Bathroom Renovation Complete

Greetings Brownstoners,
I wrote here a while back seeking some advice regarding a bathroom updating. Most people recommended that we go all the way and gut renovate, and in the grand scheme my wife and I ended up agreeing. So we posted here, sought contractors and proposals, and ultimately chose Damian Sherlock of Sherlock Homes. I thought I’d share my experiences, and I’m happy to answer questions others have.

I would highly recommend Damian and his team for a few reasons:

Price – they came in right in the middle of the range we settled on (7-9k), which was modest based on the fact that we’re selling soon. When all was said and done, we ended up at the high end, but this was entirely our choice. There was never any pressure applied, and the quote never changed on Damian’s end.

Quality – the work is really good. There are minor quibbles, but no major issues. Given the horrendous condition of the bathroom beforehand, we were impressed. New walls, tub, toilet, tiles…they were even able to get us an extremely small toilet to fit our space on one day’s notice. Good work done for the given price over the given timeframe. the only real complaint we had was that the workers punched a few small holes in our living room floor, but they came back, filled, and stained the area. I should also note that Damian did not think his guys caused the holes. Nevertheless he said repeatedly that they would come back until I was happy. By the end of the process, I definitely was.

Accessibility – several of our friends complained of contractors who started but didn’t finish work, or wandered off job sites for weeks at a time. We had several contractors no show the estimate, which is not good for word of mouth. Damian was accessible via text message, even for questions that could charitably be described as clueless (me via text: “The grout doesn’t look even.” Damian: “They haven’t grouted yet”). There were times that I texted him while buying materials. I felt like a pain in the ass, but when you’re spending thousands of dollars you can’t worry about being annoying.

Overall, it was a really good experience, and if I was going to do additional work, I would call Sherlock Homes first. And if they were booked I would wait. They were ready to do the work a few days after our initial meeting, and again, they completed the job on budget and on time.