Elite Construction And Renovations

We have been working with Elite for some time as their glass contractors. The reason for this review is to present some input from a different point of view other than that of a consumer.

We are proud of the work we do for Elite for several reasons. They are a company who only does things the right way. No skipping steps with their construction. When it comes to glass installation, sloppy preparation of the worksite can lead to problems for our installers. Our goal is to install products that will work properly and last long, but we depend on quality construction in order to be successful. The end result is always beautiful and something to be proud of.

We trust Elite and recommend them to our own clients who are searching for a quality contractor for their future renovation.

Excellent. The project management, quality of build and customer service were all second to none. Most importantly, the speed in which the job was executed was nothing short of amazing, without any compromise to quality and finishings. We went from a bungalo to an essentially brand new house in <6 months. I can't say enough about Jay and his team. Highly recommended.

We are very happy with Elite Construction. Everything ran smoothly, on time and on budget! The people we had in our home were incredibly respectful and neat. The job was well done and we would use them again without hesitation!

We had purchased a home completely renovated by Elite a few years ago. We didn't actually consult with Elite, but purchased our home via real estate agents as a resale. But I wanted to write a review about their beautiful workmanship.

We fell in love with the entire place at our first glance. Open concept main floor with an amazing kitchen, nicely organized second floor 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with a finished basement. There were some minor issues that comes with a new build, and the boys from Elite took care of things ASAP. The quality of their workmanship and materials used are incredible. We love our home very much. Thank you Elite for building our beautiful dream home!

BTW, everybody is in awe when they see our place.

Thank you.

Having just purchased our first home and wanting to make the main floor open concept, we were nervous about having work done before we even moved in. Jay and his guys did a great job both on the home and at recognizing the time sensitive nature of the work. Everything was on time and on budget and we couldn't be happier with the end result.

Jay came by last minute after the contractor we first hired to renovate our main floor and bathroom bailed on us in the middle of the night and left us with a gutted house. He immediately made us feel confident in his abilities and professionalism. Once we started our project his site supervisor, Adam, and crew continued this trend. They kept their job site clean and were very considerate of our neighbours. They finished on budget and anything that I felt was unsatisfactory they immediately rectified. I will be using them for projects in the future.

Probably one of the largest failings of Elite is their inability to understand and reflect back our ask in an efficient way.
At our 'designer meeting' we provided a brief and package of imagery showing exactly what we were looking for. We spent an exorbitant amount of time getting to what we thought was an agreed solution. As the work was underway we noticed elements agreed not being delivered (purchase and installation of a front door, front door hardware – for example). Though we had agreed to this in a meeting with several parties present and had several conversations and e-mails about these very items, certain critical elements were not listed in the contract. Arguably we paid for these items in the overall cost (this is after reviewing the scope of work, materials and labour with competitors).

There is no debate our error was lack of scrutiny of the building contract – the meticulous details ended up causing us grief. A future lesson with no need for reeducation.

Jay's lack of customer service does more harm than good.
There is no doubt Jay has credible experience. He needs to evolve his current customer service practice and remove the blinders if anyone is going to take him seriously. Regardless if you're building decks or installing windows the strategy is customer first. Alienating the client by carrying a heavy hand of supposed contractor superiority causes reluctance to promptly pay and look for countless deficiencies. When challenged, Jay fires off what's best for us or finds a demeaning way to pound us into an answer. The lack of collaboration and forceful tactics embarrass his own trades and project managers.

Elite had a lack of consistent communication but a consistent ability to miss a timeline.
We missed our completion date 4 times. Adding up to more than 6 weeks of blown time. Reasons why varied from subcontractor issues, weather, and workers generally not showing up.
What would have been nice was accountability. When we demanded this, there were compromises – some free work.
Time and effort put in to hold Elite accountable ended up being a wash when trying to factor the balance between delays, chasing the contractor, and compensation.

On a positive note, Elite does have some good craftsmen working for them. The carpentry completed at our home was top-rate.
The carpentry team listened to our vision and reviewed our drawings. We were promised architectural drawings for our front deck, we even offered to pay for them out of pocket. Finally out of desperation we sketched our own and those were the ones they edited and gave back to us. Almost laughable in hindsight.

We understood there were a few families in the Beach that contracted Elite for renovations. In speaking with our project manager and various trades we understood every single project this summer (2012) had experienced the same issues. The good news from all of this is Jay's practices and business deficiencies are fixable. We appreciate the work but cannot in good faith work again with Elite until their aim is to be business professionals.

I would like to start by saying, without hesitation, that I highly recommend Elite Construction and Renovations for ANY project in your home.

The task: Gut and reconfigure the basement (including a new bathroom) and complete gut and reno of existing 2nd floor bathroom – all in a fairly old upper Beach home. Two stages of the job were required in order to allow for at least one working bathroom during renovation.

After interviewing a few contractors I was very comfortable with my decision to hire Elite. They set a very specific schedule, protected my floors and walls and got to work. Their work came to an abrupt halt when they discovered a rather serious foundation problem during the initial days of gutting the basement. The foundation repair was immediately necessary and was going to put the job back 3 weeks. Even knowing it would set the job back so far Elite never hesitated to advise me of the issue. (Please realize, if they go three weeks over in my job, it potentially means 3 weeks they don’t have generating business elsewhere. It is a known fact that some contractors won’t ‘notice’ the issue and ‘pave right over it’ for this reason.) Elite’s concern over my home and their obvious determination, dedication and care in the process of making it safe again was so impressive. Incredibly, the whole ordeal proved to be minor stress for us. Elite did ALL of the leg-work interviewing and bringing in the necessary experts to rectify the problem and then they oversaw it through those weeks to a successful completion. Very comforting!

Once back on ‘the job’, everything went ahead full steam. Being an old house there proved to be many more obstacles that continually set the job back a day or two. Never mind - Elite were always so pleasant and accommodating and PROFESSIONAL! They just plowed through the problems and fixed them. Yes, minor mistakes happened along the way as well. No worries there either as Elite always corrected anything to 110%! Again, so comforting and stress-relieving.

The original price quoted was adhered to - the only additional costs were through changes made to the original scope. These ‘change orders’ were offered at a very reasonable price to us and were executed with Elite’s consistent attention to detail. You get what you pay for (and more!) when you work with Elite!

We are now at the end of the renovation and absolutely delighted with each and every detail. The efforts put forth by Jay and his extraordinary team were exceptional. I am so thrilled with my new home! My thanks go out to each and every one of the Elite team. It was my absolute pleasure to welcome any of the crew into my home each day. Such polite and friendly people! Thank you Jay, Adam, Paul, Jeff, Jennifer, Jill, Chris, Keith, Rico, Graham, Lloyd, Decklin, Chris and crew, Dave and Peter and Harley!, Jack and crew, Ben and crew, John and crew, Jason, all the foundation teams…the list may go on. I am so grateful to each and every one of you for your contribution to this project.

It is in anyone's best interest to consider Elite for their renovation projects. Elite is the best of the best! Congratulations Jay McDonald and your Elite team on a job superbly done!

When you first begin considering a renovation, large or small you have to go through the contractor selection process. It's difficult and it is gut wrenching becaus you are going to trust relative strangers with a boat load of your hard earned money. So make it so they are not strangers, We began speaking with Jay and Elite Construction 13 months before we put a shovel in the ground. We watched them work on 2 major projects of similar scope to ours so that we could gauge their abilities. Jay was transparent throughout the whole process, offering advice, counsel and caution - again before we had spent a dollar. By the time we signed contracts we were very confident that they were the right company for what we wanted done. They started in the middle of winter and were done on time and on budget. No shocks, no surprises and at no point did we regret our contractor choice. They were curteous, responsive, and smart throughout the entire time frame. Their constant and consistent communication managed our expectations totally. Everyone wearing an Elite logo was hard working,, respectful and I had no qualms trusting them completely. On more than one occasion they went above and beyond to help us out with a variety of challenges we faced like lending us trucks to pick up tiles and appliances. You can ask them any question at any time and get a swift helpful response.
There are many contractors in the area but none as good as Elite in my mind. A lot of people in our neighborhood have seen our house and we have seen many other major renovation projects that are on the market. Elite"s work is ahead of anything else I have seen.