Milman Renovation

I will never hire Milman again.

Completion time promised - 2-3 months, but with an average of just one worker working one or two days a week, and in some weeks - no work at all - work took 6 months. This is exactly also true with a laneway garage conversion project this contractor is doing for my former girlfriend - exactly the same thing, leading to delays of months in completion time far beyond the promised completion time.

My basement was bare concrete, only house perimeter walls, and a few support columns, but still - they built crooked walls, as in - starting in one point on the floor and ceiling, and curving instead of going in a straight line from one end of a wall to the other. Perpendicular walls that are not at 90 degrees to one another. If there were some structural restrictions forcing these issues - that would be one thing, but they had a bare bones basement to work with, a blank canvas, and they couldn't build straight walls?

Instead of having an experienced builder/contractor walking me through what sick a build new to have considered - I either had to say it, or they did it however they thought it should be done.
Example - power outlets, lights, and switches. Where should they be located? I never did such a project, so I didn't even think about it, but they are supposed to be experienced in this, so why didn't they walk around the place with me and explain what we need to consider, what do they recommend, etc? After the work was done, and I realized we never properly planned these things, and asked for changes - the answer was why didn't I think about this before, as things were already installed.

Another example. Does the customer need to consider the impact that adding more HVAC outlets would have a negative impact on the air flow and pressure of the entire house, or should the experienced and who paid contractor do that? So now I'm screwed, with lower air pressure and flow, but nothing 9 can do about this now that wouldn't cost me thousands of dollars, as all the ducts have already been covered by the ceiling drywall sheets.

We have an entire correspondence where we discussed what the project would include, like - dividing my basement into two separate units, one for rental and the other for my personal use, including putting in two enlarged windows - one in each unit, to allow for a code compliant fire escape, I have this in writing, and when I asked to include that in the work agreement - I was told "no problem, don't worry", but it wasn't, and now there's only pine such window.

This team is also building a laneway house garage conversion for my former girlfriend, which also tells me how work was done one or two days a week most of the time, causing a huge delay, with the financial impact that this caused her and also me, as both of us couldn't start renting out when planned.

To add insult to injury - with my girlfriend's project, months after the work started already, funds were already borrowed and made available - my former girlfriend gets told by then that - oops! They miscalculated the project costs by SEVERAL DOZEN PERCENT, and an additional SIX FIGURES AMOUNT was required. Months after the work already started, work money being borrowed on a very tight margin, and now she needs to figure out where to get this additional and unplanned for huge amount of money. The contractor's claim was that my ex GF asked for changes and additions that weren't budgeted for, which is false, because the contractor told my ex GF that it was their mistake when giving her the initial cost estimate, nothing to do with any changes later on, but even if that was true - isn't it the contractor's role and responsibility to inform the client about how much anything they might ask for would impact costs by? Again - is this the client's responsibility to do?

Very unprofessional work, making the only recommendation that at least I can give is - stay away from this contractor.

Maybe they did great work for some other clients, but they did a terrible job, causing real emotional stress and financial losses for me and for my former girlfriend.

Two years later - now the laminate flooring that they put in without first leveling the concrete floor below it - those laminate boards are starting to crack and break because they are laid over the uneven surface. I certainly will end up paying dearly for hiring these amateurs.

Milman construction did for us a renovation in the kitchen. We were so pleased with the work. They are reliable, honest and professional.
We highly recommend this company.

I know keren from 2013
Her works are beautiful and stunning Special and unique. Highly recommend

Keren and Shafi came to my house while we were looking for reliable contractor to renovate our bathroom.
From the selection of colors and the whole renovation we were very happy !
Highly recommended !
Thank you so much guys

Milman Renovation caused us nothing but headaches with their work on our bathroom renovation. It was so poorly managed and done so shoddily that eventually we just told them to stop coming.

They told us our tiny bathroom facelift would take two weeks. Six weeks later it was still ongoing, with problem after problem surfacing.

First of all, we could never get a schedule out of Keren or Shafi. They just kept sending contractors at odd hours, like late in the evenings. Or lots of times the subcontractors just wouldn't show up. Several days would go by where no work was done. We had a hard deadline (Christmas) and time kept ticking by. Not once throughout the whole project did Keren or Shafi visit to see the progress or review the work that was done by their subcontractors.

Tradespeople and subcontractors they hired left a trail of issues that kept having to be repaired. Plumbers scratched our new faucets and fixtures, plaster on the ceiling was lumpy and bumpy, steel pipes used instead of copper so that rusty water comes out of the bath faucet. Our toilet leaked because the plumber didn't put the right wax seal, or get this... he didn't properly bolt the toilet to the floor!! This flooded down to the basement. How ridiculous.

And now a year later, we discover our tub was never secured into place, so it's moving every time we use it and the grout and caulking is all pulling away from the tub, causing gaps for water to get into.

I wish we had never hired them. It would be easier to rip it all out and start from scratch with someone else.

Don't make the same mistake we did.

Pick someone else to do your renovation.

I would stay away from this amature hour "contractor".

I hired them to finish a completely bare basement, and turn it into two separate apartments.

Completion time promised - 2-3 months, but with an average of just one worker working one or two days a week, and in some weeks - no work at all - work took 6 months.

This also happened with a laneway garage conversion project this contractor did for my girlfriend - exactly the same thing, leading to delays of months in completion time far beyond the promised completion time, not to mention them coming to her saying the miscalculated the cost, and that she should pay them a staggering amount of money BEYOND what they already told her it would cost.

My basement was bare concrete, only the perimeter walls, and a couple of support columns, but still - they built crooked walls, as in - starting in one point on the floor and ceiling, and curving instead of going in a straight line from one end of the wall to the other. Walls that are not at 90 degrees to one another, or even just simply straight. If you look at the pictures I attached here, you can see how the walls were built.

What did the Milmans say when I told them about these issues? They said it's not their problem, and told me to take it up with THEIR subcontractor, whom THEY hired - not me!

If there were some structural restrictions forcing these issues - that would be one thing, but they had a bare bones basement to work with, a blank canvas, and they couldn't even build straight walls?

Also - instead of having the builder/contractor walk me through what needs to be considered, like where to install lighting switches, or power outlets, and other such things- they just did it however they thought it should be done.

Is that something the totally inexperienced customer should initiate, or should the supposedly experienced contractor approach the customer with all these required considerations?

Example - power outlets, lights, and switches. Where should they be located? I never did such a project, so I didn't even think about it, but they are supposed to be experienced in this, so why didn't they walk around the place with me and explain what we need to consider, what do they recommend, etc? After the work was done, and I realized we never properly planned these things, and asked for changes - the answer was why didn't I think about this before, as things were already installed.

Another example. Does the inexperienced customer need to consider the impact that adding more HVAC outlets would have on the air flow and pressure of the entire house, or should the supposedly experienced and paid contractor do that?

So now I'm screwed - with lower air pressure and flow, but nothing I can do about this now that wouldn't cost me thousands of dollars, as all the ducts have already been covered by the ceiling drywall sheets.

The Milman's and I had an entire correspondence before the project started, where we discussed what the project should include, like - dividing my basement into two separate independent living units, including putting in two enlarged windows - one in each unit, to allow for a code compliant fire escape, I have this in writing, and when I asked to include that in the statement of work - I was told "no problem, don't worry - we will do that", but it was a problem, and indeed they didn't do what they told me they'll do. So only one window for one of the units, instead of one in each of the two units.

To add insult to injury - with my girlfriend's project, months after the work started already, funds were already borrowed and made available - my girlfriend was told by them that - oops! They miscalculated the project costs by SEVERAL DOZEN PERCENT, and an additional SIX FIGURES AMOUNT was required. Months after the work already started, paid for by money borrowed from the bank on a very tight margin, so now she had to figure out where to get this additional and unplanned for huge amount of money.

The contractor's claim was that my GF asked for changes and additions that weren't budgeted for, which is false, because the contractor told her that it was their mistake when giving her the initial cost estimate, nothing to do with any changes later on, but even if that was true - isn't it the contractor's role and responsibility to inform the client about how much anything they might ask for would impact costs by? Again - is this the client's responsibility to do?

So is that what you envision your own renovation project looking like? Do you see yourself chasing your contractors own subcontractors?

Very unprofessional work.

Maybe they did great work for some other clients, but they did a terrible job, causing real emotional and financial stress for me and for my girlfriend.

I would stay away from this amature hour "contractor".

Working with Shafi and Keren is nothing but fantastic. The service is outstanding and the end results are incredible! They are so creative and attending to the project like they renovate their own home. I couldn’t be happier!

Working with Shafi and Keren was an incredible experience! They are so attentive and we could not be happier with the Final product. Renovation went smoothly, on time and on budget

We got a kitchen overall - Milman renovation transformed our Kitchen to a super modern but cozy cook and dinning area. The kitchen is the heart of the house for us - we love to cook and entertain while we are cooking - they just nailed it....

The services was outstanding. From the first phone call to the finished project, kerren was amazing to work with.
The project started on time and took less time than I thought.
The end product is just stunning and now I can take a bath and feel like I am in a spa.