BJ Construction Group

DO NOT HIRE BJ CONSTRUCTION OR JUSTIN FARA. This is a long post, but if you don’t have time to read it, here are the bullet points regarding our gut-rehab of a single family home that we hired BJC to complete: - Our project was supposed to take 6 months. We figured some delays would inevitably happen and it would take maybe a year. BJC missed every single solitary deadline, whether imposed by us or Justin/his project managers. It took almost 2 years before we could move in and the house is still not finished. Nor is our final inspection scheduled. - Once Justin has enough money from you, he will cease communicating with you. It was almost impossible to get on the phone with him or his project managers during our project. - Justin told us on October 13, 2020, that BJ Construction “suspended all operations” on September 1, 2020. This is false. He avoided communicating with us for the last 3 months without a call, email, or text message. And then he said his business was basically closed. This is a lie. He continues to operate as BJ Construction and is actively working on getting more projects. He just chooses to pretend like we don’t exist. I have the email from him stating he suspended operations and will share it with whoever asks me. Also, Justin and his last project manager both lied to me about the project manager not working for him any longer. I have first-hand accounts as of mid-October 2020 that BJ Construction is operating and that the particular project manager still works for him. - Justin will charm you with his stated experience and the Buildertrend app/website. He will tell you it’s how everything will be tracked. This was promised to us and it wasn’t used, despite numerous requests to use the app and better track the project. - We had three project managers during our construction. And each of them was never onsite every day. This led to countless errors and increased costs and delays to fix errors. They did not authorize a foreman who was on site every day to handle decisions or communicate with us to make decisions, and we, as the owners, were managing the project day-to-day for over a year. - Justin failed to work closely with the architect we hired (who is great) to review the plans that were going to be submitted to the city for permits. He failed to recognize or budget for a required water line upgrade (~$17,000, that we did do) and a gas-line relocation charge (~$25,000, that we didn’t do). - Justin completely mismanaged the funds for our project. He rarely paid his subcontractors on time, which caused a number of them to repeatedly walk off our job. He had checks bounce. We had to front some payments to the subcontractors directly just to keep them working. Meanwhile, Justin never communicated directly to us that he had financial trouble. If you don’t believe me about the subcontractors, message me, and I’ll give you their names and numbers and you can ask them directly. - All but one subcontractor was replaced during our project at least once. We had three different electricians working on our house, which led to things being missed (like no A/C in May when it got hot). - He lied repeatedly to us about ordering materials (when he didn’t have enough money to do so) and lied about when subcontractors would be on site. These financial issues caused massive delays to the project. - Ultimately, Justin Fara and anyone that works for him is not to be trusted. Do not believe the positive reviews you read. Take stock in the negative one about a couple’s kitchen remodel where BJ screwed the couple and they lost tens of thousands of dollars to fix his mess. That is closest to the truth. Here is the long version: In January 2018, we hired BJ Construction ("BJC") to remodel our home from a soft-converted two-flat to a single family home. We interviewed three other general contractors and based on reviews, recommendations, due to their use of the Buidlertrend app (which was to track all aspects of the project), and the ballpark project estimate, we hired BJC. The saving grace for us, despite what you’re about to read is that we financed the project with a construction loan. I can’t overstate how important this was, as you’ll see below. That was our only check on BJC to try and get the house finished without getting fleeced worse than we were ultimately fleeced. BCJ promised to complete the project in 6 months' time from the start of demolition, in July 2018. The first problem arose in October 2018 when our rear porch was torn down to rebuild it and expand the footprint of the house. Prior to signing the contract with BJC, we asked Justin to inspect the foundation of the rear porch to ensure it was sound and we wouldn’t have to adjust our budget to repour it (for a cost of close to $20,000). He had a “foundation guy” come and tell him the foundation was sound. As soon as the porch came down, it was readily apparent that the foundation guy failed to check one entire side of the porch, that had he done so, would have found that we did in fact need a new foundation for what was the porch. Justin deflected blame to the foundation guy (that he brought, no less) and because it wasn’t budgeted appropriately, we had to pay a significant amount of money out-of-pocket for the new foundation. We would have budgeted the project must differently had we known of this issue in advance, as we had requested. It took BJC over a month to just get a quote to repour the foundation and it was ultimately poured in December 2018, which was when the project was supposed to have been completed. It went downhill from there. In January 2019, when the project was to be in full swing with the exterior framing of the addition up, there was another two months of unexplained delays in getting the new windows in the house, installing plumbing, rough electrical, interior demolition and framing. Nobody was in the house working for at least two months. And all we were told by the first project manager (“PM1”) was that he couldn’t get the subs to come to the job site. Justin, meanwhile, was not responsive to our requests for information, was out of town, working on other projects, or God-knows what excuse we were told. Ultimately, no noticeable progress was made and we were told PM1 was fired. This was in early Spring 2019. This, after asking repeatedly where we were and what were the updates, proposed schedule adjustments, and anticipated completion. The second project manager came aboard (“PM2”) and we were promised things would move much faster now. The next big issue came with the water line to the house. In the plans submitted by the architect to the city, they called for an upgraded water line from what was existing in the house. Justin failed to review the plans before they were submitted to the city and failed to identify during the proposal phase of the bid that the water line needed to be upgraded. This cost us another almost $20,000 out-of-pocket that we did not anticipate. Again, had Justin done his job and told us that up front, or at a minimum, reviewed the plans prior to submission to the city, he should have told us the cost and we could have adjusted our budget accordingly. He did not and now we were stuck having a house completely demolished, no heat, exposed to the elements, no new windows or rear patio and mudroom doors installed, and now being six months behind schedule. Once the water line was finally installed, it was now late Spring. And still, we had very little electrical work, plumbing work and no interior framing completed. The next problem had to do with the flooring. When we scoped the project out, we wished to keep the original hardwood floors from 1920 in the front half of the first and second floors and run new hardwood to match as best as possible and keep the originality and charm in tact. Justin’s demolition subs mis-measured and cut the hardwood where the new walls were supposed to go at least 6 inches away from the studs. Now, the floor could not be kept in tact at the new wall locations due to this error. Furthermore, due to the fact that the house was open to the elements through the entire winter and now Spring, the hardwood floors warped and were ruined and couldn’t be kept. We told Justin up front when we bid the project out and he promised he’d make sure to keep the floors. His failure to keep this promise cost us another $15,000 in new hardwood—which wouldn’t even get installed until January 2020. Next, was the patio and mudroom door fiasco. In May 2020, when the windows were finally installed, we asked Justin and PM2 where were the custom patio door and stock mudroom doors? We were told they were ordered and were on their way soon. May, June, July, and most of August came and went without a patio and mudroom door on the rear addition. Because the house was not sealed from the elements, we could not put the hardwood in. Furthermore, because the rear doors were not installed, we could not the rear siding put in on the rear addition. This lack of siding caused water to seep in to the inside of the rear addition all along the rear windows and caused mold to spread all the way down in to the basement. Drywall had to be cutout and couldn’t be reinstalled till the siding was up. When I asked PM2 the last week of August why the doors hadn’t arrived yet, after three months of delays, he told me they were never ordered because Justin didn’t have the money to pay for them. Not to mention, the patio door and mudroom door were left out of the budgeting of the windows and doors because Justin forgot to include them, despite them being in the plans. So now, the patio door and mudroom door needed 10 weeks of lead time because the patio door was a custom order and the project came to a standstill in September 2019. And the doors wouldn’t be delivered until early November 2019. Going back a bit to the summer of 2019. By this point we demanded weekly on-site meetings with Justin, PM2, and the architect. And the following is what happened despite these weekly meetings. Based on how bad the framing subs did with killing the hardwood, we told Justin to not have those guys come back to do the drywall. He didn’t listen and they were back in July 2019. None of the walls in the entire house were square. These were the new walls over the new framing and this crew did such shoddy work that many of the walls needed to be ripped out and redone. Additionally, the subs allegedly quoted Justin $8,000 to rip out the old plaster walls in the house and replace it with drywall. Justin nor PM2 ever communicated that to us, never put it in writing with our written approval (both as required by the contract) and had them do the work. Justin then told us in October 2019 of this new cost. Furthermore, the crew put in regular white drywall in the basement (that we had fully finished) and without the proper insulation behind it. PM2 had to bring in another sub to rip all the drywall out in the basement, remediate the mold that had accumulated (again, because of the lack of siding, because a lack of doors, and no temperature control) and put in proper insulation and green moisture-controlled drywall. This took another two plus months to complete. So now we’re in October 2019. We have no siding on the rear of the house, water causing mold damage to the interior drywall and basement walls, no patio or mudroom door, one additional missing window in an upstairs bathroom that was never ordered and no subs working in the house. Justin then tried to submit a draw to our bank for five figures. However, the bank inspector came to the house and only authorized a small amount to be drawn, less than 1/8 of what was requested, because the draws are only approved for work completed, not work anticipated. So Justin tried to pull one over on the bank and they, and we, refused to give him that money. This is about when PM2 was either fired or left the company. Only after we took a hard line and shut off the spicket of money did the project move forward. Enter the third project manager (“PM3”) in October 2019. We were again promised, as we were with PM2, that the project would take off and things would be great and the house would be finished soon. This is the point at which PM3 had to swap out every single subcontractor from the original subs on the project (with one exception, the HVAC sub). The original plumber stop answering Justin’s calls. Justin couldn’t find new drywall guys because we would not let those guys back in to our house for any reason. The electrician stopped answering Justin’s calls and could not be reached. PM3 brought in a floor guy, who had to replace all the hardwood (as described above), a new plumber, a new carpenter/drywall crew, and new electricians. Also in October 2019, we received more bad news from BJC regarding the gas line to the house. The plans called for an exterior gas meter on the side of the house (moving it from the inside of the house). When we were ready to try and get heat in the house to turn on when the patio and mud room doors were installed, we were told by the gas company that our gas meter could not be placed on the outside of the house unless we paid ~$25,000 and waited 6-12 weeks for a new gas line to be run from the street to the intended location. Justin never contemplated this during the design phase or pre-permitting phase. Again, just like the foundation and water line, now this and it is not something Justin or PM3 caught—we did by calling the gas company. So, now we had to modify the design of the basement, have a gas meter installed in the interior of the basement and have the gas lines reconfigured so that we could have gas in our house. Between November 2019 and February 2020, the following things (finally) happened: the patio door, mudroom door and last window were installed (November 2019); the heat was hooked up and running (late November 2019), the basement flooring was installed (late November, early December 2019), siding installed (late December 2019), hardwood flooring installed (mid-January 2020), interior doors installed (late January 2020, and this caused the painting to be put on hold); painting of the first and second floors (mid-February 2020, which wasn’t even done well and had to be redone in spots later), plumbing fixtures and door handles installed (late February 2020), and final electrical work (late February 2020, which still hasn’t been finished). This list is for brevity, but to get those things completed, it took us literally harassing Justin and PM3 at every stage and they still couldn’t complete the project by late February 2020 by when we absolutely needed the house completed—over 14 months behind schedule. Most critically, the final payment was made to BJC from the construction loan in late February 2020. To be frank, there were changes made that we either had to make due to Justin’s ineptitude, or design changes we chose during the construction that added costs. But once BJC had the final check, things started to completely slow down and they have left us without a completed home. Additionally, PM3 had a separate business that PM3 owned and was never on site for more than an hour first thing in the morning. And PM3 also went incommunicado after 11am. PM3 never communicated efficiently or effectively and due to his absence from the project during this critical stage, numerous errors were made—some of which still have yet to be fixed. PM3 also never allowed the foreman on the job to have the authority to effectively supervised the subs. So that left us, the owners and client, to be the forepersons for the project—while also both of us having full-time jobs of our own. At no time did BJC ever actually earn its fee as a percentage of the contracted price to effectively manage and supervise the project. They failed this on every level. One important point to note here. We did not hire BJC to do any of our kitchen, wet bar, or laundry room cabinets and doors design or installation. Fairly early on we could obviously tell that BJC would screw all of that up and we hired subs independently for these areas. That was honestly our saving grace. By this point, there was just enough of the house completed that we moved in to the house in early March 2020—yes, right before the world shutdown due to COVID-19. Yet there was still more work to do: install the radiant heat boiler for the heated floor; painting the entire basement, build the rear deck, repair the improperly installed fireplaces (done horribly wrong by PM2’s basement guy), fix numerous plumbing errors, and a hundreds-of-items long list of punch list items—large and small. By May 2020, and for the first time this year, the weather got warm and we tried to turn on the A/C. When we did so, nothing happened. The house was hot and the compressors were not on. I called the HVAC sub and he told me that the electricians never ran hard power lines to the compressors. The HVAC sub told me that he told PM3 in February 2020 to have the (now second) electricians run power to the compressors. When I called the electricians they said PM3 never told them that was part of their scope. When I called PM3 and Justin, neither answered me. It took them over 24 hours to return my calls or texts. I had compressors that were giant paper weights on the roof and next to ground floor of our house. And it was 90 degrees during the day. Meanwhile, we were all home during the shutdown due to COVID. It took BJC four days to get electricians out to our house to run power. Once the air was running, I checked on the second floor HVAC unit and found 3 inches of water in the drip pan under the unit and luckily, no water had spilled on to the hardwood floor. It turns out, when the gas line was run to the HVAC unit in November 2019, the plumber cut a section of the PVC drain pipe to fit the gas pipe and didn’t reconnect the PCV pipe after the gas line was installed. So the water just drained down the outside of the HVAC unit in to the drip tray. If I hadn’t checked that unit when I did, we would have had warped hardwood and another issue to fix. I was able to rig a flex tube to have the water drain properly, but that PVC has not been fixed to date, despite hundreds of texts and emails requesting it be repaired. Over the Summer of 2020, all work essentially stopped. Very little progress was made on the very long punch list and the only thing really accomplished was that the basement was painted. Justin told me in late-August 2020 that he was working on getting subs to finish the work in the house and that our project was still a priority. The next time I heard from him was October 13, 2020, after I spent two weeks calling and texting him and PM3 with no response. He emailed me that day and stated that as of September 1, 2020, BJC suspended operations due to the COVID pandemic and that some projects were given to other remodelers, but because our project had an outstanding balance owed to BJC that would make the completion and repairs a wash (his position, not ours as we would completely disagree with that and frankly, we’d be owed money if everything was done correctly), that our project would not be completed. He also stated that he would provide me with vendor contact information in the event anything in our house fails while under warranty. To date, he has not provided that information. He further emailed me that PM3 no longer worked for him. PM3 said the same to me over the phone on October 20, 2020. Both of these statements are lies. BJC is currently in business and has been avoiding me because they are in breach of contract and fail to specifically perform according to the contract. I had multiple first-hand accounts, during the week of October 17, 2020, that BJC is in fact still doing business and that PM3 still works for BJC. Their business maintains a website, the office phone number has a voicemail message of PM3’s name and employment by BJC, and their office space remains open and operational. I even visited BJC on October 22, 2020, and Justin refused to meet me and had his operations specialist (who lied to me and said she only subleased the office space from BJC despite her voicemail saying she was the operations specialist for BJC) give me her number to “schedule an appointment.” To date, I have yet to hear from Justin, PM3, his operations specialist for an appointment time or anyone else associated with this company. I have filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and the Better Business Bureau. And I have documentation of everything described above. Again, if you don’t believe me, that’s fine, don’t take my word for it. I’ll gladly provide you with the names and phone numbers of the subcontractors, PM1, and PM2, and you can take their word for it. BJC caused my family immense physical, emotional, and financial stress. The fact that Justin Fara, PM3, and anyone who works for him can sleep at night simply mystifies me. I write this review as a stern warning to anyone who considers hiring BJC or any other company run by Justin Fara to run as far away as possible and find someone else. I anticipate Justin may respond to this lengthy review and blame us for significant design changes or an unreasonable budget (just like he did another dissatisfied and defrauded client). We revised the budget a dozen times before finalizing it and he missed the water line, gas line, and rear foundation—all before we signed a contract. And for him to walk away now and not try and come to an agreement on finalizing our house is simply despicable and tells you all you need to know about how he runs his “business.”

BJ's was timely and professional. Very easy to deal with and reasonably priced. I am in the real estate industry and often have a hard time finding the best resources for my clients, but would not hesitate to recommend them with 2 thumbs up!