TED LAND CONSTRUCTION

I had worked with Ted in the past, he finished off the inside of a little shed in my backyard. Just the basics, sheet rock and paint, nothing like the scale of this project, but he had done a great job. So, I called Ted and made an appointment for him to come out and take a look at the house. I told him what I wanted and he put together a basic sketch and a bid. We hammered out some details and then I signed the contract. He was always on-time and very professional. He was always available to answer my questions (and patient, too, because I'm a curious person and like to know how things work). We were still living in the house during the remodel, and he was very careful to respect us and our things, and to make us feel as secure as possible. Whenever something came up, he discussed it with me right away and always had a solution ready so I didn't feel like I needed to panic. He was here for every inspection and we had no problems. As the process went along, I changed some things (adding a skylight, different shower enclosure) and he was very willing to work with me, even though those things added extra time to the schedule. The job came in on budget, whenever I changed things (that cost more) I just paid the difference. The only negative (because nobody is perfect) was the timing. We went a little over, some of it was my fault, some of it was hold-ups with the city, and some was just because it's an estimate. I wish there had been a more precise way to figure out all the timing, but it happens, and it wasn't because Ted wasn't working hard. He was there every day and worked full days. Everyone told me "whatever the contractor says, add another month". If I had done that, I wouldn't have been stressing so much. I'm thrilled with the final results, and since then I have had him back on several occasions for some minor projects (re-working closets, turning a half bath into a pantry, built-in bookcase in the hallway). All in all, I would certainly hire Ted again.

We hired Ted Land to build a new attached garage and convert our existing garage to living space. The scope of work also included design and drawings. When we first met with Ted, we showed him pictures of other houses in our neighborhood who had done similar work and described how we wanted our house to look. He quoted us ~$78,000 for the project and we hired him. After a couple of reloops, we had a drawing of the front of our home that we agreed was how we wanted it to look. Ted then started the process of getting the permits from the city. He came out with his drafter (who it turns out is also his painter) and took measurements. He had to come back a couple more times because the city and the Title 24 engineer needed additional information ? we started getting concerned because we thought he knew what he was doing, why didn't he have that stuff the first time? Once he had the permits, the work started. Things started going wrong from the ?get-go?. While digging the foundation for the new garage, our sewer pipe was inadvertantly uncovered. Thankfully it wasn?t damaged, but when we asked Ted to cover it with something before pouring the foundation, he said that based on his years of experience, it wasn?t needed. The next afternoon, after the first inspection, we noticed that the sewer pipe was indeed covered with a wrap material and we later learned that the very first inspection was a ?fail? because of that. Next came the pour of the slab. We were dismayed to find that after the prep (which Ted did himself with 1 helper - no subcontractors), the slope was 2%! When we questioned it, Ted said this was normal, and if we wanted him to change it, the pour that was scheduled the next day would have to be postponed - basically telling us we would be the cause of the delay. We gave in and he proceeded with the pour. This concrete is now 6 months old and has an infuriating number of cracks, most of which appeared in less than 2 months. But it doesn?t end here. We came home one day to find the wall heights of the new garage almost 18? higher than the old garage - these were supposed to be symmetrical! We couldn?t believe it and when we questioned Ted, he said, ?that?s what?s on the drawing.? We produced the drawing that we had, the one we had agreed upon at the beginning, which clearly showed equal wall heights. It was at this point at which he gave us the drawings that he had approved by the city and they were completely different! In addition, the drawings were not in CAD or any kind of program, but hand drawn. On this version of the drawings (that we had never seen), not only were the wall heights incorrect, but he actually had the garage slab sloped at 3%. We have since learned that typical slope is 1 ? 1.25%. We should?ve fired him then, but we suffered on. We had him lower the garage walls, but then, he was at a complete loss as to how to make the dormer, roof, and connection to the existing house with this wall change. He pushed us to agree to let him build the center dormer off-center because ?that?s the only way it can be done.? Lucky for us, the truss company isn?t incompetent. They were able to engineer dormer trusses for us that would work (centered and looking like we want) with the correct wall height. That?s right ? the truss company figured it out, not Ted - and we were the ones to ask them when they were on site to measure - not Ted. Ted proceeded to work on the walls while the trusses were being made, but he only had one helper, and half the time, he left him here to work on his own. Then, he purchased plywood that did not match our existing siding at all, and started to paint it to put up. We were shocked when we figured out what he was doing ? this clearly didn?t match the existing siding as we had agreed. He tried to talk us into using what he had purchased, but we weren?t having it. He ended up taking it to another job, but we ultimately paid for it (read on). He was looking for a siding alternative, but we never got that far on this project with him. The topper was when the trusses arrived. Two of them were incorrect and we found when we reviewed the wet set drawing that the measurements had been reversed. The truss company re-made these, but Ted wasn?t even the one who noticed the problem ? we were! Finally, we had had it. We told Ted that we would finish the job on our own. We had calculated what we thought we owed based on our contract and the agreed upon milestones (he hadn?t even hit the first one and was already hinting that he?d need an advance to continue working). We thought if anything he owed us a couple thousand (we had an idea about the materials cost, and up to that time, labor was only him, another main worker, and for maybe 10 hours, a third helper to set trusses the day they arrived). We decided to part amicably and eat the cost so we could move on, so we didn?t mention our unhappiness, but told him we would be finishing it ourselves. Now is when we found out how awful he is. He?s clearly been fired before because we were instantly slapped with a lien from him and the lumber company (to pay for ALL of the material that he ordered - even that siding that we didn?t use) and he was requiring $12,000 to pay the lumber company and remove both liens. Of the $12,000, ~$4,000 was for the lumber, and the rest was for Ted Land himself. Because we still had to get our house done (he?d already wasted a month trying to figure out the dormer issue) and that couldn?t happen if we couldn?t work on it due to litigation, we bit the bullet and paid him to get rid of him. We proceeded to finish our addition ourselves (that?s right ? we finished it) all the way through final inspection.The fun didn?t stop after he was gone. A week later, we discovered that one of the main trusses on the structure was in the complete wrong place, and Ted and his guy had bracketed it in and put the roofing plywood on over it already. He had also built a face onto the front of this same truss, which, once again, did not match the drawing. We were fretting over what to do because removing the truss might cause more damage. Once again, the truss company came to the rescue. We called them and they checked the engineering calculations and re-did the wet set showing the trusses in the placement as they were. We hired a number of other contractors to help finish this job, and we even had to have the drawings completely re-drawn so that the city would approve the structure as Ted built it. We learned a lot a long the way. Ted was by far the worst. Not just incompetent but devious. For another example, we had asked him early on to remove exterior painting from the quote so that we could better control the cost and do that work ourselves. He said he couldn?t because the city required it for final inspection. Again ? we now have our final inspection and we asked the inspector point blank if painting was required for final - the answer is no, it?s not. But as it turns out, Ted has a painter (also his drafter) to do the work. He subcontracted only the foundation dig and concrete pour (not prep - he screwed that up all on his own). And for what it?s worth, the city inspector was underwhelmed with Ted as well. We could go on and on ? we will live with a garage slab that is too sloped and cracked forever and we will curse Ted Land every time we see it. Lucky for us, we finished the work and contained the damage. Who knows how terrible the interior of the conversion would have looked left to him to build, and how cracked up our driveway would be now.Buyer beware if you hire Ted Land. Maybe he can build it if it?s a perfect square box, but if he has to do any kind of calculating, forget it. He will also do all of the work and subcontract very little so that he can take home as much of the profit as possible. What this means for you is that your project will move slowly, and even slower when he screws it up and has to do rework because he's not a craftsman or expert in any area, but rather barely competent or incompentent in all.

We did the design work ourselves and Ted was very helpful with suggestions and estimates allowing us to create the 'most' room for our budget. Ted was very flexible and patient with our design changes and great to work with. Ted was always neat and punctual and on the job every day- even when the subcontractors came in to do specialty work.