DL Restoration Builders Corp.

This review is long overdue as the work that DL Restorations did on our place was about a year ago but to this day, it continues to bother me which is why I feel the need to write this review. Like the other reviewer noted, Danny comes across honest, direct and trustworthy. The work that I needed on our newly purchases coop was fairly simple, just new crown molding, paint the walls and one coat of polyurethane on our floors. Danny promised that the work could be done in 4 days which was extremely important to us as we needed to move into our new place on the 5^th day. I had also had the apartment just professionally cleaned which in hindsight was pretty dumb to do before contractors came into it but it was so filthy from the previous owners that it needed to be done. I asked Danny if he could ask his crew to be cognizant of it and make sure to keep the dust and dirt out of the cleaned kitchen and bathroom as much as possible. He agreed to that and we signed the contract and forked over half our payment.
Bottom line was, they didn’t deliver the work on time. They were doing the floors the morning of the day that we needed to move in which meant that the floors never had time to cure and were promptly ruined. Also, Danny’s crew left the bathroom filthy from cleaning their tools and using it themselves. They also left a stain on the bathtub from whatever chemical that they cleaned in there and when I pointed this out to Danny, he dismissed it saying «Everything’s water based so just clean in with the scrub side of a sponge». Well, I’ve tackled that stain with every cleaner known to mankind, left it to soak overnight and the stain is there to this day. I understand that the contractors need to use the bathroom while they are working but the disrespect they showed our new place was unbelievable. The paint job they did was fairly sloppy with edges bleeding over and my husband had to tape and redo some areas himself after we moved in. Also, I had specifically asked them to use semi-​gloss paint because we have small kids and wanted the walls to withstand all their abuse. Instead, they used flat paint and when I questioned this to Danny, his response was «Flat paint is semi-​gloss»… um okay. I don’t know how he could just straight lie to me but he did. At this point, there was nothing left to do since we had moved in and weren’t going to repaint our walls. The only good thing that they did was a good job with the crown molding as they were able to compensate well for our very crooked walls being an old coop. Overall, however, I don’t recommend this company and looks like our experience wasn’t unique.

Danny, the owner, comes across as nice, helpful and honest. He provided a detailed quote and references. Unfortunately the problems started before the work did.
Long story short:
Unresponsive, charged for work and/​or prices not agreed upon, spotty quality, way behind schedule, stopped showing up before job was completed.
Long story long:
A licensed and insured contractor with 20 years of experience working in co-​ops (and living in one), he knows management requires all workers to be licensed and insured. Which is why we were quite surprised that after the contract was signed and paperwork submitted to management we were told that it would cost us an extra $ 1,000 for a licensed plumber and $ 500 for a licensed electrician. (That’s on top of the price quoted and agreed to.) Anxious to get started we decided to just pay it and move on.
Once work began Danny became unresponsive. Questions and requests for timelines/​plans for the upcoming week (so we could be prepared with supplies) would go unanswered. We’d be notified of something needed the following day, leaving us scrambling to get them the information they needed at the last minute.
Though his contract states that change orders would be issued and signed by him and the customer before work outside the contract was done, none were ever provided. Work that wasn’t requested would be done and prices that weren’t agreed to were charged — and the rates were often quite inflated. (Hardwood flooring in a closet for $ 25/​sq ft?) One change we requested was quoted at $ 300, which we agreed to. The bill came in for $ 1,000.
There were some problems with the details of the work. Some tiles were crooked or not flush with others. Grout is already cracking. The kitchen floor had to be taken up and redone. They buried the old circuit panel, which goes against code, before installing a new one. Painting was sloppy.
As we neared the home stretch they stopped showing up to work. After 4 weeks went by with only 2 days of work being done, a payment was requested before they returned to work. After reviewing the invoice we requested the removal of some unapproved charges and ended our email with «please send an updated invoice so we can have payment ready for you Monday evening». Danny’s response was «based on this email you wrote I take it you don’t plan to pay, this is a breach of contract and I will place a lien on the building tomorrow…». 57 business days after work began on our 30-​day, job we paid him everything he wanted and terminated the contract. He collected 90% of the contract amount + additional charges for completing 75% of the work.
Danny also robbed us of any enjoyment we should have had in putting a new home together. Instead of excited, we’re miserable, unable to move, and paying others to clean up DL Restoration’s mess.