Advanced Home Improvements

Deck boards were rotted, but the footings/support was intact and I wanted to install composite decking. Jeff did a great job at suggesting board size/layout to take advantage of existing footprint and supports. Crew was great, job done on-time and within budget. No surprises.

We paid the owner, Jeff Tatur, $50,000 to partially remodel one small bathroom (put in a vanity we purchased, a small stand up shower, toilet, and floor tile), replace all windows in the house, install the master bathtub only, and put on new siding. The work was done in November 2018, December 2018, and January 2019. However, one window had severely cracked in one year due to cold temperatures, and every window casing was bulging, molding, and rotting due to inferior quality windows. By spring 2019, every window was leaking water! He eventually applied more sealant to a couple of windows, which didn't help at all, and then wouldn't do anything further to fix any of the leaking windows. He thought our sliding glass doors were leaking because of the deck above it, but what about all the other windows that didn't have anything above them? The window casings even had nail holes all over them. They looked terrible from the day they were installed. He never gave us a choice in what type of windows we wanted, only on whether we wanted the painted casing or non-painted casing. He refused to do anything about the poor-quality window casings either. He finally agreed to replace the cracked window, but his wife got sick, Covid happened, his team got Covid, etc. It was one excuse after another of why he couldn't replace the window. The windows were under warranty. He finally gave us a new window in January 2022! But he's refusing to install it. Throughout the entire process of him gathering supplies, having them installed, and the work finished (If you could even call the work that was done finished), we had to harass him every step of the way to complete each job because he would take the payments, and then we wouldn't hear from him for months at a time! And there was always some excuse for the delays too. He wasn't shy to ask for every payment well before the job was finished. He was clever in asking for a deposit before beginning each project and then for the rest of it before each project was even"finished." We have tried to be very patient because of the Covid pandemic. We paid him a lot of money, and everything was poorly done. He didn't even install the bathtub we had picked out. We saw the bathtub AFTER his plumber installed it, and it wasn't the bathtub we had picked out! It was something very cheap looking. He didn't replace the rotting materials uncovered after the old siding was removed. He even dented our dryer because instead of moving the dryer to install a window, he kneeled on the dryer! We talked to him about that too, but of course, he didn't try to fix the damage or compensate for it at all. We have told him we want the window to be installed many times, and we can be done with this nightmare. We were new to home repairs when we moved to our house in October 2018. I guess he could tell we were amateurs, and we hadn't contracted services like this before, or maybe because we're not a white family, or because he knows we couldn't afford to sue him, who knows, but he completely ripped us off. It should be a punishable crime to rip people off such a large sum of money! AVOID this company if you want to avoid a NIGHTMARE!!!! I can't believe it has any good reviews. I guess the owner picks and chooses who he cons.

AHI was super impressive when we were getting bids for the project. He was "Johnny on the Spot". He was 6 weeks late in starting my deck which he said would take about a week once the old deck was ripped off. Long and short of it was that we dealt with nothing but empty promises and lies. The project went roughly 3.5 months longer than it should have and failed the inspection process at least two times that I am aware. Also, I had another contractor come to give me a bid to fix my brand new deck and the guy said it was done so poorly, it would almost have to be redone. He couldn't believe it passed inspection. I have debated on taking them to court, but don't know if I can take the stress.

Working with Jeff (owner) has been a never-ending nightmare. I will start at the beginning. He was very easy to work with when we were getting quotes and up until when the contract was signed on 4/7/2019 at which point we were told it would be about 6 weeks before he could start. We were having AHI install vinyl siding on our house and replace the picture window in our living room. It was approaching the middle of June and we still had not heard from Jeff. He said he was very busy when we called and it was going to be a couple more weeks. A couple more weeks went by and we still hadn't heard from him. We tried leaving messages and were not getting responses. Finally on 7/25 his crew shows up to start removing the old siding. They were supposed to start in the morning, and when I got home from work at 4pm they were all sitting in their van on their cell phones and hadn't done anything yet. They worked until 5:30, told me they were out of house wrap and would be coming back in the morning to finish. They do not come back in the morning or the next day. On Sunday 7/28 it is supposed to storm so I call Jeff from work telling him how they left the house uncovered. He does come and wrap the house that day, which is about the only time he has impressed me during the entire job. His crew showing up off and on continues until they finally finish Friday August 9th. We have had a dumpster taking up our whole driveway for 3 weeks at this point for what we were told would be a 5 day job. He was also supposed to have the window installed at this time, but ordered the wrong one so we were told it would be done at a later time. We asked him for an estimate on when the window would be installed on 8/12, said he would check. Asked him again on 8/21 and he said he would be installing the window himself on 9/9. He doesn't show up or call on 9/9. We ask again when the window will be installed and he says 9/26. Again on 9/26 he does not show up or call. We continue asking him when it will be installed, and several other times he gives us dates and doesn't show up, meanwhile we are trying to arrange our schedules so we will be available all these days. His crew finally begins construction on the window 10/4. It is now 10/16, the window is not finished and now he has to remove some of the siding he just installed because the window is off center. After this experience I think I am sworn off contractors for good. I can't begin to describe how unprofessional and frustrating it has been working with AHI. Please do not go with them just because they give you the cheapest quote. They could not be a worse company to work with.

I took the company to conciliation court and won the full amount. Now he won't pay.

I am disappointed in the service I received from this company, they said all the right things up front and once they got my money the dishonesty started. I am now actively working with the MN Department of Labor & Industry in an attempt to recover funds I lost while using AHI.

unknown

This project was a first time remodeler's nightmare! I found Jeff at a home show, he was punctual for the estimate. He came out first to find out what the project was and a second time to provide the estimate. After I signed the contract and provided the down payment I was excited and felt good about my decision to hire Jeff, I even received a letter thanking me for my business a few days later in the mail. From there everything went downhill. I signed the contract with the expectation that things would progress in a timely manner (Jeff repeatedly told me the project would take 1 week to complete) and we even spoke of having the project wrapped up in time for my birthday in early June. Here are the facts of what actually occurred during this nightmare of a remodel. 4/26/16- Contract Signed and I paid 50% down, Jeff mentioned that permits take up to 10 days to get approved, so I wasn't in a hurry to find out what the actual schedule would be. 5/23/16- Emailed Jeff to find out when the project would start. He replied via email that he had a crew lined up and they would start late the following week. 6/2/16- Emailed Jeff to find out what the schedule because I hadn't heard from him the week before. His email reply was that he had a weather delay at another job and would start the following week. 6/9/16- Old deck was torn off 6/15/16- Jeff applied for the permit 6/24/16- Permit approved, and footings poured 6/28/16- Crew came to frame the deck. Found out from my neighbor that they had to move a footing because the original placement would have had the deck ending in the middle of my picture window. (I know this because she loaned the guys her post hole digger as they were trying to dig the new footing with a shovel- Jeff never mentioned this issue). Crew blew the circuit to the outdoor outlet. I only found this out because apparently my bedroom is on the same circuit and when I got home, I reset the circuit breaker. 6/29/16- Jeff called mid morning saying that they had no power, which was in fact untrue because when I got home I checked the outlet and the circuit break and nothing had been tripped. Needless to say, no work occurred that day 6/30/16- Framing completed and decking laid, however the crew could not complete because they ran out of decking boards and screws. 7/1/16- More decking. All board were installed but the decking could not be finished because they ran out of screws. 7/5/16- Decking completed. 7/6/16- Texted Jeff to find out when railings would be installed. Jeff replied saying they would start "tomorrow and finish on saturday" Sometime between 7/8-7/16- Jeff sent someone over to the house to replace a rotten piece of siding, the employee had to borrow a ladder from my neighbor to complete the task. I was out of town so don't have the exact date this occurred. 7/14/16- Jeff called to tell me that the deck was done and that the inspection was scheduled for Monday (7/18). 7/16/16- I returned from vacation to find that the deck railing were not nailed down and siding repairs were not completed. Jeff's employee worked Saturday night and most of Sunday to get the deck "done" 7/18/16- Inspection fails, Jeff requests final payment saying the issues are minor and the inspector will stop by later that day to sign off. 7/20/16- No sign of the inspector, so I rescheduled the inspection of the first available appointment (5 days later). I text Jeff with details and asks if he can confirm all the repairs have been made, his response "it will be done. Most are done now". 7/25/16- Inspection is scheduled for 4 pm. Jeff sent his guy over to complete final corrections at 3 pm. Inspection fails. Again. This time inspector left detailed comments about what needed to be fixed- "minimum 3 nails to connect joist to beam and fully connect 2 ply beam together" 7/27/16- Jeff sends employee to make repairs, but he only brings enough nails to connect the joist to beam with 2 nails. 7/28/16- New inspection is scheduled for Monday 8/1. 8/1/16- Inspector arrives early and fails deck because he wanted to see 3 nails connecting each joist to the beam and my deck only had 2 nails per joist. Jeff arrives with a handful of nails and is able to get the inspector to come back and approve the deck. The quality of deck is fine, I feel great about the framing and the decking. The railing while structurally sound is not what I would expect to get from a professional installed deck. The spindles are not evenly spaced between posts and are not centered in the support bars. It isn't bad enough to continue working with Jeff, and most likely I will be the only person to notice this. Also, they did a crappy job of cleaning up after "completing" the job. I have found a handful of screws in the grass and garden and there are still small pieces (1" x 2") strewing under the deck. So this 1 week project took 14 weeks from the time I put the down payment to when it was finally approved. Communication was the biggest issue, I never knew what was happening or when. The only time I heard from Jeff was after I had initiated the conversations. If you choose to work with Jeff and Advanced Home Improvements, here are some tips: 1. Put an end date into your contract, with a penalty clause for going over 2. Don't make the final payment until all inspections have been approved 3. Texting seemed to get me the best responses from Jeff. His voicemail box on multiple occasions was full, so no messages could be left.

unknown

The over quality of the project was excellent. The main issue was the schedule when the work was to be done. <br />

Signed the Papers with Jeff on 7/11/14 to build a deck, he <br /> said it would take about three weeks before he could start, and that the job <br /> would only take about a week to complete since it was not a complicated job. <br /> They started the job on 8/19/14 39 days later, and the job <br /> was complete on 9/5/14 17 days after start, he did not pull the permit until <br /> 9/2/14, after he started the job, the finial inspection was not complete until <br /> 9/10/14 (5 days after they completed), the city made him go back and made a few <br /> corrections. Communication was lacking, phone calls not returned timely. <br /> Jeff wanted me to pay him before the final inspection was <br /> complete, I refused, he kept saying there wouldn?t be any problems, however <br /> there was, and it took five days to correct them. I was glad I did not pay him <br /> before the final inspection was signed off. <br /> All in all the deck turned out good, the quality of workmanship <br /> was good, but the time periods that Jeff told me from day one turned out to be <br /> not true, and I think it its very unprofessional to even start the job before <br /> he had the permit in hand or to keep requesting final payment until the <br /> inspection was finalized.  <br /> <br />

<p>Put 1/4 down on April 28th and 1/4 on May 8th. Jeff didn't apply for permit until June 3rd and it was approved by the city on June 5th. Jeff didn't show up on time, or at all - didn't call when no one showed up, etc - below is a recap of a calendar spreadsheet we kept on his lack of professionalism. In answer to "were services performed by provider" the answer is no, except for digging hole for footings. (Thought he was) finished and had a final inspection on July 29th and failed. Resceduled final inspection on July 30th without informing and we had a previous engagement. He was able to reschedule on the 31st. The entire project took over 3 months, which is entirely unacceptable.</p> <p>At one point I walked up to him with the recap and he wasn't at all interested!</p> <p>JULY 16 RECAP <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Jeff applied for permit 3 weeks 4 days after we made our 2nd half of initial one-half down payment. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Permit was issued two (2) days later and Jeff dug hole for footing three (3) days late<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The following day the boards and rebar were completed and we had the first inspection. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Bricks were laid five (5) days later. Back fill was done three (3) days later. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Cement was laid five (5) days later.</p> <p>Framing was started eight (8) days later and finished two days after that (Dave had previous plans made for the 2nd day).</p> <p>After five (5) weeks we asked Jeff about a finishing date. His first promise was for June 20th, the second was for June 27th, and the last was for before the July 4th weekend. It is now July 16th and it is not only not included, but there aren't supplies to finish the project. </p> <p>Sometime around the middle of June Jeff told Phil he would rather work with him because I am too "hyper". Phil explained to Jeff that this is my project and he will have to work with me.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />It took Jeff 4 weeks and two days to start working on our project from the time we paid him the 2nd half of our 50% down-payment. </p> <p>As of today, July 16th, it has been 48 working days (M-F less July 4th)) since the payment of 50% down. After starting the project on the 8th of June there were a total of 27 working days (including today). There wa somehere only 16 of those days (+ 1 Saturday). Of the remaining 11 days it rained 4 days. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />The entire month of May (after down payment) had 15 working days. It rained 6 of those days.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

I had called the company about a leak in my porch roof. They had replaced this roof back in 2005, so I knew it wasn’t cover under warranty, but wanted to have it checked it out and get an estimate for the repair work as needed. <br /> Jeff inspected the roof and said he couldn’t see any damage or deterioration, but went back up on the roof for a closer look. (The roof is a flat roof, with a slight slope, so doesn’t have shingles….) He took a tube of filler/sealer up there, and patched a few spots he thought might be the problem. That did the trick! I haven’t had any additional leaks into the porch, even after several very heavy rainfalls in the last few days. <br /> Jeff was very professional and courteous in responding to my call. He could have just brushed me off after his initial inspection, seeing it as a “not worthwhile project”, but he didn’t. He treated me like a valued customer, even though I haven’t called his company in 9 years, and I greatly appreciate it. I will definitely call Advanced Home Improvements the next time I have a home improvement project. <br /> - a very satisfied customer. <br />

We were overall really pleased with both rooms/projects. The work was well done and it turned out beautifully. Our cabin is about 80 minutes away from the Cities but that didn't present a problem for the team at all. There were multiple delays which could all be attributed to the spring weather last year (or rather the extended winter) so the overall project took longer than expected. I provided an overall rating of Good on the responsiveness as Jeff could be more proactive in providing updates versus always having to check in with him... but still Good overall and a minor detail Jeff was really easy and great to work with and again we are really pleased with the results. <br />

unknown

Very reasonable quote. They came out when they said they would. They texted me if there was a delay or a question. Jeff did the work himself. He's very professional and easy to work with. Special Note: Several years ago we gave this company a poor review after a remodel for a washer/dryer install -- Jeff explained that they corrected the problem (a poorly performing employee) -- and Jeff wanted to do this work for us at low cost to make up for that experience. He's very conscientious and cares about his customers. It's important to him that his customers are served well. He has rebuilt trust and we'd use AHI again in the future. <br />

We have a beautiful deck for the best price out there. I had several contractors out and Jeff made it work with our budget and gave us something that we will enjoy for a long time. He was responsive to our needs and requests. The weather threw the timeline off a little bit, but his team communicated well about their schedule and worked around my children and the extra kids at my house. They were also very conscious about cleaning up the site of screws and extra boards before they left each night so no one would get hurt. <br /> <br /> The Garage door was contracted out to a garage door installer; who did the job in a day and put everything where it was supposed to be. Again, for the best price out there.

I think the quality of their work is good. Their scheduling as far as promptness and you know when they said they are going to show up they definitely improvement on that. I would not use them again.

They were very efficient. The roof was taken off by 9:30am and were finished by 8pm.

They were professional and Friendly. I would recommend them.

The job was estimated at 3 weeks. The works started on time but progressed very slowly. Someone would come and do some work then the project would sit for a while. This was a problem since the kid's bathroom toilet had been pulled out and was sitting in their shower, thus making their bathroom unusable. Finally, after a couple of weeks, I requested that the toilet be reinstalled (we were waiting on the painter at that point) and it was. The painting was completed soon after. Then things went really sour. The space was discovered to be too shallow for a dryer (despite their repeated assurances that all would fit). Advanced did then come up with a solution to have special doors made, but I still had to buy a new dryer to fit the space, even with the new door. The project sat for a month. I REPEATEDLY told the supervisor that the doors were no big deal--if they would finish installing the vent (someone had to run the final 3 feet to the outside roof) I would be able move and use the washer and dryer. The supervisor assured me that someone would be out the next day/week. No one ever showed up or called to say they weren't coming. Meanwhile, the new dryer showed up, but the company wouldn't install it because the vent line wasn't complete. I ended up having to install it myself. Finally the carpenter showed up with the new doors, but he found they wouldn't fit (Advanced never told him the special specs) and the carpenter had to go make new doors (a major waste of his time and resources). The project sat again. AGAIN I called the supervisor to ask him to finish the vent work so I could use the dryer and AGAIN he promised someone the next day/week. AGAIN no one ever showed up or called to say they were coming. 2-3 weeks went by. Finally after threatening to go somewhere else to get the job done a roofer came at 9:00 p.m. (I was told some one would come that morning--I waited around all day to let the guys in) and installed the vent in 30 minutes. By now, the three week project had taken 4 months and still wasn't done. The doors were finally installed and they looked great, but they didn't close all the way because despite getting the shallowest dryer, it still doesn't quite fit in the space. It may be possible to gain an inch if the dryer was hooked up differently (I had to install a special box in the back to match the dryer vent with the house vent--they were off). I had planned to ask Advance if they could do better, but they haven't come back. The supervisor did call after the doors were installed and said someone would be out to finish reinstalling all the molding they pulled off, but that was a month and a half ago and no one has called or come. This three week project was started in January and it is now July.

The guy that came out was very friendly and responsive. The work was done professionally and timely. We would call them again.

We went with AHI because of their great advertising on the web and a DVD we acquired at a home improvements show. They seemed like a small business that did business as I did when I had my own business. We were wrong. The customer service was well below the expectations you get from their ads. We had multiple timing issues, they had to come back several times to get the job done, and then several more times to fix some fascia that was removed during installation and never put back on. The clean-up was very poor. I picked up a bucket full of shingle pieces, nails, tools, paper and gutter fragments. I even came home one day to find their workers doing a tune-up on their work truck in my driveway! The job is finally done and time will tell if the quality and workmanship will hold up.

They did a good job, but they were so mixed up. They had all kinds of contractors. After they had done the job, they called back and said "we're ready to start your project now" when they had already done it. There was a problem with a color match, so they did the garage roof for free. They ended up leaving a bunch of their equipment there.

Communication with the company was none. If we hadn't pursued them continually, I don't think it would have ever been started. It still has not been completed after 1 month and we finally called for the last time.