General Remodeling Group

Vidas and team where fantastic. It took several months to have a home performance assessment done to identify the scope of work, but they stuck by me the whole time, ready to go. The assessment happened on a Friday afternoon and they quickly began the job on Monday. Oleg’s inquisitive nature and attention to detail made all the difference. The job was not only done very well, but they worked in a way that minimized the disturbance on our lives. I suspect that others may cost less, but the speed, quality and customer-focus was worth every penny. I highly recommend!

They did a good job. There were a bit slow, and did end up going to the store and get everything my sister needed for the job. They weren't able to get everything they said they were going to do finished, but it's okay. The finish isn't as professional as I would've thought, and I wish they would've worked a little bit faster. There's no longer damaged wood up there, so that's a plus. I don't know that I would use them again, though.

I initially contracted with Vida and General Remodeling Group to build a deck for me. I was so pleased with their work that shortly after I asked them to remodel one bathroom and make major repairs on another. Their workmanship was of extremely high quality; their suggestions regarding design added significantly to the final product. Vida kept me fully up to date regarding progress and necessary changes. I would definitely utilize their services again.

The service was excellent. We had to cancel our original appointment at the last minute due to delays our renters encountered while moving out. They rescheduled the appointment without any issues. When we were able to have them come in, the team fixed the door frames and they look new. In addition, they were able to fix a severely damaged kitchen cabinet without us needing to get a new cabinet. Overall, the team a great job and were extremely efficient.

Excellent work - beginning to end. Thorough and attentive to details, including set up and clean up. Very consistent, always punctual and reliable, they took the extra time to do everything right, using the best materials. And when I had a question or issue, it was always dealt with immediately and to my satisfaction. %100 satisfied, and would highly recommend this crew.

Excellent! Hilario did a really great job. Expensive, but high , high quality work and at a fair price. I would re-use them and recommend them any day. You really get what you pay for. With General Remodeling Group doing the work ,I really see the difference. You can trust them to do good work.

After rescheduling several times they sent a different crew out who either didn't understand what caused the problem or didn't care and didn't use the material the 1st crew requested to do the repair. They did an adequate job on the soffit/exterior trim repair but left it exposed to the same condition allowing water to get under the shingles. I had to do the roof/downspout repair myself.

Everything was great. The cabinets were put back on the wall and the paint jobs were all good.

First of all, the paint job was excellent so if that's all you care about stop reading. <br>Vidas gave me an estimate and said he could start work on Monday. After I agreed to the contract, and with no time left to get other estimates, he said it would take 8 days and that the painter was working days at another project and could only paint in the evening. (He should have told me this up-front when he gave me the estimate and I said that time was of the essence to get it rented.) Thus, it took eight days to paint a 600-700 sq ft condo and there were days when no one showed up to paint. This was a financial inconvenience as it delayed renting the property. <br>I also asked about, and was given, a second contract for some handyman work, including installing a new dishwasher. He quoted me $350. for the installation. I bought the D/W at Home Depot that they installed  for $99.00. This made me wonder what else he was over-charging?

I'll start with the positive because that won't take long. The room looks very nice now -- although it's not totally finished, even after forking over close to $20K. (More on that later.) The French doors were installed perfectly, in spite of the original frame in my house not being standard size. The floor (600 sq feet) looks great. The fireplace mantel was finally installed to my satisfaction. The two workers I had the most contact with, Art and Sergei, were a delight to deal with: hard workers, careful around the house, always very polite, and helpful. My contacts with the worker who installed the drywall and the workers who did the floor were more limited, but they were positive as well. What is very, very wrong with The General Remodeling Group is its deceitful business model. Let me count some of the ways: 1. The provider did NOT honor the Angie's List deal I had bought about a month earlier for $699 (a $1,200 value). The promotional value was still good. He told me he would give me a 5% discount if I gave him all the jobs we had outlined, and then apply the $699 I had already paid. At the time, it made sense. A couple of days later, I realized he should have given me credit for $1,200 (the promotional value, still valid). He refused, saying he had given me a 5% discount. I told him he said the discount was for him getting all the jobs. He replied that he could not have afforded to give me the discount otherwise. He then said he would give me an additional $250 discount, i.e. half of the amount I should have received. 2. On February 27, he scheduled an appointment at the Fireplace Shop in Gaithersburg so that he could help me select a mantel. He took the measurements before going to the shop. There, I selected an item I liked. When it was time to order, he said he needed to check the measurements again. (And over the next many weeks, he checked them several times, as if my fireplace were a growing infant. Just a delaying tactic, I guess.) So he asked that I write him a check (for $1,918), which he cashed the very same day, and he would order the mantel when he was absolutely sure. He was -- on March 25. In other words, he waited 2 days shy of a month after I paid him to place the order. 3. On the same day, we also chose the granite. I paid him $500 on February 27. The granite was not delivered and installed until May 10. I don't even know that the granite actually cost $500. I suspect the provider took me to an expensive place for a quote. He pulled his usual line about needing to measure again. And he probably purchased something cheaper somewhere else. 4. When later in our dealings I complained about having paid so early (silly me thought that meant he wanted to work expeditiously!), when I could have kept the money and earned interest on it -- not to mention that he might have received a contractor's price without passing part of the discount to the customer ? his reply was that I would have had to pay anyway. 5. Still on February 27, we went to a tile place. Same deal: I paid him for the tiles, and he would order them. When I found out a few days later that I could save $1,000 by going to Floor & Decor, he offered to "cancel the order" (a joke, obviously, since he hadn't ordered a thing -- just cashed the check). He gave me a credit towards the total bill. This meant that I paid him early for jobs not performed yet. We had agreed to a 10% down payment, and 10% at specified intervals. 6. He pulled the same stunt on the French doors. After I paid him, he waited about a month to place the order. 7. His original quote did not include paint. When I had asked him about it, he said we could deal with that later. I agreed because I have a painter I like, and I figured I could ask him to paint if I did not get a good price. I later figured out why he did not include the cost for paint: he wants to string you along, and include in the paint job what he calls "correcting major imperfections." What major imperfections, you ask? Adding a door frame around two doors. Originally, neither the door to the laundry room nor to the closet under the stairs had a frame, which was not such a big deal because the paneling went straight to the edge of the door. Replace the paneling with drywall, and all of a sudden you have a very noticeable gap around the door. What contractor in his right mind would not consider adding a frame as part of the drywall job? How can that be considered an imperfection to be corrected when you paint? 8. Another "imperfection". One wall had the paneling removed years ago. At one point, we had an internet cable going from a bedroom upstairs along that wall. We had a thin cable cover over it. The cable was removed a long time ago, but we had never removed the thin strip. At the time of the estimate, I mentioned to the provider that I wanted it removed. Considering a worker came to install drywall in most of the room, you would think he would have been asked to remove the strip (probably a 1 minute job at most) and throw in some drywall to repair the damage (another super quick job for him). Oh, no. Better wait until it's time to paint, and then you can include an additional charge to correct a major imperfection before painting. Which is why the provider told me he would charge $1,900 to paint the room. At that point, I told him to forget it. I agreed to pay him to paint only the fireplace (because he had to install the mantel), a small section of the wall to the right, and the wall where he would mount the TV. My painter did the rest. By the way, my painter immediately mentioned the staircase wall, which definitely needed some minor drywall repairs and to be painted. The provider had not piped a word about it. No doubt after I had forked over the $1,900, and the room downstairs looked nice, he would have offered to correct yet another "imperfection," for another pricey sum. 9. Electrical outlets: Several years ago, when we had drywall installed on one wall downstairs (the one with the cable cover), the contractor had changed the old, black outlets to white, three-pronged ones. A straightforward contractor, at the time of the estimate, would have pointed out the old outlets and suggested they be replaced. I did not think of asking, but when the room was coming along I realized they needed to be changed. I was not going to pay the provider a penny more, so I still have my old outlets. A handyman is coming on Tuesday to look at that job and a few others around the house. 10. Mounting the TV. He charged me $700 (the invoice says $800, with a $100 discount) to hide the cables in the wall, put the TV on the wall, and drill a hole in a cabinet to pull the cables through from the decoder and the VCR. When everything was all set, I noticed that I still had to use a surge protector, plugged in an outlet 3 feet away. The provider explained that it was because I did not have an outlet behind the cabinet under the TV. How about adding one, then? Of, yes, of course. That was an additional $100. When asked to mount the TV so as to hide the cabinet, a straightforward contractor would, I believe, mention that an outlet would have to be added. To add insult to injury, when they put the TV on the wall, the wall was already painted, of course. To create an additional outlet, they had to cut into the drywall. I then had to pay my painter extra to correct that additional "major imperfection". 11. The floor, and more prevarications. When the provider came to give me an estimate, part of the flooring had already been removed. I had just had work done to repair the foundations of the house, and AAA Waterproofing (a great company to deal with) had to excavate a section of the family room. When that company was done, they had poured concrete over that section so that the floor could be refinished. We just had to wait 30 days for the concrete to cure. When the provider came to give me an estimate, he saw what the floor looked like. I told him we had to wait 30 days to redo the floor there, but the provider agreed that he could start working anyway since there were so many ot

We were very happy with General Remodeling Group's quality of work, pricing, and communication. From the start, Vidas (the general contractor who led our basement remodel and stairs replacement) was communicative and very transparent about what would work best, look best, and the timeline for the project. We have a child too, and he was willing to work around our schedule so that it never felt like we were going through a huge remodel (even though we were). All the guys on his team were great and very professional. They cleaned the work site every day, and kept everything tidy. They were conscious to keep drywall dust out of the rest of the house, and keep the work-site safe and accessible too. We were able to see the progress everyday! Vidas and his team really were a "one-stop shop". They completed all the plans for the remodel, took out all the necessary permits, and scheduled follow up on all the inspections/permit close outs. They gave us a schedule as to when things would be completed, and a pay schedule accompanied that. They were also very transparent with that pay schedule, saying what was included, and what was not. There were times when we opted for an improvement or item that was not in our contract, and we, of course, paid extra for it. But there were also times when their team did not spend the full allowance on a certain item or improvement, and they gave us credit back (this was refreshing, as I imagine not many other contractors would be so clear about their pricing)! Not only was the pricing and communication great, the final result was too. They had VERY SKILLED professionals for each job - carpentry, framing, drywall, plumbing, electrical, hardwood flooring - each task had an expert. They shared their thoughts, and often gave us options we didn't know we had in our remodel. They always shared what they would do, before they did it, especially if it wasn't in the original plans. The quality of work was excellent. We are very satisfied with our new basement and stairs, highly recommend General Remodeling Group, and will certainly use them again!

We purchased a 40-hour package and were told that instead of getting 1 carpenter for 40 hours, we would get 2 carpenters for 20 hours. This was OK, because it can be very helpful to have a 2nd set of hands on certain types of work. However, we recognized that this meant that we would likely be getting more like 1.5 carpenters, since there is a tendency for one person to stand around and talk and do small things like deliver tools to the other person. It can speed up the first person's work to an extent, but it can also slow them down if it's a distraction. Either way, you aren't likely to get 40 hours of labor this way. We were OK with that but prepared ourselves to be a bit more vigilant about ensuring that the team wasn't openly wasting time. Unfortunately, what we ended up with was 1 skilled carpenter and 1 apprentice moving at an inexplicably slow pace. As just one example, I was on the phone with the project manager one morning about problems with the work, and the team came into the house right at the end of our call. The project manager called the senior carpenter right after we hung up to relay what the project manager and I had discussed. They were on the phone for almost an hour. 30 minutes after that, I went down to check on things, and the only work that had been completed over the previous 1.5 hours since they came in the door was the hanging of a single 3-foot x 18-inch piece of drywall on the studs. And their tools had been there over night, so there was no time spent on retrieving tools from the truck, either. The project manager called me again right after I finished checking on things, and he wanted to charge me for 3 hours of labor (1.5 hours x 2 workers) -- all to have a single 3-foot x 18-inch piece of drywall screwed in. To make things even worse, the work of even the "senior" carpenter was unprofessional in quality. The kicker for me was that the team didn't show us the things that they had constructed poorly or the things that they had damaged by mistake -- instead, they told us they were done and hoped we wouldn't notice. They had done things like accidentally drill holes to put the door knob on the wrong side of the door, recess some of the hinges incorrectly and then not recess other hinges at all, attach the door stop crooked and in such a way that the top of it stuck out beyond the frame, etc. And it did take us a few hours to notice these things. Before we even got to these quality and quantity issues, the team did other things that were disappointing. The week before the work was scheduled, we sent the team a full write up of all of the tasks that we needed to have completed with detailed instructions (like which side of the door the thumb lock for the deadbolt should be on) and a full list of materials that we had bought in advance. We explicitly asked if there was anything on the materials list that we were missing. But the team didn't review it until they arrived and didn't reference the detailed instructions as they went. Right off the bat, there were a few small items that we were missing that we had to run out to the store to get. Plus another trip later to get more studs for fear of running out, which didn't happen -- we had too many. Although I don't mind being extra cautious -- just the 2 separate additional trips that we tried to avoid by sending a full list in advance. And the under-stair closet door that they installed was made by cutting a door in two. We have another under-stair closet door that was done in the same way that we showed as a reference point. Since I didn't specify an exact height for the door, I thought that the carpenter would just cut this one to be visually similar to the other one. (It couldn't be the exact same height as the other one, because it was being placed closer to the bottom of the stairs than that one) but the other one has a standard base margin below the panel and then a thinner margin to the left right and top of the panel. That's in keeping with the style of all the other doors in the house. But instead, the carpenter cut it so that it has a wider margin at the top than at the bottom and 2 thin margins on the side. Having a wider margin on top than bottom makes the door appear visually to be upside down. This is an aesthetic matter that I probably should have been smart enough to be very specific about. But it also seems so basic to me to look at the other door and also to know that things appear to be upside down or "top-heavy" when you put a larger thing on top of a smaller thing. Or at least, he should have asked us to verify our preferences when it came time for that task. The not-asking about our preferences issue happened several times, even though we arranged to be on hand and available for questions the whole time they worked. That continued to be a problem even after I mentioned it to the project manager after the upside-down-door situation. Both team members and their manager were very friendly and didn't *want* to do a bad job in terms of quality, quantity, or communication. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do a professional job, and they made us find out the hard way and then fight to correct the situation. They did fix the aspects of the work that I felt were the worst, and they did give us a chunk of our money back. But the process delayed our renovation and caused us a lot of stress and lost rent for our extra rooms. All in all, it took 2 weeks and 50+ hours of them being at our house for them to accomplish the following tasks: 1) frame and install a new door in a hallway -- 3 foot wide x 8 foot tall wall with door; 2) build a short partition wall under the stairs to divide the space (3 foot wide x 4 foot tall); 3) cut, frame, and install a short closet door under the stairs -- 30-inch x 3 foot tall door. No priming, painting, drywall finishing, trim caulking, etc. I really expected this work to be done in about 16 hours by a skilled contractor -- or 8 x 2. We had a lot more planned for them to do and had to go out and find others to pick up the rest of the work. Scheduling them delayed the project further, of course. So, even though they are nice guys and gave us back some money, we still paid too much, took too much time, incurred too much delay, suffered too much stress for it to be anywhere near worth it. I would not recommend them.

unknown

Visvydas, Art, and Sergey were great. I had a variety of small projects to do, and they were able to meet me the next day to discuss the project <br /> The only job I declined to have them do is to replace or repair a metal railing, and only because I have a brother-in-law who was a <br /> welder and could do the job for free. <br /> The place looks a thousand times better. <br />

unknown

They were very efficient, clean and thoughtful! We made some last minute changes along the way and they were responsive to them. Our house looks great now.

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<p>This was a $999 big deal purchase. I guess I would give them mixed reviews. I think the end product was good. It took too long for them to deliver the drawings that I purchased and I believe that they overstated what they knew at the beginning of the job. They did not seem to know the regulations in the District of Columbia and that is why I bought the deal -- I wanted their expertise. But, I guess the end product was fine, it is just that getting there should not have taken as long and it would not have taken as long if they knew the regulations to begin with. It took them two months, probably longer. I have seen less expensive offers on Angie's List since then. They showed up when they said they were going to show up. I should not have had to throw a tantrum, basically, to get them to do what they said they were going to do. There is just something else that was really infuriating. I was having trouble with the heat pump in my house at the time and the guy who came to do the drawing said they could get somebody to take a look at that. I paid them about $200 to come out and give me some information about this heat pump that was failing. That was a pain to schedule. The company that they brought in did not do what they said they were going to do and I thought it was overpriced. I thought it was completely opportunistic and because of that $200 I probably would not pay them $50,000 that this renovation is going to cost. </p>

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unknown

The project manager Visvydas Matulis was the ultimate professional always responsive and punctual, looking to ensure excellence. His team was fantastic, especially the carpenters whose craftsmanship and perfectionism gave brilliant results.   We were very impressed with their ability to find a solution to our water damage problem, which meant creating a custom designed drainage system, saving our door which other contractors had suggested we would need to replace.  That would have not only been more expensive, but would have changed the character of the room.    The hardwood floor they installed is perfectly done, and they made good suggestions on transitions.   They were extremely communicative and worked to help us find the best solutions for the project,  special ordering wood baseboards and working with us to find best quality and value in materials.  The room they prepped and painted, including new baseboards is transformed.  Again the carpentry was outstanding.  We would highly recommend General Remodeling Group and would hire them again for other projects in a minute. <br />

They were fantastic to work with. Scheduling, conducted over e-mail, was a breeze--they were able to accommodate my second-choice date, which was just over a week away. Arrived perfectly on time, and the workers were consummate professionals. They accomplished everything I requested and did solid, quality work. I had not planned for disposal of two old toilets that they replaced, and they were able to adjust their plan and haul away the old toilets at the end of the day. There was a minor issue with one of the newly-installed toilets later that night (due to a hardware problem outside their control), and they came the next day as soon as possible to make it right. <br />

The GC and craftsmen did fine work and were responsive and creative in customizing modifications to my needs. <br />

The company did the small repairs fairly well. The issue we had was with the shower repair. The company did not have personnel that could perform the repair and said we needed s plumber. They had already cut a hole into the bathroom from an adjacent closet and said they would get one. Eventually, after several hours and more than $1500 additional dollars, they completed the repair. A neighbor whose house was built at the same time later told us that they had a similar issue with their shower, but the repair was simple to perform and did not require cutting into the wall. The problems were compounded by significant language barriers (Russian), which impeded the workers' ability to communicate about the job, including the supplies we needed to purchase. This caused a lot of aggravation and repeated trips to Home Depot. <br />

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