Handyman Connection of Austin-Westlake

I?m very picky & know what I want (ask Handyman Connection). Bill, head contractor, came to my home & listened to my vision for our remodel (rather than tell me what I want as another bidder had tried to do). Matt, head project builder/contractor was great! A HUGE thing: I didn?t have to babysit him; I?d tell him what I wanted; leave and when I returned it was done exactly as we discussed. He had great ideas when I?d ask his thoughts. He was focused, consistent and if there were ?hiccups? that arose, he discussed the specifics as to why or why not it should be done (ex: change in lighting) and proceed once we agreed. He stayed with the job rather than leaving in the middle of the job. A few weeks later there were some touch-up items. Matt returned immediately and repaired these items. Rene Salazar, owner of Handyman Connection, followed-up once the job was complete to make sure we were happy. They are committed to doing a great job for clients as if it were there own home they were remodeling. Our neighbors, who watched the progression, heard how happy we were with Handyman Connection during this entire process....so I can assure you this is not a "fake review". We plan to hire Handyman in our next remodel.

He was going to repair the ceiling but he did such a terrible job on the fence that I actually had to let him go. He put in a fence but he put it in the wrong way with a gap at the bottom which he said he was going to fill in with sand. So, it should have been a very quick repair job. He deconstructed the fence to make it not align at the bottom and not put in the posts that he was supposed to put in. He was to repair a section of a fence that had fallen down. It as still in tact, it just needed to be put in place with a post on the left and the right side. What he did was he took apart the fence and built it so that it aligned at the top and there was a big gap at the bottom. He said, oh, I'm just going to fill that in with sand and then later he denied that's what he said. I think he didn't put a post in where it should have it been.

To be fair, this review will be in 2 parts: leak repair & drywall repair. I contacted them to repair a water leak in my kitchen ceiling. They responded promptly and had a plumber at my house the same day. He proceeded to remove a section of the ceiling, exposing the pipe that had the leak. He then had to go to the store to get a 3/4" 90 degree elbow & a 15" piece of PVC water pipe which took about 45 minutes. Just my opinion, but I feel a plumber should have the basic stock on his truck to fix a simple leak. In fairness, I did not request a quote, but feel $325.00 is excessive for a job that should have taken about an 1 1/2 hr to fix. The repair was successful. I discussed my issue with management. They indicated that they would consider an adjustment when the job was complete, which was fine with me. Next came the drywall repair. The contractor looked at the job, and gave me a quote to complete the work which I accepted. He then tells me he has to go to the store to get spackling compound and texture. I had these in my garage, so he used mine. Again, I feel a drywall contractor should have these basic supplies in his truck. Later in the day after he had made the initial repair, I discovered he had not replaced the insulation, which was lying directly under the repair. I called Handyman, relayed this info to them, and had him come back the next day and start over. When leaving, he indicated he would be back the next morning to complete the job. By 3:00 PM the next day I had not seen or heard from him. I called Handyman and canceled the drywall job. I negotiated an acceptable payment with them. They were very cooperative and I am satisfied with their response. I contacted a drywall contractor to complete the repair. The contractor ask me how long was the ceiling open before the dry wall was replaced, did we check for residual moisture, and did we check for mold. Since I was not present when the initial repair was made, I could not answer his questions regarding moisture or mold. Given the time the ceiling was open he felt it was probably OK. However I was concerned, given the history, of the job so I instructed him to remove the repair and inspect for moisture and mold. The following is what we found: 1. the 3' X 3' drywall patch was being held in place by 2 small nails,not even dry wall nails: 2. paper tape was used on the seams and was not bonded to the ceiling: 3. the repair patch which was the original drywall had black mold along one edge:4. in the ceiling there was black mold. The contractor treated for the black mold, replaced the insulation and drywall patch with a new piece, framed the opening to establish a firm base to attach the drywall patch, sealed the seams with fiberglass tape, and textured the repair.

We were outside of his coverage area, so we had to cancel the deal. I did appreciate how quickly he got back to me to let me know, however.

After an initial misunderstanding about what work needed to be done, they scheduled us for Monday. Sergio did an amazing job, and was very quick, I would absolutely use them again, especially if Sergio is the carpenter they send.

The "handyman" was more interested in getting me to hire him directly than in doing the work.

I had used the company in Nevada in the past. The service went well. One technician came out and completed the job in about 3 and a half hours. This company was willing to do even a small job. The technician was polite, competent and efficient. I had no problem scheduling the service and I would use them again.

The service went okay. One technician came out and completed the job in about 6 hours. The technician was friendly. It was a hot day so the job was not as professional as I would have hoped. There was a lot of streaking and un-stained parts. I had no problem scheduling the service.

The service went well and they did what they say they would. The staff is efficient. I have had little interaction with the technicians but they seem be to be nice. They are great at working with my schedule.

They have done pretty good work for us in the past. We did have to buy our own supplies which is my only concern but the technician did a nice job patching the damage. He also called us from the store for my credit card number and I preferred to meet him at the store. He completed the job in about 2 weeks and did the job in a timely manner. We had them out to clean the gutters originally which is when he found the squirrel damage. He was punctual and personable. He was also professional and I had no problem scheduling the service.

They are a great company and have used them off and on over the last few years. They are usually available when I need them and are easy to schedule with. Their technicians are professional and call before coming out. They have been very honest and I definitely plan on using them again the future.

The service went well. I think I had them install a ceiling fan. One technician came out and completed the job in less than 1 hour. They were efficient and we had no problems with the work. They did a fine job and I had no problem scheduling the deal.

I have been using the company for 3-4 years. We usually call Doug for any service. He is very reliable and does a great job. He is very meticulous in his work. It is very easy to schedule with them when I need their service.

The service went well. I feel like they have a lot of employees on staff. One technician came out and completed the job in about 1 day. I feel like he did a good job. He reused some pieces in the shower that I would have preferred been replaced. He knew I was planning on getting a new shower so that may be why he re used the old pieces. He also did not clean up very well after himself and I had to do a little touch up work on the walls myself. I had no problem scheduling the service and their pricing was more reasonable than other companies I looked into.

The service went fine. I had them do some touch ups on remodeling that was done. The handyman was very polite and skilled. He did a good job and I had no problem scheduling the deal. I was very satisfied with the work and they were very professional.

I thought the man was still working, and all of a sudden he just left. I didn't get a bill, so I had to call Angie's List, and they said that it was taken out of my card on Angie's List file. I thought I would have to pay for it to the man. He came very quickly, and he did a very good job. He had to leave to cut the tile, he was gone a very long time, but he didn't charge me for the time he was there. It seemed like a very big job, and I was expecting a lot more charge.

When we initially called for a quote, they were very quick to get one of their handymen out to assess the situation and give us a quote. He was at our house the next week. Most of the day was spent buying materials and cutting all the wood pieces he needed so not much was completed that day. He did get started on the chimney, but needed to come another day to finish, which was perfectly fine with us. He did not collect any payment. However, this handyman went MIA. He was supposed to call us back and never did. He then called on a different day to tell us he was coming over, but we had not been given any kind of update. Since work had been started, and the chimney still needed completion, we waited. Eventually I called the office and several days later they got back in touch to let me know that our handyman was having personal problems and had lost all of his paperwork so they had been trying to figure out who his clients were, scheduling, and work completed. Ok, no big deal. Life happens. At this point, I was having my doubts. Then they sent a second handyman, Louis, and boy were we pleased. He was punctual, polite, funny, and likable. He came in and got the work done. He was in constant communication with us and always in good spirits. We were impressed with the work he did for us and would not hesitate to use Handyman Connection again if we can always get Louis. Life happens. Companies can make mistakes. They never charged us more than the quote. They didn't collect payment until work was completed. We can appreciate this. No one is perfect, but they came through in the end with Louis. I'm glad we stayed the course.

Mark was nice, efficient and got the job done!

Before they could even begin the job, they researched internet for the particular information needed in the English version, which took some searching on the part of the office staff. In addition to doing the research, they also returned my phone call in the same day. Most, as I was doing price checks, did not return my calls for 2 days and one not at all. I understand if a company operates on a very small staff that working and handling their calls can be a lot to deal with, but a quick response, "get back to you soon" or even "unable to help at this time" is better than nothing. One other fact was that when the employee came to do the job, he had to be very patient because I wanted the carpenter work done to my specifications. Big plus there! A very satisfied customer.

The work took two hours and maybe 2 2x4s. We were charged 370 dollars for labor - that is 185 dollars per hour. We were also charged 55 dollars for 10 2x4 - not sure where the other 8 went because only 2 were used for the project. We will not use them again.

Handyman Connection was originally contacted to assess some bulging exterior siding and a possible shower leak as the causative factor. I found them on Angie's List, where they were highly rated. The plan was to re-do the siding on the back of my house, revealing the nature of the shower issue, fix the problem, then re-do the shower. Their website listed siding as a service they provided, and their contact person, Brian Craft, assured me that he had a very good person to do the job. Two men arrived on 7/2 and removed the siding from the entire back of my house. In the process, they permanently damaged my home's security system wiring. This necessitated a repair from ADT, that has left me with unsightly wireless system plastic boxes on the back door and windows, inside my house. On 7/3, the two workmen returned and worked until late afternoon, when they announced that they were leaving, and wouldn't return for another five days, after the 4th of July weekend was over. That's when the full extent of this house repair disaster became evident. They were not finished: an entire piece of siding was missing at the top of my house, completely exposing the insulation and house to the elements/insects/rodents etc. Huge gaps between the siding and the house frame were evident. Trim around the windows was laid on top of siding, leaving huge gaps in these areas, and framing that was not flush, but nailed at weird angles. When I expressed my concern about the gaps, the workmen said "we'll just fill in those areas in with caulk". Just before leaving, the men pulled a piece of Tyvek skirt away from under the lowest piece of horizontal siding, revealing their complete incompetence: they hadn't placed the very first piece of siding low enough, and there was a half inch gap between the siding and the house frame! I could tell then that they realized they'd screwed up, from the very beginning. They volunteered that they would put some kind of "patch" along the bottom of the siding, but not until they returned. And then they left. I was furious! As bad luck would have it, we then proceeded to have a full-on Texas summer gully-washer of a storm over the weekend. I was out there in the storm, trying desperately to cover exposed areas of my house with plastic, and trying to divert water from splashing into the house with buckets etc. It wasn't until 7/8 that the owner of Handyman Connection came to my house, to assess the botched siding job and nail some pieces of siding over the exposed areas. It wasn't until 7/22 that they sent another team out to finish the siding job. The person they had to contract with to get the job done re-used the old siding pieces, many of which had caulk on them. I'm reminded of this ordeal every time I see that. Additionally, paint was hastily sprayed on the new siding, and was also sprayed on some of my window screens. For twenty days my house was exposed to the elements and it took a total of five weeks to finally get the siding job done. Needless to say, I wasn't about to have Handyman Connection do any more work on my house. They reimbursed me the $350 I had to pay ADT to "fix" the alarm system but I had to ask them for some sort of discount for all the time and trauma this awful experience cost me. They gave me a $100 discount. This was my first ever home repair experience and I learned a lot from it. Though personable, the people from Handyman Connection clearly sent incompetent workmen to my house for a siding job. I'm writing this review to urge Angie's List members to use a bona-fide siding company to do a siding job.

I called them for a quote for work. They responded back to start on the quote. I let them know that I would need the quote back as soon as possible. However 3-4 days later they still didn't have it to me.

Bill, the estimator, came by our home to assess the project and give an estimate. He was right on time, courteous and had the estimate to us promptly. This was important as we had a finite amount of time to get the job done before actually moving in. His price was fair and his professional manner gave us confidence that the job was in good hands. Cullen was the handyman who did the work. He and his assistant Leanne arrived promptly on the scheduled day. They masked off the work area took the wall down and relocated the electrical all on day one. They showed up the next day, did all the patch work, laid the tile and prepped the ceiling wall & architectural column for the painter. They Handyman Connection team outdid themselves and we are pleased that we went with them to do our project. They were a pleasure to work with and we will definitely use them again for this type of project.

I had a good experience and they did a good job on it. I think their responsiveness and professionalism were fine.

Provider arrived about 10 minutes early, which I wasn't a fan of, but I'll take it because he wasn't overly late, so no big deal. My main issue was the time it took for him to provide a quote to simply replace my current front door with one I had already purchased that was sitting in the garage. Overall it took about 45 minutes. When I showed him the door in the garage, his first reaction was to tell me that my current door was better and asked why I had purchased it with a disrespectful tone (the door I want to install is mid-century, but in quite usable shape, I like the style better and found a good deal). He then told me very matter of factly that I had purchased a backwards door when I hadn't - he couldn't seem to process when he was looking at the replacement door that he was looking at the side that would face indoors. At this point in the interaction I knew I wasn't going to hire him for the job because he was rude and I didn't trust that the work would be quality. Finally, he quoted me around $500 when I had received a quote for around $300 from a couple of other companies. Overall the experience left a bad taste in my mouth.