Royal Home Improvements

RHI was contracted to renovate our basement (1200 sq ft). The work crew they sent were outstanding. They always showed up on time, were very curtious, and kept the work site as clean as possible.

We were particularly impressed with how they kept us informed as to the status of the work they were doing that day and what was planned for the next few days.

The renovation consisted of installing a bathroom, drywall all the walls & ceiling, new lighting and electrical outlets, laminate flooring throughout. RHI estimated the job to take 8-10 weeks.
It was completed in the 8th week, and we are thrilled with the outcome.

RHI tore out all the bathroom - sinks, plumbing tiles, floors, sub-floors and replaced everything - new tub, sink, plumbing, cabinets etc. I had a very good experience. We had good project manager and the crew was great as well. When they were done - there was a slow drip and they were there no time to fix it. Always put something down to make sure they didn't dirty our spaces. I have already recomended them to a couple of people I work with and would use them again myself.

Royal Home Improvements were contracted to Renovate out kitchen and bathroom. They were professional and courteous all the way from the project manager down to the foreman and labourers. They answered any and all questons and provided additional advice.
The project was completed in a timely manner and was an excellent job that we are very happy with.
The house was left spotless which was a big surprise considering the amount of dust generated.
A big thank you to Charles and Daryl for exceeding our expectations.

We had a restoration to our existing patio. The superstructure consisting of all-wood lattice, crossbeams and tall pillars was showing signs of rot. The bases of the pillars had become the home of ants many crossbeams had been visited by woodpeckers and were in bad shape. We were eager to have as much material as possible reused, and the company, though doubtful, took the structure apart, piece by piece and saved as much of the original wood as possible. All of this material was repainted and restained where necessary along with the preparation of new wood. There was a creative idea to avoid future rot and ant infestation and though there were small changes made to the pillars to accomodate the preservation, the overall appearance (which we liked) was not changed. Except for rain delays and the necessity to work sometimes on the weekends, our project was completed fairly well within the promised time. We continue to enjoy our "new" outdoor superstructure.

Paul's crew got the work
done on time and with in
budget. the workmanship
was first rate the tradesmen were pleasant and went out of their way to be helpful. Also they were deligent in cleaning up the premises at the end of each day. I would recommend Royal Home Improvements to anyone.

Paul Swartz
Broker
sutton group old mill realty inc. brokerage.

Royal removed an existing concrete sidewalk and stoop and created a new, wider, more appealing, interlocking stone walk and entrance patio. The work was quick and efficient. The workmen were polite and cleaned up at the end of every day. Along with the walk, Royal also cut an new doorway into a solid brick garage. The brick was cut, removed and relaid such that it looks like it was always there. The new door was neatly fitted and looks great. My last minute request to change lock type was accommodated without hesitation or delay. Overall, a great company to deal with - fair price for great quality and they alway kept their word.

My husband and I hired Royal to renovate our only bathroom and baby nursery. Being 6 months pregrant, I was pleased to hear from the president of the company that the job could be completed in two weeks with little disruption to our lives. He also ensured us that we would have a dedicated project manager to oversee everything and guide us through any decisions. What we ended up getting is a project manager who did not oversee his tradesmen properly, who rarely came to see what was happening at our house and hardly ever initiated status updates. The work was completed at a snail's pace and with shoddy tradesmen. I spent four weeks staying between a friend's house and my father's condo as the the work was completed. At the "inspection" we had a long list of issues that needed to be addressed. Here's a sample...almost all the bathroom fixtures were installed off center or unlevel, there was a missing part on our shower door, incorrect bathroom fan installation, and lots of debris left in our house including our plastic milk container which was used to mix grout! The nightmare continued as we tried to get our issues addressed. In the meantime, I had a baby boy. Delivering my baby was easier than dealing with Royal.

Our experience with Royal Home improvements was a complete disaster from start to finish. We paid A grade prices for professional trades and project management and got F level trades. Trade was so careless they didn't use basics like dropcloths. Work that was done had to be redone again. New hardwoods that went down were ruined the next day by trade who couldn't be bothered to watch his epoxy drippings, paint splatters or ladder - chunks out of new hardwood - paint and glue on it and dust everywhere. Brand new subfloor had to be ripped up and done again. Trade was caught drinking on site, would show up with tag-along workers who didn't work, including a brother-in-law who was more interested in raking leaves than finishing drywall.

When we signed our contract, we were told that we'd have a crew of two for this job and a service oriented project manager. We ended up with a bricklayer by trade and a project manager who came to our home to manage the project only once. What should have been a five day renovation took ten and a half days. Our tradesman was running out of time to complete the project and so did things like grout the bathroom floor AFTER he'd installed the new baseboards. He told me he didn't like to paint, and it shows. The walls were only painted up to within a half inch of the ceilings and every piece of trim on the baseboards, doors and windows needs to be redone to straighten the sloppy lines. The vinyl trim on our brand new windows has to be scraped of the paint he put on them and when I realized he was painting this part of the window I asked him to stop. He taped off the final window so that only the wood casing around the window would be painted, but when he pulled off the tape, some of the paint came off the wood casing. "Where is the journeyman painter?" I'm thinking as I realize this man hasn't got the ability but I'm paying the "A" list price for this "B" list quality. I'm still cleaning up the paint he sprayed in my laundry room when he cleaned his brushes there. Again, where was the attention to detail I was promised? Oh to write a good review like the reviews that I read in the Royal info kit and online but it appears that some get good work/service and other don't!

We had approximately $40k in work done including significant basement renovations.

At the outset we were told the project would be complete in 2-4 weeks. The work took nearly 8 months to complete, with strong pushing required on our part.

About a month in, we stopped hearing from our project manager. Eventually we asked one of the subcontractors (!!!) and discovered that our guy had left the company. You'd think Royal Home would have let his clients know. Numerous calls and constant pushing from our side was required to move the project along.

The quoted priced was average compared to the other estimates we receved. Early on (and before we were disillusioned), we were asked to chip in a bit more for some excavation that had to be done.

Quality of the work done was quite high (once it was completed). The only blemish on the quality has to do with the fact that the sub that was brought in to do the excavation was hit with a stop-work order from the City, and was forced to redo some of the work.

We will not be going back to Royal Home again and would not recommend them to others.