BathSimple

I am absolutely enjoying my new bathroom that I did with BathSimple. I am kind of amazed that it all got done on schedule and on budget, when I consider how many steps there were in the process and how many people had to work with each other to get everything done. The design process involved several visits and several staff people bouncing ideas around with me and each other. The resulting proposal was crucial in getting approval from my homeowners association. The next step was to have BathSimple order all the materials. I cannot even begin to imagine having to deal with all that myself, though with BathSimple you can choose to only pay them to design your bathroom and you take it from there. Finally, I had BathSimple choose one of their contractors for me. You are not required to use their contractors but I trusted them to provide me with a good contractor experience, which they did. I feel that everything was taken care of, from recommending no-interest-for-12-months financing, to demolition and taking the debris to the dump, to getting the city permits and arranging for final inspections. A good experience - the only bad thing is now I walk into my other, non-remodeled bathroom and I think it looks ugly in comparison to my newly remodeled bathroom!

I had Bath SImple remodel two of my bathrooms in the last two years. The reason I went with them is (a) I can't stand going from store trying to select all my materials - I simply get overwhelmed and (b) I have had horrible experiences in the past with unreliable contractors. It makes me nuts when they don't show up. Bath Simple's process is easy. My designer, Bill, did a nice job helping me through the process and I am very happy with the final product. The construction process was great and Chris Ackley was the best. Very considerate and did great work. If you're thinking of remodeling, give them a shot. I think they do kitchens as well (?).

Can you ever remodel a bathroom without some hiccups or small setbacks? Probably not. In my experience, however, the closest you're going to get to a headache-free process is to go with Bath Simple. A year ago, we did our master bathroom the old fashioned way: found some random contractor, picked out everything ourselves, made a million mistakes, spent way more money than budgeted, did our own design, weathered the many delays and garnered a whole bunch of new gray hairs. Then we went with Bath Simple for our hallway bathroom. What a completely different experience. I am surprised there are not more companies out there with the same business model, providing start-to-finish, soup-to-nuts design and contracting services. Our designer Carla was thoughtful and thorough. She came to our house at least 3 times and spent a good deal of time going over ideas and samples. She also accompanied me to her recommended granite place to choose the vanity top. It is worth noting, this was the only retail outlet I had to visit and the only selection I had to make outside the universe of Bath Simple's offerings. (I didn't care for Bath Simple's granite selections and chose to go to a granite supplier to select my own. But that's what makes Bath Simple so nice to work with -- they have tons of product selections, but if you happen to want something highly customized or you prefer to choose, say, your own mirror, you can do that and they work with you.) Our contractor Domingo and his crew did really high quality work, were polite and aimed to please. That said, they did sometimes not show up when scheduled or only worked a few hours in any given workday. (My annoyance over these issues is what makes this a four-star review rather than five. ) Still, they did manage (barely) to complete the project on time. It took about three weeks. Rocky, the project manager, was helpful when issues came up.

Our 2 bathrooms badly needed remodeling, they were 25 yrs old and cheap to begin with, but I spent a year not knowing where to start. I'm in the construction industry so know how it's done on a grander scale, but didn't know how to approach such a small project. I didn't want the hassle and expense of hiring an architect, didn't want to cold call contractors, and didn't want to piece things together at Home Depot. Finally our shower broke and the sink started leaking, so I went onto the web to look for bath showrooms or designers. I happened onto the BathSimple website and a light bulb went on! It was all so....simple. Their web interface gave me just the boost I needed to get started. I could easily have picked some of the standard choices or just gone with their designers ideas (very good), but once started I really got into it and totally personalized the design. I opted to provide my own finishing touches for them to install (towel racks, mirrors, lights not on their website), which they were totally fine with. This put my own stamp on the look and saved me money as well. The installing contractor, Chris Ackley of Ackley Construction, was excellent. My husband and I lived in the house while they did first our master bath, then our guest bath, so Chris and his crew were extremely considerate, tidy, and quiet and worked hard to maintain our privacy. At the same time he double-checked all important items with us before proceeding and headed off potential problems. He was very knowledgable, had a good eye for design, and was a perfectionist with the construction. Our bathrooms are top-shelf, like something you'd see in a luxury spa, and the construction is robust inside and out. Were there any issues? Of course, it's a construction project. BathSimple states on their website that it takes 10 days to install a bathroom, which I think is a bad idea. This amount of time would be needed the for simplest pull and replace, whereas most people want some extras. When I talked to one of their reps they thought that mine would take about 3 weeks since I was moving things around and had separate tub and shower. Both bathrooms took over a week longer than expected, but that said they also did some extras that we requested like replacing the subfloor (we show rot once the floor was removed) and adding insulation. Even though we were dying for things to be done, we're glad Ackley took the extra time to do everything very right. They showed up early every morning, and worked late hours and some weekends (with our permission). All members of the crew were nice and I felt comfortable leaving them in the house. Bill and Rocky at Bath Simple were very cooperative at expediting a custom shower door to accommodate my family's Easter visit. The final costs were all as initially agreed upon, though I know they absorbed some extra expenses to get that door in. All in I would recommend them, just expect it to take longer for anything other than a simple pull and replace with easy materials, or if any issues come up, which is almost always the case with construction.

Great customer service. They did a thorough job of planning and quoting the job and really kept on top of things. No renovation job is without issues, but they handled them well and made it a smooth process that was on time and on budget.