JM Murray Construction Co. Inc.

Internet search, thru BBB, google, etc., I couldn't find any info on JM Murray Construction. Meeting in person he seemed like a nice guy, and a single parent, so we gave him a chance. Got a build cost for our house, based on the plans we presented him, which we used to secure a construction loan. After getting loan, he met with us and raised the cost over $30k. Explained that we had a lot of features and that he had gone over the plans with other "professional builders" and they concurred. We hadn't signed a contract yet, so our options were to stay with him or start a new search for a builder. Throughout the build, the lot and home were filthy. Cigarettes all over, plastic bottles & cans thrown about and workers throwing trash into the undeveloped empty lot next door. We built in a nice HOA, so every time we(wife & I) visited the site(most weekends) we would spend 10-30mins cleaning the area, so we wouldn't be fined. Mentioned it to the builder several times , but didn't make any progress in having the behavior stopped. Two other homes under construction in our HOA: Completely opposite of ours; big trashcans inside, being used, no debris blowing around outside. A lot of the work seemed to mirror the workers' disregard for the jobsite. Throughout this build, my wife & I pointed out several things we thought were being done sloppily or incompletely. The builder would acknowledge many of them and give us the same response each time- "that's a punch-list item". He kept telling us that he had the best finisher in town and all those things would be taken care of at the end. Unfortunately, the finisher in a lot of cases is just sprucing up or covering bad work, and that was certainly the case here. Many times I'd point out big gaps or rough finishes, and his response would be "I thought you wanted a rustic look", as if it was some kind of excuse for sloppy work. Also, throughout the build, we would text or e-mail him different color/material choices, often with pictures of the SKU numbers. Many times he would tell us the build was slowed because he was waiting for us to make a decision on some item. I would pull up the e-mail or text on my phone, that had been sent to him several weeks before to show him, and he would just apologize and say he must have accidentally deleted it. At one point he requested that I just send texts, because he "gets so many e-mails, I just delete a lot of them". We were his only customers for the first 6 or 7mos of the build, so I would have expected him to save all e-mails regarding our build in one folder. When we finalized decisions on different materials, like tile, wood flooring, granite counters, etc. a lot of the vendors we talked to would relay odd exchanges they had with our builder, expressing concerns that "he doesn't seem to know what he's doing". My wife & I work for the biggest employer in this area, with a lot of employees being locals for decades or more. On several occasions, we had co-workers(who we had never talked to about our house) come up and tell us that we needed to be careful with our home, because our builder doesn't know what he's doing. Seven months into the project the builder certified to the bank that he was 97% complete, in order to get his last payment. It took almost 4mos to finish from that point(disclosure-a hurricane caused an additional 2wk delay). The project would sit dormant for weeks at a time. There was(and is) a construction boon in this area, so some of the delays were understandable. Others were just ridiculous: Tile in master shower took months; someone would start it, get 2 or 3ft up the wall, then stop. 2 or 3wks later someone else would be there working on it and make minimal progress. Then next week, a 3rd crew would be taking it down. Same with our stacked river rock facade around the front of the house; various crews there, week to week, putting it up, but no actual progress. During the last few months of the build Mr. Murray would call or text us, saying that an area was done. We would have to call or text him back, tell him we were standing in the house, and the work wasn't done. His response was usually dismay, that "they(the workers) told me they were done", or some other excuse. The builder wasn't checking/verifying the actual work being done by his crews. 3 different walk-thrus before we finally signed off on the house being complete. Many of the items on the punch-list we just gave up on; the finisher would overlook them(2 & 3rd time), make them worse or cause new problems(paint color, damage to walls, etc.). We decided anything that was just cosmetic, we would take care of ourselves. Moved in Nov 2016. Unable to lock back sliding-glass door, due to misalignment. It would lock in 1 out of 5 or 10 tries, but pop open with a slight tug. Pointed out this problem for several months before moving in. Had to use handcuffs thru the door pulls, to lock. After being told, 4 weeks in a row, that a worker would be there Monday to fix it, one finally showed up. The previous 4wks when no one showed, no call to tell us "sorry, I can't make tomorrow" or "sorry I didn't show up, I'll be there Tues instead", just silence. The guy that finally showed up got it to lock on his first try. Instead of trying it again, he started condescendingly lecturing my wife(I was at work) on how to properly close a door. When she asked him to lock it again, he was unable to. After "adjusting" it for a while, he got it to work in 1 out of 3 or 4 tries. As before, when locked all you had to do to defeat it was give a slight upward tug on the handle. Waited several more weeks for the local door vendor to try to fix it. The entire time, when we discussed it with the builder he kept stating that he couldn't get hold of the manufacturer and they wouldn't return his messages. The door vendor came by and he was no more successful than the last guy. He also made a similar statement about the manufacturer being unreachable, so we had him call them right there in our house; they answered on the 2nd ring, were very helpful and set up a work order to have a company rep come by. They followed up with a call a few days later to inform us of the appointment date & time, showed up when they were supposed to, and fixed it completely on the first visit. 2mos after moving in, after a small storm, we had a significant roof leak in our attic, from the chimney area. I went on the roof the next day and discovered our stucco-covered chimney stack had large vertical cracks on all four sides, from the roof opening to the top of the stack(about 8ft). The builder blamed that on the hurricane 3 months earlier(6wks before we got a Certificate of Occupancy). During that hurricane, our back screened-in porch collapsed, significant landscaping washed away and a few shingles under one of the eaves had slightly buckled. There was no other damage on the roof, and I had gone on the roof several times after moving in, when I was refinishing our window shutters and walked right past the chimney. It was fine at that point. A roofing guy came out to patch the cracks. After sealing a couple large cracks, he stopped and said the entire stack needs to be redone. So another crew came out and wrapped the stack with some kind of fiberglass treatment. I asked the builder to detail this repair, in an e-mail, so I'd have a record of what was done. He got very defensive and said I was slowing down the repair process by bringing up "legaleze". I explained my position and he stated he would e-mail me the particulars of the repair, which he never did. A month later, there was another leak in the same area. This time the roofer came back out and stated some nails around the chimney base had gone thru the shingles. The builder sent a second roofing company(that wasn't involved with the build) to look at it also. That roofer stated to us that the shingles all the way around the chimney should be replaced, because too much of the flashing was exposed. He also recommended replacing shingles around some of the roof vents. The original roofer came back, with about 5 or 6 shingles to repair the leak. It's held up the last 12 months, but caused a lot of anxiety for us every time it rains; feel the need to go up in the attic and check for leaks each time. Those issues, along with several more items(refinished almost all of the exterior wood; cut end pieces weren't finished, along with many boards on the backsides of our cedar-wrapped columns, and inconsistent finish on the wood shutters) lead me to hire a home inspector. I wanted a professional to go completely through the house, as if I was a buyer about to close on a purchase, so I would have a better picture of it's condition. What I was looking for, was a little peace of mind, hoping that the inspection would just show minor cosmetic issues and allow me to relax about the build. The report was riddled with build issues, enough that I would have walked/ran away from this property if I was shopping for a house. Months after moving in, stone from our front facade starting falling off. At first, just a few, so I figured I'd take care of it myself. However, after a couple more months, there were about 40+ pieces on the ground. I sent pictures to the builder and asked when he could fix them. After months of return e-mails & texts by me, and excuses by him, I finally gave up. His last communication with me was over 5mos ago, when he stated he would have someone out with 10 days to fix it. There were also other issues to address, but my wife & I decided to take care of them ourselves, as it was too aggravating & stressful to try to get him to do anything. We've been in the house just over a year now. Learned more about home repairs and maintenance than we ever expected to, as we are fixing everything ourselves. But there is a lot of worry, over bigger issues we might not be able to see at the surface, so our fingers are crossed.