Lifetime Home Products

We have the misfortune of still being in the fallout of having Trace Antcliff and Lifetime Home Products do a home remodel project for us. We hope sharing our experience can help others avoid a similar horrible experience. We thought we had done our research after getting Lifetime Home Products’ information from a local lumber supply, reading reviews online etc. We could not have been more wrong – the deeper we dug after starting to have red flags pop up, the more concerned we became and unfortunately, those concerns are our reality now. We have been informed of more and more people that have had similar issues and are also living this nightmare – a search through LARA’s (Michigan department of licensing and regulatory affairs) website at past complaints, licensing, etc is very eye opening and we highly encourage everyone do that before hiring Lifetime Home Products and anyone working with them. Consider researching online, and calling around, and looking at LARA, not just Lifetime Home Products, but also Lifetime Home Products LLC, Trace (Tracy) Antcliff and Anthony Rainko. Anthony Rainko is supposed to be the managing member of the company per our contract and whose license is attached to the company and used….never once did we see, work with, or interact with him for our project. Through all the review sites you can as well through the formal Michigan licensing site – LARA (sure wish we knew about that site before we began this nightmare!). We hope you do not do what we did and write off the bad reviews as a few bad apples. We kept telling ourselves over the course of the project that Trace and the crew would resolve the raised issues along the way and meet our expectations as well as industry standards. We were underwhelmed as the “punch list” (incomplete/unsatisfactory items) seemed to be ever growing instead of shrinking, and left with an incomplete project with code violations and poor workmanship. Highlights (if you can call them highlights) from our experience are below. Through the course of our project, we had 2 liens placed against our home. The first lien was from Trace not paying a supplier. While it did eventually get removed, this was only after Trace lying to us telling us it had been paid despite the supplier verifying with us numerous times it had not been paid and us following up daily after learning of these lies to ensure it was paid. The second lien, from one of the subcontractors on the projects is still unresolved. This is despite Trace telling us both verbally and in writing it would be paid and removed. To our dismay and consternation, this was also paired with a formal complaint via LARA against Trace by that subcontractor. Trace not paying these suppliers/subs was despite getting a large deposit from us, and weekly payments from us through the course of the project all either on or before dates agreed. In addition, multiple times Trace informed us of subs quitting or being fired (drywallers, painter, electrician, HVAC subcontractor, general workers, and the one that was most alarming to us, just before work began, the person that was supposed to be our project lead and main contact vs Trace, was instead going to be launching a restaurant). It was not a good feeling to be kicking off and mid-project and not having a stable, consistent crew to complete it. As the project neared what we hoped was completion, Trace then tried to add close to $10K to the final payment amount. This is after he tried to bully us into making the final payment on the project without final inspections being passed, a lien still against our home, the project incomplete, and incomplete multi-page “punch list”. Despite explicitly telling us that any changes would be handled via a change order so there was no confusion (per the contract), a paper trail and having a full project bid, we were asked multiple times in the project for additional funds to cover “overages” by subcontractors after work was completed and no change order was presented for why this would all of a sudden cost more than the scoped work and bid. In our life experiences, contracts are meant to protect both parties of a project – unfortunately, in our experience with Lifetime Home Products, Trace does not follow his own contract. This has led to headaches and thousands in legal fees for us as we have worked to untangle this mess. In addition to the work and project issues, we had numerous complaints from neighbors Trace and crew continued to back into our neighbors driveway and ignore our explicit request to back out vs using anyone’s drive for a turnaround and to park up in an side parking area and/or only in our driveway (we share a private drive with multiple neighbors) leading to inconveniences, tension and disruption in our neighborhood that was unnecessary. Our nightmare has only continued since Trace told us the project was complete. It has been very worrying to us that despite asking multiple times for the license # for the person he wants to resolve the pages of workmanship and project code issues (seams open in our flooring, waves in the ceiling, waves in our flooring, bathroom vents not installed nor vented to code, covering a heat run with flooring, egress window not to code, numerous drywall issues and trim and paint finishing issues, pocket doors not operational, a hinged door that doesn’t close, issues with cabinetry etc), he would not provide to us and then became belligerent when we said we were not comfortable with this crew not coming back onto the project if he could not provide the license number for the people actually doing the work (not just the overall LLC registered number). If they couldn’t complete the work properly the first time, why would we have confidence in it being completely properly this time without having a licensed person on the job site? In our experience, this has been a nightmare and cost us thousands in legal fees and hours of headache, time and worry as we seek resolution. We are worried it will cost thousands more as we address the mess we are left with. If you are considering working with Lifetime Home Products and Trace Antcliff, based on our experience, please avoid the nightmare we have been living and find someone else.

The technician, Gabe came 5 hours before our scheduled timeframes. Luckily my brother was at the house had advised of the work to be done. Gabe advised that he would not be able to do the job and that the city had to make the repairs because the valve was on the city side if the meter. We called the city and they said they do not go into the house e and make repairs. The local city water dept will send someone out when plumber is there to shut water to the house of, then turn it back on once repairs are completed. I left a message on voicemail that the tech could do the work and to call when he would be out. When I had not heard back I called American Home Warranty who contracted with this company and sent them. I advised I did not want to deal with this company but had already paid the service fee of $125,00 through the warranty company and wanted that returned. I didn't feel I should have to pay a lot of money for someone to come out and tell me he couldn't do the job (he lied to me) and they won't call to reschedule. Long story short, I have left two messages with Lifetime Home Products as well as American Home Shield made two calls with no response. Thankfully I am only out money, once I started reading reviews about this company it could have been a lot more expensive and my home has not been damaged as a result of their faulty work.

Working with the Lifetime crew, especially the owner Trace, was an absolute pleasure. They were very customer focused during the entire process of bidding, finalizing and completing our deck remodel project. Lifetime was also one of the lowest bids on cost, using the same high-quality materials proposed by other contractors. The work was very high quality, done in a very professional manner, and completed ahead of schedule. We would highly recommend Lifetime for anyone considering a new or remodeled deck.

This project did not go well at all. It started out with the drywaller and painter, which did a terrible job. When I tried to get them to repair and finish, they kept giving the run around and never would fix any of the mistakes. I was continuously told they were going to fix the repairs and they never did. Then it went to the interior doors, I asked for pre-finished so I had a professional look, never got that either. I got doors that they painted. They never put plastic down and ended up with over spray all over my basement. My kitchen cupboards and bathroom cupboard had gouge marks from their workers, I had to have Williams Kitchen re-order some cabinet doors . After I seen the gouge marks I did not even dare let them put handles on my cabinet doors because of the poor quality of workmanship. I had to re-hire another contractor to fix the kitchen cupboards and bathroom cupboards, drywall, paint and re-ordered my interior doors. This company has such poor quality workmanship , I could not recommend them to anyone. I had to take this company off the job and forfeit the money that I already paid. I have now hired a new contractor to finish the project, which will cost me dearly in the end.

The end product is a beautiful deck. We would hire them again as they did quality work for a good price. It took a little longer to get the project done than we'd hoped, but I think that is typical for deck builds in the middle of summer.

It took them about a week to complete the work, they could have been a little bit better on their responsiveness though. They were pleasant to deal with and very friendly. Their pricing was also competitive.

The project went great. Trace and Tony are great contractors and they really do care about you and how happy you are with their work! Lifetime Home Products have been the best I've worked with, when it comes to home renovation projects. I highly recommend them!

Very well.. it got done quicker than I thought and it was an awesome job. I'm going to hire them to do another project.