Overpriced, sloppy, extremely unresponsive and slow. We were unimpressed with the service of this company, to say the least. We were initially very impressed with this company's seeming professionalism and experience, particularly that of its principal, Rob Capar. But their actual service did not match their initially slick presentation. Maison D'etre strung us along for months only to repeatedly present us with proposals for renovations that were far above the budget that we had provided (in fact almost $300,000 more!), all the while charging us by the hour to repeatedly redesign the plans. Weeks would go by with nothing happening and no updates or tangible progress on our project. They made errors in the materials that they ordered (e.g. ordering and installing frosted bathroom windows for non-bathroom windows, installing a window where our plans showed no window at all) and then fought with us to avoid taking responsibility for those mistakes. The windows were also a random assortment of horizontally sliding, vertically sliding and casement windows. The casement windows cannot be easily fitted with screens that don't look terrible, so we now have bugs continually flying into our house. The installation of the windows was also extremely sloppy (the windows had to be reinstalled at our own expense by our new general contractor, who did a much cleaner and professional job). Our new general contractor indicated to us that the price that we were charged for the windows ($22,500) was far too high. During demolition and asbestos removal they knocked down a giant part of our backyard fence to gain easier access to our back door and just left the fence lying on the ground so that passersby on the sidewalk could see right into our yard, which was piled high with demolition waste. Rob Capar promised us that they would fix the fence (along with our damaged front stairs), but they never did. Again, we had to pay our new contractor to fix Maison D'etre's sloppy work. The company's invoicing system was opaque, so it was hard to tell how much subcontractors were charging and how much was being charged as a fee by Maison D'etre. Rob Capar claimed to have many years of experience and inside knowledge of the City of Vancouver's permitting process and had us pay for a variety of expensive reports that he said were required to obtain the necessary permits. But, upon actually presenting our permit application to the City he got some resistance and recommended to us that we proceed to do the job without permits. We wasted months (and thousands of dollars) trying to make things work with this company. Ultimately we had to cut bait and hire a new general contractor. Our new contractor did an excellent job within our budget and in fact offered us many options that Maison D'etre never suggested. Overall, we had a very negative experience and would recommend avoiding this company. read more

maison d'etre design-build - During demolition, Maison D'etre knocked down a part of our fence and just left it like that, exposing our backyard to passersby. - General Contractors Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Maison has been my preferred renovation team for the past ten years. I have only praise and excellent experiences to report. Offering both the design and execution on their projects, it makes the whole work so much easier. If they need to sub contract, they are covered by workers giving the same high quality workmanship. We finished a major renewal this past spring and I'm totally happy about everything. My quality of living has been increased in so many ways thanks to their experienced team that came up with great ideas and on budget ! What I appreciate as well is their flexibility and relentless search to find the right way and the best way to do such work making the customer very happy. Look no further. Maison is the best renovation team in greater Vancouver. read more

Perhaps this company's clients are not given to writing on-line reviews because there should be many more very positive ones.. For some time I have intended to do this because I continue to be so pleased with the work they did for me to renovate my bathroom. What I most appreciated was the attention they gave to it, from the design phase, through demolition, sourcing materials, checking them and arranging for competent trades not only to to do the work but come when they are expected. I was most appreciative of this attention to detail and at all stages to my wishes. They were a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend them. read more