I used Houston Heights Helper to repair a door and to change another door into a barn style door. Roger was professional and responsive when I had any questions. The website makes it easy to schedule an appointment and to pay the bill.

I really hate writing bad reviews. However, I also have a particular distaste for contractors who disregard their responsibility. Although the subject home improvement project was several years ago, the issue resulting in this review took a long time to reveal itself due to the nature of the problem.

Houston Heights Helpers (HHH) was contracted to remodel a 3rd floor master bathroom. Major parts of the project included all new tile on the floors and installation of a new walk-in shower, including all plumbing fixtures.

I purchased the 12" x 24" tile which HHH was then to install. One day I came home and was introduced to a bathroom with around half of the tile complete. HHH's representative then tries to prepare me for what I was about to see by saying something must have been wrong with the tile because it was bowed in the middle and this created an issue with the zero grout line I had requested. The tile looked horrible. The vertical surfaces in the shower were particularly noticeable because of the shadows created by the ceiling light splashing over all the irregular edges. Basically, HHH tried to blame me for way it turned out. Their excuse was that it was I who requested the zero grout line when it "should have been wider". Of course, I explained that THEY were supposed to be the experts on this and, if the tile didn't allow for the thin grout lines I requested, THEY should have advised ME before installing so much of the tile.

In addition to this, they did a poor job on nearly everything else, which included sloppy installation of light fixtures, very poorly painted trim, sloppy calking and cabinet doors which I had to complain about numerous times before they were painted to an at least passable quality. The plumbers incorrectly installed the shower controls then discarded the installation instructions making it very difficult to figure out how to correctly do it. In the end they got the fixtures re-installed, but I think something with the temperature control is still not right.

The owner of the company must have known things were not good. He called me and asked me if I would just pay a reduced amount because of all the issues. I ultimately agreed, but regret doing so. I shouldn't have paid them anything because I'll probably have to redo 80% of what they did before I'd be able to sell the house. Upon looking at the work, Roger Kaufman from HHH shook his head and said the tile guy "usually does a good job" and that he'd seen other work that looked a lot better.

Putting that aside for a moment, flash forward to present day and me noticing a wet spot on the 2nd floor kitchen ceiling directly below the plumbing fixtures installed by HHH's plumber in the 3rd floor shower. By coincidence, I was retaining a contractor to do some kitchen remodeling and asked if he could check this new situation out. He determined it was coming from shower fixtures improperly installed, (by HHH's plumbing sub) which resulted in a very small leak inside the 3rd floor wall that literally took years to get worse and worse until it became noticeable on the 2nd floor ceiling. It had been a long time since the remodel, and definitely outside the warranty period. But, because this issue was so directly traceable to a specific cause, and due to the generally poor work done by HHH on almost everything else, I hoped they would step up and agree to make the repair, or at least discuss it. Instead, Roger Kaufman refused to help and succinctly told me to contact another company.

In addition, I learned the excuses HHH gave me for the issue with the bowed tile were also lies. I recently brought this up with a kitchen & bath specialist who informed me that bowed tiles are not unusual and they just have to be installed in a slightly different pattern when doing a zero grout line. He also said it most likely even indicated that on the box. He also explained how the grout used by HHH was completely wrong for the application, which explains why it was stained and crumbling out from between the tiles after just a few weeks.

So now I'm about to pay someone else to redo HHH's inferior work. If you hire them, I hope you have a better experience. Especially after this recent communication with them, I'd give zero stars if I could.

We hired Heights Helpers to relocate an interior door which required repair to the wooden floor and some reconfiguration of a recessed bathroom cabinet. They also installed a wood beam with columns to create a division between living and dining room. We are very impressed with their work! They were communicative and personable and scheduled around our availability easily. The house was left clean after their work. Impeccable floor work and dry wall work! I felt they really listened to our needs and delivered, even doing a few ancillary tasks without much additional expense (eg, patching extra holes from TV mount, patching ceiling hole where a recessed light was). We will definitely be using them in the future for other projects.

The work was done well. However the scheduling was bad. They rescheduled me the day of and then were late after the reschedule. Project Manager did not apologize/call me or do anything for the inconvenience. Specifics: I had about 10 hours of work scheduled with various projects. I scheduled two weeks in advance and then texted the day before to verify they were still on track. They were suppose to be here between 8:30 and 9:30. At 7:49am the day of I get a text that they needed to reschedule, but could be there in the afternoon. I said I wanted them to start that afternoon since I took a vacation day specifically for this purpose. I had not heard from anyone at 2:30 so I called. He then showed up around 3:30. Since he did not finish, he said he would be there the next day at 8:00am. At 9:00 I had not heard from anyone so I called. He showed up around 10. I realize that scheduling cannot be exact, however, it was a full days of work. A business should know before that morning that they cannot be there.
Update: The owner emailed me twice and apologized. Said that this was not normal - which based on the other 5 star reviews is probably true.

Absolutely wonderful experience!! The communication was excellent, any calls were returned very quickly. The job done was on time..and in fact earlier than expected. Juan was the Helper assigned to the job and couldnt be more professional. I am extremely happy with the entire process and plan to use them many times in the future.

As a new homeowner, I was worried about finding the right handyman--someone who would do the job right for a fair price. Heights Helpers fit the bill. Plus, the handyman arrived on the job early and finished early. I recommend them.