S & A Construction

unknown

This project was a big disaster from the beginning!! First they quoted 10 days to 2 weeks to get this project complete. It took 7 weeks for them to get it finished. They often showed up late or not at all!! They would often schedule someone to be there at 9 am and they would not show up until 10:30 or 11. Sometimes they would schedule the workers to be there at 11 and they would show up at 8:30. You never knew when they were going to be there! There are two separate occasions that I can prove with text messages that they were scheduled to show up and they never did!! I called them when they were 3 hours late and they said one time that " I didn't know he was suppose to be there today" and the other occasion was the carpet guys were suppose to be their on my sons birthday at 2 pm!! I texted Cory at 5:30 and Cory said "oh they didn't call you?? They are not going to be there until tomorrow at 2 pm" so we have wasted so much time on their scheduling issues. Second, they brought out the excavator to dig the hole for the window. Maybe 2 hours into the dig they come tell us that they blew out the hydraulic line so they had to go get parts for the machine. Well okay I understand things happen, no problem!! After they had left I go out to look at it and move some dirt around and I start smelling hydraulic fluid!! So I start digging a little deeper and found all of the hydraulic fluid still in the yard buried under the rest if the dirt from the hole!! They didn't even bother cleaning it up at all?? They just thought it would go away!! I had to spend 5 hours digging it out and disposing if it!! I asked Cory about it and he said "well I don't know why they wouldn't clean it up but we will pay you for your time!!" They never did!! Of coarse!! That is the first problem with the quality if work but not the last. Next problem, they put the window well in the hole and bolt it to the foundation!! Well they forgot to put sealant around the bolt hole so when we got 7 inches of rain water just floods the room!! Their was mold growing and major sheet rock damage! I email Cory about this on Saturday and no response!! Previously he responds within a matter of hours!! So I send a second one on Monday. No response, I send a third one on Wednesday and no response. So I called the office and they said he's in western Kansas so he will have to get back with you tomorrow!! Obviously their wasn't a rush with them!! He calls the next day and says he got all my emails Wednesday?? He has never had a problem with his email before, and I think western Kansas still gets the internet!! Anyway they are blaming the flooded basement on our sprinkler system coming on twice a day for 10 minutes?? This is interesting because for 3 years now the sprinklers have been doing this and we have never had water in the basement before they came out and did this work. To fix the issue they ripped out al the sheet rock that was damaged and used a $10 roll of sealant and sealed around the bolt hole!! Why didn't they do this the first time?? When they were ripping out the sheet rock do you think they covered anything in the room?? No!! They flung sheet rock dust, mold and other things all over the bed, dressers, stuffed animals, etc. why would you not cover things up before you did that?? He just said "sorry I should have covered it up before I did that!!" So we got to spend hours cleaning all that stuff up!! Poor quality if work for sure!! Next the cover for the window well!! When they installed it the first time, yes it took them twice, they left a two inch gap from the top of the window well and the cover!! This looked really bad and let water into the window well!! Also with the window well cover they left a 2-3 inch gap between the cover and the house wall, so water would hit the wall and run down into the window well and window. This is very poor quality work. To fix it, they came out and lowered it to the top of the window well and put some flashing on top of the 3 inch gap above the cover! Why would they not do this I'm the first place! Why would we have to say something to get them to do it right?? I asked Cory about this and he says " we must have just missed it." Again this is the quality of work I have to pay for?? Next in the poor quality of work is the bedroom closet doors. They brought out the new closet doors that have been stained to match the rest if the basement, hung them up and went on to the next project!! Well we go down after they leave and see a hand print in the stain of the closet door!! Right on the front edge covered in clear coat so it was a finished door! This is very poor quality workmanship!! Cory came out and took the doors to have them replaced!! Again he "didn't know why they didn't catch that??" Finally is the ceiling guy spraying the textured ceiling. He comes and spays the ceiling in the new bedroom and bathroom downstairs with a medium sized grain. The previous texture was a large grain. The next day in the bathroom, it kind of smelled funny so we turn on the vent fan and it doesn't turn on?? It worked the day before they came out?? So we start looking at the fan and it has medium grain texture all over it!! He didn't cover the fan up before he sprayed it!! I had to replace it so I ask Cory about it and he says "I'm sorry about that!! How much did it cost and I will get you your money back for that?" Well we didn't see any money!! So I asked Cory about it and he said "my guy says he covered that fan up." But earlier in the week he sent Freddy out to clean up the vent fan." So he knows he didn't cover it up!! I didn't take a picture of it so I can't prove it but it worked the day before he got here and didn't after he sprayed the ceiling!! It was only $45 so I'm not concerned about the money it's about the quality of work we received!! Very poor!! So to sum up my experience with this company would have to be a very bad experience!! They don't care about your time or your belongings!! Cory quoted 10 days to 2 weeks to get his project done and it took from July 7 until August 29 to get it done!! I paid all the money before we discovered the leak so we paid for it all!! I feel we deserve a refund of some money so YES I have written the BBB in hopes they can help me with this company's poor quality of work!! I feel all customers should know how they are and the quality of work they have done!! I asked them about my issues that they have caused with their poor quality and forgetfulness and they sent me an email saying that they feel they have done everything they need to do to resolve our issues!! Well I think not!! I work hard for my money and should not have to pay for this poor quality work!! They should have to pay for my time I had to spend fixing their issues with quality and scheduling!! I don't understand how they could have a good rating with Angie's list!! This is unacceptable!! I would find someone else even if it cost more!!

Work was done beautifully and professionally. S&A accommodated our work schedules in order to be home when the work was done.

For the most part, the repair went very well. It didn't happen quite as fast as we would have liked, but there were a lot of home damaged at the same time, plus we had a very wet and rainy summer. All in all we are satisfied with the work performed for us by S & A Construction.

We got bids from various companies to do work on the house and checked everyone out with the Better Business Bureau and references they gave us. S & A Construction, Inc gave us over 30 referrals and we asked the people a lot of questions. Did they stay on the job, did you get lien releases as each phase of work was done, did you have any problems with the work done, did you have a hard time getting them to do work over that was unsatisfactory, etc? We were impressed with the answers we were given and they told us we couldn't go wrong hiring them. My daughter, Stephanie and her husband, Bill and I meet with Don Horning and Stuart Nelson about 5 times before we hired them to remodel my home. In fact we added additional work we wanted done. The nightmare on Lotus Street has begun and continues today as my house is getting worse due to the work they did on it. We were told by Don Horning and Stuart Nelson that the men who would be working on my home had over 19 to 40 years experience and knowledge and did excellent professional work. Maybe the 1st concrete man had over 40 years experience but he sure did a lousy job at my house. The other workers were young men not old enough to have over 19 years experience and they clearly lacked the knowledge and experience to do the work. S & A Construction Inc agreed to do the work per our specifications and use the materials we wanted used. They tried to cut corners with each and every phase of work they did. Nothing was done properly and they weren't consistent on how they put the vinyl siding around the basement windows or the metal overlap which was cut too short or mitered different. We were constantly complaining about the inferior work and Stephanie and Bill took off work many times to meet Stuart Nelson and Richard Brown, City of Wichita Central Building Inspector to discuss the substandard work. I made many, many calls to Richard Brown and his supervisor, Darlene Holtman complaining about the lousy work at phone number 316-268-4461 and 316-268-4700. I also spoke to over 60 attorneys regarding bringing a lawsuit against S & A Construction. The inspectors and attorneys both told me that I need to give them the opportunity to make things right. Some of the work was redone 3 times or more. How many chances are you supposed to give them before it's too many? Why did Mr. Nelson have the same people, Jason and David that did the work wrong the 1st time do the work over and over again? We certainly didn't agree to allow unskilled people to work on my home. They had so many different projects going on at the same time and none were stayed on till they completed them. Jason would start on something else before they finished the other project. I know they came and started working on my house shortly before I got home from work because they hadn't accomplished much from the last time they were here. They often received calls to go work on HUD houses for the City and other homes and would leave. Sometimes they would go to lunch and be gone for over 3 hours. The work was supposed to be completed in 3 weeks. They started on 11/15/07 and finished on 02/19/08. They didn't do all of the work they were supposed to do and I fired them before they could do anymore. My blood pressure was over 200/100 from the stress they were causing me and I had to be put on high blood pressure medicine and my hair was falling out at the roots with my scalp attached to it. My doctors said I was lucky I didn't have a heart attack or stroke. The stress also caused me to have severe migraine headaches. A legal document was written appointing my daughter, Stephanie as my agent to handle all business transactions with S & A Construction Inc and signed by me on 1/03/2008. A copy of this document was given to Stuart Nelson. On 12/29/07 Stephanie also wrote a letter outlining all of the problems with the work performed on my house with pictures included. She also had a document requesting Mr. Nelson provide her with a written detailed workplan of the action he would be taking to correct the problems and remedy the issues. He refused to sign or give her a written workplan. He told her they would fix everything. Things are still not right and causing more damage. When this house was built in 1950 my father helped build it. He worked for the City of Wichta as a supervisor for almost 33 years and he worked on houses for extra money. He paid me to help him work on houses and I learned a lot. I also did research on the internet regarding house ventilation, etc. I have 2 huge binders called Easy Home Repair A Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Do-It-Yourself with instructions, pictures, tools, and materials required to do the work. They refused to put my porch lights up and I didn't have any porch lights until 9/19/2008 and Decker Electric charged me $466.24 to install the porch lights and install the combo fan/light and switch in my bathroom. S & A Construction claimed support braces would have to be mounted between the house studs to install the lights which wasn't true. Arnold, the owner of Lakeview Electric came out and he quoted me $90.00 to do all of the work that Decker Electric did. Lakeview Electric was back logged and couldn't do the work right away and I heard that Arnold was trying to finish up his contracts so he could retire so I hired Decker. You can imagine my shock when I got their bill. Unfortunately, I had to hire someone to take the porch lights off and remount them because Nicholas cut the holes in the siding too big and the wind was blowing rain into the holes getting my sheetrock wet. The man that removed my porch lights and remounted them also removed and replaced a piece of vinyl siding above my bedroom window. The siding was flopping back in forth in the wind hitting the house and keeping me awake at night. This cost me $140.00 for the lights and siding repairs. Mr. Nelson was contacted several times about the siding and said they would come out and remove and replace the bad siding. The piece of siding above my bedroom had holes clear thru it from flopping back and forth in the wind. Mr. Nelson was supposed to send someone out on 3/25/09 to fix it (the siding was completed on 02/19/08) but no one came or called me and I had taken the day off from work at my 1st job to be here. I kept calling Mr. Nelson about the house complaining about the siding and the windows being drafty. I kept calling the City Central Building Inspectors. The attorneys that would take the case wanted a $10,000.00 retainer fee up front to bring suit against Stuart Nelson. UNBELIEVABLE !! I discovered the sheetrock mud on the bottom of my bedrail in December 2010, the curtain Jason wiped caulking and sealant on, and the house just keeps getting worse so I called S & A on 12/20/10 and again on 1/5/11. They threw concrete all over the yard when they put the new basement windows in, nails and screws were all over the yard that I had to clean up, glass from the window they broke and the glass picture window that broke. I strongly believe if I remove the vinyl siding off the east side of my house I will be able to see where they caught my house on fire. I found a white towel they were using stomped into mud that was all burnt up and a small piece of wood burnt black as coal that was clearly cut off my house. Unfortunately one of my granddaughters picked the burnt wood out of a box sitting in my garage and got her hands dirty. Her sister told her to put it back and I wasn't aware that she threw it in the wastebasket until it was gone. I was going to take a picture of it with the nails I had picked up. On 1/04/2011 I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They sent me a letter saying he had until 11/21/11 to respond to my complaint.I called the BBB and they said Mr. Nelson said he mailed a reply to my complaint on 11/18/2011. I called the BBB on 11/21/2011 and they hadn't received a response. I kept checking in the computer. On 11/26/2011 I received a letter stating they had NOT received a reply from Mr. Nelson. On 1/03/2012 or 01/05/2011 I called the BBB and spoke to Shelia Valdo and she said they received a reply on 11/22/11 and that since I hadn't responded by 12/03/2011 that the case was closed. I looked in the computer and found his reply to them which was date stamped 11/22/2011.but it wasn't in the computer on 11/23/2011. Mr. Nelson claims I'm making false accusations, and that he will not tolerate any further disrespect of vulgarity from me. He demanded I send him photos, statements from the City Building Inspectors and from Ron, owner of Arko that custom made my storm windows, etc. My house is proof and I have pictures to validate my claims. He has the audacity to accuse me of making false claims. Where were the experienced workers? His comments are erroneous and he is fully aware of the problems.His statement that I have been disrespectable and vulgar is irreprehensible. He told us whatever we wanted to hear but didn't follow through with his words. He didn't keep his appointments and denied making any. What would he call his behavior regarding these facts? We were told that we would receive a substantial referral fee after we made our final payment. If Mr. Nelson thinks the work was professional and superior why weren't we offered the referral fee? I'd really like to know. It is UNBELIEVABLE what this company has put us through.I don't know what happened to his company but I sure wasn't able to join his list of satisfied customers. All documents, pictures and notes have been given to Elaine Hammons, Central Bldg Inspection to review. Their phone number is 316-268-4461 or 316-268-4700 and I have spoken to Darlene Holtman, Richard Brown, Deb Legg, Peggy Wilhelm, Rick Stubbs, and Elaine Hammons there about these problems. I left another message on 1/25/12 for Elaine but have not heard from her. I told her that I want to know if they are going to do anything as time runs out on 2/19/12 to do anything.