WILLIE BZZZ

unknown

Three areas of stucco on our house had bowed and needed to be cut out and patched. We also wanted cedar siding removed on 2 bump-outs and replaced with stucco and additionally wanted to fog-coat the entire south elev. of our 2-story home. We hired Willie Bzzz feeling fairly confident that the work we wanted done would be done to our satisfaction based on a positive rating with the BBB (A+), the opinion of a contractor acquaintance and the fact that the owner himself told us, multiple times, it would be done to our satisfaction. We were advised the stucco texture might not be an exact match and the color could be a bit off, but were assured by William Bunting, the owner, that it would not be very noticeable, if at all. The project began Dec. 2012. Our 1st red flag was when the lead workman said this was his 1st job with Willie Bzzz. His "assistant" had no stucco experience at all. The 2nd red flag - when the lead workman said he'd never done a fog coat and would have to find out how. While neither men are any longer with the company we're wondering why the company isn't trying to correct the subpar work and damage they caused? Aside from cracking and chipping which started only months after the stucco was applied, some addt'l problems that occured during the 4-5 day job that took about 2 weeks to complete: when removing the cedar siding, they broke all the way through and into the interior drywall leaving a hole the size of a baseball in the dining room. (After the job was completed we had to call the owner to ask if he intended to fix that hole); nearly every sprinkler head where the work was performed had been stepped on and broken off; the outside vent pipes for our newly installed energy-efficient furnace, located in the same area as one of the bows, were crudely Sawzall'd off level with the wall. The fog-coating on the south elev was only done on the house's upper level. The balance of the fog-coat budget was used on the west side of the house where we'd not requested it be done. The workers left debris, paper wrappers and stucco powder everywhere, they had used our ladders rather than theirs but not bothered to clean the hardened stucco droppings off, they completely removed 3 backyard light fixtures down to the wires but never replaced them and the 2 story downspout from roof to lawn was removed and never replaced. When plastic drape covering trim around windows and doors was removed the tape pulled the paint off right down to the wood. After yet another of many calls to the owner, 2 workers came out, taking over an hour to pick up debris although they never attempted to clean the stucco splatters from our Trex deck and stairs and the gray rock under the deck remained spotted with hardened beige stucco droppings. Repainting the trim was never addressed by the company. Further, the texture and color of the 3 formerly bowed areas, now patched, were very different and noticeable from the adjacent stucco - even so acknowledged by Mr. Bunting who agreed that the work was not up to his usual standards. In fact, our question to him at the time was would he be comfortable using pictures of our repairs in a brochure advertising his company? He admitted that he wouldn't and promised he would make them look better. Five months passed with no contact from Willie Bzzz to schedule work to "make them look better" except that now the 3 (roughly 4' x 6') patches had developed cracks - all the way around each patch. And the newly applied stucco replacing the cedar siding had developed cracks and chips as well. What followed were a number of calls to Mr. Bunting about these ongoing concerns, always with the promise that repairs would commence shortly and he'd be in touch. In Nov. 2013, 11 months after the initial work was completed Mr. Bunting finally came out to re-inspect and verify that indeed the stucco was cracking. We were told again that repairs would commence shortly but he first wanted the stucco rep to look at it, thinking the problems might be from faulty product. He assured us that he would do whatever they recommended to fix the problems. The rep indicated the stucco had not been been applied properly. Five months after the rep was out to do his inspection, we'd still not heard from Mr.Bunting to schedule the work. We made another followup call on 6/4/14 and were told the solutions were that all the stucco could be removed from the entire side of the house and replaced - we would be responsible for 1/2 the cost (not reasonable in our minds since we'd already paid to have the initial problems corrected) or the cracks could be ground out and filled which was really our only option. Repairs would commence shortly. Nine days later, without having been notified, we saw that someone had been out within the prior few days and worked on the patches. Since nothing had been scheduled and we were out of town, our gate was locked. Obviously the workers scaled the 6' fence to get into the yard which frankly we don't much appreciate. Trash cans from inside our yard were left outside the gate on the neighbors lawn and again a backyard light was removed down to the wiring and not replaced. Presumably the repairs were done as the rep advised although we didn't see any grinding debris lying on the ground. It appears the cracks were covered with an approx. 6 inch wide band of stucco, all the way around. The problem is that the older color has a yellow cast and the new color has a gray cast which means the repaired areas are now outlined with a different color of stucco as though they have a picture frame around them and can literally be seen from down the block. In our call to Mr. Bunting about this new issue and also asking when he was going to address the additional problems previously discussed with him both in emails and phone calls, he basically said we were simply being perfectionists and he was done. He said he'd used the exact same color stucco as before and if it didn't match we could take it up with the supplier. Since Mr. Bunting both selected and ordered the color, we don't know why this problem should now be our responsibility. He said as far as all the other cracks - houses settle and cracks happen. (A 30 yr. old house is likely mostly finished settling and since all the new cracks developed only in the areas directly worked on, settling doesn't reasonably explain the cause.) Mr. Bunting refuses to come and look at the repairs to see if we're truly being unreasonable in our dissatisfaction. After saying he would do no more, his comment was that he hadn't made any money on this job. While he might not have made any money, it's now been a 1-1/2 yrs. since this projected 4-5 day project began and it's still unresolved even after Mr. Bunting's ongoing assurances throughout that the job would be completed to our satisfaction. We've paid $2,500 to him, we've spent numerous hours of personal time repairing broken sprinklerheads, reinstalling light fixtures, repairing and repainting, continuing to clean up residual mess, and we now have to get his repairs corrected by someone else. Our email to the material supplier rep at Jones-Heartz has gone unanswered as well. In retrospect, we certainly wish we had been Angie's list members when we selected a company to do our stucco work. Since Willie Bzzz has no Angie's List ratings, we surely would have selected someone else. All work we've had done by Angie's List recommended companies has been excellent. Also, we should have been more persistent in insisting that the repairs be handled in a timely manner rather than letting so much time elapse between each followup. We knew, however, that Mr. Bunting was experiencing some very significant personal issues and we didn't want to unnecessarily add to his burden – especially when he so pointedly assured us all along this timeline that he would complete the job to our satisfaction. Unfortunately we took him at his word. We're still trying to figure out how this business could possibly have an A+ rating with the BBB! We also filed a complaint with the BBB which went on for months and ultimately resolved nothing. However, we notice this company still retains it's A+ rating with the BBB. We suggest you find someone else if you have this type of work to be done. There are plenty of qualified and reputable people around - why take a chance? Take a look at the pictures we've submitted. They pretty much speak for themselves as to the quality of the work promised.