The House Doctors

Our neighbor hit our garage door and damaged it beyond fixing. The House Doctors ordered the new door and had it installed in less than a week.

The contractor did a very professional job. The paint was applied thick and even--the house looks great!

Thanks to the House Doctors, my husband and I will sleep better at night. Sections of the floors, mostly oin the 2nd floor, creaked when someone walked on them. This wasn't much of a problem during the daytime. But if someone got up during the night to use the bathroom, the creaking floors often woke up the other person. The House Doctors said that the best solution would be to tear out the ceiling of the first floor and tighten the floorboards from beneath. But that solution sounded impractical and expensive. They said that sometimes filling the loose floorboards with powder helped, but they could give no guarantee. So we decided to try the powder solution. Two workmen came and worked for about an hour powdering five critical areas. The solution is not perfect, but it has helped significantly.

About a month ago I fell from ladder while cleaning gutters....shattered my hip. Surgery, rehab., etc. No more gutter cleaning for me (age 66). I called House Doctors, spoke with Bob Vecchio. Set it up....got it done. No mess, no fuss. A great experience....I'll continue to use them for multiple jobs around the house that I can't do.

House Drs called me on a Sunday night at 5:30pm. Mike Vecchio yelled at me for not hiring him. I told him he was being unprofessional and a bad person and that this was not appropriate. He hung up and I called back. When I called, I spoke with Bob Vecchio, the father of the man that talked to me, and told him what happened (and asked for a written apology in person). He told me that he would do that if I did not report him. He stated that if I reported on him, I would not get an apology. Mike Vecchio then called back, attempted to apologize, and then he hung up on me. Totally unprofessional. I am reporting him to the BBB.

Aside from rain delays, the job went very well. This work was done at my mother's home and she has early Alzheimer's. One day she was confused and a bit agitated that the workmen were there. Jay and his crew were very understanding and extremely patient with her. On a Saturday a tarp had blown off the roof and Jay had someone at the house quickly to secure it. Bob's crew was excellent - work done thoroughly and professionally and cleaned up so we didn't even know they were there.

The 3 workmen arrived on time. One left 1/3 into the work to go to another customer 1. Closet door hinges were adjusted adequately 2. Closet door was hung and adjusted adequately 3. Door closure is improved but still pulls hinges This may be due to the mounting surface being stripped. We were unwilling to replace the door jam at the time of adjustment. 4. Door threshold built and sweep added are adequate 5. Incomplete due to supplies not available. In retrospect I do not feel that their original quote was detailed sufficiently as the work was to be done on an over-sized Victorian door measuring some 40 inches wide which would have required a non-standard sweep that the outfit did not acquire in advance of arriving on the job. 6. Upon completion the work seemed adequate. There is no support for one attachment point of the closet system and it is pulling out of the plaster as had before the work was done. I verbally had requested wood pieces to be placed around the entire closet (end-to-end) to support the pre-existing system the previous owner's had installed. The workmen were instructed that my goal was to have pieces installed so that the closet arrangement could be redone in the future without having to add new or different supports at that time. In the end the supports added are not end-to-end and are insufficient. 7. The side door opens and closes adequately. This work was done some time ago. My husband I had this outfit come out in June to quote another project to do some work on the exterior of our house. At that time we were going to have them address the issues we felt were not completed satisfactorily. We requested a written quote but got a phone call 10 days later to discuss the repairs instead. Upon asking to have the information put in writing, we never received the information. Therefore we're willing to find another outfit instead of using this one again. The work completed was generally satisfactory as was their clean-up and professionalism on the job. I feel that the quote as written was not sufficiently detailed allowing for a mediocre job. I'd recommend getting them to write out a highly detailed quote on-the-spot which includes all measurements, specifications and supplies to be used.

I arranged for the contractor to come on a day when I was at work -- Friday 6/26/09. They completed the power-washing that day. The deck looks fantastitc! They also power-washed my picnic table too, which also looks fantastic! Both the deck and the picnic table look like new wood!! Before the power-washing, the deck looked gray and there was mold on the part near the door. Now the mold is all gone!! They put the sealant on the following Monday.

The contractors arrived Monday morning and they took me to Home Depot to pick out the doors I wanted. That day they put in the new back door (leading out to my deck) but didn't get to the molding around it, etc. They replaced my old broken sliding doors with French Doors. It looks really nice! The next day they came but it rained so they could only finish up the remaining work around the back door plus finish work on the downstairs bathroom that they'd worked on before. The following day (Wednesday), they installed the new side and side screen doors. The next day (Thursday) they finished the job by doing the molding by the side door and installing my front and front screen doors and doing that molding too. At one point something they were working on inadvertently blew a fuse so they bought replacement fuses and installed them. Mike Vecchio (the owner Bob's son) advised me that I had the old fuses and other electrical components and that they weren't up to code. He asked me if I'd like a quote on getting it up to code (I said yes). He is arranging for their electrician to call me. He gave me a ballpark estimate but the electrician will give me a more exact quote.

As usual, when I called the House Doctors, Bob got back to me right away. They are very sensitive to timing which I appreciate. I wasn't in a particular hurry and Bob told me I would hear from the electrician the next day or maybe it was the day after. The electrician did end up having a horrific family emergency but somehow in the midst of that managed to get my name and info. to another electrician. Many contractors might not have done this. They may have come a day later than originally planned but only because they checked in and I said it was fine. They were so courteous as to timing. If I ever did have a rush situation, I would absolutely call no one else. Very responsible and just good workers.

The service person was prompt, efficient, courteous, and pleasant to have around. He arrived at the time he said he after calling to announce he was on his way. This is not the first time we have used their services and we plan to have them perform other work as soon as the weather clears for outside electrical installations.

I called them to let them know what I had decided and they had never gotten back with me. I don't understand why I never heard from them after I told them I was ready for them to get started. He told me he was going to write up a contract and we could get started and he never called me.

We were having difficulty getting out of the side door which was hitting the light fixture and, in our infinite wisdom, thought that perhaps the door had swelled in recent humidity. Upon a closer look, we saw that the wood and shingle canopy was 4-5 inches away from the brick of the house. We called Bob Vecchio and The House Doctors immediately. Bob?s men came the next day, removed the dangerous canopy, rebuilt, reshingled and rehung it above the side door. They also completed a couple of other minor tasks. Two days later, my husband locked us out of the house and, of course, he had to break a window in the door to get back in! The guys came, removed the rest of the glass, cleaned up the frame, and installed new glass. The men, including my husband, all had a good laugh about how we tried to get in without breaking the window to no avail! We have worked with Bob Vecchio and The House Doctors since we joined Angie?s List after purchasing a rental property a few years ago. We have always received prompt, courteous service from knowledgeable professionals who get the job done right the first time. They have painted, done electrical and carpentry work and all ?round been our handymen for our house and our rental property. Bob sticks to his quotes for work. We highly recommend them.

professional, knowledgable, did it the same day they came to check out the problem as his price is reasonable

Bob's son Mike came out and looked at the section of our wall/ceiling that needed to be repaired. The section was approximately 4'x4' with some minor cracking on the wall below that they were going to patch. Mike Vecchio originally quoted us $850. We had no idea if this was high or in the ballpark but trusted Mike based on the reviews from Angie's List. Regretfully, we agreed to have them do the work since they were there and able to do it right then and we had both taken a day off from work. We agreed to sand the area ourselves, in order to save some money, which is what the $850 quote was based on. They patched up the damaged area with a piece of drywall and drywall compound or "mud" but did not apply the mud smoothly or in a way that would make it easy for us to sand down ourselves. It was thick and sloppy. See pictures below. When Mike came back to look at the job, he knocked off $100 as a "courtesy" since my husband and I had just gotten engaged. I believe it was because he saw the quality of work his men did. When we finally got around to tackling the project of sanding it down and getting it ready to paint, some parts of the plaster that they had "patched" were still cracking and crumbling off. The larger area we sanded and sanded and didn't get anywhere. We finally called someone else that specializes in plaster and he came out and re-did the whole job for $200 in under 2 hours. The walls are perfect and completely smooth. We were told that the job should've cost somewhere around $350 total and that no amount of sanding would've gotten the area that was patched to look like the rest of the walls, since the walls are plaster. When I spoke to Bob Vecchio he offered to pay me the $200 without even looking at the work his men did. I originally accepted the $200 offer but emailed Bob afterwards to let him know that I was not satisfied with the resolution since we were still out $750 plus the 3 days of work I missed. I also included photos of the before and after pictures for him to review (attached here). I have yet to hear from Bob and have not gotten the $200 he promised he would drop off. There is no way anyone could look at the work his men did and honestly say that we got $750 worth of work or anywhere near that. My husband and I are willing to overpay a little for quality workmanship but that is not what we got here. It was a small job and we obviously didn't know anything about plaster so maybe that's why we were treated the way we were. It is very upsetting.

Lori arrived exactly on time. I appreciated the fact that she was very willing to accommodate my schedule. She was attentive as we went through what needed to be done. She was very professional and asked if there was anything special I wanted. I am extremely pleased with her work. The house looks and smells clean. I feel very fortunate to have found The House Nurses. They are thorough, efficient and trustworthy.

It was a painless experience. The plumber was in and out before we knew it, and the problems were fixed.

I needed my downstairs bathroom wall repaired so I could get my new light fixture installed, which was not possible with the existing wall. The wallpaper was peeling and the plaster crumbling from water dripping from the upstairs bathroom for a long time. I went to Angie's List and found The House Doctors. Michael Vecchio came over to give me an estimate. Then we scheduled the work for early May. On Saturday 5/9/09, he came over with one of his workmen to start the job. They discovered that there was A LOT of crumbling plaster, more than they had realized, under the wallpaper and it would take them longer than they had originally thought. That was why the cost was higher than the estimate -- they couldn't see what was under the wallpaper. They had to go get some drywall to put up once the plaster had been removed. I think they put up the drywall on Saturday. They had to come back Monday to finish the job and paint. While they were working, they noticed a broken connector in the bathroom sink apparatus. So they had their plumber fix it at no extra charge, since this wasn't part of the work for which I had hired them.

I called The House Doctors the Thursday before last (5/28/09) because I just received a violation notice from the South Euclid Building Inspectors, regarding my garage. They did work for me previously (earlier last month) in my downstairs bathroom and I was satisfied). The rear gutter was broken, there was a lot of moss on the rear wall, it needed a paint job and the gutter at the side of the back of the garage wasn't secured tightly (I think due to the telephone cord). The Building Department gave me a deadline of last Friday -- 6/5/09. Bob Vecchio, the owner, said that they could meet that deadline and they did! The workmen arrived Monday, 6/1/09 to start the job. At that time they did most of the work (see above) -- everything except replacing the piece of wood (something that they asked me about because it was broken and I told them to replace it -- it wasn't on the violation list) at the right of the garage door and painting the garage. They moved that one gutter (where the telephone line was in the way) for free for being a good customer. They returned the next day to finish the job! They did a wonderful job! The garage looks great and they met the deadline!

HE was very prompt with the return call and was very pleasent.

It was great. They were very professional.

Great. We were so impressed with the first time they came out that we started thinking of more things we need done. They will be replacing our garage roof soon. Everyone there is unfailingly courteous, pleasant and responsive.

With the amount of money I paid this guys versus the other company that gave estimates, I think I am happy with the work done. I saved over five hundred dollars.

I called Fri. and Robert came that afternoon to look at what needed to be done. He came back the next day to do the work.-

Bob got back to me promptly when I e-mailed him. He told me his price up-front and stuck to it. The work was done within a couple of days and was top notch!