Magick Men Maintenance

I hired Magick Men Maintenance to finish my bathroom and install heat runs in the basement on March 30, 2013. The start date was March 25 2013. The initial payment of $1500 was given to them on March 25. The first thing that I did wrong was to trust them by giving the worker (Dan) my credit card the first day work began, so that he could go and purchase the materials he needed to complete the job. I should have gone with him. He purchased way too much materials. I have 100 feet of pec line that I can't use and can't return. He purchased two brass manifolds that he didn't even use. Luckily I got my money back for them. He purchased a huge box of framing nails that he only used maybe 1/10 of. I have no use for the remainder. He purchased 16 extra feet of 6 inch heat runs that I can't return or use. After work began, one of the first things that I noticed after he set the two piece shower was that there was a large gap on the long side of the shower between the two pieces. The sides on each end did not have that big of a gap. Dan said that was normal. When he installed the water lines he ran them outside of the wall structure. I told him in the beginning that I will be installing drywall on the back side. Since the lines were outside the wall I would not be able to hang the drywall. He moved them but was not very polite about it and told me that he did not know that I would be installing drywall there. After he finished installing the plumbing, the hot and cold water lines were mounted 12 inches apart. He knew that I had a pedestal sink. When I confronted him about the lines being visible once the pedestal was installed, he told me that there was nothing he could do about it. I should have insisted that he move them close together, but I didn't want to make any waves. At this point, I just wanted my bathroom finished and him gone as soon as possible. After the rough in was done, I had it inspected by the city of Marion. The first thing the inspector asked me was where is my mechanical permit for installing the heat runs and bathroom vent. When I confronted Dan he was really surprised that a mechanical permit was required. I didn't know that one was required either. However, everyone is telling me now that one is required and he should have known that. The inspector also said that the heat register in the bedroom had to be moved to the window area and that a cool air return had to be installed. I had to hire a licensed HVAC person to pull the permit move the register in the bedroom and install a cool air return in the bedroom. I already paid Magick Men to do that. Dan told me that he was not going to pay for their work. After the work the inspector had instructed me to do was completed (with the excepotion of the batroom vent flea hose being installed) I paid Magick Men another $1300. They told me tto give them a call to finish the job. once I have the floor installed in the bathroom, the bathroom painted, and the ceiling ready to be installed in the area where the flex hose for the bathroom vent was going to be mounted to the outside. I initially called Dan on April 8 (Monday) and told him that I was ready for him to finish the job. He said that he would be there the following week. Two weeks went by. I called him on Friday April 26. He told me that he didn't remember me calling him two weeks prior and told me that he would be here to finish the job no later than the next Tuesday April 30. I called him back on Tuesday April 30 to ask him what time he would be here, he told me that he was on another job and denied telling me that he would be here to finish the job. He then told me that I should probably hire someone else to finish the job. So in order to get my bathroom finished I am haveing to hire yet another company to do a job that I have already paid for once.They never reimbursed me for the work that I had the HVAC person do eiher, Magick Men came highly recommended. To this day I am baffled as to why??? Dan was late almost every day he worked on the project.He did a terrible job of cleaning up at the end of the day.. One day when I went to the gym, I accidently left my front door unlocked. Dan showed up and entered my house while I was not at home without my permission. I am not sure about the other aspects of the company, but in my opinion, Dan is a horrible carpenter/plumber and can't be trusted. He took my money and ran, and I was naive enough to give it to him. I trusted him, and he took advantage of that. I was a fool for trusting him. Unless you want to get ripped off, I would never hire this company to do anything.

This was my third try at having a decent deck built onto the back of my house. The first two were so rickety I had them torn down, so I was very gun shy about going through the experience a third time. But this is a case where the third time was defintely a charm. Dan had done some plumbing and drywall work in my house (see separate, glowing reports for those) so I decided to take a third chance at getting a decent deck built. Dan drove me to some of the houses where he had built decks and pool surrounds, to let me see the quality of his work and so I could decide what features I wanted for my deck. They were very solid, very beautiful, and made it easier for me to decide what I wanted. Dan sketched out what the deck would look like, the materials list, and the cost. Once I gave my approval the materials were ordered and delivered in two days. I was out of town the next week when the deck was being built, so I turned over my house and backyard for building the deck. I checked in by cell phone, mainly to make sure that Dan wasn't killing himself to get the deck built by the time I got back. It was about a 100 degrees all week, and having used Dan for other projects inside the house I knew he would push to get it done and get it done right. I didn't get back until late Friday night so I didn't think I would be able to see the deck until the next morning. But Dan had found the solar post lights I had purchased in the garage and had built special holders for them and installed them on the deck. So I was able to see that the deck looked even better than he had promised. Dan had said that I would be able to drive a care on the deck and I believe him. No wobbly railings, no creaking steps, no support beams that I could move with my weak little arms. He had completely sanded the deck, thoroughly cleaned up the patio area where he had worked, and I couldn't even tell that he had been in the house. Well, yes I could because he vacuumed the carpet between the deck sliding door and the kitchen, which I hadn't done before I left for the week. I wish I had pictures to post. I will try to get some out there in the next week. But I love the deck more each time I look at it. The only remaining problem is what barbecue and furniture to buy that looks as good as the deck.

After removing the old fixtures, the old lines were shut off so that I could have done laundry if I wanted to. No water service was disrupted to the rest of the house. The cement floor turned out to be the best built thing in my 50+ year old house -- 4/5" thick and hard as a rock. Since it was the basement, they removed the knocked out cement by the bucklet load. You'd never know it because there was no damage to the house or dirt dropped during the process. Once the new pipes were in place, they had to transport the new concrete by bucket down to the basement as well. The finished concrete work was excellent. The new toilet and pedestal sink were installed, including the new faucets for the sink. Both were cleaned and shined better than I could have done. The floors from the front door to the laundry room were completely swept and cleaned -- cleaning up afterwards is a signature element of Kevin and Dan's work. I used to hate to walk into that laundry room/bathroom because it was just so ugly. Now I smile everytime I walk in because it looks so great. The area around the laundry drain used to be a ragged edge of cement that was so hard to clean. Now the concrete is perfectly fitted to the drain and it is so easy to clean. The toilet is perfectly fit, even though the floor is tilted for drainage. The same goes for the pedestal sink.

Kevin came out the same day I called, which is usually the case, and confirmed (very poitely) the reason the drain was so slow. He had to work for about 15 minutes to get the main line opened up all the way. He had me turn on various faucets, and flush different toilets, to make sure the problem really was solved. He always tells me what has caused the problem, usually tree roots. When I first moved into the house I used a few other companies that always tried to tell me that I needed to replace the main line because I live in an area (northeast side) where there is a possiblity that orangeburg was used. Thank goodness I found Kevin because he has never tried to sell me a service or replacement that I didn't need. I have found over the last 17 years that if I follow all the tips that Kevin gave me the main line cooperates. And it's still the original main line.