Red Baron Enterprises

This is perhaps one of the most disappointing relationships I have ever engaged in. We have used Red Baron’s handyman services in the past and never had a problem. Since we had an established relationship with RB, we felt comfortable enough to hire them as our builder for two interior renovation projects: a kitchen remodel and, if the budget permitted, finishing the upstairs portion of our house (only half of the upstairs is finished.)
Initial meetings seemed to go well. They came over with a designer and we swapped ideas that could work in our limited space. Our house is small and over 100 years old. We simply wanted a more functional kitchen with a dishwasher – this was the priority. Our appliances were only a couple of years old so there was no need purchase a stove or a refrigerator. They gave us assignments to pick out materials and we did that right away. Further, they insisted we give them a priority list as a guideline for them to stay focused on. We put down a deposit of $ 5,000.
Our budget was a firm $ 20,000. Chris estimated and assured us that the kitchen should not cost more than that. After talking to several builders (including those through Lowes and Home Depot), all agreed that a kitchen remodel should not have even cost that much given the size of kitchen. It is important to note that RB does not quote by the job but rather charges a flat hourly rate. Several people noted that this should be a huge red flag but since we had an established relationship, we feel it wasn’t going to be a problem if they stuck to the priority list.
RB felt it was more efficient use of time and money if they did all of the demolition work first. That seemed to make sense, so they demo’ed the kitchen down to the studs and demo’ed the upstairs in almost the first 24 – 48 hours. After that, they seemed to stay focused on the upstairs. For several weeks, virtually nothing was done to the kitchen. Keep in mind, the kitchen was always the priority. I can move my family back in with an unfinished upstairs but absolutely needed the kitchen done. This was on the priority sheet and even communicated several times to Chris and Andrew throughout the project. However, that fell on deaf ears and they continued to work upstairs largely ignoring the kitchen. The invoices kept coming in – $ 5,000 per invoice. Then we hit an electrical issue and RB had to rewire a large portion of the house-​citing safety. Fine. $ 20,000 into the project and I’m still looking at studs in the kitchen. Two months into it and my family has been living away this whole time.
I have a problem. I have an unfinished upstairs and kitchen. RB tells us to just finish the kitchen is going to be another $ 10,000 — $ 15,000 minimum! We stopped work on the upstairs and I have to get additional funding which has sunk us considerably deeper in debt. I considered firing RB at the 20K mark but no builder wanted to come into the middle of another builder’s project citing too many unknown factors. We sucked it up and just let RB finish. It took another month and another $ 10,000 for RB to make the kitchen functional. To date, it’s not complete. We never got the tile back-​splash or wall shelving (we opted for an open look so we went with shelving vs more cabinetry to save money.)
RB shows moments of brilliance at times (their carpenter and electrician did exceptional work and they have a great office manager) but falls flat on the rest. They were poor in communication across the board: poor with us the homeowners and poor with each other. Chris and Andrew were on two separate pages the whole time. Chris would tell us to talk to Andrew and Andrew would tell us he would have to consult with Chris. They failed to stick to the priority list almost from day one – a list that they insisted we give them. They were slow to purchase materials for every step of the project and I had to intervene and acquire and order most of the stuff on my own. They refused to ever make my home their priority and routinely worked on other projects of theirs even though they told us that every customer becomes their immediate priority. My relationship with them was combative versus cooperative. We willingly kept signing them checks, as they held our home hostage, and they willingly just milked it for everything it was worth.
The sad thing here is that I can never recommend RB. We have more home projects that need to be completed. RB failed to see the bigger picture and went for the low hanging fruit. They pegged us as suckers and trusting suckers we were. We chose RB because mutual friends highly recommended them and they were originally a Hamtramck business. They did what they wanted and not what we wanted and all at our expense. They still need to fix a few things, which have already been paid for, but refuse to come back to the house. This demonstrates an integrity issue which potential customers should consider.

These guys came over to fix a few little things here and there and do some painting. They were clean and respectful of our belongings. They finished quickly and the price was fair. I will definitely call them again.