JPA Construction LLC

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Hired to do the work, Jeff arrived to prepare an estimate. Selected because he is part of a barter/trade organization that we belong to (BizX), we were negotiating part of this as a barter process to save money. As part of the process, we were going to hire a separate flooring company and do our own painting. First of all, Jeff took virtually no notes during our initial meeting., which I thought was troubling He prepared a single estimate and only quoted additional items verbally, never furnishing any written documents after that time. While he seems capable (and, as general contractors ourselves, we understand that sometimes work schedules may be delayed), Jeff is just not a good communicator. He did not return email inquiries and frequently did not arrive at the pre-scheduled time to do the work. The work schedule was haphazard and unpredictable. To be fair, there aws a mid-project delay as a floor was installed by others. This could have altered his anticipated schedule, but we were aware of that and in no hurry to finish, only wishing for a predictable schedule. At our most recent communication, we asked that he return to do the final work, building a simple TV cabinet. He noted that he would start it last Monday. late last week he texted that it would instead be "Tuesday or Wednesday". He was a no show. I called him Tuesday, I called him Wednesday...and I called him Friday requesting that he call me by the end of the day. No call. I know that he is working on another project, so again I do understand that the stated schedule may have needed to be delayed, but frankly we are all busy - and have a cell phone an email. There is simply no excuse for not communicating with your client, so reluctantly - he will not be referred by us.

It was and is the worst experience of my life. He was hired to replace a roof, install 8 can lights, install siding and windows, and soffits. Jeff Ackerman put my house out of code, did not get inspections on any work whatsoever, did not get an electrical permit, did not hire an electrician, would not turn the damage into his insurance company and hired substandard labor. He did not care that he put my life in danger with bare wiring laying on dry wood, taped together with black electrical tape. He filled my attic with non code powder insulation that made it's way into my airspace when I have a progressive lung condition. My roof is moldy due to his layout of the composition and the nails were too short. I had to hire a roofing consultant to determine why my roof was leaking and everything went downhill from there. He was paid in full before I knew what damage he had inflected on a home that took me 20 years to buy. He drove down the road leaving my home and myself with dangerous wiring and a substandard roof installation. After a seven year battle, fighting him in the justice system, again I have the funds to bring my home up to code. Finally, in July of 2012 I won a $187,000 judgement against him for all the damage he did to my home. He has filed for bankruptcy two times trying to get out of paying for what he did and that is a matter of record as well as all the damage he did to my home. I am now interviewing roofers to do the job again and I am thankful for Angies List to help me find a roofer with integrity and the skill to do a fairly simple job.

Jeff arrived on time, got right to work, kept me informed; Cleaned up.

JPA Construction (Jeff Ackerman, principal) oversaw and/or performed the bulk of the work on the 800 sq ft addition/remodel on our 2700 sq ft Kirkland residence in the fall of 2009. We paid about $150,000 directly to JPA, and about $150,000 to subs and suppliers. JPA was recommended by the Designer, a personal friend at the time, and we agreed to a Time&Material contract. In the initial phases (demo and rough construction), we were quite pleased with Jeff and his crew. He appeared to be quite competent at managing the subs and keeping the budget under control, and the job on or ahead of schedule. Jeff and, particularly the Lead Carpenter, Fernando Loyola, contributed very positively to remedy design oversights involving gutters (copper, really?), stair and roof layout, and value added room reconfigurations, in particular, retaining the location of the electrical panel. I have a construction background, having been a union carpenter and a finish carpentry sub-contractor years ago, and as the job progressed, however, I grew increasingly convinced that Jeff and his crew would not be able to meet our expectation level for finish quality. Early indications of this were bows in wall framing, door opening misalignments, inadequate door/window insulation, and poor tile work. Also, I was unimpressed in general with Jeff and his regular crew?s lack of tools, many of which (i.e., table saw) I ended up providing. In general, Jeff didn?t adequately weatherproof the job and this played out in ground floor flooding during a strong rainfall in October. He did, however, respond to this by summoning his men (on his dime) that Saturday to deal with the mess and patch things, although he was unwilling to pay for damages such as new carpet. In responding to this fiasco, Fernando and I decided to have a temporary tarp roof constructed, which, in retrospect, saved the job. Early on (see above), Jeff and I absorbed the (re)design responsibility from the Designer, and around the time of the flooding incident, with the early hints of lacking finish quality, and with the help of key subs, I increasingly functioned as the general contractor, in parallel with Jeff. Around this time, it became apparent that although Jeff appeared effective at managing subs, by comparison, under Jeff?s direction, his own men, although individually capable, operated less efficiently. As the job progressed, we experienced significant overruns, for example, in the installation of several large beams in the living area, where Jeff empowered then disempowered Fernando ultimately pulling rank and making him do it Jeff?s way ? to the detriment of the job. When confronted with these cost/efficiency concerns and overruns, Jeff gave me the option of taking out a loan from him, which I found amusing. With forewarning, JPA?s presence on the job was diminished in the last two months of 2009, in favor of those with higher finish skills, and consistent with the latitude in the contract. The job was eventually finished by others to our satisfaction. As his time on the job was being truncated, Jeff became less ?charming? and increasingly abrasive to me and was especially verbally abusive to Fernando and his regular crew at the time ? Dave, Willie and Jesse. Despite Jeff?s ability to efficiently manage subs and improvise around design shortcomings, I would not use him again due to overall cost-ineffectiveness, lack of finish quality, and especially the uncomfortable job tension.

Initially started well, but he lost a crew and got snagged by permit process. A 2 or 3 month project turned into close to 6 months. He spread out his workers, such as they would come into our house for a few hours and disappear to other jobs. Also, he started to bring in less-skilled workers, as a result the tile work was not very good (uneven and no grout, etc.). He would continually make promises that he could not keep and at the end was not upfront about ordered materials. He used material lead time to further delay our project, but I found out that many of them were easily available. Finally, not very professional in dealing with our concerns, very crude.