Rob and Eric used to be framers. Now they are contractors.
A few of the highlights of our build:
- They used our newly installed vinyl decking as a work and material storage area. The edges of it were scarred by dragging materials over the edge (it was on the second floor). Then one of our contractors (not a subcontractor) put his circular saw down on the decking while it was running and the guard was stuck open. He cut the decking right in front of our garden door entry. The "repair" looked like a glob of walrus snot -- right in our doorway, on our new deck in our new house. We had to fight for about a year to get it replaced.
- Our siding installation needed fixes. They (apparently) did not read the manufacturer's technical bulletin on HOW to do the fixes. I thought they were going to punch me out when I told them to stop and go find out how to do it correctly. (Their faces were purple already when they arrived and it wasn't cold out.) One of them said, "Who is the boss in this family anyway?" (As in why is a "girl" telling them how to do something, I assume.)
- They added a $7500 charge for "management fees" to our bill. When the lawyer informed them that they couldn't randomly add items to our original agreement, their response to my husband was "Who makes the rules anyways?" Again purple.
- We went through our invoices at the end and found chocolate bars, pop, ladders, buckets of chalk, tape measures... I.e. not our expenses and shouldn't be on our bill.
- They did not do things in the right order (in my opinion) and they did not protect the work that was done before. We were responsible for putting in the hardwood flooring (when they told us to). We put down taped double layers of heavy paper to protect traffic areas. They ripped the paper out. We put it down again. Our expensive hardwood floors were in FAR less than perfect condition before we ever moved into the house -- on the traffic areas and elsewhere.
- ON THE DAY WE MOVED INTO THE HOUSE, we found out that we were 20,000 over budget. Before that we were "good". (Note that the kitchen and bathrooms didn't have the countertops that had been included in the initial price quotation.) They blamed this situation on their accountant. Our lawyer told us later that the builders should have been giving us a clear and accurate accounting EVERY month. We didn't know that. But we HAD asked Rob _REPEATEDLY_ for something firmer than "good". He came over one afternoon (without an appointment) and said we could go through stuff -- but I had a migraine that day. In the end, he also blamed us -- saying that we should have been more insistent about going through expenses with him. Nice job Rob, blaming the victim.
I could go on and on... Granted that we were naive (stupid?) first-timers. I would NEVER EVER EVER EVER recommend them. THEY DID LOTS RIGHT. When they did something wrong it was very wrong and they didn't seem to want to be responsible for it.
To me, they acted like hourly paid workers. They didn't want to do anything they weren't making money on, even if it was their own mistake.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $200,000.00