This is a hard review to write. I have refrained from writing a negative review for quite some time, not wanting to operate this way, as they are real people and can be very kind and professional up front. But we all rely on reviews and sadly Sterling has not lived up to their promises, this time. They have been largely unresponsive to our MANY professional emails and calls and have refused to reconcile our project. Reading the glowing reviews it truly sounds like a different company. All we can figure is that we got the B-Team. We experienced many errors, incomplete work, very little supervision/inspection and poor communication, and overall an extreme lack of urgency as we blew past our promised completion date, despite our urgent need to move back into our kitchen/master bedroom areas. We are still picking up the pieces.
We started a kitchen/wood floor/paint remodel with them at the beginning of Nov 2018 which was supposed to be finished on Feb 6th, 2019. By the beginning of April, they walked away, citing that they would not return because we brought in our own painters. We had moved our painters out three times, and could not delay any longer due to my husband's knee surgery. The Friday before my painters came I talked with David in person about our inability to delay again. His reply was simply: "I understand." He did not say they would not come back if we did this. Our painters came and went and cleaned up in less than three days. After this, Sterling sent people to do a couple of things (installed back door that had been hanging outside for a while, and cleaned up some tile work) and then they disappeared.
Sterling did good work on 85% of our home. I'd love to post beautiful pictures and leave a nice review. Perhaps I will be able to some day. But they left our home incomplete, have over billed us, have refused to reconcile our contract and have clearly assigned our "case" to a new office manager who sends form replies and our issues remain unresolved months later.
There were many errors along the way which caused multiple delays to our project. We are still dealing with issues. They were not accurate in their final billing and STILL owe us money for unused allowances.
One glaring example is that our under cabinet lighting allowance in our contract was $1100. They installed 8 "Commercial Electric" brand PLASTIC puck lights that were stuck under there (cost under $150) - yet they have not reimbursed us for our unused allowance. See pic. We have written letter after letter asking for a final fair reconciliation of our project. They have not replied to that request. (There was an additional $1400 billed for the wiring in of these puck lights...there's literally a hole under my cabinet with a regular white electrical cord looking thing coming out and running to these 8 lights - see pic). The other lighting allowances were reconciled - for our entry pendant for example - AFTER we requested that adjustment ourselves.
We continue to discover errors/issues as we try to complete the details of the house ourselves. A sampling:
-Back door was installed after painters came, but a 3/4 gap left above it.
-The glass in our 8 large and 6 small upper cabinets was never installed.
-The upper kitchen shelves were 48" long and a cheap 5/8" thick board...and sagged in the middle before we even put dishes in there. We've had to have them redone and the cabinets divided into two separate ones for support.
-They left a big gap above my oven and a piece of wood (which in fact did not fit) for us to nail in there to fill the gap.
-Sterling framed out for new pocket doors in our kitchen. The doors were left behind for us to install. I asked Sterling to install them to ensure they would fit correctly b/c we had run into so many other issues. We are now on our second set of workers who are having to reframe the doors because the door frames are not even/level.
-Our kitchen cabinet allowance still remains unreconciled.
Today was really the last straw as I hired a cabinet maker (who also fixed our upper kitchen cabinets) to install the Rev-A-Shelf in my corner kitchen cabinet that Sterling left behind. It sat in my living room for literally weeks (now months) as their workers walked past it again and again. I requested multiple times that they install it. Today, we've realized that the Rev-A-Shelf that was ordered by S was for the WRONG side. Exhausting. I've had these new guys install a simple shelf today instead and will get this rev-a shelf back to sterling somehow. The box they had delivered sat in my living room for weeks and they walked past it many times and never installed it. Had they tried, they would have figured this out a long time ago.
We got an email recommending Sterling as a top rated contractor recently. And it just left a pit in our stomachs. This unfortunately was not our experience with Sterling Renovations.
Allowances with Sterling apparently are not truly allowances. If you go over cost, then yes, you will get a bill, but if your work comes under cost (like the cheap puck light fixtures they installed), there's no credit given. At least in our case.
We had to point out several errors on what they called our final billing. Some were taken care of, some were not. We still have outstanding items with them and they are non-responsive. We assume they hope we will just go away...and yes, it is a waste of our time to pursue a fair ending to this deal, but on principle, we will continue to reach out.
We believe that Sterling is capable of doing good work. But, before you hire someone, we recommend getting 2-3 bids for your work. Ask for referrals and follow up. Have everything in writing. Be on site in person and don't expect them to supervise. (But try to hire someone who will!) Specify what allowances mean to them and to you. After a completion date has passed, request a NEW completion date or your project could just float on with no end in sight.
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