All Universal converted my unfinished garage space into a bedroom & bathroom. The job involved framing, underground plumbing, electrical, drywall, and finish. They did get the job done with decent quality and a solid budget. But communication, professionalism, and timeline were extremely poor, and ultimately this was a big headache that I wouldn't do again. What should have been at most a 2-3 month job took over 8 months, and I had to constantly bug Mike just to get them to work here for one day each week, and often not even that. Because my townhome is attached, we had to pull a commercial permit, and I worked with an independent company to get that done. The permit was pulled on 12/13/21 and work was finished on 8/18/22, with city inspections finished on 11/4/22. There were many overpromises and lapses in communication from Mike, who I saw here 2-3 times only to pick up a check. Attention to detail was poor, and I had to keep an eye on progress and workers myself to make sure everyone was on the same page. There were further issues with inspections being called on quick permits instead of the commercial permits. Mike suggested that my involvement had something to do with the delays, but all I did was make sure the electrical inspection was called on the right permit, at which point I noticed that mechanical and plumbing had been called on the wrong permits. A week later, Mike called and swore at me for bugging them to get the correct inspections done, which is a poor way to treat a customer who was patient through much more frustrating circumstances. I can be generous and blame some inspection issues on the city, but nevertheless, progress and communication when we were not waiting on the city was unacceptable. On final inspection, an issue was detected and it was within the inspectors right to make us tear down the shower tile and redo the drywall underneath, but once he understood how much of a pain it would be to get All Universal to come and fix things, he let it pass. Exhausted from working with them, I asked Mike to return a deposit on a separate AC install we had planned to do, but he refused, even though that job hadn't yet started. Once the AC unit was delivered, I decided to cut my losses there and have another company do the AC job.
Looking back, I should have accepted a bid for 15-20% more from a GC with the capacity to finish this simple job in a much more timely and professional manner. This is my experience as a patient and promptly paying customer who didn't have any special requests. Paying 75% up front should have been a red flag. Ultimately I got what I paid for. I advise steering far clear.
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