Avoid Chicago Tank Removal!…read more The Village of Winnetka certifies only two companies for removing old oil tanks that may have been buried in your yard back in the day. One of them is Chicago Tank Removal. We were selling our house of 22 years when the prospective buyer's inspector discovered a pipe in the bushes that he suspected lead to a buried tank. A tank about which we had no prior knowledge. So we immediately contacted both companies. Chicago Tank Removal (CTR) responded first so we had them come out right away. This tank removal had to happen fast so that the sale of our house could go forward. I am posting this saga because we were so bitterly disappointed by our experience with CTR. For starters, although the owner swears by it, their method for finding a tank seems incredibly unsophisticated and was -- at least in our case-- deeply flawed. The owner, David Streich, literally uses divining rods for this purpose. Applying this method he declared, with absolute conviction, that he had discovered the location of the tank we needed to have removed. He said the tank was buried in the ground on the left side of the front of our house. He stands by the veracity of divining rods so much so that he chose not to verify his "discovery" of a tank by pushing a long slender probe down into the ground until they hit metal. Guess what happened next? David and his crew arrived days later with a giant excavator and tore into our yard -- see horrifying photos. As that machine dug deeper and deeper it ripped out the walkway, landscaping, lighting and the sprinkler system there. As it turned out, there was no tank. His divining rod "mis-read" was chalked up to having detected a pipe for the landscape lighting or the sprinkler system. So, after employing his divining rods once again, Mr Streich declared, definitively, that the tank was actually on the other side of the front yard. And, then, without batting an eye, standing right in front of the deep pit that he had just dug, he tried to shake us down for more money. I insisted that he first prove the actual existence of a tank. So then, and only then, he employed the long probe. He and his guys pushed that probe in and out, deeper and deeper, time after time. Still no tank. I refused to pay any more money and insisted instead that he follow the pipe that our prospective buyer's inspector had discovered in the first place. The pipe that instigated this whole debacle. He and his crew did so and eventually we determined that there had never been a tank in the ground. It used to be in the basement. The capped end of the pipe is still sticking out of the wall there. In my opinion, now that I know so much about old oil tanks, they should have looked there first because that was a very common set up back in the day. But CTR gets paid for digging. We needed CTR's official certification that there was no tank. It was perfectly clear that we would not receive that until he was paid in full for NOT removing a tank that was never there in the first place. The strong implication was that he would slap us with a lien so the sale would be blocked by the title company. He had us right where he wanted us. I have spoken with Mr Streich since this review was originally posted on Google. He wants to blame my wife for this fiasco because she did not want to pay him $500 to come over and look for the tank. Except that when she balked at the fee he waived it and came over anyway. He and his divining rods. Yet somehow, at least in David's mind, it is our fault that he unnecessarily tore up our yard costing us well over $10,000, all in, after we paid him and for the all the repairs to restore the walkway, sprinkler system and landscaping. My advice: Take your business somewhere else. Avoid Chicago Tank Removal at all costs.

I spoke to David this morning, he was extremely knowledgeable and helpful, answered all my…read morequestions and helped me determine the next step while on a time crunch to close my home. I'm impressed with how helpful he was because even though there was a chance I was not going to need the services in the near future he still walked me through all scenarios and potential costs of tank removal if needed. super customer service, I will not hesitate to use their services if it turns out we do need to remove a tank

Tuckpointing disappointment. The absolute worst experience in every imaginable way. Do not…read morerecommend hiring this company for anything. Every single promise was broken, my family was put through too much of unnecessary drama filled with countless excuses and tremendous amounts of stress from start to finish due to lack of basic job site oversight, utter negligence, disregard for safety, and simply horrible communication throughout the project. The job was supposed to be completed in under a month starting in late September 2020 (pending favorable weather conditions), we're going on our full YEAR now in September of 2021, so this project has been out of control. They were hired to restore and repair the damaged brick around 2 of the basement windows and perform full house tuckpointing on an older historic house built in 1930's. About a week after the work started, the original crew was switched with a promise of a "better one" and then the problems began escalating fast. The very first day, the new (second) crew left a forty foot ladder unsecured and abandoned the job site in the middle of the day, the ladder came crashing down and tore off the downspout, thankfully not hurting anyone but causing a lot of anxiety to my family and neighbors that have kids running around and cars parked nearby. The downspout remained collapsed in my front yard and not fixed through fall, winter, spring and summer months causing the rain water pour down free from the roof on the walls. Next, they set up the scaffolding on the front of my house and again disappeared for days on end without any communication or coherent explanations and then days turned into weeks of this abandoned scaffolding with loose boards sometimes flying off during the storms and threatening our picture-windows. When the workers eventually came back to continue the work, the quality was so poor (many blade scuffs on brick faces of the front wall, mortar color mismatch, irreparable damage to the ornamental limestones and front door frame) and the company owner was virtually absent - despite many promises to be at the site daily - unresponsive to my calls, I had no other choice but to seek the original subcontractors of the first crew myself, thankfully they were still in the area working on a friend's house. At that time, I was reassured that my house was going to take priority with everything fixed and finished in a linear fashion, crews switched back, and with no more delays (weather permitting). Well, this dragged on to winter time and the project had to stop until spring. When project resumed in March, the engagement was very spotty due to the intermittent weather but seemed to have been put "back on track" with my constant calling and texting to ensure that a schedule of work is communicated and delivered as promised. Then, everything just halted and again the crew disappeared for over 4 months, showing up only to unload materials for the remaining work and barely resuming on what's left of the house at the end of June. We were told numerous stories about what is happening basically holding us hostage at our own house with scattered debris, hanging cable lines and sand piles in the middle of our driveway while they were apparently doing other jobs. Unacceptable conduct. It took me literally hundreds of texts with "what's going on" and "any updates" (most of which went unanswered) to get to the bottom of the issue that seemed to have been stemming from some broken deals between the subcontractors and the owner, and money owed from the other aggressive underbids being paid for by the false promises of future work. According to the subcontractor, it was some kind of pyramid scheme. The owner, of course, offered his side of the story, but, in the end, the project remained on hold until another (third) crew was brought to complete the project in late August. The third crew was somewhat more diligent and mostly on time but not highly skilled as became evident by the sloppy overbrushed mortar on bricks, another chipped glass block window in the basement and, to add insult to injury, complete mortar color mismatch on the last wall and touchups. These so called "touchups" look like someone vomited on our walls and then attempted to spread it around. By the way, I have agreed to pay higher than the originally asked price for the job to get it finished, the owner wouldn't even handle this part, instead I had to pay the subcontractors directly (first and second crews only, we didn't pay extra for the third crew). In any case, I was promised that the additional projected cost would come off as a discount for my next project (driveway, front porch); however, this discount never actually materialized on paper, and, needless to say, we won't be doing any more future business with this company. This project was a colossal failure in every aspect: bad quality of work, non existent time management, awful communication and way over budget.

STAY AWAY!!!!!! BEWARE!!!!!! DONT DO BUSINESS!!!! Quincy…read moreSizemore will steal your money and stop communicating. Do not trust him with any money. I have posted a picture below of my credit statement where Quincy stole over $10,000 on my credit card and is no where to be found. He used his company square account and charge my card $5,300 and used my credit card without my permission for personal purchases. I have made my bank aware these fraudulent transactions. I also will be filling a police report. Please don't be a victim.

Wojciech and crew have remodeled our kitchen, living room, and basement in recent years and we're…read morethrilled with the results. The work is always top notch and reasonably priced. Wojciech is very hands-on and will walk you through every step of the process. We're always given plenty of options on the type of material to be used and the attention to detail is well-appreciated. Highly recommended.

Over the last months Bonn Builders did some outside work for us which included fencing, installing…read moregate and renovation of our front porch/deck. We are very pleased with the results. The quality of the work was precisely what we were hoping for as well as the professionalism of the team who worked on these projects. We were happy with the pricing of these projects and we would recommend Bonn Builders to others who are looking for work done in their homes. Looking forward to sipping a beverage or two on our new porch thanks to Wojciech and Peter!

If you are looking for a reliable, skilled, and personable handyman to manage your projects, look…read moreno further than Elroy. He has exceeded my expectations in every way, and we are incredibly grateful for his hard work and dedication. I had to move with family quickly and hired EW to close down my 3BR 2000 S.F. condo, packed my belongs in a POD and negotiated the move door-to-door. In addition he created a punch list of repairs and prepared my place for the realtor to market. The unit sold in 24-hours and he managed everything while I was 1500 miles away. Thank you, Elroy, for making our life move less stressful!

This company is owned by people who are detailed oriented. My experience with them showed me that…read morethey ask the right questions to understand the requirements and expectations of the project. They are experts and provide excellent service.

I've had the pleasure of working with UC&R and the owner John for the past several years. He is…read moretruly one of a kind. It rare to find a contractor who is as honest, hard working, meticulous, and detailed oriented as John. I trust him with any project - from a small roof job to a full large apartment building gut renovation. His team is amazing too - all very skilled tradesmen that take pride in their work with the highest possible attention to detail. Work is always started on time, completed on time, and any changes to scope or cost clearly communicated. I would recommend him to anyone looking for major renovation, smaller renovations, roof work, window work, basically all general construction.

John and his team are my go to for any work I need done. They're always on time and on budget with…read moremy projects. John does a great job setting expectations and then exceeding them. It's hard to find honest contractors that do high quality work at reasonable prices but these guys manage to get it done!