Kevin Llorente Construction

Overall, working with Kevin was a horrible experience. Not only was Kevin unreliable (he fell significantly behind schedule) and unprofessional (he asked me to make payments to him off of our contractual agreement and then was retaliatory towards me when I declined to do so), but his work product was of poor quality and he is refusing to take accountability for his errors. 2 months after completion of my deck project, we got some rain. And immediately we noticed black bleeding around all of the nails. I consulted another contractor to understand what had happened and he informed me that stainless steel nails must be used to avoid such bleeding. When we brought the issue to Kevin's attention, he said he thought he used stainless steel nails but ultimately he did admit he used the wrong nails and indeed the nails used were not stainless steel nails. The very disturbing part is that his response to our request for him to correct the error looked like this: "I have fulfilled my contract and there was no specification for fasteners within the contract. Nor is there any provision for an "aesthetic standard". This is an aesthetic issue; not a structural or contractual issue. It is not my responsibility as the builder to be concerned with this fact. Rather, it is the responsibility of the designer to specify what materials and fasteners to use if a certain aesthetic is to be achieved or maintained. Yet, no specification was given." Unfortunately, Kevin never offered me the choice to use stainless steel nails. And I trusted that my contractor would have used the appropriate materials or at least advised me of the risks of not doing so. However, Kevin refuses to take any accountability for the error of not using stainless steel nails. And worse, he is blaming both me and my landscape designer (who actually referred Kevin for the job) for the error. In late January, I informed Kevin that I now had an estimate from another contractor to rebuild the fence. And asked Kevin for reimbursement of costs since he declined to fix the error in November when it was 1st brought to his attention. Kevin came in person to look at the fence and agreed it did need to be replaced. But still refuses to reimburse me for costs. I have filed a claim with the state contractor's license board against Kevin due to poor workmanship and his lack of diligence in executing the project and am having to go to small claims court to recover the costs of rebuilding the fences. I joined Angie's list just to ensure I could write this review and inform others about Kevin before they hire him. Upon joining, I saw there was another poor review on Kevin. And I also now see there are 2 complaints filed against Kevin with the Better Business Bureau. I hired Kevin upon recommendation of my landscape designer. And she feels horrible for recommending him and is also filing a complaint against Kevin with the state contractor's license board. In hindsight, I only wish I had investigated Kevin further before hiring him, even though he was a referral.

The work he did was really good. What happened was that before he was done with the job he wanted to get the kitchen job. I told him that I wanted the bid first and he came up with a bid of $32000. It was just for the labor and we told him that we will not give him the kitchen job until the laundry room was done. He took it upon himself to go home and do some drawing of the kitchen window and how it would look. He knew what I wanted but did not discuss anything with the architect. When he gave me the kitchen bid I told him that the kitchen bid was too high. He got angry and refused to come and finish the laundry room. The day before I told him that I was not going to use him he came and said that he was here to finish the final and work and asked me for the cheque. I wrote him the cheque because he was in my house. He grabbed the cheque and told me he will buy a part and be right back, but never came back. The finishing work in the inside was never done. I could not use the plan that he drew. I am left with about $700 of work.