Commonwealth Renovations

Initially, we got in touch with him, but he forgot to put us in his schedule. We were told that he would get in touch with us again, but he failed to make appointments or to respond back to us.

The quality of work is fantastic. JB was super easy to work with and extremely professional as were the sub-contractors used on the job. JB is very good at looking at alternative ways to accomplish the goal. He can very quickly get to the best approach for the repair or addition at hand which is a valuable skill considering the extra issues an addition to an existing structure or repair can encounter (as opposed to new construction where the work/approach may be quicker due to fewer hurdles). For example, our bathroom has two entries, one from the new great room and one from the existing master bedroom. The doorway to the master bedroom was built through an existing window. To open up the area below the window required removing the concrete wall below. The threshold (on the floor) between the master bedroom hardwood floor and the new bathroom's tile was creatively brought together and is very pretty and practical. The demolition of the wall and the link of the two different types of floors is the type of work that new construction may not run into. The word "Renovations" in JB Sipes' Commonwealth Renovations company really speaks volumes to the skill set. Communication was always above expectations. We knew the plan, what could be controlled and what couldn't, what to expect if the plan prevailed and what to expect if the plan did not prevail. When this happened, JB let us know right away the new plan. We were never in the dark and I suspect this level of communication can be difficult for contractors to achieve. Accordingly, the process went very smoothly as we were always on board. Everyone we worked with (subs and general contractor) all took pride in their work and genuinely cared. This atmosphere starts at the top with the general contractor. I recommend this General Contractor.

Very well. Robert was the painter and he did a great job.

Didn't use- Angie's list- don't post a bad review for this person simply because i'm sick of it asking me to rate the service provided...

They did very well. I was surprised because we were very pleased with their work.

It's been awhile since my initial use, but as I recall, Robert installed a new toilet upstairs, including getting the new one up the stairs and removing the old one. He also installed a deadbolt and other odd jobs in the two hour package I purchased.

Everything went well. They did a chimney sweep for me.

Overall, we liked the plan but felt they could have been more helpful in making specific suggestions during the planning process. For reasons unrelated to the contractor, we decided not pursue having the work done at that time.

Everything was fine since we sold the house. They were courteous and punctual. It went smooth.

got a little lost finding the address, but the quality of the work was great!

Project went fine, and looks nice and is very functional. Provider had a lot of work, and project could not be done all at once. Project was extended a bit in order to move workers to different work sites.

The service went well. I paid an additional fee for them to cover additional square footage. Two technicians came out for the job. They were honest and did a pretty good job. I had no problem scheduling the deal and would recommend them to others.

Everything was smooth and without any problems.

I was completely pleased with the work. Robert was meticulous with the details in making sure the job was done to exceed my expectations. I have the most beautiful backsplash in the world, and he clearly took great pride in making sure his workmanship was top notch. As for responsiveness, it was clear that their workload is full, but I always got a return call in a timely manner and was always treated with politeness and respect. The owner, JB, is extremely personable and very down to earth. In addition, I received the benefit of helpful advice on what other jobs might need to be done and how to prioritize my next repair and improvement projects. It did take a tad longer for the work to be completed than we had originally anticipated, but I know this had much more to do with attention to quality than to any lack of interest or concern about my project. And I felt the pricing was absolutely reasonable. I really felt like my job mattered, and because this is not always the case when hiring a contractor, I appreciated that.

Did an excellent job and finished early so he did little odd jobs around the house. Nice guy.

Communication was ok, but not to the point where I would reschedule them. Workmanship was solid. I added time to the hours purchased and had to deal with the "sub-contractor" that was sent to do the work rather than deal with the company themselves... which was awkward.

They never honored the deal and never even reached out to me. It seems like they completely dropped the ball after they received the prepaid Deal money.

I hired them and they broke ground on the project August 6. They were working on the inside of my house and now they are working on the outside. The contact is J. B. Sipe and I used him because he seemed knowledgeable and provided the service I needed more than just telling me what I wanted to hear. Another company gave me a quote which I thought was pretty good, but J.B. gave me more information. J.B.'s price was over my budget, but he worked with me to get close enough. He came down around $5,000. I am very pleased with J.B. He comes through the day, but he is not on time. He is working on a job and everything like that and I realize that. He contacts us as soon as he is on site about what he is going to do that day and what is coming up. Or I will call him. He normally calls us first thing in the morning to let us know what is going on so he keeps us up to date.

In the future, I may still hire this company if I have the materials or parts ready.

The service was excellent and the individual was ver professional. Would definitely use again.

The kitchen we had the work done in is very small. I purchased my own tile because I wanted something more fancy that what they were wanting to do. There were additional costs that were almost double the price of the deal. The work was fair. I had to bring them back two or three different times. They did come back quickly each time that I had asked. They didn’t put the grout sealing on which I thought would have been included in the deal. I had to purchase the sealant myself and put the coating on after they left and some of it I still have yet to finish.

I wanted it insulated. He built it at his house, and we went to see it. It ended up being mostly satisfactory, but it took three times longer than the original estimate said it would and about three times more expensive. All in all, we are pretty happy with the results, but it took an extremely long time to get what we wanted. It was a mixed bag. He was a nice fellow. There was a lot of back and forth and back and forth. The varnishing job when it was finished was very unsatisfactory. So he came out and redid it. We were wanting to have it and willing to pay the additional costs, but he didn't give us an estimate that was reasonable for what we required. It took forever to get it done. It was so darn heavy that it took three people to roll it around to the back of the house and get it up on our raised patio stairs and in place. Our cats love it, but I wouldn't go that way again with that company. The original estimate was $350, but we ended up paying was over $1,000. He never built something like this before, and I don't think he knew what he was getting into when he started it. The roof is flat, but it should have had a slope to it, because when the rain comes, it sits on it. It was easily three months, from start to finish. It's like a small house, which my cats adore. We're quite pleased with the final product, and what we paid is probably pretty close to what it should be. I think he put in the time and it's a good product. You'd never get something like those through the catalogs. We're quite pleased with it.

Had scheduled for General Contractor to come out on Friday 6/27. Received a call in the morning from contractors employee that he could not make it due to illness which I understood but was suppose to call back on following Monday to reschedule. Emailed Contractor as well but no response was sent and I had not received a call or email to reschedule. I could understand the illness but lack of follow up isn't what I would expect as a customer.

Where do I begin? Let's start by stating ""when you hire a so-called "Professional", you should expect a professional job"". Now, I'm not a perfectionest, don't think I have OCD, and with 21+ years working for the Gov. the phrase "close enough for government work" (meaning not perfect but good enough) is OK with me. Also, afterwriting numerous trip reports, I got into the habit of keeping detail notes when I hire someone to do a job (comes in handy for times like this). Also, the pictures I took were made on the afternoon of June 17th after the workers were done and everyone had left. This started in April '14, when I requested a quote for a "Roofing" job. J.B. Sipe gave me a proposal and then he talked about replacing my sidewalk. He told me he could give me a deal on stamped, colored concrete for $1200 if he did the roof or $1500 without the roof. I thought about the offer and we negotiated a price to $1400 for the job. I signed the contract on May 28 '14, to bust up and take away the old sidewalk and replace with at least 4 inches of concrete, stamped with a pattern I choose from their webpage, and up to two colors from their color chart. The wife chose a creamy beige with charcol streaks that was like the example on their website ( pic 1). Around the 5th of June, his foreman came by and we matched the color from our downspout (pic 2) to his color chart . Up to this time verything was going fine but, scheduling became a problem. We finally agreed to Monday, June 16 at 9:00 AM, to do the job. I was told it would take 1 day to bust up, haul away, lay new sidewalk, stamp and seal, cure overnight, and pressure wash the next day. No problem - let's do it. Now the problems. The 16th, Monday morning, I waited until 9:30am and called Mr. Sipes and left message asking "Where are the workers?". I called again at 10:am and left another message saying his lack of communication leads me to assume that if he doesn't want the $1400 sidewalk job he doesn't get the $10,000 roof job. He called back at 10:10 and said the workers were on the way and that he had to pull them from another job.. About 11:30am, Alberto (the forman) and onother worker showed up. They parked a big dumpster in the driveway, dropped off 2 five gallon buckets , talked together (in spanish) about the job, said the cement truck was set to arrive at 4:30pm, they would be back soon, and left. At 1:33pm, some workers (3-4) showed up and started busting up the sidewalk with a sledge hammer and loading the chuncks on the dumpster. At apx. 7:00pm, the cement truck arrived and they started mixing and spreading the cement. They asked me, before they started, where they could wash off their equipment when they finished. I should them a back faucet. They were already using the front-middle faucet but they didn't want to get cement on the grass (nice of them). At apx. 8:30pm, they started cleaning up, said they would be back in the morning to pressure wash ( told me not to walk on the sidewalk), they took away the dumbster and left (they didn't put any tape or barrier around the sidewalk). My wife mentioned the sidewalk looked darker than we agreed, but it was night and I said we should wait until they finished. They left around 9pm At apx. 8:00am, the 17th, we heard a loud noise outside. They wre measuring the width and using a circular saw to trim the edges of the walkway. They started spray wahsing until apx. 8:45am when the city water was cut off to change the neighborhood water meters for about an hour. At 11:30am, I noticed they had finished and everyone was gone and I saw the sidewalk was too dark (pic 3). I called Mr. Sipes and was told he and Alberto couldn't cpme by until 6pm. At 6:03pm. only Alberto came by (he didn't know whereabouts of Mr Sipes). I showed him what they had left and what they had done. He appologized and helped me try to wand wash the greyish powder (pic 4) on my asphalt driveway (doesn't show when wet but comes back when it's dry). He cleaned up some of the items they left in the grass, took the 2 five gallon buckets they left behind, said he would help me pressure wash the driveway if I wanted, and left. On Thursday morning, I left messages with Mr. Sipes and after no response, I called Angie's List customer servise. I told them of my concerns (Commonwealth Renovations advertizes there). They looked and found a 10% off concrete jobs coupon I was not aware of and said sould be good for this job (sort of hidden - you have to click on see all deals and read the fine print on the coupon). When Mr. Sipes finally called, he said he was comming to pick up the check for thecompleted job. I informed him of the coupon and how I had re-written the check for $1260. When he said he had already given me a discount, I told him our negotiations had nothing to do with the Angie's List coupon and then he called me a "Piece of work" (I guess that's an insult in his circle). When Mr. Sipes came for the check he told me "I had picked that color, that I would have problems with anybody, and he didn't want to do my roof". I gave him the contract, coupon, and the check and told him to "have a nice day somewhere else", walked into my garage and closed the door to cool down. To finally sum up. I have been trying to write this review off and on since Saturday the 21st (I would get angry and stop). Since then, the wife and I, have pressure washed the driveway and sidewalk. We also had to dig out the gravel, put the pavers back, and buy 5 bags ot topsoil the fill in the gaps between the grass and walkway. I will still need to re-seal the driveway earlier than I planed (did last fall - due next spring). As a final note, after pressure washing the sidewalk, it's a tiny bit brighter but, no way near what we ask for. My wife tells me to "let it go - it's not worth the agrevation". I agree - life's too short. As to Commonwealth Renovations and Mr. J.B.Sipes; I'm sure they will have their own different version (but, I have a great security system and VIDEO). All I will say to them is " Peace be with you but, DON'T come near my house - EVER".

The visit to do the estimate went well. The written estimate arrived in a reasonable amount of time. The estimate appeared to be thorough but they never followed up with me. I had two other companies provide estimates. In the end had Commonwealth followed up there is a chance I would have hired them, but as it turns out they must have been to busy with other leads they got off their Angie's list AD.