I strongly suggest avoiding KER due to lack of quality workmanship and professionalism. We had them install two doors, windows, railings, hardwood in two rooms, as well as tile our floor, and drywall our basement. All workmanship was poor and exemplified the ignorance and inexperience of the workers. I will provide images to substantiate my disappointments, which are available at kerremodeling.blogspot.com. First of all, we kindly offered Kraig to use some of our tools because he didn't have access to his own due to his truck breaking down. We made it clear that if our tools weren't sufficient to do the job well, he should use his own. He ended up making cracks when cutting wood because he used our dull saw to do so. Furthermore, he charged us for tool rental and hardwood flooring delivery which we discussed at length and he implied were included in the estimate.
The front door lock wasn't installed properly, but I was able to make it work. It was only slightly misaligned. It still doesn't function to the best of its ability and the frame is slightly chewed up because I had to re-install the lock. The window trim fell off within a couple weeks; they did come to repair it. They, however, left gaping holes in the tops of the windows and their framing job is visible from the back of my house. The hardwood was, in part, installed by a 24-year-old who had never done it before. He cracked a few boards and left gaping holes. Kraig was unfamiliar with an expansion gap, which is necessary for wood because it expands and contracts. Expansion gaps are part of a basic install that anyone who installs hardwood should know about. He also did not allow the wood to acclimate to the environment. Hardwood should be delivered a few days in advance because it expands or contracts depending on the environment. KER charged us much more than what Lumber Liquidators charges for floor installation, and LL is a far better value in my opinion. KER's ignorance is going to cost us a lot of money because we will have to pay someone to remove the base and install an expansion gap. Moreover, Kraig tried to hide the fact that they dented and cut into our new hardwood. KER moved our large fridge on top of our expensive hardwood without properly covering the bottom of the fridge to prevent scraping. Kraig came over and used a touch-up kit on the dents/scratches he made. Well the color doesn't match and the gloss he put over it makes it even more apparent. He should have tested it first on a piece of wood. It's basic knowledge and consideration that KER lacks and again is costing us.
Moving on to the baseboard, there were again major gaps. The baseboard is a few centimeters off the floor instead of meeting the floor. Very amateur looking, especially since we bought the expensive baseboard. They did all the baseboard and framing i my living area and forgot to frame around 2 doors. This means I have to take off the baseboard on those walls because the width of the door framing has changed. He installed new kickboards in our kitchen, without my consent. When doing so, he boxed in our dishwasher so that it would not open. Rather than taking off the kickboard Kraig used a reciporicating saw that cut out a hole so it would open. After hitting it many many times in the front plate and leaving a long trail of scratches our less-than-a-year old dishwasher ceased to work. Kraig said he would cover it if the warranty didn't. It's not covered by our warranty because it has been "tampered with", meaning there are blade marks throughout the bottom. Amana will not cover that. He then demanded a receipt. We sent that via certified mailand he did not accept it. He has yet to reimburse us for the dishwasher and this was done over nearly 3 month ago. He wouldn’t answer from our phone number so I called from an unfamiliar number and he said he’d send the check right away. We STILL haven’t received it. We sent him via certified mail the receipt, and it was returned to us. If he pays this debt, I will update immediately.
For our railing, which he did incorrectly, he refunded half of our money even though he originally said he'd give us the money back for it, which I took to mean the cost of the entire railing. We cannot reuse the pieces of the railing that we took the time to stain because he cracked them. He's also seemingly unfamiliar with codes as he said he was doing us a favor by installing the balusters four (instead of his usual five inches) apart because we have a baby. Four inches is code. That's not a favor. There's so much wrong with the railings (e.g., nails sticking out, cracks in various parts of it, instability, the newels not being securely installed, forgot to nail a couple of balusters in), but what's really bothersome is that we had informed him how to do it properly. We researched it and taught him the proper way to do it. He only used one of the four rosettes we had stained. He also just put a piece of wood diagonally across the steps instead of cutting it on each step as we had discussed. Kraig put the newel in the entryway instead of the last stair so that there is little space between our front door and the newel.The high schooler he had helping him that day even said something about it! In addition, to secure it he put 2 drywall screws in the base diagonally towards the bottom stair. Again, the workmanship is poor and the professionalism is shameful. They lack expertise in any type of remodeling.
