Best Austin Handyman & Remodeling

I purchased the Angie's Deal for wood rot. The guy showed up and started removing the rotted wood and found the damage was very extensive (much more than was visible from the the outside) and he even found where animals had made a nice little home! He was very thorough and removed all of the rotted wood and cleaned it up very nicely. It took the entire 4 hours, but seriously it was a mess and he was very thorough. He recommended we get a master carpenter to actually do the repairs and we again reached out to Best Austin Handyman - they gave me an estimate and started the work. We ran into a couple of issues with scheduling and completing the job, but when I called Best Austin Handyman they took care of the issues very quickly and the porch looks beautiful.

There seemed to be a complete lack of communication between the man who provided me with the estimate and the man who actually performed the job.Examples:1)there seemed to be a lot of confusion over which supplies were provided by me and which by the handyman.2)Ed,the handyman,was very competent in what he did do,but was not provided with enough details-i.e why the appraiser had written down caulking for a stopped up sink when the bathroom drain needed to be unclogged(fortunately,Ed had an unclogging tool in his truck) 3)Why the repairman was not provided with information about the top he was supposed to refinish,for instance,the color of the stain.4) whyEd had to go to Home Depot for supplies to put in the new screen? etc.A crazy day for both Ed and myself-including two trips to Home Depot.

Initial contact and appointment was timely. After initial contact to survey the area they said they were a little busy but should have the plans and cost estimate within 1-4 days. Did not hear back from them for about 10 days at which point I called to check on status of project. The person that came and did the survey for the work was not available but they said they would contact them for them to call me back. I received a call back the next day with an apology on how long it has been taking them and they stated they were working on another large landscape project but should have the estimate and diagram in the next day or two. two days later they e mailed the estimate and diagram. The cost estimate was extremely high for the small area that needed to be done and for the cost of the project the landscape diagram was a simple pencil sketching of the area that did not allow for any depth perception or color scheme of what the final project would look like.

The job started on time but finished much later than estimated. The team was made of bunch of polite gentlemen. Different people with different expertise were used as needed. However, i was very disappointed with the detail work. The newly stained oak handrails and posts were left very rough but was finished up nicely on a later date after I made the complaints. The cast iron balusters and shoes were loosely installed. It was mostly fixed later on along with the handrail finish jobs. Above all, the most disappointing experience is that after they were finished installing the hardwood, the floor is making squeaky noise when walked many spots. During the installation I asked them many times why the floor is squeaky? They promised it will not squeak once fully installed. Later I was told different things such as wood on second floor is supposed to be like that, or the ply wood floor of the house was not correctly done by the builder of the house (which is actually true to some extent). However,another expert floor installer told me that they should have caulked the floor b4 installing wooden floor and should have used bucket glue instead of tubes. Whatever it is, the damage is done. It was a $15000 project cost for me. I could have spent some more to make it not make the annoying squeaky sound! Anyway, they have a one year warranty which is pretty good and am still counting on it! Oh! And The most annoying of all is trying to contact the office. Nobody ever picks up the phone. It goes to voicemail. You have to leave a message and pray for a call back. I would have preferred to listen to a waiting music for few minutes and talk to a live person. PS: The providers response is very unprofessional that i wanted to get more stuff done for free! In fact, after the job was finished, the provider asked for the additional labor hours which was almost double the original estimate. I had no choice but to pay them because I asked for a modification of the original estimated plan. They gave me a 5% discount on labor. I guess they are not suitable for big remodeling jobs after all. Unfortunately this time I had to change their professionalism rating to F because of their unwelcome response.

Overall, I'd say the person we got was rather slow. He took quite a few cigarette brakes during our two hours.

I saw their coupon for 7 hrs of handyman work for $269. So, I had this company come out because I had several jobs around the house (nail pops, installation of cat door, small exterior hole in mortar needing to be filled, fence post replaced) that needed to be done. The guy who came out said that none of it fell under the category of "handyman" work and that it was going to cost me $1900! Apparently, they have several "categories" for different jobs (handyman, landscaping, remodeling, design, etc...). I'm not sure how any of this would have required anything but a handyman. Luckily, I hadn't bought their coupon. It was clearly false advertising and I would not recommend buying it. I called several others who had similar coupons on Angies List and all of them were willing to complete all the jobs for the advertised price. Beware before you buy from this company. There are many more companies willing to stand behind their advertisement.

It was very difficult to schedule the yard planner. In fact, it took several weeks and a tremendous amount of back and forth communications. We were quite disappointed with the outcome of the plan and it Austin's Best outsourced the project to a college student to do the planning. This was a waste of our time and money. The plan looked nothing like what we expecting and did not fit the style of our house. We figured our time is too valuable and we decided to move on by hiring another professional.

Rep arrived at noon as promised. I took her out to my back yard and explained what I wanted...a design for a three level raised bed organic vegetable garden (yard has a steep slope) terraced down from my house . I also wanted an antique rose garden in the corner of my yard, and finally...a patio with fire pit where an existing oak tree was. It would need to be removed. I expected a CAD drawing suitable to present to the architectural board of my HOA should I decide to go forward with the project. What I got was a hand drawn picture...with no terraced vegetable garden, no rose garden, and very little detail. They did include an estimate for $15k to do the work...even though it wasn't the work I requested! At least they could have used a ruler when they made the drawing...it truly looked like they asked a grade school student to draw it, what a waste of $99!

I had ordered the cedar chest online and was told it would arrive assembled, but it did not. It was in large pieces and quite heavy. He had to uncrate it and assemble it using inadequate instructions which came with it. It took him a while to figure out what went where, but he did. I was very pleased with the work he did. The only criticism I would have is that the appointment was canceled once after I waited all afternoon. But other than that, I have no problem with the company or the man who did the work (Ed, I think). I would certainly use the company again, especially if they continue to offer such bargain prices.

I bought the Angie's List Deal: $149 for Four Hours of Wood Rot Restoration/Repair or Exterior Carpentry The guy who came out to do the estimate said this would be a 1-day job, but I took 3 days off from work just in case the project didn't stay on schedule. Two workers showed up on time on Wednesday and did an assessment During that time, I found a 4th place on the soffit that needed to be repaired, so John got the office to add that on to the invoice. He told me that it would add no more than one hour of work and no extra supplies. Then they then went to get supplies and were gone for almost 4 hours. They came back and did 1 1/2 hour's worth of work and then left because they had to go to a training. The next day, Thursday, they were on time and did some work, then took off to get more supplies. Two hours later, they were back and they worked until 5pm. There was still work to be done, so John agreed to come back on Saturday at 10am to finish up. The next day, Friday, another worker who I had not met showed up to finish the work. Since I'd already made plans for that day, he was told to come back on Saturday as John had arranged. On Saturday, he came back and I showed him what was left to do. He was a nice guy, and he seemed frustrated because John had told him that there was 1 1/2 hours worth of work left to do, but it looked like it would take 3 hours. One of the things I wanted him to do was repair a big crack in the wood next to a part of the soffit that had already been repaired. He checked with the office and was told that wasn't part of the job. I had always thought it was a part of the job, but at that point I was ready to have the job finished and decided I would just do it myself. He finished up the work and left. Overall, this project turned out ok, but I don't think I would use this company again. They were somewhat disorganized and did not do a good job of communicating with me. My impression is that they charged a premium price for mediocre work. As it turned out, I have to finish the work on the cracked wood, and I have to cut up and haul off the beam that was replaced on the carport. They also left behind 3 big sheets of plywood that I assume I paid for, but was not needed for the job and I now have no use for. Final thought: I'm probably not going to buy any more Angie's List Deals - this didn't turn out to be a good deal for me.

Met with handyman and he said work required Master handyman and it would be more money. My husband disagreed and decided not to use him.

The owner of the company showed up with a designer, who took notes and drew sketches. We talked about what I like and want and what I had a mind. The owner seemed disinterested and in a hurry, and I was uncomfortable with that, but he and the designer knew what they were doing. The designer drew and then emailed visual designs of the patio enclosure. The plans were more like 3-D renderings, much nicer than I expected. I requested an estimate but never received it. The owner gave me a ball park estimate at the meeting, not a complete written estimate as I'd hoped, but it's okay. I'll get written estimates from this and other companies when I'm ready to build it.

There was a bit of delay in the beginning with communication between us and the project manager Barrett, but that got resolved and the price was settled on. The project was turned over to Mike Terry and we couldn't have been more pleased with Mike's work ethic, knowledge of construction and quality of work. He and his crew did a great job on the forms and rebar and the building inspector had zero issues. The day of the pour went as expected and Mike and crew again worked tirelessly to make sure the concrete was finished perfectly. Mike was also great about answering our questions and explaining things. If he had a motto, it would be "it has to be done right". We're looking forward to using our new extra big patio to enjoy the Fall weather. We highly recommend Mike and crew for their skilled concrete work.

They weren't great but they were okay. The workers themselves were great. It was Patrick, Shannon and James that they sent out. The handymen were great. It was dealing with the office where I had the issues. The office was not responsive and didn't return my calls. The provider that actually did the work was great and I was very happy with the work. Dealing with the office for scheduling was very difficult. The workers were very professional. The voice mail system and answering system were kind of frustrating because I just had to wait for somebody to call me back. There was a lot of phone tag issues and miscommunication that way. The quality of the work was good.

Secondly the companies polices did not sit well so I am going with someone else.

The two areas that needed the wood replaced appear to be fine. There was a leftover piece of flashing that I don't know if they just took it out and didn't replace it or if it was just extra. In either case, they left it behind. They did caulk and paint both areas, so it looks good. They were courteous and cleaned up the rest of the rotting wood.

We set an appointment for them to come out and measure and take pictures. That went great. Good responsiveness. The young man who came out was very knowledgeable and took measurements and photos. When he left, he said designers would get to work on some ideas, and that it would take a couple of weeks. About a month later I called and they seemed surprised to hear from me. They said that my job had fallen through the cracks - that it hadn't even been started yet. So they put me in touch with the guy who would be working on it. We spoke on the phone and I reiterated my general requirements. When he sent me the first round of results, the design looked as though someone had spent the absolute minimum time and effort doing them. It was a basic picture of my house with a big flat deck. Zero design. They didn't even take into account the photos, measurements or input I'd given the guy who came out to my property. We worked together for several rounds on what could improve, but the designer was just providing the updates I asked for. There was clearly no expertise or even creativity offered as value for the money I'd paid. We worked on it until we got a picture of what I'd originally had in mind before I hired them, which isn't what I'd hired them for. When I realized that continuing to work together wouldn't result in any creativity or innovation that I didn't bring to the table myself, I just gave up.

We had a sliding glass patio door that had been opened and closed on broken wheels for a long time. The brutes before us had just been shoving the door along its track, like ancient henge builders moving giant lintels. The handyman came out, pulled the door, removed the wheel cartridges, then went driving around to shops trying to find a match for the old, weird, brand-specific ones we needed. I knew that would be a chore, which is why I hired someone to do it. He eventually found some that would work and got it all put back together in about four hours, which was way faster than I would have been able to do it. He arrived on time, did what he said he'd do, and did it for the price we agreed.

The service went very well. I had them do miscellaneous handyman work around a new house such as putting some shingles on the roof and securing a pull down latter from the attic. He also put up shelving and installed a ceiling fan, repaired a door, caulked some things in the shower and tub. One technician came out and completed the job in the 2 hour time frame. I had no problem scheduling the deal and they showed up on time.

My experience went fine. Some of the work he could not do since it did not fall in the time same frame. Scheduling an appointment went well and there was one person here doing the work.

Everything worked out well. There was one person here and he was very knowledgeable. He gave us some good plans to go over.

Not so good. 1) It took a long time to schedule. No one ever came to measure and confirm that the number of hours I paid for were appropriate for the size of the project. No one ever explained how the material was supposed to be purchased. I told them I wanted the wood replaced and painted. 2) First time the person showed up...he didn't know what the work was that he was performing so he didn't have the right size ladder. He told me he would be back and then called me back and said they didn't have the right size ladder available so he would have to try to schedule me in for later in the afternoon. They never called so I called them at 2:00 pm and told them I had to leave my home at 4:00 pm for an appt. They rescheduled my appt. I took a whole day off work for nothing. 3) The second time he showed up, he measured the project and then came in and asked me whether I wanted him to have Home Depot call me in order to pay for the materials. I had no idea what he was talking about and he explained that the person that scheduled the job should have explained that I would have to make arrangements to purchase the materials. I would have done this if he had measured it the first time he showed up and given me time to go buy the material. I ended up giving him a Home Depot gift card that I had and crossed my fingers that he would come back and not keep it. 4) He came back and switched out the rotted wood with the new wood. Then he asked me if I wanted him to caulk the joints because otherwise, they would just rot again. I told him I thought that was included as part of the job but he said no so he went back to Home Depot with my card and purchased the caulking and a caulking gun which he kept. 5) He didn't even know he was supposed to caulk the wood so I didn't even consider asking him to paint it so now I have an unfinished project. 6) By the way, he left all the rotted wood thrown in my back yard.

It was pretty good. The only thing that wasn't what I expected was that I expected a phone call within 48 hours. They had sent me an email and I didn't check in my box until 3-4 days later. It would have been nice if they would have given me a call. I had them put in some insulation and they also fixed a crack in my drywall. I paid for an extra hour of work.

They were good. They did a great job and were very thorough, but it took them an extraordinary amount of time to complete the job and I was charged extra because of this. The scheduling was very easy and they called me back the same day that I left them a message.

That was great. They came out when they should have and we were pleased with the design.