I will try to keep this review brief, hoping not to bore the readers. I signed up to finish my basement in early Sep 2018 with Harmony with expected completion in 6-8 weeks. The project finished at the end of Nov 2018.
Overall, I am satisfied with the final job, although few things could have been done better. The basement looks nice.
I am not entirely satisfied with the process that took to get this job done. At one point, I was even thinking of cancelling the work mid-way and taking legal measures, however, I decided to keep working with the company in good faith. It was also encouraging that the owner of the company tried his best to fix the situation.
Harmony sent 3 guys to do the framing and drywall. This soon turned into a horror show (one that you see in reality TV shows sometimes). These guys totally butchered the work and I have detailed pictures and videos to prove this should it be necessary. The framing was not straight. the Ceiling was caving down in the middle. At one point, they almost tried to skip the sound proofing part. I had to get my mom to supervise them round the clock because trust was broken. The plasterer came and could not fix the problem. The errors were so extensive that another framer was sent to literally redo certain parts of the framing again. Of course, unfortunately not everything was redone so I still have to live with less than a perfect job in some areas of the basement. The plumber also made several errors but finally got the work done.
Moving forward, the plasterer was great, he covered much of the mishap that was left behind by the initial framers. The work was further delayed by a number of days where no one showed up. The flooring, bathroom, and kitchen part was done without much problems. The door casings were ordered wrong, but they immediately rectified this and reordered the right ones. I was not too happy with the flow of communication between the office and the project manager but I guess that happens. The project manager was helpful. I had to be very strict with him to ensure that things got done the way that I wanted them and to ensure I got the quality of work that I paid for. He was accommodating and courteous which was very helpful.
The office manager was very helpful with selections. I wasn't happy when some orders were not exactly as they appeared on the website but she adjusted the price accordingly. There were days when my emails weren't replied promptly or in some cases at all, but this could have been due to frustration on their part since the project didn't go as planned and/or I may have been deemed too demanding. In any case, the platform (Buildertrend) through which communication was done and the work was followed was very helpful.
I learned a lot from this experience and here are a few suggestions:
1. do your research, get consultations from many companies before signing up with one.
2. stay highly involved in your project, especially when you pay so much and/or if you plan to live in the place and enjoy it.
3. take some time off work and supervise the important steps ( framing, drywall, and electrical/plumbing work. essentially the steps that are covered and you cannot see later how it was done.
4. keep documents and proof of the work progress, in case things don't go according to plan and you need to take legal action.
Lastly, I still want to thank this company for finishing the job even though it took longer than expected and was painful at times. I have been quite diligent and thoughtful with the score I gave them. I hope that they read this review and use this as a constructive feedback and not be offended in any way.
