Milman 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".