We hired Steffan of Wood Mgmt in May of 2021. We have an older home in West Toronto and the scope of work was to remove all of the old wood soffits, cedar shingles and replace them with new wood and cedar to be painted. We also had a wood porch which needed to have all the old wood trim, flooring/ceiling removed and replaced. The original project was supposed to take 5-6 weeks. We made a few changes to the front facade adding a bit more detail so we understood that the project would take a bit longer to complete. The job ended up taking 6 months and was never really completed. We encountered many issues with Steffan of Wood Management. Here is the list:
He did not budget the job properly - he ran out of money to complete our project even though we made the awful mistake of giving him all but $1,300 to complete the work. He said he needed the remaining money to purchase the porch materials and we decided to give him the funds since at that point he had been working on home for a few weeks and he seemed like someone whom we could trust. We were wrong - he was dishonest with us for months saying that the decking material for our porch was on back order; however when I called the company that he supposedly ordered the material from I discovered he actually never placed that order. Out of desperation I purchased the materials myself (an extra $9000.00) so that he could finish that part of the job since he told us he ran out of money to purchase the product and he "would pay us back". The only reason our porch got done months later was because I REpaid for the materials and went running around doing his job of sourcing a wood worker who could replicate the balusters. I am the one who drove out to Markham 5 times to make sure the balusters were done correctly and Steffan is the one who calls himself a "Contractor". He left our porch in a demolished, unsafe state for MONTHS.
Wood Management/Steffan owes us money for paying for the porch materials that I had already given him a cheque for.
The front facade of our house was bubbling after he installed "outdoor MDF", he was supposed to fix this for us as we paid extra for this feature and he just never came back, it has now been over a year. He kept on promising us he would return but never did.
We paid extra for premium outdoor farrow and ball paint which is already chipping off and some of the wood features are popping out of place. He told us his work is guaranteed for 5 years. Well, we cannot even get him to come back within one year.
This is not how you treat homeowners that are honest and fair. When Steffan asked us for more money because something took longer to do than he expected (ie the bay window waffle detail) we gave it to him with no questions asked. We gave him all payments in a timely manner and treated him with courtesy and respect. We even reached out to him to offer help and have an honest conversation as to how we can finish the project and he strung us along for a bit and then just stopped replying altogether. He actually got upset with me when I asked him to be forthcoming about when he would actually come back. His excuse was "I am a small business". He should be ashamed of the way he handled our job. He has our house showcased on his instagram page under "Victorian Style", he does not deserve to keep that on there as the job he did is now falling apart.
Steffan of Wood Mgmt. is not a professional and we wrongfully trusted him. I do not want this to happen to anyone else. DO NOT hire this company, his word and contract mean nothing. Even if you are one of the lucky ones that he finishes the job for, if something goes wrong would he come back to fix it. For us it was just empty promises and then a disappearing act.
Marisa and Sebastian
- Approximate cost of services:
- $50,000.00
