Handyman Connection of Austin-Westlake

I was really happy with their work. They were very polite, professional, hard workers, and explained the job to me. The manager was on his way to Home Depot and stopped by to see if they needed supplies and picked it up for them. I find that to be very efficient. They were very knowledgable and they did the work just as they said they would. I will definitely call them again for any handyman services I may need in the future.

I bought a coupon through Amazon deals for the Handyman Connections. This is exactly what I needed especially since I just bought a home! From scheduling the time to handyman Renee doing the job, there was nothing but complete professionalism and friendliness. Renee was on time, friendly and literally got to work as soon as he arrived and completed all I had asked for. He also gave me some great advice on questions I had and other items I need to fix. I highly recommend Renee and the company and will certainly be using them soon as I have several projects to begin!

Only one handyman was assigned to the job and do to rainy weather, it took over a week to complete. Some of the lumber was not properly dried and ended up pulling away from the structure. About 14 months later, I called Handyman Connection and despite the fact that the one year warranty had lapsed, they sent Kevin Paczosa out. He screwed the wood in to keep it from pulling away even more. He was here for a couple of hours, and ended up screwing all the lumber around the porch at no charge. I was thankful that they backed up their work, and Kevin is a very amiable gentleman.

The handyman sent was professional and did high quality work. The work consisted of removing a french door from the frame, drilling a flushbolt into it, repairing the frame, and painting. All work was completed to satisfaction and done well. The price with the 2-hr coupon was incredible. The contractor was a bit late to his appointment, but the company answered its phones on Saturday, was very professional, and found out his status immediately. all-in-all, highly recommended.

Lance did a fantastic job. He was courteous, on-time and explained everything perfectly. I will definitely use them for the other repairs around my home.

I appreciated the attentiveness and responsiveness shown by Handyman Connection. A gas leak is no small matter, and they took it seriously and solved the problem. My guess is that there was a very small leak in the metal hose, which originated when the dryer was moved. The hose was at least 8-10 years old.

Overall, the handyman did a good job. He was late and left his equipment on my front porch. Not very professional.

See above - went smoothly - questions answered.

Louis came over on the 7th and viewed what needed to be done and what supplies I would need to purchase to make it happen. He gave me a list and I headed over to Home Depot. He started and finished with the drywall repairs. He came back on the 8th to texture the walls and did an excellent job. You can't tell where the holes were. I had him change out cabinet latches that had broken. He then repaired a shower curtain rod that had pulled out of the wall. He secured it to studs so its not going to move again. On repairing the stair hand rail he replaced and secured it with heavy duty brackets so you can actually use it without worrying about it pulling off wall like it did. All in all I couldn't be happier. I'm already looking for more projects to have him back.

Within days of my first contact, Doug Baker made a scheduled visit to give an estimate for the non-plumbing work. Tim Stevens, a licensed plumber, provided an estimate soon afterward. The office was prompt in sending written estimates upon my request. All the work was complete in about two weeks. Delays involved time needed to allow the coats of sealant to dry. and time to receive paperwork from the City of Austin. Mr. Baker and Mr. Stevens worked very quickly when they were at the house. Estimates were about on target. There were added costs in materials and labor for additional sealant, to modify the deck rail, and to replace a metal flange by which the toilet is attached to the floor. I am pleased with the results, and recommend Handyman Connection for honesty, professionalism and efficiency.

On the scheduled day and time, Kevin Paczosa came with Charlie Cunningham, the installer. Charlie removed the seat that was too tall for me and found out the cultured marble was not full sheets behind the seat. Charlie said he could complete the task without replacing all three walls of the shower which would have cost considerably more. Once Charlie removed the existing seat top, he measured how much cultured marble he would need to build a "backsplash" on the three sides of the seat. Charlie cut down the seat to the height I wanted, rebuilt the base below it, applied a waterproof material, and saved the top to reuse. Since Kevin had to find the cultured marble match, Charlie cleaned up and we scheduled his return. A couple of days later, Charlie returned with the cultured marble to make the "backsplash" and assembled the three sides with the top. This included some sanding to round the ends of the cultured marble. Charlie did the sanding outside. Since it was getting late in the day, we scheduled another return to caulk the shower. After the caulking, I waited 24 hours before using the shower. The work looks great; one would never know it was a redo. The height of the seat now is about 16" tall from the shower floor which is perfect for me. I am so pleased that I had this work completed. I knew this would take several days to complete and Charlie work with my schedule. I highly recommend Charlie. And Kevin was great to keep in communication with me.

We did not know that we would have to buy the drywall and mud, etc. Other than that, all went well.

I am so happy to finally have some of the things from my 'honey do' list finally checked off! I purchased the Angie's Deal online and immediately called the tel# listed for Handyman Connection. They promptly answered my call and were very accommodating to scheduling the service call at a time that would work best for us. She also recommended that I make a prioritized list of to-do's for when they arrived, which was super helpful. Lance was on time and prepared to knock out as many of the items on the list as he could within the two hours allowed on the deal. We showed him what we needed done and related supplies purchased the night before, and he immediately got to work. He even suggested and supplied sturdier screws for the new pantry shelf installation than we had purchased just to be on the safe side, and he took measures to make sure the ladder didn't scratch our hardwood floors, which was greatly appreciated. We were able to take care of all of the highest priorities on our list, which is much shorter now. I definitely recommend Handyman Connection to anyone who has that perpetually nagging 'honey-do' list that just wants to get it done easily, efficiently, affordably, and by a friendly professional.

The carpenter was on time and tackled an awkward job - the AC cabinet on my 1970 house (I'm always hearing "Hmmmm, I've never seen THIS before!"). He came up with a solution and the final price was just what I expected! Nice!

Report of contact with Handyman Connection (HC) in Austin, TX regarding work begun just after Memorial Day, 2011 at my home and completed in July, 2011. The following is a letter of complaint I wrote to Rene Salazar at HC, his reply, and the events that followed. Dear Rene Salazar, When I realized recently that a shower pan leak had caused significant damage to walls and flooring in my house I chose Handyman Connection to do the renovations. I chose HC because I had prior satisfactory experience with it (doing deck and fence repairs) and because it is a ?Super Service Award? winner on Angie?s List. The job was done almost exclusively by XXXXXXXXX. He is skilled in all the work the job required, is a hard worker, personable and pleasant to work with. I am happy with what he did. Work inspections, however, were an entirely different matter; they were problematic over several phases of the work. During the week of June 13, I stayed home all day on two separate days to await inspections that never happened. During the week of June 20th, for the final inspection I stayed at home all day Monday and all day Tuesday. That Tuesday, June 21st, I took it upon myself to search online and by phone for the City of Austin department that handles inspections. This was a long and frustrating process because the information is not easily found. When I did finally talk to someone in the Inspections Department he advised me that no inspection had been scheduled. As a result of my contact a final inspection was scheduled and did occur on Wednesday the 22nd. around1:00 pm. Nothing was scheduled until I initiated contact with the City of Austin myself. Among job-related documents given to me by HC is a City of Austin receipt showing a Building Permit Fee (for $64.00) and an Initial Residential Review Fee (for $100.00) for a total of $164.00. A review of the contract I signed with HC on May 16, 2011 shows an entry that states: ?Plans and Permits: Draw up plans and details to city for permits; Coordinate inspections with clients, city and craftsmen.? Considering its failure to effectively ?coordinate inspections with?city,? I believe the $350 I have paid is excessive and I believe I should be compensated for it. I intend to give this information to Angie?s List after I receive a response from you. The HC ad in Angie?s List says: ?DONE RIGHT, DONE QUICK, GUARANTEED.? I believe HC has been and could be and should be a super service provider. Right now it is not. Thank you. Sincerely, Carol M. Sander Addendum I received the following reply from HC, written 062711: ?You are correct in the fact that we should have coordinated the final inspection. I am sorry, my project manager was on vacation last week and we dropped the ball. The $350 is for the time that it takes to go to the permit office, submit plans and pay for the permits. With that being said, due to the fact that we did not call in the final inspection, I will refund the ?coordination, and plan submitting and drawing? of $186. We will send this to you today, if you agree. Pls let us know. Thank you,Rene Salazar Handyman Connection http://austin.handymanconnection.com/? I promptly received a check in the mail for $186 from HC. On 7/18/11 I contacted HC to report a leak in the sink in the master bath. I was told that the individual who did the work would return and correct any issues of concern. On 7/25/11, after one week had elapsed with no word from HC I called again. The receptionist expressed surprise that no action had occurred, telling me she had talked with the contractor. She said she would handle the matter and call me that day. Indeed, she did call that afternoon, almost immediately after the contactor had called and told me he would be at my house at 8:00 am the following day. He came the next morning at 8:00 am and fixed the problem. On Wednesday 072711 the receptionist called me to confirm the work had been done.

Everything was wonderful. I have no complaints. Doug Baker came out and was on time, figured out how to make the custom door very quickly, built it, and finished in the time frame he expected. The quoted price was good and he stuck to it. He was even able to use supplies I already had in my garage to save me money. He cleaned up everything before he left, too.

I wasn’t particularly impressed. He charged $79 for 2 hours or so. The guy had bad manners. I went and bought 2 cans of popcorn ceiling spray and he couldn’t finish the job of 2 just spots with that amount. He wanted to get the popcorn spray because it hadn’t covered over half the bedroom. It had got on the bed, on the floor, etc. He wanted to get another one because he didn’t do it right the first time. I told him that I wanted him to cover it up somehow. The job turned out to be okay. It wasn’t spectacular. I would not use them again for this job.

HMC was able to schedule an estimate early in the morning to accomodate our work schedule. My wife handled that meeting, but called me when the price they quoted was $50 higher than the price range of $75-$135 that was initially discussed on the phone. We agreed on $150. Rene took care of going to the store to purchase the remaining items and even returned a post I had bought and tried to install, which saved us some money. The finished product was fine, except that the decorative address plate was installed with the numbers oriented the wrong way. I called HMC about this, and they were very receptive to fixing the problem. Rene was back at our house within 24 hours of our call and he reinstalled the address plate to our satisfaction (and was courteous to my mother who happened to be at our house at the time). In all, I would use HMC again. The price was higher than I would have liked, and the area around the mailbox wasn't swept up so there was loose concrete remaining (hence the "B" for quality, but that's a minor issue. HMC was responsive, courteous, resolved the issue that came up, showed up on time and appears to have done good work.

The guys from Handyman Connection, Chris and MIles, arrived on time. They worked very hard and completed the work quickly and efficiently, despite the oppressive heat. They were very knowledgable and friendly, too. We were very happy with both the quality and cost of the work they did. I will definitely call Handyman Connection again, when I need work done.

Was on time informed me of the price - I agreed, went to work. On time, professional.

Doug arrived as scheduled, looked over the work to be done and got to it. He explained how he was doing the drywall repair and the necessary steps for texturing and painting to follow. He was neat and clean in his work and finished on time.

The Pros :- Overall the work was done well, thanks to Lance's (tile installer) skill and eye for detail .- Did not go over their estimate .- The original project manager was fired, which he richly deserved. - Rene Salazar, the boss, came to the site several times to get the project moving again. He was able to bring more labor to bear on the project. - I purchased the materials directly or HMC contacted me from Lowe's or Home Depot when they had additional purchases. While this was an inconvenience to me it meant HMC was not charging me extra. - The work was finished and looks good. The Cons: - The work was supposed to have taken 5-6 days. It took 3 weeks. - HMC missed 4 separate deadlines. And they set the last three themselves. - The project was shorted labor the first 10 days and most of the last week. - The original project manager. - A replacement project manager was never assigned, which lead to a breakdown in communications. - The laborers on-site and Handyman Connection HQ staff were not communicating; HQ staff thought everything was going well and almost done while in reality the project crept slowly forward. - It was up to me to keep the company informed about the progress of the project. - I had to be very forceful in my communications with HMC HQ. When I failed to do so they ignored me or ignored all but the rosy details. (Yes, this is a typical contractor trait, but it was extremely frustrating and demoralizing.) - Unskilled labor was assigned at least one semi-skilled job, which had to be redone and/or fixed. This was the second time I had hired HMC. The first project, a smaller ceramic tile installation, went well thanks to Kevin Reese (a skilled craftsman). Due to scheduling problem I got another tile installer this time, a hard worker by the name Lance. Lance did good work but had trouble meeting deadlines, probably due to a shorting on help by HMC. The low marks for Responsiveness and Professionalism belong to the HMC HQ staff. I have been told by Rene, the boss, that they are working on the problems that drug down those categories.The difficulties for this project are still fresh in my mind, such that I can't imagine hiring HMC again. And I would point out that they finished the job and it looks good. That's how frustrating this project was.

Took most of the day to get all of these items done, which was expected. Now I can actually see what is in my attic, and have beautiful light fixtures instead of the old brass ones. We feel much better now that the outlets in kitchen and garage are replaced with ones that satisfy current code. Very friendly and professional handymen. Very satisfied with the work, only minor problems--small amount of cleanup, screw for outlet was too short and popped out and we had to replace it with a longer screw , but overall, very satisfactory, will definitely use them again. The things the two handymen did were things we would not want to mess with, the chandliers were on high ceilings, and you have to have a licensed electrician do most of what we assigned our handyman electrician. We feel confident in the repairs that were made.

It could not have gone better. Mark M. arrived on time, quickly understood what needed to be done and knew how to do it. The toe-kick was in three pieces when I gave it to him but he quickly figured how to put it back and even supplied (gratis) a piece of molding that was missing from his truck. The second task was with the washer drain and Mark got a snake, unclogged the pipe and it's been working great ever since. Next came securing flashing to my deck roof. Again, Mark was on top of it and had proper fasteners and skills to do the job and got it done. Since this was all done in less time than the Big Deal coupon alotted, Mark volunteered to sweep and bag the leaves and other debris off the roof to fill out the time. He was personable and I felt comfortable having him in the house. I got my moneys worth and then some.

I bought the $79 BIG DEAL for 2 hours worth of drywall repair. I was able to call and get scheduled in the same week that I bought the deal. The Handyman Connection Representative, Mark Micho, showed up right on time and went right to work. He fixed to areas in my home. We had a wall get wet in our master bathroom from kids playing in the shower. My husband had already cut out the wet drywall. Mark patched and sealed the drywall as well as textured it. It looks great. He then moved on to a large right angle shaped hole we had in a wall when a kid fell into a table and the corner of the table pushed through the wall. This was much larger. He completed cut out a 5x8 section and re dry walled it, sealed and textured. Mark was friendly, professional, and laid out the proper materials to keep the house clean. He cleaned up after his work. He was able to estimate another job for me while he was here and will be back next week to do it. What a great customer experience. We will use them again and refer to our friends. An asset to Angie's List for sure. Thank you Handyman Connection. Keep these BIG DEALs coming.