COLLVIN Home Renovations & Contracting Inc.

We've got plenty of good things to say about Gavin Bentham from Collvin Home Renovations.

We hired him last spring to work on a shower stall in a condo that I had recently purchased and we couldn't have asked for a better contractor.

Gavin's level of professionalism and attention to detail contributed to what was an overall pleasant experience for everyone involved.

Gavin provided his own ideas to contribute to a better design as well as incorporating ideas of our own. The end result was better than we had anticipated or hoped for.

Gavin did a great job on our bathroom and laundry room. He listened to what we wanted and delivered big time. He was halfway through tiling our shower floor, when he realised the company I bought the tile from gave us a few boxes of the wrong tile. He gladly pulled up all the tile he spent the day laying, never showing any sign of frustration and handling it like a true professional. He even went out of his way to get the new tile once it arrived a few days later. Gavin showed up everyday with a smile and great work ethic. If you are looking for an honest, hardworking professional Gavin is your man.

PLEASE READ: I employed the services of Collvin Home Renovations and Contracting Inc. to renovate a bathroom, small kitchen and install a tile floor for a basement apartment I am renting. From the beginning of the project I expressed to Gavin the importance of adhering to a reasonable timeline. Throughout the projects different stages I kept checking with Gavin on the progress of the project and he kept on assuring me that; "It should be almost complete come next Friday". Well next Friday came and went for over 9 weeks and project was no whereas near finished. Yet every Friday Gavin was looking for me to get paid and yet the project was not progressing.

I learned quickly that Gavin is very good at telling a client what they want to hear as long as he can get money. I learned that he up charges the client whatever materials he needs for the job. I found him to be a dishonest person, let me explain, one Friday evening, (week 3) after Gavin was done working for the day he came asking for $5,000 to go purchase the IKEA kitchen cabinetry we had talked about. When I asked why $5,000, the cabinets are $3,000, he quickly added that he needed to pay himself, even though the week before I had paid him $2,000 as a deposit. I agreed to $4,000 since he told me he was going that weekend to purchase the kitchen cabinets. He never did purchase the kitchen cabinets instead he kept the money. He did go to IKEA a week and half later designed the kitchen layout plan himself and tried to sell to me for $225.00, telling me that he paid $250.00 for it when IKEA only charges $129.00 for them to do it. When I asked him why he had not purchased the cabinets and when he was going to? He sarcastically remarked, "When you give me the money". We both knew I had given him the money specifically for the kitchen cabinets and in the end he never did purchase the kitchen cabinets, I had to go to IKEA purchase them, its what I should have done in the first place. He kept the money for himself, his justification (in his mind) I am sure being its payment for the job.

After that experience with Gavin, things seemed to just get worse and worse. The project seemed to slow down even more, on a day-to-day basis I kept checking with Gavin to find out how the project was moving along and he would always assure me that everything was fine but that wasn't the case. He took on another client, at least one that I know of for sure, while still not finished my project, which further delayed completing my project.

By week 9, I had enough and fired Collvin Home Renovation and Contracting after several conversations with Gavin I realized nothing was improving and he wasn't adhering to a reasonable timeline. I was left with an unfinished bathroom only drywall and a partial shower installed, a kitchen with exposed studs, no drywall, no plumbing completed and only a partial tile floor grouted.

My personal opinion of Gavin is that he overplays (embellishes) the whole idea of how much work is involved in any project and of course all the materials he is going to use and time to complete the job, which in the end costs the client more money. When he finally does provide the client with his quote he comes across as if he is doing the client a favor by showing the client how low his cost is to them yet there is so much work to do. Don't kid yourself he knows full well where to hide his profit in any project. For example for the glass corner shower of 3.5ft X 3.5ft he charged me $1850.00 for material of which I supplied shower tile, shower floor, plumbing fixtures and that cost did not include the labour cost charged in finishing the shower and bathroom. $1850.00 for a Shower door and glass?

If you do go ahead and decide to hire him I wish you the best of luck and I would suggest that you obtain receipts for materials purchased for your project and that you hold on to your wallet a little more tightly then I did. I wouldn't recommend this contractor to anyone.

This contractor did an excellent job with the kitchen floor tiles. He did not rush to complete the job and worked very hard to install the tiles into a diamond pattern. He took time to finish the job but I am satisfied with work. He has done what ever I requested him to do to make me happy. He is calm, honest and punctual. Some days he worked upto midnight to finish the job. He has expensive power tools to do the job. He is very professional to work with. He listens to the customers requirements and works accordingly. Overall I am very satisfied with the work.