Greenstein Construction Inc

WARNING: Mr. Ben Greenstein, of Greenstein Construction Inc, is a professional liar, a negligent contractor, an habitual corner cutter, and an all around untrustworthy individual. We started our house renovation project in May of 2014 with the simplest and purest of intentions: Invest our savings in fixing up a home for our growing family to live in. We were unfortunately over eager to get started, a bit naive, and were in turn victimized by a dishonest and incompetent contractor. We have never posted a negative review online before today, unfortunately, circumstances have left us no choice but to do so now. We feel strongly that we have an obligation to alert others of Mr. Ben Greenstein?s unprofessional and fraudulent conduct. Mr. Ben Greenstein was dishonest with us at every turn. He tells big lies, small lies, white lies, half truths, what he thinks you want to hear, and most importantly, what he thinks will cover his own hide. Lies such as stating he was at the site when he was not; a permit application had been submitted when it had not; inspections had been scheduled when they were not; work tasks were started when they were not, etc. Below we?ve compiled a list of his ?Greatest Hits? for your reading pleasure: * Mr. Ben Greenstein misinformed us of the minimum lot setbacks resulting in site plans that were in violation of city code. * Mr. Ben Greenstein failed to provide a portable toilet for workers for a period of 7 months despite repeatedly promising to do so. * Mr. Ben Greenstein lied to us, stating that windows had been purchased when they had not in order to obtain payment. He fraudulently signed a release of lien for the window order. Six months later the window company still has no record of windows ever being ordered for our property. * Mr Ben Greenstein lied to us about passing the final septic inspection in order to obtain payment. Six months later we discovered he never scheduled the final inspection and the permit has since expired. * Mr Ben Greenstein failed multiple structural inspections and did not disclose the magnitude of the problems to us. After review of the site by multiple professionals, the construction was deemed in violation of countless florida building codes. The architect reported that the work illegally deviated from the approved plans and that the resulting structure was unsafe. Some of the more egregious violations include the foundation footer missing on one side of the addition, many load bearing columns missing, visible gaps and cracks in the block wall where you can see all the way through to the other side, walls not constructed to the proper height (off by a foot), steel rebar installed incorrectly or missing altogether in main tie-beam, etc. The scheduled completion date per our contract was the end of October 2014. It is now February 2015 and we are less than 15% complete. The vast majority of structural work must be demolished and corrected. We are in essence starting over. Mr. Ben Greenstein has not reimbursed us one penny for work he failed to complete, windows he failed to order, and costly repairs needed due to his incompetence. We have lost over 8 months of our lives and much of our life?s savings. Please, we beg you, get multiple bids on your project, check all references before working with a contractor, structure the contract and payment schedule so that the percent paid never exceeds the percent complete. And most importantly, no matter what you do, do not subject yourself to Mr. Ben Greenstein and his reprehensible behavior for even a second. Life is too short. Best of luck with your project.

Hiring Greenstein was an extremely costly mistake. The work was unacceptable, the site undermanned and unsupervised and workers frequently did not have tools, training or knowledge to do work correctly. After months of frustration, workers not showing up, work done sloppily, unprofessionally and unacceptably, promises to repair and finish unkept etc., I finally fired them but not before they made a mess of my property, left me with thousands of dollars or repairs and replacements to fix their defective work and a lien by a sub contractor against my property despite the fact that I had paid Greenstein in full for that subcontractors work. The work that they did on my replacement windows and doors is a perfect example: Despite a sales pitch about their window installation expertise and their method of "5 point caulking", they installed my replacement impact windows and doors without caulk in some cases and/or with water soluable caulk that melted with the rain in other cases. After the first leaks it was discovered that there was no caulk in the sills screw holes. When I pointed out to them that there was an 8" x 11" sticker on each window and door visually explaining the mandatory type of caulk and method of caulking of the screw holes, they claimed that they never do it that way. The windows continued to leak and it was discovered there was no caulk in all the other mandatory areas. They took the windows apart and attempted many different half repairs (they needed to be taken out and caulked and installed as per Miami Dade NOA and manufacturers instructions.), which did nothing but break and dent the windows. As to the level of detail, they used blue screws on my white windows because they didn't have any white ones on the days they installed. While this may seem like a small error, it is the first thing that everyone sees and comments on. Ten months later windows and doors are still not finished, some still leak, many won't operate because the tracks and or wheels were damaged and all have been so abused, battered, scratched and dented with all of the half fixes used by Greenstein that they look like they have to be replaced. . According to the window manufacturer's representative who has been attempting to help me salvage the job, some windows and doors have even lost their lifetime warranty. I will be replacing many of my replacement windows and doors. If you do use Greenstein Construction (or any other contractor for that matter), my advice is to have a written legal schedule and do not pay until each item is complete and a formal legal lien release is given. Make sure that all workers are 'employees' under Greensteins insurance (both liability and workers compensation) or licensed and insured subcontractors that you have approved. Have an engineer or architect inspect and approve work before paying. Also ask for references for similar work done in the past two years and call them!!!! Since this debacle I have learned that you can ask a contractor to put up a job bond and that you really shouldn't pay anything in advance. I wish I had paid some money to a lawyer earlier.