace our wood deck with Epoch Composite Lumber. At that time he was using the name on our contract as North Jersey Custom Decks div. of Honor Construction, Inc. Honors Construction, Inc was located at 5 Dancer Drive, Budd Lake, NJ. It is the same address he is using for Advanced Builders & Remodeling. In September, I noticed a problem with the deck and found his name under Advanced Builders & Remodeling. I called and he said he remembered me, was very friendly and said he would come to look at the deck on Friday morning. We had it all set up. He did not come, he did not call and even after numerous phone calls on my part for over 3 months he has never picked up the phone to answer my calls. It just goes to the answering machine. I fortunately have found someone to fix my deck but want people to be aware that if you need him to fix something he did, he just doesn't answer his phone.

They also changed 4 outside lights and are replacing some boards on my deck. They are repainting the woodwork around 2 doors in my home as well. They've put in an exhaust fan in our roof as well. Three years ago they built an office in my basement with great woodwork and a built in desk and filing cabinet. If I could give them an A+ for quality of work if I could.

Pro: -Came out to do an initial walk-thru and provided a quote -Began work promptly -When a pipe in the basement began leaking provider turned off the heat and called a plumber -Recognized and fixed a structural issue Con: -Work not completed by agreed deadline -Often difficult to get a hold of, unresponsive -Some parts of the work completed incorrectly, had to be redone once we had moved into the space -Some parts of the dry wall left in poor condition (see picture) -Paid to have staples removed from our hardwood but provider did not complete the task or refund the payment -Final charge much higher than original quote -Provider could be difficult to work with, and sometimes displayed a very angry/aggressive tone In my opinion this was not a good interaction. I would not recommend this provider.

t We were referred to Advanced by some friends who had used them before and been happy with the results. Charlie (the owner of Advanced) came out and walked through the job with us discussing in detail the work we wanted to have completed. He was enthusiastic, and very friendly. He then followed up with an e-mail quote for the job. I was concerned that his prices were higher than the other bids we received, but Charlie was adamant that his work was higher quality and we were paying for his years of experience. We agreed and he began work. We were very clear that the work was to be done by our move in date and Charlie assured us that he had ?more than enough time?. Once work began things started to deteriorate. Charlie became increasingly hard to get ahold of, to the point that I had to threaten to pull him off the job just to receive a call back. We began to notice issues with the work, but could not get Charlie to come out in person to discuss the problems. They installed windows for us, one of which was completely the wrong style and did not match anything else in the house. They removed the wall, but did not measure properly and built a header that would not allow our front door to open. Lastly, they were tasked with demolishing one room but instead just dry walled over the existing dry wall without removing the trim!! The only time I heard from Charlie was when he was calling to tell me that the cost was going up, eventually we paid nearly 30% over his original quote for LESS work. Charlie insists that this is really normal and told me that it was my fault for not knowing that the quoted price would increase by at least that much. Then, when our move in date came of course they were not done with the work. We had to hire other contractors to finish the work that Charlie had promised to finish, and had been paid for. Eventually, after months of pressuring Charlie did come out and correct some of the issue but he still refuses to return the funds paid for the work they did not finish. After correcting the work done incorrectly Charlie said that it was more than fair for him to keep the overpayment because he did more work, when in truth it was just correcting the previous mistakes. Charlie and Advanced builders are they type of contractors that give the trade a bad name. Avoid at all costs!!