StoneBridge Group

Our experience has been good, with projects completed on time, on budget. We have recommended them to people we know and our feedback has been good from.

The contractor, Bruce Rehkopf and his partner, Don Seinbrueck, were referred to us by friends who gave them a glowing review. On 3/29/13, after having met with us at our house to see the room and discuss what we wanted done, they brought us a contract detailing the work they would do with a bid amount of $10,400 and completion date of 2 1/2 weeks from start of construction, exception to be made in case of materials delivery delay. We asked if they were licensed and bonded, and they said they were. We asked if they would pull permits for the work, and they said it wasn't necessary because they weren't doing any footprint changes to the room. We read over the contract, which specified they would do work to existing code, and gave them a deposit check for $1,000. We agreed on a start time in May, after they completed the job they were currently working on and after our return from Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the end of April. They constantly moved the start date back because, they said, the woman for whom they were doing the previous job "kept changing her mind." They set June 10, 2013, as the date construction demo would begin on our bathroom. They further delayed the start date until July 10, again citing their problems with their "difficult" client and her "constant" change orders. They jokingly asked if I was going to change my mind all the time, because I am, after all, a woman, and "that's what women do." I told them I am a former Interior Designer, and when I make a detailed design plan I stick to it unless unforeseen problems arise. I gave them copies of elevation sketches I had made for all four walls of the bathroom, and a list of color choices, shower design details, storage to be added, fixture finishes and lighting design. They said they had never had such a detailed plan given to them before and thanked me. They said they usually began work each day at 8 or 9 a.m., and I said 9 was better for me, and they finally began demolition on July 10. We moved from our master bedroom downstairs to the guest room so they could work, but still needed to access our bedroom daily for clothes, etc. They usually arrived on time at first, then took a lunch break of at least an hour, then quit work at 4 p.m. After a few days of work (I can't remember how many), Bruce told us he had a family reunion to attend in Colorado for a week. I said all right, because I was trying to be accommodating and because I was glad to have a week when I wouldn't have to schlep my stuff every day from my bedroom, which was filled with their equipment, to the guest room. His partner, Don, did no work for us during that week, either. After they resumed working, their arrival time was unpredictable, often they did not begin until 10:30 or 11:00, and their lunch breaks were longer. They still quit working at or before 4:00. Every day I would ask when something (the floor, the shower, the sink install, the bathtub plumbing, cabinets, lighting, painting, etc.) would be finished, and each time the answer was "tomorrow."As weeks turned into months their work became sloppier and sloppier. Tiles were cracked and left in place, painting was incomplete or the wrong color, they set the cabinets in front of an existing electrical outlet which was to have been moved, and when I talked to them about that they (Don) replied, "We are NOT moving those cabinets," and instead cut holes in the new cabinet backs to run an extension cord and a surge protector, assuring me that would be "just fine." They refused to install a countertop, which was included in the original contract, left grout globbed all over the shower floor, forgot to place a threshold between the bathroom and the master bedroom, and when I asked about that, said they'd just "stretch the carpet," and, again, it would be "just fine." They spilled some kind of goo all over both the upstairs and downstairs carpets, sprayed paint on the back lawn and ivy, and when they "stretched" the carpet they tore a big hole in it. They said, "no problem," that they'd just cut a piece from under the bed and replace the torn part with that. At this point I was done. They said they couldn't work the next day, and I said fine, grateful for a day without them. But that day they called and said they had to get some wood out of our basement. I told them to enter the basement from the outside door and not come in the house. While I was upstairs in my bedroom I heard footsteps on the stairs, and in they walked - no doorbell, no knock, and both our front and back doors were locked. They had come in through the basement and opened the door to the kitchen which did not lock correctly. When they left I was so rattled I just crawled into my bed and went to sleep. Next thing I knew Don was in my bedroom! He said he had left his phone in the bathroom. I know I should have called 911 or screamed or something, but I just froze and waited until he had gone to call my husband. When they came back to "work," my husband and adult daughter met them at the house, fired them and told them to get all their equipment out right then. Don became belligerant and said he wouldn't leave unless we paid them in full (the work still not complete). My husband asked what it would take to make them go away, and Don quoted him a figure, which he paid just to get rid of them. A couple of days later we received a bill from them for another $1,500 (which put the total way above the original contracted amount), and Don has continued to send bills and emails, even after we told him, per advice from our local police, not to contact us again and gave him our attorney's name. As of this writing, he is still sending emails, all addressed to me, never to my husband, and I am feeling threatened. When we had a professional electrician in to give an estimate for fixing the covered electrical outlet, we learned their electrical work was not to code. When our adult son tried to plumb in the bathtub (he has done extensive remodeling), he found they had replaced our copper pipes with synthetic, placed them incorrectly, and laid the travertine floor over what should have been the connections, again not to code. We are now getting contractors' estimates to replace and repair their work, and we will probably have to sue them to recoup our costs, as well as the money we paid them just to go away. They keep insisting I made so many changes in the design it cost them time and they can therefore charge me for that. I made no changes, except to simplify the floor tile layout (and they said I'd be reimbursed for the original labor estimate, since the new lay was less time-consuming) and to eliminate a partial wall next to the laundry at their suggestion, which, again, meant less labor and material than in the original quote. I am exhausted and wish I had never heard of these guys. If you are told that Stonebridge Group does good work and are nice, professional people, run, do not walk, away. I wouldn't wish this nightmare on my worst enemy.