Ditmas Park Renovations LLC

Description of Work: They came out and painted the interior of my house.

Description of Work: The company did three separate projects for me. All of the work was done on a timely basis. Tom was very neat. There was little cleanup that I needed to do. I love the results. I thought his prices were fair. Tom rebuilt a shower surround, demoed and rebuilt a small bedroom closet and laundry room.

Description of Work: plaster ceiling

Description of Work: They sheet rocked, painted and did flooring. They are more like handymen, then high end professional workers (you get what you pay for) this is a luxury condo which I rent - so the job is acceptable. if I was living there myself I would not be happy, but if you have a plain place, or a house you rent,and are looking for a OK job - then they are fine. If you are expecting quality craftsman, who do a seamless top notch job, with all the finishing touches, they are not for you.

Description of Work: Painting and baseboards. Looks great.

Description of Work: Dry wall, tape and joint compound.

Description of Work: I used Ditmas Park Renovations LLC for a quote to assess my floors to refinish.

Description of Work: They did plastering and painting on the interior of my home.

Description of Work: Mr. Laurenson came to my house to look at the job, promised he would send an estimate and I never heard from him again. I tried to contact him by email and he never responded.

Description of Work: I bought an Angie's List daily deal for a bathroom/shower tile redo. The provider was originally good at communicating and came by to assess the situation. He let me know that in order to fix the shower floor tiles, I would need to track down the shower wall tiles as well so we could replace the bottom row as a part of the redo. The contractor was unable to track down the tiles, so I went looking. It took a while to track down the wall tiles, but I finally did a month or so later. I bought the needed tiles and materials to complete the job. When I called the contractor back to schedule the work, they were completely unresponsive. I've left numerous messages with no response. I've held off giving them a bad review, but enough is enough. We're 6 months later and they have my money and I still have a messed up shower floor.

Description of Work: job was just adequate. they said they would get back to me after speaking with angies list for a refund of the 4hrs not used, but have not done so yet.

Description of Work: Over 4 weeks ago I had a rep from Ditmas Restoration stop by my place to give me an estimate on a kitchen & bathroom renovation - they were very agreeable & they promised to get back to me. - I called & left messages but no one has had the courtesy to return my calls. I am very disappointed & was looking forward to working with them because they are a neighborhood company.

Description of Work: I had two of my bathrooms grouted and caulked by Thomas. He did a very nice job and spent time explaining the process. I also liked the fact that he told me what might needed to be repaired in the future. While he was explaining the work he was not pushy about using his company. It seemed he was genuine and wanted to make sure I got the work done properly.

Description of Work: Regrouting of bathroom tiled walls and tiled floor. Thomas did a very nice job.

Description of Work: The guys from Ditmas Park Renovations painted my bathroom, a wall in the living room, and fixed the drywall (water damage) and painted the dining room.

Description of Work: The following was performed: - Plastered and sanded three very small areas in which the old paint had been chipping. - Painted the interior of the following rooms: 2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom The following had been started, but not completed: - The entire living room ceiling - The living room dining area. - Part of the main living room area - Part of the living room closet doors - The master bedroom dressing room area and one side of the door. - A short hall off the living room leading to the master bedroom. Neither the ceiling, the walls nor the doors sides facing into the hall were painted. Absolutely terrible. The problems with Ditmas Park Renovations were: (1) Extremely slow work, (2) Poor to just adequate painting and carelessness, (3) Lack of punctuality and (4) The refusal on the part of the owner to answer any direct questions regarding these problems, as well as prevarication. Background: My apartment is a two bedroom, two bath apartment in which I have resided since 1969. Throughout this period of time, the apartment had been repainted on several occasions using the building’s contractor. In each repaint, the work was usually completed in one day - on one or two occasions, two days. The contractor’s painters did excellent work, cleaned up after themselves and were terrific in every way. Unfortunately, due to scheduling problems, I had to find another contractor for this repaint. I became aware of Ditmas Park Renovations through an Angie’s List deal. When Tom, one of the owners, came to inspect the apartment I told him that, unlike previous repaints, several areas will not need any painting. These were: 1 bathroom, the interior of the 3 closets, most of the two foyer walls because the bookcases occupied most of the space. Therefore, since the apartment, with two painters, had almost always been repainted in one day - on rare occasions two - this should easily take one day, since there is less to repaint. Tom responded that it could take longer, then by phone and E mail, stated that “2 days should be sufficient. If not, we can work something out”. (I have forwarded this E mail to you). Please note the following: - I supplied the paint. The paint was Benjamin Moore’s Aura, which cost $60 per gallon, a thick, one coat paint. One of the painters commented that he was pleased with the paint because he didn’t need to keep going over areas repeatedly. - Prior to the painters’ arrival, I prepared the apartment for painting. I pushed furniture and objects away from the walls, took down pictures and removed everything from areas to be painted. All the painters had to do was cover everything before beginning to paint. The problems: 1. Extremely slow work: Very little was done each day. I requested that the kitchen and master bedroom be painted first. It took two days to do these rooms. Late in the second day, they were still working in these rooms and barely started the second bedroom. At the end of the second day, when Tom, one of the owners, came to pick up the painters, we discussed this and all he would say was “good work takes time”. He completely sloughed off my previous experience. 2. Poor to just adequate painting and carelessness: These were: - At best, the painting was uneven. Several areas did not have a clean ceiling line. In both bedrooms, the ceiling color ran into the top of the wall. - Areas were skipped. In the kitchen, the underside of one of the two small shelves were not not painted, as well as a small part of the wall next to the shelves. - In two rooms, the wall plates for the light switches were not removed. They were painted over, including the switch. I didn’t notice it until after paint dried. By then, the paint was so hard, I had to use pliers a few times to turn on and shut off the light. Also, the painted wall plate and switch are unsightly and will soon show fingerprints, etc. - The painters were very sloppy about covering things up. In the kitchen, where some minor plastering and sanding was done in a small area, the painter did not cover the cabinets. As a result, when I opened the cabinets, white powder from the sanding had accumulated. I will have to take everything out, clean the cabinet shelves and rewash the glasses and dishes. In addition… - The painters did not cover the television stand in the small bedroom. As a result, the television and the cable box, as well as all the TV stand’s surfaces were covered with dust. - The painters did not bring enough of the materials they needed. I had to supply them with some garbage bags and on the third day, they did not bring enough trays and had to go to a paint store to buy them. - Also, some of their garbage was left. Several water bottles, wads of tape that had been peeled off areas. In one room, the tape had not been removed from a ceiling lamp. 3. Lack of punctuality: In order to put in the 8 hours of painting per day which was promised in the Angie’s List deal and allow the painters one hour for lunch, as well as comply with the building’s requirement that contractors must be out by 5:00 p.m., the painters must arrive at 9:00 a.m. They were consistently late… arriving between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m. On Wednesday, August 30, they arrived at 9:45 a.m. and then had to leave to go to a paint store to purchase trays. They did not begin work until 10:15 or 10:30 a.m. (4) The refusal on the part of one of the owners (Tom) to answer any direct questions regarding some of the problems as well as prevarication. This is what ensued: - When I asked Tom why the painters were so late every day…basically losing at least an hour from the 8 hours promised, his response was a litany of his business problems, traffic, etc. When asked why he agreed to 8 hours a day when he knew he couldn’t fulfill it, his response was more business problems. - When asked why the work was so slow, his response was that “good work takes time”. - On the plus side; . He did give me the next day at no cost. I figured they should complete it by then; however the same problem occurred…very little work was finished and by the end of the third day about 25% to 30% of the apartment remained unfinished - Tom then offered me the use of one painter @ $50 per hour for the 4th day. I initially accepted because I was desperate to get the work done and put the apartment in order before I leave for California to take care of my daughter and grandchildren. Later that evening however, I realized that, considering how slow both painters are, one painter would take at least 8 hours and I could wind up spending another $400 and - based on the previous pace of work - it was unlikely that he would not finish the work. - I called Tom’s office later and requested him to me back immediately next morning. The call was not returned. - The painter arrived at 11:00 a.m. and I told him that I do not wish to work with his company any longer and gave him the reason why. I asked him to remove the painting materials. Tom arrived and claimed that he and his partner worked on a plan late into the evening to charge me $200, guaranteeing completion. He didn’t call to advise me because “he didn’t want to wake me up”. Note that he didn’t return my call in the morning. When I expressed an initial interest, he said no, “because you sent the painter home”. Then he claimed he had an invoice for a flat fee of $200, guaranteeing completion. “Didn’t you see it”? At that moment, the painter returned with an envelope, which probably contained the invoice, and tried to give it to me. Tom took it and would not let me see it. He then berated me for not taking his offer, using a silly and irrelevant analogy of going to a store expecting to pay $400 for a coat and found it on sale for $250. “Wouldn’t you take the savings”? “Possibly, if I was aware of all of my options”. I suspect he made up that clumsy lie on the spur of the moment. Since my experience was so completely different from Angie’s List’s positive reports on Ditmas Park Renovations on, I feel that one or both of the following occurred: 1. Tom used different, more experienced and professional painters on those jobs. The two painters he assigned to my apartment were extremely young and at least one, possibly both had very little experience painting. And/or…. 2. The ‘positive’ reports were crafted by his friends, relatives, etc. I now must spend additional money to hire another painter. I hope Angie’s List can resolve this by crediting my card the $798 I paid for this absolutely lousy job and unpleasant experience. I want to stress that on all of people I hired based on Angie’s List’s recommendations, as well as the people I hired through the Angie’s List deals I used, all have been excellent. This is why I feel the positive reports on Ditmas Park Renovations may be suspect.

Description of Work: Prepped, and painted one bedroom. 3 different paints. Light plastering.

Description of Work: They painted our new house: living room, kitchen, 1 large bedroom and 2 small bedrooms.Sanded, stained and poly'd our living room floors.

Description of Work: Painting a studio apartment, including hallway and bathroom.

Description of Work: PaintingPatchingRepairingInstalling lights

Description of Work: Tile cutting.

Description of Work: Tom, Rob and their crew prepped and painted my exterior wood sections, mostly the porch, railing, trim, masonry foundation, and did some minor carpentry in my 1904 Victorian house in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn

Description of Work: Painted and repaired the woodwork and trim on the house exterior, plus built a new Yankee gutter on the porch.

Description of Work: I had a shower that was leaking into the room below.