TE from Calgary

This job concluded well over a year ago and this client’s review came shortly after we received the settlement cheque from the resulting statement of claim we filed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We hope that our response to this review articulates what Bekmar is truly about, provides explanation for how we manage our part of the renovation process and provides our side of what went wrong in this particular situation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- Request for Quote. This project was a full basement development for a separate suite in a 100 year old house. We were requested by the General Contractor (GC) to provide a quotation for the plumbing and gas portion of this renovation project. We were instructed to find cost savings and to only perform work absolutely necessary because the client was on a tight budget. We were provided a hand sketched drawing with limited detail so based on the initial site visit we provided a quotation to the GC that was multiple pages long and specific. The scope of work was to include new ground-works plumbing with connection to existing cast drainage, a 3-piece bathroom, kitchen, 2 laundry standpipes, a ground water sump pump, a water heater, and gas to 2 new furnaces supplied and installed by an HVAC contractor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2- Project Commencement. We had completed several other smaller projects with this GC and had a successful professional working relationship with him. It is common for GCs to insist on using their preferred trades because we all know each other and work as a team to get the job done. We performed the work as outlined in our quote for the Rough In portion and gas appliance installation. The “Rough In” is the stage of the project generally considered as all work before drywall. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3- Plumbing Extra’s requested. The customer requested the removal and replacement of some cast drainage from the main floor which we explicitly excluded in our quotation because the work was not required to develop the basement and it would save cost. The GC and the customer argued back and forth about how this should have been included. The GC agreed to pay us for this extra work to make the customer happy so we performed the extra work. We also discovered existing conditions, on the main floor and 2nd floor above, ie. Poly-B waterlines and connections under the kitchen sink that were improperly installed prior to us being there. The Client insisted we should fix these problems at no extra charge even though we were instructed to only work in the basement to save cost. There was also a gas leak on the main floor fireplace that developed during the project unrelated to our work that similarly the customer tried to get us to fix at no charge. We safely isolated the line from below in the basement with an isolation valve in the mechanical room so it could be turned on after the repair to the main floor fireplace was made. To our knowledge the customer ended up hiring another gas fitter to fix the fireplace. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4- General Contractor’s scope of work. After the fact we discovered the entire General Contractor’s (GC) quotation to the client was only One (1) page in length! It stated limited details for a minimum scope of work with explicit terms for possible change orders or extras discovered that the client would be responsible in paying for due to the fact this house was 100 years old. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5- GC’s extra’s required. We did not get involved in anything outside of our scope but we were made aware of by the GC of foundation underpinning, extra concrete work, electrical, and drywall that was required in addition to the original GC’s scope of work. We learned that after these extra items were performed the client did not wish to pay for them and disputed them with the GC. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6- Quality of Work. As always we completed the work professionally and with pride. In order to help with scheduling there were occasions where we worked overtime to get our portion of the job done. We successfully passed all Rough In inspections for gas and plumbing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7- Payment. We did not receive payment from the GC or client for any of the work we did. It became clear as time went on that the original contract between the GC and the Customer had ballooned due to the change orders required by the client and we ended up caught in the middle. We have knowledge that the HVAC contractor has still not been paid for part of the work they performed. 6- Lien The Builder’s Lien Act is legislation put in place to protect Trade Contractors for this type of situation where they perform work in good faith and are not paid. After repeated attempts to find a compromise of payment for the work we had performed and finish the project as planned we had no choice but to place a Lien on the property. After repeated attempts to settle for what we were owed, unfortunately we were forced to try to enforce the lien and utilized the services of a lawyer. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8- Settlement. The end result was that we settled with the client for a fraction of what was owed. The settlement included us honoring our workmanship and warranty. We stand behind our workmanship in any situation. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9- Conclusion. In the end the client received the benefit of work performed on their home which they did not fully pay for. The GC has since gone out of business and to our knowledge the HVAC contractor has yet to be paid in full for the work they performed. We take pride in and stand behind our work. We take care to try ensure that the customer’s expectations are not only met, but exceeded, and this starts with our detailed quotations. Unfortunately, in this project, this was not properly communicated to the customer at the outset by the GC. We hope that people reading this review can gain something from it and take the extra time to select their General Contractor wisely. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.” -John Ruskin (1819 – 1900), Social Critic and Reformer