A Reliable Handyman

Not as expected. Trent's first visit to discuss what we wanted done was on 2/4/2015. The first and main thing we needed done was the replacement of the broken kitchen cabinet hinges. Trent said it would be no problem to do this. He made note of the type of hinges, and size. He said that he could put some wood fillers at cutting boards and dishwasher, he could replace the motion detectors. Trent emailed the agreement and the cost of completed job on 2/9/2015....$455.00+tax due upon completion. I agreed to the cost for work to be done and emailed him back giving him the go ahead to do the job as outlined. We agreed to a "tentative" date, as Trent would call later to give me more detail on date. Looking at his schedule he thought he would have the time later in February. A few days before our agreed upon job date Trent called to let me know that he probably couldn't do it on the expected date, as he had employees out sick. I was agreeable to that, as I understood being short handed. The conversation ended with Trent saying he would call the following week to cement another day. We later set up another date during a phone call I made to him. Trent came out on 3/12/2015, with one worker with him. First to do were the hinges. After holding up a hinge that he had brought he told me that, bad news, the hinges he brought would not work on the cabinets......different size. So, if we wanted us to get the right ones he would have to probably make a trip into Portland to find because he couldn't get them in Vancouver. We were now being told that he would have to charge for his travel time, and IF he could the correct hinges they "might" cost more, but he wouldn't know that until he actually got them. So, he could not even tell us what the cost might be, and if he went to Portland and found the right hinges we would, of course, be expected to pay for it........whatever it might be.??????? I said no, don't do that......I wanted to think about this and maybe do my own "hunt" for these elusive hinges. Our home was built in 1996, the cabinets are very common "builders grade" and were purchased at DeWils when home was built. I questioned why he didn't know all of this by the time he finally came to our home. I was so let down, and disgusted that this situation was even happening. This was not handled in a professional manner.

The job took longer than estimated, but the bathroom vent works well. No construction debri was left behind and the areas inside and outside were left as clean as when he arrived. He had to replace the bathroom vent and all the duct work to the outside as it was all to code when the house was built but did not meet current codes. I would have like to have been asked if I preferred a metal vent cover or a plastic one. I got a plastic one. (I am guessing there were choices on the vent covers).

It went no where, and now I'm looking at being about two months later getting my deck built. I'm not happy.

He?s great. I will definitely hire him again!

Great job done by all! Worked quickly, and efficiently and cleaned up afterward. We were given an Angie's list discount. Love the new kitchen. Will use Trent again!

Trent remodeled my bathroom, offered good suggestions (recessed mirrored cabinet). .I was quite pleased with the work and suggestions Trent provided. He kept me informed re: progress, timetables throughout the project. I appreciate that he is very fair and honest-even pointed out that he had billed me twice for some work and adjusted the balance. Trent clearly takes pride in being a craftsman and wanting to provide quality service. I would definitely use Trent again for future jobs.

He did great. We had a defective unit so we had to go back to the manufacturer!! Please note that I will use this provider at any time in the future! He is great! I just clicked the wrong box in my initial review!

No problems, cleaned up job done on time

Trent was great. He was punctual and professional and did a great job of the items we needed fixed. His estimate seemed reasonable and the final cost matched the estimate. The windows were fixed quickly because he seemed knowledgeable of what needed to be done. The people who built our 6 year old home had left openings under the sink that opened into the crawl space and was potential for critters to access from the outside. Our two built in wall units also had openings to who know where and our cat got stuck or lost in the space one day. Trent closed everything off and the end result was effective and looked good. The towel bar was something my husband might have done but while we had A Reliable Handyman in our house, why not. The last piece was our light fixture in the dining room that was hung high above the table probably because of our 15 foot ceilings. It needed to be lowered 8 feet to be an acceptable height over the table. Some high work with a heavy fixture and electrical work on top of that, but all done and looks much better. Trent has a wide variety of skills and talents. We feel that we have someone we can rely on for home maintenance and my husband has someone who will partner with him on "The List". I think he has already started the next one for when we next call Trent.

Very professional service, they did a great job and the results are working very well. I would recommend this service to anyone.

They were very prompt and they did excellent work. The man who came to give the quote was extremely professional and the people that he worked with were also professional.

Excellent work. A problem came up and he came back and fixed the problem promptly.

He is our Handyman from now on. He is very qualified for anything you may need done. He isn't creepy. I am so sick of wierdos!

I hired A Reliable Handyman to complete and make repairs to a lean-to shed that had been mostly built, but then abandoned by a previous contractor. That fellow did a shoddy job, and were money no object I suppose I should have just had the thing torn down and built correctly. As it was, Trent and his employee were willing to complete it to my direction and the building now looks good and is serviceable. He did everything I asked quickly and efficiently (very key when charging by the hour) and I was impressed enough to go ahead and ask him to re-hang my gate while he was there, something that hadn't been in my original request. Trent arrived on time, with a giant truck full of equipment and tools. He required no money down, and proved to be very courteous and a hard worker. He also proved to have the proper contacts for any work he couldn't perform himself (seamless gutters, or custom cabinetry for instance). Highly recommend.

Great, the estimate was spot on and Trent was on time and efficient. The room looks great.

It went very well. Time will tell -- we'll know when the rains start but, from everything we can see, it looks good.

Professional conduct and work from beginning to end. Trent, the owner, showed up on time for both the estimate and the job. He called ahead to confirm his approximate arrival time, which I appreciated. He provided good advice on what needed to be done to meet the building codes. I provided the materials. He provided the labor and skill. Job was completed on time, within budget, and met all my expectations. I asked for a staircase that was straight, level, and met the building codes. And that's what he delivered. I would definitely use him again and recommend him to others.

Business is unresponsive. Not a good business practice not to answer the phone or return calls.

He spent an hour checking my place out. I thought he was telling me some things that weren?t true because he told me wood rot couldn't be repaired on windows. I knew from going online that there was a way to repair wood rot on windows. I ended up having another company do this for me. When I was to receive a bid from him, I never heard from him again.

There were no problems and every was finished in a hour

The "belly band" work was done with professionalism, the workers were courteous, and they cleaned up everything very well. The windows were replaced well, using all of the appropriate materials to ensure the windows wouldn't leak, that they were straight, etc., and all of the work was of high quality. However there was a HUGE disconnect when I clearly stated that I wanted the windows to have a cottage look, and I said that I wanted both top and the bottom moldings to extend about 1 inch on each side...both the top and the bottom. I showed him a window on the house wherin that had been done, as an example, and said I wanted all the rest of the windows to be done just like that. I was extremely disappointed when I realized that they failed to do this the way I had requested, i.e., they only did it on the bottoms the way I wanted it and they didn't do the tops the way I wanted them. Since they had done such a good job sealing the edges with caulking, it was way too big of a job to remove the top molding and replace it with what I wanted. This was a very expensive project and they did the work really well, but when you save up your money and envision how you want it to look, it's quite upsetting to spend your hard earned money on results you didn't want. At first the owner said he would correct the mistake, but he later blamed me and refused to correct it. I think that if you are in a business, and you want to be certain that you are going do what your client wants, then he should have made a diagram to show me what he thought I wanted to be sure we were 'on the same page'. I do not have much experience working with contractors, so I learned a very hard lesson, I need to give them a drawing of exactly what I want because even if they nod yes, and say "I understand what you want", they may not really hear you. I think that's because I am female and they didn't really listen to me in the first place. Anyway, the WORST part about the whole fiasco was that one of the workers, for a reason completely unknow and inexplicable to me was that he used a chain saw to cut down my beautiful 15 year old Pinus strobus that I had planted as a tiny shrub when I moved in. It was absolutely perfect, it looked exactly the way I wanted it to look for my Japanese garden section that I was creating. It was next to a lovely yellow leyland and a birdsnest shrub, It looked GREAT. I was horrified to see that Now it is GONE for GOOD! That is an unforgiveable error. I fail to see why anyone would remove a shrub, unauthorized, when they were installing a window. If there were some branches in his way, I said it was OK to cut those, but I NEVER said it was oK to cut that beloved shrub , I was home the entire time they worked and while they were told it was OK to remove any branches that were in their way because they were touching the sides of the house, I NEVER AUTHORIZED THEM TO REMOVE ANY OF MY BELOVED SHRUBS, ESPECIALLY ONE THAT IS A SLOW GROWING CONIFER. THEY ALSO REMOVED ANOTHER SHRUB IN THE FRONT OF MY HOUSE THAT THEY WERE NOT AUTHORIZED TO REMOVE. I ONLY TOLD THEM THERE WAS ONE SINGLE TREE THAT HAD GROWN IN ON IT'S OWN, I HAD NOT PLANTED IT, AND IT WAS DIRECTLY BY THE FRONT DOOR. I SAID IT IS OK TO COMPLETELY REMOVE IT AND I POINTED TO IT. THEY WERE CHAINSAW HAPPY OR SOMETHING BECAUSE THEY TOOK IT OUT AS WELL AS THE SHRUB NEXT TO IT WHICH I HAD PLANTED 15 YEARS AGO. I have never had such a gut wrenching sense of loss and WAS ESPECIALLY UPSET THAT I UNWITTINGLY PAID FOR IT TO BE REMOVED WITH MY OWN MONEY!!! I can not understand how anyone would feel it's OK to remove landscape TREES/SHRUBS without asking. I was so angry and upset that they came and dug out the stump, but I have been so sick about the whole thing, that I haven't been able to even look at that spot, much less find a replacement shrub. The owner said he would purchase a replacement shrub, but the truth is, I am so disgusted with them and so heartbroken about losing a foundation plant... that I never want to see them on my property ever again after this HUGE blunder. I just don't even want to look at them, I feel that angry. I lost TWO of my foundational landscape shrubs, one of which was extremely special to me, the other was nothing special, so I don't feel so badly about it and will replace it myself, but the Pinus strobus was my pride and joy, like my red Japanese Maple that I also planted near it when i moved in. These plants have sentimental value and it is impossible to find another one that looked like that because everyone shapes theirs differently when they prune them. I like an "open candle" look, not a tight continuously pruned look...the latter is virtually all I can find at the nurseries. I am too heart broken to deal with it now and it's too hot to plant anything in July, so i will have to wait until the fall to fix it. Maybe by then I will have swallowed the bitter pill of not being smart enough to be standing around outside all day long watching every little thing they do to ensure they don't screw up. BEWARE, they may do things you would never dream could even be remotely associated with the task at hand. When I heard the chainsaw, i thought they were cutting up the tree that I had authorized them to cut down, I never imagined that they would cut down one of my favorite LARGE conifer shrubs. So, in summary, this is a WARNING...if you watch them like a hawk and make sure that everything they are doing is exactly what you want them to do, and you make sure, by watching them all the time, that they do not remove vegetation that you cherish, then they do a great job. Otherwise, WATCH OUT!!!!

This gentleman is awesome, and does great work. He's a consummate professional that stands behind his work.

He came out and did an evaluation and then we just missed each other. He never actually go to perform what he quoted me for. Just because our schedules never matched up, so it wasn't his fault, it was definitely a scheduling issue. He was really sweet. He looked at a bunch of lights and he changed the light bulbs that were high up for me. When he was there he fixed some door knobs. I mean like sweet during the evaluation, but we just never got our schedules to jive. The quote a was reasonable. He was incredibly kind and understanding. Both my kids were running around the house during the quote and he was just great not worrying about them and they didn't seem to bother him. He worked very well with us. I wish I could have figured out how the schedules to have him come out and do the work. It was just difficult scheduling time.

Trent was very professional and thorough. He was booked way out, so it took a while for him to be able to get to us, but when he did he was fully committed to the job and did very good work. He brought in a contractor for some parts of the job, but was completely on top of every step of the job. We were satisfied with his work and would definitely call him again.

Trent came over for the initial bid, he was on time. We had him come back a few weeks later to do the installation. He was very punctual and ready to work as soon as he entered out home. The job took a bit longer than he expected it to, due to some installation issues. He DID NOT charge us more for the extra time. There was a small scratch on an open side of the microwave that Trent created. He offered us cash to pay for the damage which was very generous of him. We didn't accept the cash as we will be covering that side of the microwave. Trent told my husband that he saw installation problems as "challenges to be overcome". He was creative and figured out a way to complete the job. He was moved quickly, but never rushed. He is thoughtful, creative and a very nice guy. We will hire him again.