UCE Renovation

U.C.E Renovation is a full service remodeling firm that specializes in residential and commercial work. Focusing on bathroom, kitchen, flooring, painting, millwork/moulding, complete remodeling, electrical and plumbing/hvac services. Providing finishing materials for all services with discounts where applicable. Keeping our client satisfaction as our main principle throughout the concept of our...

I highly recommend against using Albert Feierstein and UCE Renovation -- I typically don’t write reviews but because we relied so heavily on them when selecting our contractor I felt an obligation to. We selected Albert and UCE Renovations out of the 8 contractors we interviewed to renovate our three bedroom apartment in Manhattan. The drivers behind our selection were: 1) Albert is relatively young, and as he is still trying to establish his business we thought, selfishly, if we gave him the business, he would be highly motivated and we would get his full undivided attention. We believed, based on his words that that he would go the extra mile for us; 2) Albert ensured us all of the work would be done “in house” and that was appealing to us since we thought he had been working with his employees for some time and wasn’t simply subcontracting out; 3) As we were new to renovations, Albert convinced us that he would help source materials and would even give us his contractor discount (not up-charge like some do).
The two reasons why you should not use Albert Feierstien or any company he is associated with are the two reasons you should not work with any professional. He is dishonest and inexperienced. Albert lied right off the bat. The red flags went up very early when Albert and UCE Renovation had a very difficult time getting approval from our condo board (yes, condo not co-op. I can’t imagine the issues we would have had if we lived in a co-op). That was when the first lie was revealed. Albert was not going to do the work “in house”. In fact, he doesn’t have any employees at all. All he did was sub out the job. Albert’s “foreman” turned out to be a contractor himself with his own company who actually did employ all of the workers. It was his company/team who completed the construction, plumbing and electrical work. It was his license and insurance that was ultimately used in the end to get board approval (after Albert’s was insufficient). Nothing worse than realizing you just hired nothing more than a middleman collecting a percentage. Well, I thought he will at least help get us get some discounts on the materials we needed (finishings, etc.) and if any extra work was needed we could count on him to charge reasonable prices. However, when we received his prices we suspected something was wrong. Perhaps the military background in me prompted me to do some investigative work but I discovered that many of the items Albert quoted us for were far overpriced when compared to the actual price from the vendor and to the same items on the internet, and we also learned that his prices for additional work marked up as much as 100% of what the subcontractor would have charged. Unfortunately, this was after we had agreed to pay these absurd prices- we can only look back and feel extremely taken advantage of. The last thing you ever want is to NOT be able to trust your contractor or to have a feeling they are lying to you since you want to be able to rely on them- this is the biggest reason we would never recommend UCE.
When the work began was when Albert’s inexperience became evident. Any actual construction questions we had were immediately deferred to the “foreman”. After the demolition was complete and the actual building commenced we started noticing issues cropping up. Issues that should have been anticipated well in advance by the project manager (FYI – when choosing marble/tiles make sure you buy some bullnose/finishing for the edges/corners in your bathroom and kitchen – will save you a lot of money not having to pay a specialist to come in and finish the marble and tiles already on the wall). I will not go into any more detail as this review is long enough already.
Having a good contractor can really be the difference between a successful project and a complete nightmare. By the end of the project we weren’t even communicating with Albert (I only think he stopped by the apartment a handful of times during the three months of work anyway). Towards the end of the project he used threatening and harassing behavior to demand his final check and threatened to charge fees, etc. if he did not get his payment- however, the work was not even 100% complete- something which sadly, as the project manager, he did not even know or inquire about. I cannot tell you what to do with your upcoming renovation/project but I can strongly suggest you work with a different company.

U.C.E Renovation is a full service remodeling firm that specializes in residential and commercial work. Focusing on bathroom, kitchen, flooring, painting, millwork/moulding, complete remodeling, electrical and plumbing/hvac services. Providing finishing materials for all services with discounts where applicable. Keeping our client satisfaction as our main principle throughout the concept of our...

UCE Renovation

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ServicesPreconstruction ServicesYou can rely on UCE Renovation to guide you through every step of the preconstruction phase. We provide the services you need to get your project off the ground, including:Site evaluationEstimatesProject developmentDesign developmentArchitectural PlansMaterial order & supplyBuilding Approval City Filing Obtaining Permits Construction ServicesIf you are looking...

UCE Renovation is a full service firm specializing in residential & commercial remodeling. Founded in New York, we take pride in meeting and exceeding the needs of our clients. We work in close cooperation with project owners to ensure their wishes are taken into account. We also provide advice on alternative solutions that can save time and money without compromising quality.