Quality Renovations

Scott didn't just remodel our kitchen and breakfast room; his work there made our entire 40-year-old house feel like a new one. We chose him because of his reputation for being thorough, creative and meticulous. This was confirmed after we visited the homes of his former clients. He worked on our project every day and didn't have multiple jobs going at the same time as some contractors do. He focused just on us. Scott is a good listener and problem solver; he was thorough in answering our questions and offering suggestions. The experienced craftsmen in his crew know their trade and the Austin area. We cannot recommend Quality Renovations highly enough.

Proceed with caution when considering Quality Renovations. I really wanted to award Quality Renovations with the remodel of our home library. I was impressed with Scott Etchelecu and his knowledge of the trades. But at the end of the day there were too many “red flags” in working with Scott. Red Flag #1. Scott’s bid was significantly lower than the three other contractors. The other bids ranged from $70K to $78K, about a 10% range. Scott’s bid was 42% lower than the next lowest bid. The scope of project was well defined with architectural drawings and specification details. Red Flag #2. Scott would not provide a list of reference until he received a $650 deposit. Red Flag #3. Scott would not begin to assemble his reference until after receiving the deposit, by which time the check would have cleared the bank. Red Flag #4. I made it clear to Scott that providing good references was the last step in awarding the project, yet he made no attempt to provide them. You have to ask yourself, would you provide a reference if that was the only thing stopping you from winning a $52K job?

Couldn't be happier. The quality of the work is excellent, and Scott is great to deal with. The communication throughout the process was also excellent. At every step along the way, we were informed as to what was happening, and even better, explanations as to why things were being done a certain way. One other thing that stands out is the willingness to answer questions and share knowledge outside the scope of the project. There are some lighter projects that I am taking on myself, and the knowledge shared will no doubt in smoother projects with better results. HIGHLY recommended.

Excellent. Stayed on schedule. The work was topnotch quality. We've been really happy with it. Easy to work it. It was a great experience.

Everything went amazing, very well. He pays attention on time. We work very closely and involved me on the project. Very good and excellent people.

I decided to put my house on the market, and then discovered wet floors in the closets that surround my master shower. I needed to get my home listed, so I rushed to diagnose the problem and get it fixed. After having a plumber come determine that the water was caused by a shower pan leak, I searched for contractors and came across Quality Renovations on Angie's List. Scott was great to work with. He was very responsive to an email request on his website and came promptly the next day to provide an estimate. His estimate was significantly less than other contractors and on a shorter timeline, and he was able to start the work a few days later. He showed up every day on time, was very communicative throughout the week of work when I was out of town, and went above and beyond to make sure my shower was put back together with matching tile and a shiny new drain. You can't even tell there was a repair, and he even followed up a few days later to make sure everything was great. If I ever have another renovation situation, I'll definitely call Scott!

It was a small job, basically replacing countertops and moving the refrigerator location. But it involved all of the trades for a complete remodel, and it was handled as if it were a big job. He was very professional. The quality of his work was amazing, and he was so detail oriented. Perfection is very important to him. He was obsessed with keeping the work area tidy everyday, which is important in a kitchen. He has a very pleasant easy going personality, I was very comfortable having him in my home.The subcontractors he hired were also all experts in their field.

I chose to finally renovate two 35 year old totally disgusting bathrooms with 'cultured' marble counters, possible pressed wood pulp product vanities and all-in-one tub shower combos UGH. The guest bath had to be taken all the way down to the studs. The master was also a complete gut job but we were able to save a good deal of the drywall. I had the tub in the guest bath removed and replaced with a shower. 4"x8" subway tile with grey grout, cornice pieces, twisted pencil trim, round penny tile for the floor and in the niche. Scott spent the time to explain everything he was going to do and why. He listened while I told him what I was looking for in the tile pattern for the shower and the flooring (porcelain planking). We had great communication regarding each step of the process including placement of the niche, the type of shower doors and the removal of the furr-down, installation of a free standing vanity, new light fixture and fan and new commode. The guest bath looks like something right out of a spa. We did have a problem with the original copper tubing in that bath. Scott's plumber Chris did an excellent job correcting the error that was made back when the house was built and the slab poured got me back up to speed and nice new valves. The master bath required a custom counter that turned out beautifully and to my specifications after a conversation with Scott about what I wanted. I was really tough on Scott's assistant Kevin regarding the floor tile. I wanted to make sure I didn't see any obvious repeated planks. Kevin really listened and did an amazing job getting them completely mixed up. It might seem easy but I've done it and it really does take a bit of doing. People have stopped in and said it looks like a real wood floor. I ordered an American Standard tub from online. It turns out it wasn't just a tub but a 'bathing pool'... who knew. Anyway the plumbing was different than a regular tub unexpected hitch #437. I had them install the same 4"x8" subway tile with cornice pieces and pencil trim in this bath. The detail along the edge of the tub is just beautiful. There was a tiny leak in the water line that ended up leaking to the carpet in the bedroom. Scott could easily have just put a fan on it but he did it the correct way and tarped the room, pulled up the carpet, ran one of those weird fans, replaced the damaged pad and stretched the carpet. (not to mention moving furniture including my embarrassingly dusty books out of the bookcase.. and knick knacks... tons and tons of knick knacks) I trust him completely to do not only a competent job but an EXCELLENT job. His attention to detail with the trim in the guest bath, is eye for design with the color of the vanity stain in the master and his professional manner in dealing with those things that just don't go the way you expect was way above my expectations. I also want to mention that Scott was just wonderful about communicating with me whether by text, email or phone calls. He was prompt at responding to me and great about keeping me in the loop about what was happening or what would be happening. Seriously I couldn't be happier. This process cost a good chunk of change but it was absolutely worth it!

Scott did not show up for the appointment or call to cancel. I left a message for him 30 minutes after he was supposed to be there. Did not hear anything until the next day. He called and apologized for missing the appointment and wanted to reschedule. I told him no that I already had taken a half day off work and did not want to do business with someone that could not be bothered to call and cancel. He said he had an emergency at the job site and it took all day and he could not call. I told him I did not find that acceptable and when I mentioned that I would give him a negative review for not calling to cancel he said that he almost had a guy cut his finger off at the job site and to be sure to put that in my review and then hung up on me.

We bought a house that we now jokingly refer to as the money pit. First, it was the downstairs shower that was leaking and apparently had been leaking for a long time. It is a double shower with slate. Scott was very careful to demo only what actually had to come out in order to fix the problem. It required all the floor to come up and about two foot of the wall to come off. He did exactly what he needed to do to make sure no water had damaged the framing, put in a new double pan, waterproofed it all, checked and rechecked that it was watertight, and then seamlessly installed new slate on the walls and floor. Scott is so meticulous that you can't tell where his work ends and the original slate begins. He took so much time making sure everything was perfect. Once we discovered that the leak was due to a crazily constructed pan, we figured if they did it that way in one, we better have Scott check the rest. Sure enough, the upstairs shower was even worse than the master so much so that water had actually leaked down into the electric panel below. Again, Scott saved the day. That entire shower had to be taken down to the studs to fix. He did the same fabulous work in there making sure everything was structurally sound and reconstructed so it would cause no further issues. Scott and Ray spent countless hours building the pan, waterproofing, and tiling. The outcome looks amazing, and, even better, we're no longer afraid our son will be electrocuted. Scott also redid the heat tiles/box of the outdoor fireplace that was falling apart as well as replaced some trim tile that the previous owners knocked off when they moved out. Every job Scott has done for us has turned out better than expected. We have had such luck and success with Scott that we have asked him to help us out with additional projects that we discovered "the pit" needs. He is just a down to earth, extremely knowledgeable, honest man that does a superb job at a fair price.

I have used Quality Renovations for two projects, a bath a couple of years ago and the kitchen during the fall. The Bath was completely gutted to the studs and reconstructed, the Kitchen was a complete renovation, but we maintained the basic layout. We replaced countertops, backsplash, all appliances; added a wine refrigerator, a professional type range and a warming draw at the bottom of the oven/microwave wall unit. We had to reconfigure a number of the cabinets to accommodate the additional appliances. We also replaced all cabinet doors and draw fronts, in addition to refinishing the base cabinets and reconfiguring some cabinets into drawers. In addition to being extremely professional in the quality of the construction, Scott was also very helpful in guiding us through the selection of materials. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted and he help suggest certain materials and finishes that would achieve my goals. Everything he suggested was spot on. I couldn?t be happier. I was also extremely pleased with the quality of subcontractors he utilized. They were all extremely professional and the quality of their work was outstanding. I intend to call Scott soon to renovate our Master Bath.

Overall things went well. Scott was able to work me into his schedule in order to get the work completed before Thanksgiving (which was my goal) and, in fact, was able to start the project a week earlier than originally scheduled. (9/28 vs. 10/7) The job took longer than I had expected, but that was partly due to my not having a full understanding of the overall process constraints. He said it would take approximately 60 hours however I didn't take into account that alot of the work could only be done in increments of a couple of hours/day in order to allow for mud and paint etc. to dry between applications. (I did not keep track of the total number of hours spent working on the project, just fyi) However, with that said, there were times they could've worked and I think the cabinet doors could've been ordered and sent for painting a little earlier. For the most part Scott was able to work with my schedule and would come to the house either first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon so that I wouldn't have to miss anymore work than necessary. They also worked several Saturdays for which I was very appreciative. Both Scott and the young men that work with him (Nick and Ray) were very pleasant to work with and also did a good job of keeping the area clean etc. One thing that meant alot to me (mainly because the last general contractor I worked with did neither) was that Scott either answered his phone when I called and/or returned my calls promptly. All-in-all Scott did a very good job. He and Ray both do quality work and the couple of times I spotted things that I wanted "fixed" Scott gladly did so without grumbling etc. I rated price as good simply because I only got one other estimate and it was only for the partial job. As far as puncuality, for the most part they were punctual, but there was one Saturday they ended up not coming (they did call the day before to let me know) and there were just a couple of other incidents where we had to reschedule, but certainly not the norm and, like I stated above Scott always returned phone calls in a timely manner which is HUGE! I will definitely call Scott again when we're ready to give the kitchen a "facelift".

Quality Renovation did an excellent job. The project lasted about two months. Their work was first rate. Scott is a very dependable and meticulous and detailed-oriented worker. All worked was properly permitted and all work was performed by licensed plumbers and electricians. A second sink was added and a new bidet. Organizers were added in the master walk-in closet to maximize storage space. Scott was very conscious of dust and dust partitions were installed. Work areas was cleaned thoroughly every day. He did such an excellent job that I retain Quality Renovation to tear down and rebuild the decking and entrance way into my house. We did an excellent job here again. I would recommend Quality Renovations with NO reservations.

It went well overall. The job was probably 40% bigger than I had originally anticipated and fortunately, Scott was able to take on the extra work as it came up. I was unfamiliar with the house, thus did not know the depth of what needed to be done. The finished house looked very good.

I was the person who wrote about Scott as one of the seven contractors who came out to give an estimate for the kitchen & bath remodel. I really liked him and ended up choosing him for the job. Understandably, he had taken another customer at the time. We agreed on a rough start when I had another window of time. It was five months later. I called several times in the interim and he was not very responsive to my calls but he assured me we were on track to hit that start date. I asked him to rebid on some small additions to the job. When he finally came out, he immediately started telling me his costs had gone up and that it was going to cost a lot more. Then before he rebid, he wanted me to pick granite. I did. Then he wanted me to pick tile. I did. Then he called and said he couldn't give me the refaced cabinets I wanted at that price. Had I considered alder, he asked. That's not what I wanted, nor was it what he originally bid on. After I picked tile and granite, I discovered that the allowances he gave me in the original bid for granite and tile were laughably low. So his original bid wasn't much lower than the prices of the others. And meanwhile, the start date passed and he'd taken another job. I did not use him and am glad of it even though - because of a hectic travel schedule -- I had to put off the work for two more months. I have chosen another contractor from that original seven and work starts in two weeks.

I got them off Angie’s list. He never sent the quote or came by. He took the measurements and left. I called him and he said he was working on the quote and he will get back to me. I will not use him again because I can’t trust him.

He built the cabinets that we wanted in and he changed the lower cabinets from shelving to draws. He built those and painted them. He had model countertops put in for that and he put a countertop on an extra island. He installed a dishwasher. He was excellent all the way through and we were very happy. He is a nice and honest person and I was totally impressed.

Great experience working with Scott and Quality Renovations. He was very patient with us, going through our first major home project - a small master bath remodel. There were hiccups along the way, but entirely caused by our own ignorance. Scott stuck with us while some extra, unexpected plumbing work was done (which Scott discovered, but did not perform), which delayed the project by about a week. Scott gave us a great quote - significantly less than other remodel companies. We were up front about our financial limitations, and he gave us great options and ideas for keeping the cost low. We did the demolition ourselves, with Scott's instruction, and were able to save a few hundred dollars. I accidentally took a sledgehammer to the wall-mount sink, but the installation of a new one didn't have a major impact on the final cost. Also, with Scott's help, we were able to get approximately $1,000 more from our homeowners insurance company to help pay for repairs caused by water damage. Big bonus points here! We came up with our own design for the tile in the shower, and Scott executed it beautifully! We purchased most of the materials (fixtures, tile, sink, paint) and Scott filled in the blanks (hardware, aesthetic accents, grout, etc). He showed up on time, worked hard from the moment he arrived, was always courteous and explained everything he was doing. Scott brought in a licensed plumber to install the shower fixture and raise up the shower head. This service was included in the original estimate. He installed a shower pan, durorock walls for the shower, installed the shower tile, tore up the vinyl floor and put down new tile, replaced damaged studs and re-built a damaged wall, installed new baseboards, installed the new sink and painted the walls. He bought a nice square shower drain that looks great with the square tile, and painted the medicine cabinet to accent the whole decorative scheme. We were overwhelmed by the project, but Scott was honest, fair and easy to work with. We had a great experience and will definitely contact him when it's time to redo the other bathroom and/or kitchen.

Scott was very attentive; however gave us an estimate of almost $20,000 for the renovation of a 6' X10' bathroom. This price was drastically different from other estimates. We possibly could have talked him down; however ultimately decided to put off our renovation project.

The remodel went well. QR stayed within agreed budget and very close to agreed timeline. We love our new bathroom!

They were absolutely fabulous people. They gave me a good design but I ended up selecting someone else. I had a gut feeling that he was an honest and straightforward person and I appreciated him. I liked what he had to offer and it seemed reasonable to me. I would have used them if I hadn't used another company; it was just neck in neck.

I interviewed 7 contractors and the more I spoke with the more confused I became. Somewhere around number 6 I met with Scott. I have had difficult relationships with homebuilders and contractors before I wanted to make sure I found someone I could trust. Scott not only understood my overall concept from the beginning, he made me feel confident he would communicate clearly with me through the whole process. Through the demolition a couple of items came up and he was very helpful with a solution and he was quick to contact me anytime he had a question. I could not be happier with the result and I'm now working on my plans for the Master Bath and look forward to working with Scott again. I wish I could attach a photo.

I used Quality Renovations about 3 months ago. They just did cabinet replacing for two different bathrooms.

Scott was very professional. His work was very thorough, and he didn't cut corners. The reframing was a bit of a surprise, but Scott had the skills to solve the problem quickly. The tiling required a huge amount of detail work, making the job take longer than expected, but Scott kept to his original estimate for the job. We are extremely pleased with the final result.

Everything they have done for me so far I've been happy with. Of the bids I got they followed up the quickest and the were the most thorough.