ToMakNew

Sherri S.

I wanted to fully remodel my kitchen and found Tom Estes on "Thumbtack." I first met with Tom and his cabinet guy, Miguel Sanchez, in December, 2017 and got an estimate as to what it would cost. I told Tom I was looking to do the reno in the spring. I re-contacted Tom in March, 2018 to move forward with the reno and after a rocky start (Tom made an appointment with me but stood me up, telling me he "forgot" about it. Also, there was some trouble getting back in touch with Miguel, whom Tom insisted had to be contacted and dealt with separately). I had to buy all materials myself (Miguel provided the cabinets and countertops.) The cabinets were ordered and approx 4 weeks later, the demolition began. Things went fairly smoothly (there was a 2-day delay with the installation of the cabinets due to Miguel still being on another job.) Overall, I am happy with my new kitchen. It looks great. However, there are issues that need addressing. First, I don't believe that Tom and Miguel spoke to coordinate where cabinets and lights would go. A canned light was placed right in front of a cabinet and I was concerned the cabinet would hit it when opened; light switches went in without taking into consideration where cabinets would be placed. There was no attention paid to detail. No precautions taken to prevent bleeding onto other areas; one living room wall beside a cabinet was really messed up with paint/spackle; two tiles of my new floor were chipped; a new dishwasher was installed and the bottom plate was just set below it without securing it (it took my husband all of 5 minutes to secure it with screws); the refrigeration was put into place without leveling, or placing a water line to hook up the icemaker (again, something my husband fixed in about 10 minutes time). Tom's response was that he was not "an installer." (I would think that would be a part of a total renovation - installing new appliances.) My front door and porch were left in terrible condition; it took repeated requests to Tom to get the baseboards caulked. Also, I was not happy about learning that I would have to pay extra to get the ceiling painted. Assuming the kitchen ceiling would be painted (in fact, Tom and I had talked about it), we asked for an estimate to have the living room ceiling painted at the same time and was quoted a price of $800 if we provided the paint, $900 if we did not. I had already bought ceiling paint, per my prior discussion with Tom. I live in a condo that is not that big and the ceiling space we are talking about is not a large area, so I felt $800 was high. When I balked about the high fee, I learned from Tom that he had not included painting the ceiling in the reno price. Really? You are going to tear up the ceiling, put in canned lighting but not repaint it? only fix the holes and prime for paint? There was also an issue with painting a wall that I considered a kitchen wall - it was the same color as the rest of my kitchen. Tom treated it as part of the living room and felt there should be an extra charge to paint it. The painters did paint the wall but when I balked about the $800 ceiling fee, Tom told me he had to absorb a cost of $350 to have them paint that wall - really? When I thought they were done, I discovered that one of the new outlets installed did not work. I asked Tom to come that day to fix it. His response was to give me the name of one of his other customers to contact for a reference on what a good job he does with follow up. My response to him was that I did not need a reference at this point as I had already been through the process with him and I just needed him to fix the outlet. I then gave him my opinion of the overall job done. He never at any point "asked" if I was satisfied with the work done, nor was any clean up done. The cabinets were not wiped out, the front door and front porch left a mess, the living room wall looked terrible, the tiles chipped. I asked him to get the outlet fixed so we could settle up and move on. His response, "Will do. Thanks." No comment about any of the issues set out to him. I will admit that he did, later in the day, send an email apologizing for no clean up. He came that day, fixed the outlet, cleaned up the paint/spackle on the wall and cleaned up the porch (the door was not clean). Removed the lock box and left my keys on the counter. Nothing done or mentioned about the chips in my new tile floor. But we are now done, and I put a check in the mail for the balance of his fee. There was an additional $1320 in extras that had to be paid, over the estimate. My final opinion, I don't feel like Tom was concerned with making sure I was satisfied and feel like had I not made a big deal about the caulking of baseboards or the clean up, it simply wouldn't have happened. Because of that, I won't use his services again nor will I refer him to anyone who is looking for a contractor. Attention to detail really does matter.

J O.

I have read Mr. Estes response to my review of his work & attitude. As I predicted, he responds with a long list of excuses about why the mistakes he made are my fault. This attitude is consistent with the experience I had in working with him. I will not waste anymore of my time warning folks about the poor work this man does. I'm glad that I made sure to have all of our transactions documented in emails. Just know, you have been forewarned

Bonnie G.

I hired Tom to completely revamp my mail bathroom. Every drain had to move, etc. He installed heating under the tile and did a custom tile job that is like no other tile I've ever seen. It's showroom worthy! Tom was timely and my bathroom is fantastic. I would recommend him for any work.

Kelly S.

My husband and I called Tom after he contacted us through thumbtack and we read his good online reviews. We have a lot of projects we're interesting in tackling. Tom told us he would send out his project manager Wade for some quotes. Wade seemed competent and we trusted him since it was presented to us by both of them that he worked for Tom. We signed a contract with Wade to remove popcorn from our ceilings and do new texture and paint the living room. He hired 2 family members to do the work, he kept telling us they were "down on their luck" and "needed the work". One of them told me he had no previous remodeling experience. The other guy was quite rude and argued with me when I asked why they didn't put any plastic down on my floors before starting.

They left the job site a wreck the first night with soaking wet popcorn on top of my new laminate wood floors, and all over my kitchen tile floors. Wade did not visit the job site once until 10pm (the workers left at 3pm) with us that night. I had to stress to him that the wet popcorn would ruin my floors since you should not leave standing water/wet things on laminate wood. Only then did he make it a priority to start cleaning their mess. The next day (after Wade and workers arrived late again 2 out of 2 days) I had to find out from the inexperienced guy that the rude guy got pissed off and wouldn't come finish the job. Wade did not communicate any of this to me I had to confront him about it. He told me not to worry and that he was running to home depot real quick. He disappeared for 4+ hours and the job was at a stand still. I found out later that he actually left to go to a different job. It was then (along with other reasons like them trying to clean our floors with lacquer thinner) I decided to fire Wade even though we had already paid for half upfront. He refused to refund any of our 50% payment after only 1 days worth of work.

In looking for new companies to finish the job I was contacted again by Tom on thumbtack. I let him know what happened and that I would be leaving him a bad review. He called and apologized and asked to come look at the work that had been done. I was hopeful he would refund us some of our money but In person he was quite patronizing toward me. He said he thought the work done was worth our downpayment, but at the same time said that he would never hire the people Wade hired based off the poor quality of work he saw.

He told me that he often has to give "therapy" to home owners because they panic when they see dust/dirt during a job (thats different than zero prep work and no cleaning up at end of day). He kept denying any and all personal responsibility for the job since we signed the contract with Wade and not him. He even went as far as to threaten to sue me if I left him a bad review!

The only thing he offered was to send his other drywall guys out for a quote with a small credit off since we already paid so much. Their quote came in higher and they seemed less professional than other quotes we received, not to mention we already lost all trust and respect for Tom.

We went with another company that did an amazing job. They taped all of our surfaces off with plastic and kept our house clean, and guess what? I didn't need any "therapy" at all!

Dealing with Tomaknew was a complete nightmare for us and I would never recommend them to anyone.

Danielle G.

I used Tom and Tomaknew for a complete master bathroom remodel. Our approx. 9'x8' bathroom was a three week project that required a total gutting and re-worked plumbing. The remodel gave us new everything: paint, tile floors, tiled shower, custom built vanity with stone counter top, custom built storage cabinet, dual flush toilet, mirrors, vanity lighting, baseboards, sink faucets, shower hardware, bath hardware, and a new window.

We converted our 3'x3' framed/glass walk-in shower and adjacent tub into a 5'x3' frame-less/glass walk-in shower and tiled area to dry off.

We also extended our floor tile into the master closet.

Our bath window was originally glass block. It was replaced with a smaller sliding window and new siding on the outside wall.

Tom was accurate about the project timing, he told me it would take 3 weeks and it did. I was kept informed of every step of the process. He also gave his advice on design. I had originally picked out tile (marble) that could cost me extra to install and accent tile that didn't match. He returned items I didn't want and bought replacements.

The budget for the remodel was competitive/comparable.

His suggestions for other vendors (vanity counter top, cabinets, shower glass) were spot on and easy to work with.

He even threw in a little extra cleaning at the end.

We love our new bathroom and will call him in the future for our next remodel needs.

Sherif M.

One day I found the carpet in my dining room soaked. I immediately thought it was a busted pipe, and feared that the cost of fixing it would run in the thousands. I immediately called Tom, who's done two other plumbing jobs for me at a great price and quality. On very short notice, he sent me Scotty, one of his master plumbers. Scotty almost immediately diagnosed the problem - the water connection in the back of my fridge was loose and probably had been for years, and was causing water to leak under the floor into the nearby dining room carpet.

So instead of paying $5000 or some ridiculous amount like I feared, I ended up paying $75. I was totally convinced my problem was pipe-related since I've had problems in my house before with busted pipes. But instead of leading me on and taking advantage of me, Scotty did the right thing and fixed my problem at minimum cost.