We have decided to share our renovation nightmare experience with Ahimsan in order to help prevent others from going through similar experiences.
We had noticed Ahimsans work on instagram and after reading the many positive homestar reviews about his professionalism, completion of work in a timely manner and cleanliness, we decided to hire him.
The project included:
Full primary washroom renovation (tear down shower, removal of tub, new tiles, an accent wall and a 5 by 5 foot stand up shower installed)
Main floor smooth ceilings
Potlights throughout main floor
Accent wall
Fire place build out
5 inch baseboards on main floor
The projected timeline according to Ahimsan was 2 weeks. It has been 3 months now, and we have had to terminate him due to the following traumatic renovation nightmare.
During this project, Ahimsan promised to come and work on our home numerous times and just doesnt show up or makes excuses. (We then see him on social media actively posting, working at other peoples homes and he completely ignored our calls/texts.)
The project date started on April 25th, 2022. On this day, the demolition began and he had taken apart the entire home (instead of doing it section by section). This means that our primary shower was taken apart and our primary bedroom was no longer usable due to the amount of dust that accumulated. The base boards were also removed on this day. The majority of our home became dusty after this point.
After this, the following took place (summary):
Washroom taken apart and the primary bedroom was extremely dusty and unlivable for weeks. Baseboards were also taken apart on main floor.
Overall home was covered in a thick layer of dust. We would clean as much as we could and it would still accumulate because they were sawing tile in the master bedroom.
Old potlights taken down, leaving us with little to no lighting (He left us like this for weeks.)
While tiles were being installed in the primary washroom, water began to leak through the potlights, creating streaks on our ceiling and leaking on to our sofa on the main floor.
**During this time, the majority of the work was completed by sub contractors as Ahimsan was missing for the majority of this project.
The sub contractors required material that was not purchased. Ahimsan was not around to purchase it for them. Due to this, we had to take time off of work to drive around and purchase necessary materials.
**Keep in mind, we were trying to complete our washroom asap and because Ahimsan was away, we did our best to help the sub contractors. In the end, three months later, this washroom is still unfinished.
Removal of popcorn ceiling begins.
Ahimsan promised to cover areas in the home to prevent the majority of the dust from not spreading, he did not do this at all.
He also promised to cover the entire main floor to collect the dust from the removal of our popcorn ceiling, which was also not completed properly. Half our house was covered and the other half was not, leaving much of the dust on our brand new hardwood floors.
Our sofas were not covered (and unfortunately, we decided they were too dusty to use so we ended up having to dump them).
Tv taken down, fireplace build out began and we were told not to clean the dust as he was going to come back to clean the next day. (He mentioned it was pointless to clean as they still had some more work to do with the ceiling.)
**Prior to this, it was discussed that he would ensure our kitchen was clean by Friday each week, due to having to cook and survive. He never showed up on those Fridays, leading to us having to spend extra hours cleaning up ourselves.
**He begins to disappear and ignore us often at this point. We began to get fed up with his lack of communication and after a serious conversation, he agreed that he had been slacking and promised to come the following Monday ( May 30th) and mentioned he would complete the work by Friday, June 3rd. (He kept saying: This is usually not like me. I usually dont do this to people.)
Monday May 30th - Friday June 3rd was the only full week he came to our home to work on the renovations.
At this point, the project was not completed as promised and he told us he would come back and finish off the project by Saturday, June 11th. After watching us trying to clean the dust, and after multiple complaints from us about the dust, he decided on this day to hire a cleaning crew (the only positive action he took during our entire experience). The cleaners mentioned he could have easily avoided the mess by covering the floors appropriately. They also mentioned hes done this before and needed their help.
He had an important event in his life that he had to attend to, and he asked us whether he can come after this event to finish off the small touch ups and getting the shower up and running. We agreed and paid the majority of the balance as he needed it for this important event.
After this event, he stopped communicating with us for another two weeks. During this time, he was posting himself working at other projects. He finally responds and mentions he cannot come for another few weeks, because he was leaving the country. (We mention as well that we would be going on vacation in July and just wanted it to be completed before that.)
After returning, he asks to come work on the home while knowing the dates we were going to go on vacation. (Basically, he asks to come when we werent home.)
**He finally agrees to come on Friday, July 22nd at 11am to finish the job. He came 3 hours late, installed baseboard for one small closet, did some caulking work, took all of his belongings that he stored at our house/garage for months (making sure that we could not park in our garage) and left abruptly without telling us, within 45 minutes of arriving. Before leaving, he mentioned that the plumber would come within the next 2 days to finish off the shower for us.
There was so much more work to be done including: shower, putting up our mirror in the shower, paint/touch up work, painting an entire closet and baseboard, fixing up some of the damages they created during their work. After leaving, he began to ignore our calls and messages once again.
**That same day (Friday, July 22nd) and all weekend, he was seen on social media cooking food for his other small business and partying. We tried contacting him to find out if the plumber would be arriving so we could ensure we were home.
Throughout this process, Ahimsan would often blame the plumber for the project not being completed. Yet, the plumber had nothing to do with the touch ups and paint work that needed to be done.
As he ignored our calls, we decided to reach out to the plumber he had hired, who mentioned Ahimsan was also ignoring his calls that weekend. The plumber mentioned to us, he had no time to come and he was too busy. He apparently told Ahimsan to come and get the parts needed to finish the shower, but Ahimsan did not. We then organized to meet up with the plumber to pick up the necessary parts to complete our shower and met up with him on Tuesday, July 26th.
Ahimsan finally responds after numerous messages pleading and begging him to finish this project. We had to mention some of the damages that took place on our furniture in order for him to even respond (because he denied it but until that, he ignored us). He then questions why we picked up the parts from his plumber. We mentioned that because his only reason for not finishing the shower was not having the parts due to his plumber being too busy, we decided to help him out by picking up the parts ourselves.
We told him that he has one last chance (as numerous chances were given to him to complete the project). We settled on him coming on Friday, July 29th at 9:30/10am to finish off the project or else he would be terminated and we would have to hire someone else using the balance which was less than $300 (It would cost us more to finish what was left though). At 9:45am, he messages us and says he is not feeling well and wants to reschedule. This is when we could no longer continue and terminated the project (firing him).
We told him that we would have to post an honest review and he threatened us by stating: Also remember what deformation means. He mentioned that he did so much free work which was far from the truth. The only free work he had completed was add a baseboard for our kitchen island and build a door stopper using scrap pieces of 2 by 4 wood. He could have easily charged us for this and we would have paid (This was requested by Ahimsan to include in our review when he threatened us with deformation). We never asked this individual for discounts when we started this project. He threw in a free address sign valued at approximately $500 and we accepted it because we were already spending over 25k. We have given Ahimsan money on time when he asks for it and we held up our part of the bargain.
Throughout this entire process, we have had to deal with our mental health, stress and anxiety. We developed health conditions due to the dust (i.e. daily hives) which lasted months. It has affected our lives for the past 3 months and today is the day we decided we can no longer continue this way for our own sanity and health.
Damages that took place during the project that are unfixable:
New interlock scraped by the dump bin that was left on our driveway for weeks (6k brand new interlock)
Marble table completely scratched up because they used their machines that were placed on top of the table ($200 brand new table)
**He continues to message us negatively, threaten us and told us not to talk to anyone about it. He said: I dont what my name to come out of your mouth to people.
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