I hired Hestia for a typical bathroom and kitchen remodel - overall, there is a lot of disfunction. Their model of working is "hire others to do the work, don't give them the full rundown of what needs to be done, have those guys do very basic/track-home quality level of work and if anything 'special' needs to be done, have those people MacGvyer the hell out of it". Multiple times, different subcontractors had to come out to fix other guys' mistakes. You need to really push them a lot to get updates and follow-ups. Pricing was mid-point (which I guess was ok) but still enough that decent project management should've been a given. Timing was horrendous! I know you should expect delays during renovation from errors and unexpected circumstances, but if they're given any breath in between stages of work, YOU ARE SCREWED! We've been delayed for months at this point. Honestly, save your money and hire better quality at a slightly higher price or lower what you want done. Don't fall for their smooth talk to get your to put money upfront with them!
Absolutely awful.
Timeliness- Master bathroom remodel estimate was 4 months. We needed the job done in 6, so they had a 2 month buffer. The project dragged on to 12. While some delays could be attributed to supply chain issues, the vast majority came from general incompetence. A small fraction of what we dealt with:
- Demolition being started before many materials were even ordered
- Frequent mistakes ordering materials
- mistakes with permits
- mistakes to installations that had to be redone
- work crews that would frequently fail to show up on schedule or would not know what work needed to be done when they did arrive
- staff that would take days/weeks to respond to questions/concerns via email, text or their own messaging system
- ….this list goes on and on.
Cost– Nickle and dimed us with so many work orders, the project ended up costing DOUBLE the original estimate, including work to fix issues THEY caused. For example, they didn’t account for plumbing position when designing our cabinets. Instead of owning up to the mistake, they threatened us with another 4 month delay to redesigned the cabinets unless we paid to move the plumbing.
Workmanship – Awful. They failed to contain construction dust causing our master bedroom to be completely covered in debris, damaged our brand new cabinetry during installation, frequently had to redo work because of poor quality workmanship, and we’re still finding issues over a year after our project was finished.
Needless to say, we completely regret our decision to go with Hestia for what THEY described as a “simple” job.
Don’t believe the good reviews. Several months after our project started, while things were a complete mess, Hestia started asking us for positive reviews on various websites in exchange for a raffle entry to win “discounts” on our project, making all positive reviews you read suspect. Look at their BBB complaints for a more accurate picture of what you’re paying a premium for.
Cannot begin to tell you the hell these people put us through. Absolute and total hell. They are about as dishonest an organization we have ever dealt with. We signed a contract for a substantial remodel on a house we bought, and we gave them a check for 50% of the cost in July 2022 - the presentation was slick, polished, and took us hook, line, and sinker. Since we were staying in our current home, and paying two mortgages, time was of the essence, and we repeated that as a mantra over and over again - they continued to tell us that four months/five months at the outside was reasonable. We went back and forth on a final contract, having to delete several things because they were mysteriously not included in the first contract. It took over a month to finalize product selections, then another several months to get anywhere close to actual work. The dumpster out front appeared in December, and the demo started in mid-December. The communication and organization was beyond terrible - it was like nothing was every written down, and we were managing the remodel ourselves, ensuring communication happened because it just didn't happen otherwise. We went through so many different employees and project people, we just lost track. I will say there were several people who really tried very hard to do their job (Roger, Jonona, Payton, Sarah), but it was apparent the company did not set them up for success. The company uses a website - BuilderTrend - that many employees didn't know how to use, and when there were mistakes on it, there were no corrections. So demo is done, and a bathroom and laundry not included in the remodel were both demo'ed - whoops. The fireplace redo was finally started in January, and this actually looked great when done. And then the interior painting was started, and almost completed. Then the real problems began - a letter from the demo guy trying to put a lien on our house for non-payment of his $6,000 job. The fireplace mason - no payment from Hestia. The painter - owed $15,000 and unpaid by Hestia. The countertop folks cancelled after not being paid for measurements. The porta-potty company, same deal. Then the issues with financing happened - we went through Hestia to get a 24-month no interest loan for the back half of the project, and this was to become effective upon the issuing of the completion certificate for the whole project. Well, guess what, in the middle of this total mess of a project - with torn out kitchen and bath countertops, torn up tile floors, no fixtures, sinks, light fixtures, etc. - we get a call from the finance company that Hestia had issued a completion certificate and a check was going to be released. So we spent a week on the phone and emailing the finance company, assuring them the project was far from finished, sending them numerous pictures, and contact information for the unpaid subcontractors. Hestia's excuse - a computer error resulting in the generation of a erroneous completion certificate. So enter an attorney we had to hire to wade through this mess - we fired Hestia and continue to work with the finance company, which is trying to get their money back as well. Meanwhile, we have been paying two mortgages for the past eight months, still don't have a house we can move into, and are having to hire subcontractors to get the work finished. We have reported Hestia to the BBB (waste of time) and to the Attorney General's office (probably another waste of time), but now we are looking at the viability of small claims court. Again, I cannot stress enough how very dysfunctional this company is, the very cold manner in which they went about messing up our lives, and how they have taken absolutely no responsibility for this mess.
My husband and I signed this project on December 15, 2021. The salesperson, Jesse, did a great job on selling us a vision of our remodeling project. Our project was supposed to start the beginning of April and be done in 8 weeks. Hestia did not start demo until the first week of Aug and then was gone for a month. They came in first week of Sep to install a beam. We had kitchen windows replaced Oct 2nd with a hole in our wall until today. 3-4 Delivery dates have been missed to get the rock replaced. To their credit they came out 5 weeks later and put a blue tarp to try and cover the opening.
Work goes in 2 week cycles, do some work gone for 2 weeks. We are now 19 weeks in since Aug 8th and our house is still down to the studs. Our project should have been completed in early summer this year however, now we have no where to host our family event this year: 4th of July, Labor day, birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Everyone at Hestia knew we were going to live in the house during the 8 week renovation project.
Leadership at Hestia should've been in regular communication with my husband though an app called buildertrend. Hestia has issues using the app for all the items one would expect from a remodeling company like a schedule of when work is to be done or where and when money is spent. None of this has been done. We bought appliances in January to be ready for May/June competition, they are all sitting with the vendor for 9 months and likely until Jan of 2023.
We have paid a lot of money to remodel our home and trusted them with our home.
This is an ongoing saga for us at this time living in the middle of this disastrous mess. This has been the worst decision we made going with Hestia. Anyone looking at this company should continue their search in my opinion. Lisa M
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