Larry Larlin and son did a fantastic job at my wife's store, KATIA Boutique at 614 West Ave Norwalk CT. We needed a better way to display our window mannequins and Larkin Home Improvement had an economical high quality beautiful solution. Icing on the cake; on time, fast, efficient and genuinely very nice people. I highly recommend them for any job you can think of. See the picture...Beautiful! Stephen Mistretta read more

Larlin's Home Improvement - Katia Boutique - Handyman Near Me - West Haven, Connecticut

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Awful. This guy seemed decent enough during an initial phone call. After a bit of back and forth by email, I was ready to move forward on a repair job but needed to make a couple small amendments in the services I requested. After asking him to make these amendments to the google docs estimate that he relies on and re-calculate his costs accordingly I presented him with a Living Social coupon that I purchased for his services. And that's when it begins: Larry didn't respond to me for weeks. I phoned him and emailed just to follow-up to see what was going on. After two weeks of stringing me along, he sent me an email with the exact same estimate as before, completely ignoring my previous request. Once again I ask him to amend it. After doing so, he has his staff write up a "contract" which again neglects to mention the amendments I requested . I email them about this and they finally send me a new document. But wait. The next day he phones me up and accuses me of having some kind of problem or grudge ("what the hell is wrong with you"), and "driving his staff crazy" - apparently by my refusal to sign a contract that is inaccurate and insisting that all contracted labor is written down. He proceeds to send me yet another copy of the contract (why?) but instead of trying to listen and understand what's going on, let alone recognizing his repeated failures to provide an updated and accurate written estimate, he continues to rave arrogantly at me and then hangs up before giving me a chance to respond ("I gotta go. I gotta go.. click"). WTF? I truly wish I had been aware of the previous yelp review that said: "BEWARE of this vendor. They don't seem to have much integrity and the owner himself is ok with sending a sarcastic response when I, as the customer, called them on it." I completely agree with that assessment. I don't know anything about his skill as a contractor but there seems to be a pattern with how he deals with customers. He gives the impression of an incompetent, small-minded and snarky individual who wastes people's time and lacks the most basic of communication skills. Living social refunded my money in light of this ridiculousness. Hopefully, these reviews will prompt him to reconsider how he conducts himself. read more

I used Larry for a small project that I just didn't have time to get to. After buying a Living Social voucher online, I called his office, left a voicemail, and received a return call from Emily within 24 hours. Larry sent me an estimate within a reasonable time-frame. After agreeing to the price, we scheduled the service, and he followed-up the morning of to confirm the appointment. He completed the job quickly, professionally, and my wife (I wasn't home at the time) had nothing but good things to say about Larry and his team. Easy to work with, great communication, tech-savvy (I love that he works through Google Docs and e-mail!) I will absolutely consider using him for my next project! read more

I read someplace that Yelp reviews can have a huge influence on small businesses, so when searched Larlin's in order to write mine, I was astonished to find two extremely negative reviews, one from someone who has never written another review, and a second from someone with only five reviews, four of them negative. My own experiences with Larry and his son Brandon have been extremely positive. As a complete klutz when it comes to household skills, I've used Larlin's Home Improvement several times over the past few years. Most recently I had a short list of small, but necessary repairs: replacing a light fixture, caulking the tub, and installing a smoke alarm. Brandon appeared exactly when he said he would and dispatched the tasks easily. They are personable, competent, and efficient. Prices might be a bit higher than other similar services, but the work is solid and dependable. I'd recommend considering Larlin's Home Improvement, for any household job, large or small. read more

Larry and his son Brandon have been my contractor team now for almost 5 years. He has done numerous projects for me both in my home and in other properties. He crafted some beautiful built-in bookcases in my master bedroom, installed my attic stair, and done many things to my home that have increased its beauty and value. His son Brandon also helped me install my TV and audio system, he knows his home A/V that's for sure! Most recently, Larry and crew installed a basement staircase in a property I am flipping. It was well done. Book Larry with confidence, he shows up when he says he will and has a high level of integrity. read more

We Never hired this guy because he spoke to me like I was some uninformed 1950's house wife. When he came over to give my boyfriend and I an estimate, I had noted I wanted the windows repaired and the shutters repainted. He completely blew off my request and said you are just gonna just have to replace them. I was upset at the disregard and had no intention of replacing the original shutters with new ones because I felt it would ruin the historical integrity of the property. This is when Larry began to speak to me like this: " let me explain this to you like you're my wife..." and Larry proceeded to talk in a high pitched, patronizing tone to me about the reasons he couldn't repaint my original wood shutters. I was shocked. If this is how he addresses all his female customers I hope they have complained too. So I responded that I've watched videos of the repair of old house shutters. He then again said something like " I want you to pretend your my wife..." I immediately said okay stop speaking to me like this! I am NOT your wife!!! " he seemed upset that I wasn't going to be belittled like this and I left the back deck because I was so mad at his tone toward me. So he had given us an estimate before the insistence on myself not being spoken to like his wife- and the when he spoke to my boyfriend before leaving he changed the estimate to a higher number !! It was clear he didn't want to work on a job for a woman who spoke up for herself and didn't take his sexist crap attitude. This review is a reflection on how he treats women, not on his work since we never hired him. I'm curious if other woman have had issues with him speaking to them in manner? read more

Larry was very helpful in working to meet my compressed time frame of a project and responsive when I had questions about making purchases in order to complete the work. Unfortunately there were other issues which arose following project completion for me to give anything better than a 2 star review. Most of these would have been easily remedied if timing would have allowed it. I'm allowing for some benefit of the doubt as Larry was able to fit the project in under our necessary schedule deadline. Quote included "travel and trash removal"; travel of 10 miles should be a basic business expense not passed on to customers considering that distance was within the Living Social posting, and I'm pretty sure trash removal means it should be removed from the home, not added to the homeowner's personal garbage bins or left in the workspace. While I understand that minor issues and damages can arise during construction projects, as a paying customer I would expect efforts to be made to remedy them, or at least point them out, before declaring the project complete. Leaving marks on pre-finished surfaces without any effort to clean them up comes across as sloppy. Chipping frames and surfaces and not filling/painting them is not the level of professional work one should expect. It was the rush to get out of the home at the end of the project and not pointing out the damages and blemishes from the project that has tipped this down to a 2 star review. Only one of the issues above were immediately caught by the homeowner, the remainder upon close inspection of the work later in the evening. I don't expect perfection as I would never claim to be so myself. I do however expect professionalism and responsibility, and those I feel let down by. read more

Beware! I bought an Amazon local voucher for $130, that offered $340 in handyman services from Larlin. I called the day before it expired last November but they didn't call me back until mid-late the following week. Due to a death in the family, I didn't call again to schedule an appointment until recently. I called the office and got vm, almost always got vm. When Emily called me back, I mentioned the voucher and she sd that I would get the paid value only. I reminded her that I DID call before the expiration date but they didn't call me back until several days after. However, we had a leaking faucet and really needed to get it fixed, so I sd ok. I then got the written quote saying labor would be approximately $500 To replace the faucet and hang the kitchen pot rack + parts and Larry (owner) gave me credit on it for the full $340 promotional amount. Because I wanted to call attn to it to ensure there was no thought that I was trying to take advantage, I emailed back thanking Larry for honoring it. Emily then emailed and sd Larry didn't know it had expired, it will be $130 credit, not $340. I emailed her again to ask Larry if he would still honor the promotional value because I DID call before it expired and had proof of same. Emily said that Larry would call me back. Larry did call me back on Friday, April 17th and in that conversation he again reiterated that he did not realize it had expired. I pointed out to Larry that I responded to his email to ensure there was no confusion thanking him for applying the full amount because no one from Larlin called me back before the voucher expired. Larry apologized, and acknowledged that sometimes they have 'communication issues.' As a solution, he proposed that we "split the difference" to get me some of the promotional value but not all of it. I agreed to that and requested an updated quote. After emailing and asking repeatedly, and Larry sends his quotes by Google docs so you can only open it if you have a Gmail account, on Tuesday evening April 21st I was finally able to open the quote. I was shocked to see that he had only increased the credit by $55. Mind you the difference between what I paid & the promotional value was $210, so splitting the difference should've been a credit of $105. But he only gave me a credit for $55, on top of what I paid for the voucher which he legally has to honor. I emailed back yesterday upon being able to open the quote and reminded Larry of our conversation on Friday. I also noted in the email that it was interesting that in the initial quote he had quoted up to $500 in labor cost. However on this latest quote, where he increased the credit to me by $55, he also increased the labor cost by $65 and I wanted either an explanation why that was or labor reduced back to approx. $500, where it started. That email was sent late morning and when I didn't hear back from anyone by 5:00, I reached back out to Amazon and they refunded me the $130 I paid due to this extenuating circumstance. I also emailed Larry & Emily that I had done so since no one got back to me and thanked them for their time. Late last evening, Larry sent me one more email: "Kim, I think this is best. All of the confusion is getting the best of you. Thanks for getting the refund from Amazon. Best wishes to you!" Seriously, I'm not confused. Not only did they wait until AFTER the voucher expired to call me back, but then he jacked up the labor cost and didn't keep his word for the credit. So, as I started, BEWARE of this vendor. They don't seem to have much integrity and the owner himself is ok with sending a sarcastic response when I, as the customer, called them on it. read more

From first contact through fine tuning this is a company who delivers. They even have a PayPal option for handyman work that is ingenious. Scheduling was equally well done. Very organized and professional including real good follow up. Even came back to do a little fine tuning at no extra charge. I highly recommend this company for affordable reliable and on time handyman projects. read more

I had a horrible experience with my voucher for Larlins Home Improvement handyman service. First, the owner came out and used 1/2 hour of the voucher to see what we wanted done, then sent us an estimate for $400, $230 over the voucher. We said we only wanted the 2 hrs service on the voucher. I repaired one item, the most important one, MYSELF b/c he couldn't come out in a reasonable amount of time. When he came, 2 wks after purchase of voucher, he brought 2 guys with him to install a single light fixture (1-man job), stayed 20 min, said it was = to 60 min of man hours, and left. So we actually got a 20 min. job done for our 2 hour voucher. And it wasn't the thing we'd purchased the voucher to get fixed. I guess at Larlins it takes 3 men to screw in a light bulb. read more

He showed up on time and did a fantastic job in a very short period of time. The gentleman was polite, professional and knew exactly what he was doing. He then made sure he cleaned up after himself and that we were 100% satisfied with the job he had done. I not only recommend him, I have already contacted him for a quote for some additional work. read more