Valli Forge Construction

I hired this company back in 2016 to do renovations work for my basement. Part of the renovations work involved installation of a kitchen facade with stone veneer. Unfortunately the installation process was poorly done. Tile adhesive was used to mount stone on top of a wooden backboard panel.

Turns out, the method of installation was a disaster. It led to a collapsing of the facade onto my kitchen floor. Lucky nobody was hurt but I can honestly say, “I had a near
miss accident.” I couldve had broken bones in my toes and feet if I didnt elude this mess in time.
This is an accident that occured because of shoddy workmanship that led to the creation of an unsafe environment. You want good work? Once again do not hire this company they do stuff like this leaving innocent folks like me and you at risk of our own safety.

I have had the pleasure to work alongside Paul of Valli Forge Construction on a number of occasions. Paul is pleasant to work with and was able to execute my recommendations without problem. He listened to the homeowners and tries his best to complete the project in a timely manner. He runs his projects with professionalism and integrity.

I had been looking for a contractor for quite some time to complete the work on my basement. I was told about Paul Ravalli and Valli Forge construction. By her friend he came over to my basement we agreed on a price in about two weeks later the construction started any concern that I had Paul was quick to reassure me that everything would be taken care of. It took about a month for everything to be completed there was a couple of small problems but being a professional Paul took care of every little thing I asked of him I just want to thank you for your hard work and anytime you want to come over to my man cave for a drink you're more than welcome thank you very much to you and your guys.

My wife and I were discussing on changes to our bath and kitchen. Valli forge came in and constructed an new bath and kitchen that exceeded our expectations. With the help from Paul his ideas and design my wife and I could not have been happier. A time line was given that was crucial to us that has to be met. And valli forge delivered the finish product 5 days before the date. Was very easy to deal with and answered all questions we had throughout the construction period. Cleanliness was key and nothing was left behind. Paul was so courteous that a gift card was given to us for a professional cleaning service to come in from the dust that built up, to clean the house.

As with any construction project, building a house in the Niagara-On-The-Lake area in our circumstance, there are always challenges and obstacles that present themselves and our house project had its share of them!

Mainly we had the project manager and some of the trades creating more challenges and obstacles than we would have expected, and if that wasn’t cause enough for creating extra stress for us, they abandoned our project!

At this point, we hired Paul Ravalli owner of
Valli-Forge Construction to pick up the pieces for us.

We have been very impressed with the company’s process of working.
One by one, the Valli-Forge team calmly addressed each challenge and issues were solved, good decisions were made and the project kept moving forward.

Most impressive was that Paul and his team were at all times patient, flexible, open minded, and never condescending towards us as ‘women’ building for the first time!

They allowed time to explain situations that we were not familiar with and to advise us as to the very best solution, always remaining mindful of the vision for our house.

Excellence should be a major consideration for anyone in business today. Applying that ethic to a construction project is not easily achieved by every company in the construction industry.

Valli-Forge Construction truly embodies the definition of excellence and we are very pleased with how they completed our dream house.

We would absolutely hire Valli-Forge Construction in future projects.

Introduction

I do not know how this company makes money. The company did work consisting of: building a deck, building a staircase and tiling the basement floor (1000sq ft). We were also originally quoted for a dock and the replacement of garage doors. The final contract involved work totaling about $36325 plus HST.

Issues:
1. Went 3-Xs over original agreed-upon time. Reasons for the added time were numerous but the most notable was related to the deck and basement floor. When the deck was completed, it became clear that the height was about 6 inches above the door leading to the deck. During the construction my wife suggested that the height of the deck might be at the incorrect height. The general contractor, Paul, argued that this was an "optical illusion". Paul initially argued that house "structure" prevented the deck from being placed at the correct height. In the end, his own workers advised him to correct the problem, which they did but this took extra time, of course. Another cause for delays arose due to the need to replace selected ceramic tiles in the basement floor; other issues with the basement tiles are explained further below.

2. Ceramic tiles were installed the basement. The original basement floor was made of smooth concrete, prior to the work being done. As the work progressed we noticed that virtually none of the tiles were level with adjacent tiles. The heights of many adjacent tiles differed by 3-4 millimeters with most being at ~2 mm different. We mentioned this to Paul. His response was: "well there was nothing in the contract that said the tiles needed to be level". We contacted other contractors, who confirmed that we should have expected the tiles to be reasonably level. Two contractors who looked at the work, stated that the degree of unevenness was not acceptable, which is what we thought. The costs of the tiling was $9,000. The tiles were 1ft X 2ft. The cost of the materials (tiles) was $2,600. So the installation charges were ~$6,400. We felt the quality of the work for this cost level was unacceptable. Even Paul's own workers admitted that they did have the experience and expertise to do floors because they primarily "carpenters and dry-wallers". The floor is so bad that we are in the process of replacing the floor, because the extent of floor unevenness is actually a safety hazard, in our opinion.

3. Paul opening admitted that he "was not proud of the work done". He would not replace the floor and offered to accept "two, three, four or five thousand off the the original price". We really want to have the floor replaced and we are in the process of redoing the floor. In the last meeting with Paul, we offered to pay $4,500 plus HST for the basement tiling as well as an additional $1,400 in additional costs for other work done on the basement (i.e. putting in base boards primarily). The costs for the jobs (deck and stairs) were already paid at this point. Our final payment for outstanding costs for the work on the basement were paid by cheque. On the cheque we wrote "final payment". Paul agree to these terms and promised to clean the site and provide a final invoice for the job. After cashing the final cheque he did not follow through on cleaning the site or providing an invoice. Instead, we have received a notification that Valli-Forge is taking us to small claims court!

Other observations and events.

1. In the initial agreement to perform work, Paul quoted us to install a dock and to replace some garage doors. When it became clear he was hiring 3rd parties to perform the work, we researched the actual costs for the work. Paul quoted us $8,000 to install the garage doors and $10,000 for the dock (with several conditions). We received quotes from the same companies that Paul was planning to use. We offered to have Paul add 500-1000 for each the jobs for overseeing the work. Paul rejected this offer and Paul stated that he wanted to take the dock and garage doors off of the initial contract. We have since installed (using the same companies that Paul had planned to use). The dock was installed for $8,500 and the garage doors for $3,600. You can decide for yourself what this says about the business practices of Valli-Forge.

2. During the course of the work being done we noted that he had heated discussions by cellphone with people during our visit to the worksite. These discussions seemed to be with current or former client(s) who had issues with the company.

3. He told us he preferred to do as much of the labour costs as possible for cash. We unfortunately agreed to do this, which we realize now was a mistake.

Advice:
Beware of this company. It is clear the owner (Paul) is dishonest and engages in questionable business practices.

You can call me anytime to discuss: 647-244-4528 (Peter)