Steve under Stagecoach said my Trane fan motor on the casita air handler was gone and they replaced that but it still wasn't pushing any air through, so I sent them back up into the attic to find out why. I was told that someone working up there on the duct work had put a knee into the return duct work, fluffed it up to fix and it worked for a time but collapsed cutting off air from the air handler, ruining the fan motor, causing the circuit breaker to blow and the unit to freeze up. No way I can prove it was Larry Davis who is responsible for this $1,000 repair but he is the only one that was working up there this year. Have lots of pictures of shoddy work. While at a glance it may seem okay, but if you are familiar with new construction on a house in the $300K range, no it is not alright or proper or good enough for the money paid. Larry was up in the attic on this project maybe 4 times, Once to wire a new porch light, once for the ceiling fan and again to hot wire that fan off the other porch lights used in the main house. and again to run duct work from casita air to the new room. We had asked that it be from the main house to the new room but our requests kept being over ruled in order to 'save money'. Come to find out he is not licensed for jobs over $700, He repeatedly takes on jobs costing more than that amount insisting that he has the skills and experience required for jobs of that size, but sadly he does not and will argue with the home owner on every single item. I don't like his after the fact contracts that lack finishing work. Where was I going to get the money to do the stucco on the two exterior walls being installed, to me it was understood the job would be complete for about $10K, it was far more than that and I had to purchase the ceiling fan and tile. I didn't like the fact he asked for $2K per week and when that ran out he disappeared and didn't communicate, I sent all kinds of nice emails and nasty emails and he'd blame it on PTSD, then I wouldn't see him again or hear from him, just left me hanging. We started the first of Jan 2014, he just finished what I could get him to fix in June 2014. So if you use this guy Get a contract with a time limit and expressed damages per day for failure to complete on time. Have your project must haves detailed in writing so there are no arguments/battles lost by the home owner later.
Description of Work: Truth be known, I wasn’t properly prepared for the new room project. I did have basic drawings but the rest was done verbally and as we went along. Things went wrong. My first mistake was not hiring a real contractor that had been highly recommended and getting it done with permits properly. Should have waited until I had all the money in hand and the description of the work to be completed detailed on paper. The very first ‘must have’ in the project was dropped right off the bat. Wanted 2 X 6 metal stud construction because it had been designated as a music room for our young college men. Sound dampening was of the utmost importance. The 2 X 6 studs were used on the two new walls but not on the other 2 existing walls. They attached 1 X 2 rails to the existing stucco walls and used foam board for insulation. This was unexpected but by the time I found out they had already begun construction. Course we argued the issue but lost as the only fix was expensive batting. Now the wall attached to the existing stucco wall is now not straight, it curves with the curve in the old stucco. Moved a window on the casita to the new rooms’ outside wall. Added a door to exit out the back. Moved the casita entrance from the new room around the other side/ plus we had to purchase a new door because there was not room for the one moved out. Wall was sealed off with 1 X 2's metal attached to stucco, on that went the foam insulation sheets and sheet rock. The family had mentioned wanting a window seat. What we ended up with is a full length bench with the idea of putting doors on the front and providing extra storage. The time spent on this part of the project was obscenely wasteful. Argued every day about it not being proper storage, just exposed metal studs and insulation in there and the bottom was the old concrete porch. Not fit for new construction on a home or renovation or even the worst of ideas, the doors would not sit flush so after many long hours the doors were removed and a sheet of wood put over the whole thing. What a waste of square footage! Wanted a wooden box with a lift lid under the 4 X 4' window. Now we hate we ever mentioning the window seat. The contract presented to me to sign before I had a chance to look it over had no finishing listed. No outside stucco, no painting, no floor mentioned. It came in at over $14.000 and sadly not completed. Once given all the money he started slow walking the job. Not all the crew would show up. And then when he made an effort he would then disappear without word for week to 10 days. Then he quit coming at all. The 15 light window was not ordered, what was written down became a special order 6' slider with 15 lights $1,000 and it does not match the other sliders already on the house. The ‘free’ closet was not finished, there are gaps where it should have been mudded and taped before we could paint, He did say his guy finished, but he is not finished. Another attempt was made to finish the closet that was only there because the window was never ordered. Oh, he says, I’m gonna have to float the floor, then spends days on trying to level the old porch concrete, does one area, then puts the tile we purchased in and on top of the ‘bench’. I’ve never seen tile installed that way before, squishing the quick set out of the gaps around the tile til it is in place and leaving it to dry, and coming back to chisel the excess quick set out to allow for the grout. The floor is laid, the floor is not level, one tile pops out, was replaced and grout sealed then they came out and dug grout out again which had to then be replaced and it did not dry the same color in all places. The trim is put on the not straight wall and of course is crooked and appears that the floor is not quite right, still dips in places. Trim around the new slider has been replaced with new material cause that used is too many holes to patch before paint can be applied. He was responsible for ordering the 6' slider with grids but failed to write down the info correctly, gets to HomeDepot calls me at 8AM and asks how many grids in the slider 15? Its what he has written down, still talking he explains its going to be a special order of $1,000 and asks me to confirm over the phone, geez, I am not good doing mornings, I can barely function, I tell him yes whatever, thinking I can check later, but being old I soon forget that and go on to other crisis. The slider comes in and it is not what would mirror the other slider but too late to change it now! In it goes and on top of that disaster, he cuts the $1,000 door down to fit in the hole he left for it in the 2 X 6 metal stud frame and shoots a nail through the metal frame to hold it in. Now, the floor is not level so the screen slides out of its tracks, the door won’t close all the way, he had it latching into the door trim where he cut a groove. At this point I am beyond amazed at his skills because of the rigging that was prepared for the diffuser for the AC vent. We have since had that apparatus removed and replaced but I am still not happy. He asked if I wanted the ceiling painted, the girls had done it and I was happy but since he offered I said sure go ahead. He took the paint cans away, that have the color codes on them, case we needed more and we did, and we are still trying to match what we have on the walls now. He moved the storm door to the front door, used the hardware off the casita door on the new casita door. We purchased new hardware for the exit door out the back and that was also installed. So that all the doors are keyed the same. Good The casita door was installed with a 2 ½" trip feature to get out of the casita. Purchased an $80 metal ramp so my foot won’t catch going out. Oh he asked if I wanted to put the threshold down where it should have been but, the amount of hours it had taken to get the thing in there was just too many, so opted for moving on and living with it. Really stupid. They worked in the casita closing in the window and old door, putting in the new door and unplugged the water bed. I spent a night freezing because they didn’t think I was using that plug. Didn’t really want a porch light but he offered to put one in and got one from a yard sale. The new light switch inside the casita is crooked. I don’t think his eyes are good anymore. Came back to dig out the dark quick set out of the grout but never returned to replace the missing grout. Finally got his attention via nasty emails to get this fixed and still it’s not right. We had always talked about the whole house fog coat wanted for along time. He came around asking for more money to move onto that project and took $300. Painted my stucco wall the wrong color, left my sprayer full of fog coat and assorted other buckets and bags of stuff in the courtyard then fussed about the job being too big and that he had not charged enough for that job. I did get him to return $200 of that and pick up the bags of stuff and sprayer but he has not come to repair the ugly mess he made with the wrong color. Said he would fog coat over the yellow color and fix the grout but has not made a gesture towards doing so. The only thing that turned out right was the stucco on two walls to match the rest of the house and it was done by someone else. Finally after all this he came back out and fixed the yellow fog coat back to white and finished grouting the new room. Then the air in the casita quit. Called Stagecoach and he was out of town so Sparky came out and checked the wiring, everything was working but couldn't figure out why the air wasn't blowing and the unit was froze up. $150 for Sparky.......it got worse.