Fireplace Improvements

I chose Ralph because I loved a photo of one of his recent jobs on his website. I initially contacted him at the start of a very long escrow and Ralph was patient until the close. He then proceeded to transform a very plain and boring fireplace into the beautiful centerpiece of our home — at a very reasonable price. Ralph is not one of these guys who will slap on a prefab frame and call it a day. He is a craftsman — and does most of the work himself. So one thing you have to keep in mind is that it might take slightly longer to communicate with him (he is busy) and see the job to completion. But the end result will really be a gorgeous work of art. We are thrilled with our fireplace.

My husband and I had the good fortune to find Ralph online and were extremely pleased with his craftsmanship!
He was professional, on time, respectful of our home (including our toddler and teacup Chihuahua), and always came to work with a good attitude ready to take on our mantle and wall project. He went above and beyond to help us resolve a plumbing pipeline issue discovered, insulated, dry walled, painted, and designed a beautiful mantle we love.
We highly recommend Ralph and wish him continual success — thank you, Ralph!

Ralph is a true craftsman. From the consulting phase to the final placement of the handcrafted mantle my wife and I couldn’t be happier. He did an amazing job with transforming an eyesore to a prime feature in our home. His work with the stone was so precise and detailed, he fully finished corners and recesses to look uniform.
He took extra car to integrate the hearth, floor and sides to make sure all was flush and smooth. He handcrafted a mantle to directly match our cased entryways and crown moulding to fully integrate the fireplace into the room. Its our favorite home feature now thanks to Ralph. All at a great price.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!! HE RIPPED US OFF. WE PAID A DEPOSIT OF $ 800.00 ON A $ 1,900 JOB AND HE NEVER FINISHED THE JOB!
Ralph took our deposit; almost 50% of the value of the job and then skipped town. He did the demo and then skipped town with the rest of my money. I now have a half completed job and he has never returned my calls or emails. He also damaged one of my walls and did not tell me about it.
This was a simple job; no need to bail. Tear out some old tiles and replace with new ones and install a mantle. I have to go to the state to try to get my money back!

Ralph showed up on time for the appointment and then I got the estimate the very next day as promosed. Everything seemed to be going smooth. I email him to ask when he can start the job, no reply, I called him and left message, no reply, then called again, still no reply. A week later, I sent one more email to let him know that I would move on to other contractor. Then supprisingly, he email me back the next day appologizing he had a family emergency and had to leave town for a few days, and he promised to get back to me later that day to talk about moving forward with the project… that was the last time I heard from him… never a call or email after that…
After I read some of the previous comments, Ralph is definitly having issues. He might be professional at what he is doing, but as doing bussinse and treating customer wise, he is anything BUT professional.

We had a fireplace that was in desperate need of either replacing or remodeling. After we got an outrageous quote of $ 6K to replace the gas fireplace system from a local company, I searched online and came across CHR. Ralph was very quick to return my call and got me an estimate within two days. He was very professional, friendly, respectful, and courteous. Ralph gave us some great ideas what could be done to the existing fireplace. We found his rates to be very reasonable. We decided to hire him to do the work. We signed the contract and agreed on a start date. The fireplace was to be completed within a weeks time. After a week delay, Ralph was able to begin work. Each day Ralph came and went and each day left his work area clean. We had an unusual situation with our old fireplace which made it difficult to remodel so we understood there might be some delays. Ralph however persevered and after about a month our fireplace was finished. Ralph managed to transform our fireplace into a work of art. We were impressed with the quality of his work and his attention to detail. However, as much as we loved the job he did and as much as we liked the guy, I gotta say the most frustrating part of working with Ralph was his lack of responsiveness. I can’t tell you how many voice messages and texts he either never responded to or responded to days later when all that was being asked were updates on when he was going to show up or any delays he may have had. Towards the end it became a guessing game when he would show up or return our calls. So for anyone considering hiring him, keep in mind he’ll do an amazing job for you and will transform your fireplace but it may be challenging getting him to be responsive to you.

Ralph was by far the most professional, comprehensive, timely, not to mention fairly priced contractor to bid on and execute our fireplace restoration. It was a fairly large job, and Ralph did everything we needed, and nothing we didn’t (unlike the other bidders)
He was also on time on each visit, cleaned up property and was very respectful of my time. I couldn’t say anything about Ralph other than fantastic and highly recommended.
Other reviews talk about how he might not be as responsive as needed, this is most likely because its a small shop (thus the competitive price) and he’s so high quality that he is in high demand.

We had a great experience with CHR Improvements. Ralph was courteous and reasonably priced. We explained what we wanted and he gave suggestions for additional changes that were fabulous. His creativity, craftsmanship, and attention to the smallest detail exceeded our expectations. See the before and after photos.

Ralph was a pleasure to work with. He did a huge job for me and it went great. Will use him for all fireplace work in the future
Taylor

Ralph comes out and presents himself as being very professional and I’m kinda thinking, yeah, this guy can do the job.
He emails an estimate the next day, then he flatlines…
No response to voice mails or emails, then several days later, he responds with no explanation that he will get in touch tomorrow to take the next step.
Then flatlines…
I actually emailed him to ask him why he flaked. No response.
He definitely has issues that keeps him from being consistent. I hope he works them out.

I never write reviews on Unilocal,but this was such a bizarre experience, I had to. I inquired via email about new fireplace doors and heard back quickly from Ralph. He came out a couple days later and was incredibly nice. He had great ideas and promised he would send me a proposal the following morning. A few days go by, and I hear nothing. I left 3 voicemail messages and sent multiple emails in the following week. No reply. On a whim I called one more time to say we were moving on and he finally answered. He said he had sent me something the following day and hadn’t gotten any of my calls or emails. He promised I would get something later that day-​we got nothing. Ralph was incredibly nice but this experience was so frustrating and held us up by a few weeks. I hope you have better luck than we do…

VERY happy with our new, updated fireplace. Our old gas/​wood burning fireplace looked very depressing and out dated. We hired Ralph to update the look and change the fireplace to be a modern looking crystal glass burning fireplace.
Ralph was very professional and did an AMAZING job. We picked our own materials and he worked closely with us to deliver what we wanted. He even built and installed a custom wood mantel.
I would recommend Ralph to anyone looking to improve the look and feel of their fireplace.
Thank you!

Great experience with Ralph and CHR Improvements. We were purchasing our first house and the brick chimney, the biggest I have ever seen, had to come down sadly. Ralph was actually chosen by the previous owners to do the job. We were nervous because his price seemed so reasonable but in the end he did great work that flawlessly integrates with our home. You would never know that it wasn’t always stucco or that it was new! That’s a good thing.
We were very satisfied and are currently awaiting quotes for several more projects! Ralph is «our guy» and we recommend him to anyone we can.

We hired Ralph from CHR Improvements to remodel our old fireplace, and I am extremely glad that we chose him for the job.
Ralph is as professional as they come. Remodeling can be very stressful when you are choosing someone to perform the work. We did not experience this with CHR Improvements. The price we paid was very reasonable for the quality of workmanship we received. Ralph does a great job at explaining all the work that needs to be done and making sure that the customer is always satisfied. He had great ideas to help me complete the vision I had for our fireplace.
Our old brick fireplace was an eyesore. We decided to go with travertine for a more modern look. Ralph even custom built a mantle for us using our existing fireplace shelf.
We are so happy with the work that was completed and I cannot even count how many of our guests have complimented the new look of the fireplace. The fireplace has transformed the look and feel of our living room.
I recommend CHR Improvements for any remodel projects you may have. You will be happy you hired him.