RYAN AYALA CONSTRUCTION

BEWARE OF THIS SCAM ARTIST WITH ANGER ISSUES!!

This is quite long but take the 5-10 minutes to read this if you are seriously considering hiring him. His workers' craftsmanship is poor to below average at best. The minor electrical work that was done, I had to tell them to try again because it did not work properly (3-way switch). Me being an electrician I could have just fixed it myself but that's not what I'm paying them for. Some of the electrical I saw in addition to the 3-way light switch, was scary. When I brought it to the owners attention, he denied it and told me his worker said he didn't do that. To which I wonder who did? It must have been the guy that walked in off the street while the workers were on lunch and did it. YEAH RIGHT!!! I also had to tell them to try the backsplash again. They pay no attention to detail. The backsplash had a pattern to it, which you could see for the first half of the wall, but then the 2nd half didn't follow. I had to ask them to fix it, which meant take pieces of the glass mosaic out one by one and place them back in, to try to match the pattern. This turned out to be ok but still not as designed. I would give the backsplash about a 6 out of 10. The paint job looked as if my 6 year old child did it. Apparently they do not own a screwdriver to take off outlet cover plates/ AC vents, because there was paint all over them. Also masking tape was not used which left paint all over some light switches and baseboards. Also I'm not sure how, but paint ended up on the underside of a fan blade. How this happens is beyond me. Total carelessness. Now for the BIGGEST FLAW of them all. There was a load bearing wall taken out and a 23 ft beam installed for structural support. Now I'm no expert on structural engineering but I do know that would probably require a permit, which we talked about during his job walk down and before his bid proposal. So when the bid proposal came and it said "permits included" I assumed that would be part of it. That?s what I get for assuming. Come to find out, when the city inspector came out and asked us about the job he said there was no structural work to be done under the permit that was pulled. You could imagine my face!!! He did pull a permit because the bank required one, but he only included minor electrical, plumbing, and ductwork. Now the inspector will not sign off on the one permit that is open because he now knows there was more work done than what the contractor says. The contractor now plans on leaving the permit open and not even addressing the beam he installed. Possibly leaving me with a non-permitted structural problem in the future when I go to sell. If you are not shaking your head yet keep reading. He told me he wanted an empty house when the inspector came back out, hoping for a different inspector than the original one. He wanted an empty house so he could lie through his teeth about what work he has done. I did not give him an empty house. I was here. Luckily for me it was the same inspector so I didn't have to tell him he was full of it. The inspector already knew. After all of that he asks me to sign the letter of completion so the bank will release the last payment to him. I said no way will I sign a letter of completion because it is not complete in my eyes. Remember permits included!!!! Last week he emailed me a letter stating his intent to file a lien on my house for "my refusal of payment due to irrelevant issues." In the following couple of days I was served with a notice of mechanics lien by the county. I refuse to let him win now. I will fight this in court even though it may take more money than what is owed. It is the principle now at this point. I wonder how many other customers he has that are oblivious to there non permitted issues. On multiple occasions he stated that had the bank not required a permit, he wouldn't have pulled one at all because the city is so hard to deal with. I bet they would be easier to deal with if he followed their rules. BE CAREFUL... He is a good talker and he makes everything seem like it is all under control and that he knows everything. Which I think he does know a lot about building. He's no dummy. But He will cut any corner he can to save a couple bucks. I have an idea on how to save some money. Do the job right the first time. Good Luck if you do use him. I sincerely hope you have a better experience than I did.