GATESMAN HOME IMPROVEMENT

Pros: The craftsmanship and finished product are amazing. The work is truly excellent and we are very happy with the product. They were willing to work with us during each step and tailor the design and execution to our specifications. Dave is a very nice guy and his crew was phenomenal. They were extremely polite, flexible, courteous and did a great job. Dave was aware at our disappointment at the project getting a late start so he personally came on a weekend and did our demo by himself. Their price was extremely competitive (although I think he underbid himself for our project given the man-hours). If we had a project that we didn't have an time frame for (for example, wanted a kitchen/bathroom remodel while in Florida for the winter), I would hands down use him and his crew again because their work is great. Cons: We signed our contract in the end of May and needed the work to be done before August. Unfortunately, the project did not get started until August. Dave said it would take 2 week and ended up taking 8 weeks. His crew sometimes got pulled off the job because they had to go finish work elsewhere which made us feel like we were second-ranking customers. Sometimes we waited for supplies because he wouldn't order them in advance. We had to give him payments throughout the project so he could buy supplies despite our contract that stated a third at signing, a third at completion and a third at finish. In summary, we got a great porch but it got started at least a month late and took 4 times as long as we expected. Would use again but with terms as above.

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I made the mistake of advancing him money thinking it would help him to finish faster-no such luck

I understand completely when a person's situation changes that may make them unavailable. I do not understand the lack of common courtesy with regard to returning a simple phone call. He wasted my time.

As stated above, Gatesman was there when they said they would be. He did ask for 50% up front for each job (bathroom). My experience is that this is a bit high initially, but I felt confident that it wouln't be a problem. Gatesman has lots of equipment (5 trucks, saws, etc) and is very professional.

The first few days of construction went great. After the major portion of the installation was completed, the finishing tended to be slower to get completed. It took nearly three weeks to finish the drywall & paint after the initial 3 days of construction.