Ultimate Ceilings, Inc.

The brief synopsis: Things started off pretty positively. Bruce was quick to respond to our voicemail message and was very friendly and amiable on the phone. He was even nice enough to come out the same day we called him while we were doing our home inspection to look at the house and bid the job. That effort and promptness along with his good reviews on Angie?s List are what convinced us to hire him for our job. Other than a slight bit of confusion meeting at the property to start the job, everything was going quite well up to this point. Unfortunately, that?s where the positive notes end. For those of you who just want the bottom line: Bruce did a good job scraping the popcorn ceilings and refinishing and painting the ceilings. They looked great. HOWEVER that was all that looked great. The fact that Bruce and his crew damaged the drywall where the walls meet the ceiling, left dozens of staples in our walls where they stapled up their plastic tarps, left plaster dust and debris all over the carpet and floors and even left their FOOD waste and garbage in our refrigerator and around our house (see the attached pictures, I needed proof since I could scarcely believe it myself) means that not only am I never going to use Bruce and his company again, I will also go out of my way and do all I can to ensure that any friend, co-worker or acquaintance I hear needing drywall/ceiling work done hears all about Bruce?s sloppy work and doesn?t hire him for their project. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now, for those of you that want the details, here they are (or at least most of them. I didn't include them all, but I think you'll get the picture): The day before Bruce was scheduled to be done my wife and I went by the house to move a few things into the garage from temp housing and to see how things were going with the job. When we walked in, we were immediately concerned with the state of things and decided to just ask some questions about the things we were concerned about. First we noticed that there was damage (ranging from minor somewhat substantial) to the drywall of the walls where they met the ceiling in just about every room they scraped. His response to our concern? ?Oh, that? You just use a little bit of touch up paint and that just disappears? followed by a good natured laugh. Ok, while I appreciate that Bruce didn?t get immediately belligerent and defensive, I still find nothing funny about the damage to the walls, but what was really not funny was that Bruce had no intention of doing that touch up painting himself. He expected US to clean that up. Also, check out the photos and tell me if you think that's a simple coat of touch up paint. Then we spotted places where the color they painted the refinished ceiling bled down on to the walls which are not the same color. In some places it came down as much as 2 inches! We asked him about that and his response? ?Yeah, you just touch that up with a little bit of paint. No big deal?. Maybe it?s not a big deal, but that?s not the point. The point is that when I hire someone to do work on my house the base line expectation is that when they leave, my house looks exactly the same except for the work they were paid to do. Ideally, it should look better?.maybe I?m crazy, but that?s why you generally spend the money on these jobs. My tour of the house turns up dozens and dozens of left over staples in our walls from where they tacked up their tarps. Some of these staples were in very high places on the walls in rooms with vaulted ceilings ? not easy to get to. I pointed these out to Bruce (some of them, there were too many to point them all individually out) and asked that he take care of those. He agrees and says ?No problem?. I then make note of all the debris and dust on the counter in the kitchen and the entryway carpet and other areas and that we have a 9 month old baby that we don?t want this stuff all over and he says he?ll clean it all up by the time they?re done tomorrow. I also noted that there were places where they smeared something (plaster with a bit of water) on the walls and there was some garbage from their meals on the counter that I wanted to make sure he cleaned up. He agrees. I then ask him about re-hanging the doors he?s taken off and replacing all the light fixtures he?s taken down to do the work. He pauses a bit to think and then agrees. Now don?t get me wrong. Bruce agrees to do all this stuff, but he paused and says ?Sure. We can do that?? like he?s doing me a favor. No Bruce, putting stuff back the way you found it isn?t a favor, it?s what you?re SUPPOSED to do. But nonetheless, he agrees and I leave telling him that I?ll meet him back at the house the next day to make sure it?s all done and then we can get him paid. The next day rolls around and I come by the house and guess what? Almost none of what he?d promised to have done was done. I walk through the house and point out that there are still multiple staples scattered about the house. He goes about and removes the ones I point out, but there are still dozens and I wasn?t prepared to walk around pointing them all out?we were moving in the next day and had plenty to do plus I apparently had to re-touch the paint on the walls. I point out that there were still lighting fixtures he?d taken down that weren?t back on the walls. He puts those back up. He even left a door off the hinges?how do you miss that?? He puts that back up. I mention that the carpet still looks pretty dirty (the previous owners had them cleaned before closing and now they were covered in plaster bits and dust). Finally Bruce gets exasperated with me and huffs ?Is it REALLY that bad???. No Bruce, I just brought it up because I?m naturally combative and wanted to see if I could get a rise out of you?.of COURSE it?s that bad, that?s why I brought it up. Even if it wasn?t that bad, seriously that?s your response? I?ve got a 9 month old that is going to be crawling all over these carpets in a day and you?ve left plaster dust and drywall chips and staples all over the carpet and your response is ?Is it REALLY that bad???? It was clear I was pretty upset with the work and at the end of the day, Bruce throws me a $100 discount on the job. I wanted to appreciate the gesture, but I spent the rest of the day vacuuming the carpets and wiping the walls and pulling staples and sanding and repainting my walls. If I were going to hire a cleaning crew and painter to do that, how much more than $100 would that be? More importantly, I would have gladly paid $200 more to have him do a tidy job and leave my home the way he found it (minus the popcorn ceilings). I even posed that question to him. I said ?I think the expectations when someone hires a contractor is that their home will look exactly the same as before the job except for the work that was to be done. Is that an unreasonable expectation??. His response to me was to hold his arms out and say ?Well we did this whole big job? as if that?s some kind of excuse for this sloppy work. I know you did a whole big job Bruce. I know because you came to the house and bid the work and we PAID you $5,000 for that ?whole big job?. It?s not like he got here and we suddenly said ?Hey Bruce, there?s 4 extra rooms we need you to do? or ?Hey Bruce, we need you to get this done in half the time we originally agreed upon?. If that were the case, I could see how it might have resulted in rushed, sloppy work, but we didn?t do that and we certainly didn?t expect to pay for a job that would generate MORE work for us. If I had known, if he would have said ?Hey, just so you know, this is a really big messy job and when I?m done, you?re going to have some cleaning and some repainting and sanding to do and that?s just that? I could have tried to plan for it. I could have brought in someone else to do that work. Instead, I get blindsided by it 24 hours before the movers show up. Ultimate Ceilings was the ultimate disappointment. The fact that they did good work on the ceiling itself doesn?t make up for the fact that they left our house a mess and generated more work for us. Worst money I?ve spent in quite some time. I can only hope that this review saves some people the aggravation and trouble that we went through.

Ultimate Ceilings responded quickly with a bid for damage to the interior ceiling of two rooms. The damaged areas were approximately 6x6 in one room and 8x2 in another room. The work was done professionally, on schedule and in budget. I will be using them again in the near future. This recommendation is short & sweet because there is nothing left to say.... Highly recommended! -Jim

They were good in terms of quality. I would use their services again in the future.

Had I relied on Bruce for my only estimate, I would have wasted a week of my time.

Bruce was a joy to work with. He started and ended on time. There was absolutely no mess of any kind to deal with and the ceiling was paint ready. We will definitely use him again when we are ready to remove the popcorn ceiling in the rest of the house.

Excellent. It was a bit complicated since I'm currently living in my home. The work had to be done in 2 sessions. Bruce and his crew were very helpful in moving some large items I needed assistance with, and they were flexible in working around a couple of large items that couldn't be moved.

He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He fixed the problem and he was very prompt and a very hard worker. He was professional and cleaned up when he was done.

I called Bruce for estimate and I'm pretty sure he came the same day to take the measurements. He delivered an estimate the next day and we discussed in detail what needed to be done. He broke down the prices for labor and materials to make the estimate very clear-cut. We scheduled the work about 2 weeks later. All the people doing the various stages of work were always on time, courteous, and relatively clean. If they were going to be late, or not there at 8:30 am they always called to let me know when they would arrive. My only complaint was that not all the electrical sockets were pulled from the walls. About 3 were still left inset to the old wall underneath. Overall the job was efficient, quick and went over very well. It looks great.

It went very well. They were right on time to start, right on time to finish and right on budget. They were friendly and they cleaned up.

The work went very well. The ultimate test is how does it look when painted. It looks great. Bruce and his crew were on time, easy to get along with and got the job done.