Get matched with top contractors in Melbourne, IA

"On 4-23-2018 I paid $17,500 to CB Contracting, owner Curtiss Bird. He cashed my check same day I wrote it. Our contract was for $35,000 with half down at the start. About three weeks in, he determined our agreed upon price of the contract was not enough. He wanted me to give him more money, but nothing was done. I wanted to exercise the right to exit the contract, stop all activity and seek a refund. He said he would refund the money soon on 5-16. He often said something would happen soon. But soon never seems to arrive. Cashing my check was the only prompt thing Mr. Bird did when it came to dealing with me. After multiple electronic requests to refund my money were not effective, I went to his place of business to deliver a personal request for the refund of money. He corresponded to me that he did not want me to come to his place of business. When I initially met him at the referral's home, he gave me his business card. Our contract and his business card listed his business address as his home. He later went to the police department to report that I was harassing him. The police did not charge me. I wrote the BBB and in 30 days he did not respond to them. He currently has a letter in hand from the Iowa Attorney General's office for fraud. I would have never gave him the money, but his friend Nick Ballard recommended him. I have asked Mr. Ballard for help several times. It was when I asked Mr. Ballard to reach out to his friend to reply, then Mr. Bird might email or text back with some line or story that he was seeking my money from other sources he had paid. I believe those are all false claims. They both went to the police station together, looks like they are better friends. Curtiss Bird never even bought a building permit. Failing to buy a building permit at the beginning of the process for the concrete, or any other building permits leads us to believe he never intended to do the work. His lack of actions in doing any work for our contract speak much more than he alledged claims of paying other sub-contractors. In his correspondence to me before we signed the contract, he stated to me that he does all the work himself. His website says they are willing to travel. It did not make sense to me that he would purchase wood in Creston or Corning, Iowa. He was supposedly buying the wood over 84 miles away for my garage in Ankeny. That was before the concrete for the garage was even started. Mr. Bird is not a trustworthy person or reputable business owner."

"We hired Mike because of Angie's List rating. He started this project on May 1st, 2019 and he said it would be a 2 - 3 week project. Mike's policy is he does the labor and you buy the materials. We ordered tile which was delivered a month in advance by the tile company. When Mike started laying the tile it was discovered there were 2 different finishes to the tile (glossy and matte which was the tile company's fault). Mike didn't notice this my wife did. This is where things started to unravel. The tile company couldn't get the matte finish we wanted for another month because it was back-ordered. So it was up to me to track down another supplier (which I did in Louisiana and had it shipped within 3 days. From that point forward it was like pulling teeth to get Mike over here to work on our project. He would show up for a few hours on weekends and said he had other projects that he had scheduled so he would have to do ours when he could find time. He claimed our project became bigger than we originally talked about and it compromised all his other projects ( we had one additional request to move a toilet and install a half wall which HE AGREED was fine to add). We had him install a vanity which required moving some plumbing (Mike went with me to pick up the vanity). He later complained he didn't anticipate it would require moving plumbing so that set him back (isn't it a contractors job to measure things?). When moving the plumbing he had to remove drywall. After he moved the plumbing he installed the vanity without repairing the drywall he removed so now it's impossible to fix. We wanted bullnose in our shower niches and he complained it was time-consuming. So we went to get another tile trim solution that would be easier to install (this required me to drive to Omaha to pick up product). I had the product back on Monday and he didn't come back until the next weekend to work on. We had electrical and plumbing work that could have been worked on without Mike but he wouldn't send them over to finish. To get a hold of Mike and have him respond (basic communication) was almost impossible. Mike was supposed to install a shower door and paint to finish things up. When I said we wanted to pick out our own shower door and paint he got angry. He actually got into a shouting match with my wife. We wanted Sherwin Williams paint and he actually said "I don't paint with Sherwin Williams. I never have and I never will. If you want Sherwin Williams do it yourself!" That was the last straw. I asked Mike to come pick up his things and we were done. Now I'm having to find other contractors to finish the job (drywall, plumber, electrician, tile). The contractors that have come in are appalled at the way we were treated and the shoddy work that was done. It's the middle of July and our project is still not done. We're hoping we can finish by the end of July. THIS PROJECT WAS A NIGHTMARE! I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY FOR ANY KIND OF WORK! CRAFTSMANSHIP, COMMUNICATION, PROFESSIONALISM, DEPENDABILITY, RESPONSIVENESS, AND BASIC LACK OF CUSTOMER RESPECT DOES NOT COME CLOSE TO THE A RATING FOR WHICH WE HIRED THIS COMPANY."