Custom Renovations

We paid $28,000 for them to make & install kitchen cabinets. Six months dealing with the worst experience ever. Worst communication ever. See Custom Renovations and My Cabinet Painters on Google and Yelp. Look carefully at the reviews & their response. You'll get a feel for how things will go when there are issues- as there are always issues in remodeling work, but pay attention to their response concerning what a customer is to them & their choice words. You can see everything is everyone else’s fault. Based on my personal experience, no in-between reviews, the negative reviews on Yelp, I’d question the validity on most of their positive reviews. As of today, the company has not completed the project. We ended up paying another cabinet company to fix the cabinets and finish over their bad work costing us another $16k. Never accept text communication as a means of discussing the project. Get everything verbally promised in writing! For cabinets, the door type is a major component. Somehow, it took them 3 months to advise us of a $2.2k change order for door type we selected in writing in July. 3 months after the $19k deposit and contract accepted. To boot, the 'change order' was sent via email with no context from the owner, no call and there was ZERO mention of a change order for three months when communicating with them from July to October… This company will put you under duress to pay money prior to work being done, regardless of compounding quality issues & they'll go outside the scope of the contract where it suits them then ignore you until you capitulate and pay more money under duress while you pray they’ll make good on the work. In our case, in the end they didn’t make good on the work. You’ll see examples of this in the negative reviews out there with this guy, Yanni. After months of emails back and forth and paying in full, some cabinet components were dropped off on my porch within the last three weeks without notice but not without significant issues. The refrigerator’s appliance box needs to be completely rebuilt as the panels were installed out of plumb leading to it being out of square and there was no support/ actual cabinet box built above the fridge- just an empty cavity. All drawers were too big for the cabinet boxes they made. No drawer slides were provided. All the cabinet interior drawers, boxes and shleves were provided unfinished and poor quality. Four doors were too small, too large or not provided at all. One drawer was never delivered. The ‘new’ cabinets have several chips and gouges due to delivery damage, poor workmanship and poor installation by drilling screws into the face frame sideways. They painted the upper cabinets but that is already cracking and not holding the paint. The toe kick and filler peice was hastily stained like a five year made it. Suffice to say, we do not recommend this company. Expensive lesson for us here. Get it in writing and don’t give a big deposit up front!

We hired Custom Renovations to paint our kitchen cabinets and to also create and install custom made end panels on our kitchen cabinet. Few days prior to starting the job, I received a call from the owner that the custom panels were complete, but instead of the agreed price , it was more than we we agreed to and he had to pass me the up-charge. He did not notify me of additional cost prior to making the panel. As they were already complete and we wanted to move forward with the project, we paid the full amount on a credit card for the panels. Once the job started, the owner stopped responding to messages and did not pick up calls. We tried to contact him as we wanted to get the estimate for additional work we asked for which was painting of the kitchen walls. Additionally, his workers left the kitchen back door completely open 2 days in a row and with no easy access for us to close the doors as the entire kitchen had been taped off and closed off. With great difficulty and care, we entered the kitchen around all the taping and covers to secure our home. On the 4th day, when the workers came to the job, we told them to please let the owner know that we need to speak to him about the estimate for the kitchen walls and we also wanted to tell about the security issue. After 4 days of no communication, I received an angry text from the owner stating that his guys were frustrated with us and that “these interruptions” were not helping. He then proceeded to call me in what resulted in a heated exchange. The next day, the workers finished the job and left without notifying us they were done and without giving us a chance for a walkthrough. At that point, I received a fraud alert on my credit card — the owner had attempted to charge my card for the remaining balance without even speaking with me or my approval to charge my card for the 3rd payment. The credit card confirmed that the owner was keying in my credit card information which meant that he had saved the details from previous deposit without my knowing. As the charge was blocked, this prompted the owner to finally make contact. We stated that 1) we were not given a walk through and 2) the panels for which we now paid were not installed. He said that no one was home was a walk through, which was not true as both my husband and I were home waiting for the job completion. He refused to sent anyone for a final walk through. Secondly, he said he will no longer install the panels. He claimed that installation was always “complementary” and as he no longer wants to deal with us he will not install the panels. We argued back and forth and we requested that we pay the balance but subtract the panel amounts. As it was a day before we left our home for an extended trip and did not want to deal with additional hassle, we paid full in a check. He was able to send someone to pick up a check but yet still not do a walk through. We have contacted several contracts to now install the panels. All have confirmed that the panels first needed installing and then painting. If we install now, the paint on the kitchen island and the panels will just chip and will not be repairable in a way that not visible. So now we have paid for panels which are useless. Additionally, as we were not given a walk through, there are several areas of the kitchen cabinets that were only primed, not painted. The entire kitchen cabinet bottom bases are only primed, not painted. So now I have to get someone to fix that. They also damaged my ceiling and did not fix that. Lastly, don’t believe the hype about the “Italian lacquer” it chips very very easily. I don’t recommend it at all.

I had a very tight time frame to have the whole interior of the house and kitchen cabinets painted and the job was done on time and beautifully. I trusted Yanni's opinions on color choices and met his crew who were highly experienced and professional. I would highly recommend this company to anyone who is looking for an experienced and professional company.

Custom Renovations did an exceptional job! They painted the entire interior of our home (four bedrooms, playroom, family room, office, 3 bathrooms, dining room, foyer with high ceilings, kitchen, laundry room/mud room) within the time frame that was promised. We went away on vacation, and they painted the whole house when we were out of town, and it worked out great! Yanni is a superior professional. From our first encounter he was up front about pricing and he seemed genuine with a lot of integrity. I never got the feeling that he was being "salesy", which I have encountered from other companies and is very off-putting. Even when we were away, I would get texts with the progress of their work. They BEYOND exceeded our expectations and we will continue to refer CUSTOM RENOVATIONS to our friends and neighbors.

Painted my interior before I moved in. What a job. I love the lead painter and the crew he works with. Matt, Tom and Nick. It looks amazing. Couldn't tell its the same home!

These guys made my move in experience just like you see on TV. I was impressed with their professionalism and their painting skill and speed was outstanding. What a transformation!!! www.paint2sell.com and Yanni Fikaris and his team are outstanding!

Yanni and his crew were great. I loved the work these guys performed in my home. Being a Haddonfield resident we typically get overcharged. Finally I found a company to price based on the job not my vehicle. I'm a believer now. Great work Custom Renovations.

Custom Renovations was hired to repair water damage in my basement and paint my bedroom. Once on site I was so impressed my whole downstairs was painted. His crew was on-time, respectfully, clean and managed to workaround my cats, dogs and bird. Everything was spotless when the job was done (temporarily cause they have have been rehired for more repairs). I would recommend Yanni and his crew for any job at any time.

Custom Renovations painted both the entire inside and outside of my home. Yanni the owner was terrific. He advised and recommended several paints and options. His attention to detail was second to known and he ensured everything was done to perfection. His team was professional, prompt, respectful, and cleaned up each day when they were done. I highly recommend them for you next painting project.

We recently moved to the East Coast from California and bought a town home in Yardley, PA. We started with the contractor recommended to us by our real estate agent. We are planners and wanted to schedule the painting and carpet well ahead of the move in date. It was like pulling teeth to get him to call us back, let alone, order the paint. It became obvious that we were going to have to let him go and we were scheduled to move in a week. We were desperate. We don’t know anyone in the area. My husband went online to Yelp and Angie’s List and chose Yanni Fikaris, Custom Renovations because of so many positive reviews. We want to post another positive review! Yanni and company are terrific! Working with him vs. the other contractor was like night and day. He was so professional, responsive and confident, while at the same time listening to what we wanted. He had the paint ordered and started that next week. I was especially impressed because after the first day, his apprentice, Matthew, noticed that the painting was not up to their standards. I will always appreciate Matthew, for his fine eye and integrity. Yanni let the crew go and brought in a whole new crew, actually coming in himself over the weekend to finish the job in time. And the result is stellar! I was happy with it right away, but even happier with it as I live with it and notice all the fine craftsmanship and detail Yanni, Matthew and crew put into the work. They did a fine job from the evenly painted walls down to the baseboards and the trim. They were thorough, professional and gave us excellent service. I highly recommend Yanni Fikaris, Custom Renovations. Don’t bother going with another contractor – go with Yanni first! And by the way, his prices are also very reasonable. We will be hiring him to remodel our kitchen soon.

I hired Yanni Fikaris from a referral from a coworker to paint my residence. He was the most knowledgeable and creative out of all the painters I interviewed. His staff was friendly and neat. They did an outstanding job. What a pleasure

We had a fire in our home and the smoke damaged just about the entire first floor. I found Yanni from custom renovations online and asked him to come out and access the damage. He was knowledgeable and was the only certified person who I trusted to come into my house without me being home. I'm glad I hired him - his team renovated what they couldn't save. They worked directly with the insurance company and we ended up with a whole new kitchen and just about the rest of the first floor. Thank you