Hill's Construction LLC

Great

In early February 2009, my husband & I were in the process of looking to purchase a home in central Kentucky. On February 16, 2009, Linda Hill (David Hill?s wife) began showing us various homes as our real estate agent. David Hill of Hill?s Construction LLC was present at these home viewings, & when my husband & I would indicate that work needed to be done in any of the homes we were viewing, Mrs. Hill would immediately state ?David can do that!? & Mr. Hill would follow up by saying ?Yes, I can do that!? When we viewed the very first home on our list, we noticed some roof shingles had blown into the yard & made mention of it. This is when Mr. Hill first told us he was a home builder & indicated it would not be difficult for him to repair something. This continued throughout that first day & on all subsequent days we viewed homes. In each home we viewed, Mr. Hill would also show us things we did not notice ourselves & make a point of telling us how they had been constructed improperly & how he would?ve done them differently. He stated more than once that he was a perfectionist who used the best materials & did the highest quality of work for his customers. Because Mr. Hill indicated he was a home builder, my husband & I asked about the cost of building a home if by chance we did not find something already constructed. Mr. Hill stated that he had built his own home & asked if we wanted to see it so we could see for ourselves the quality of his work. He also indicated that he was thinking about selling his home & gave us a purchase price. It was, however, more than we could afford & so we declined. I remember thinking during that visit to his home that it looked very nice, but based upon the quality of work he did in our home, he either (A) took his time & paid attention to detail when building his own home, or (B) someone else built it. In no way is the craftsmanship used in building his home anywhere near the craftsmanship used in remodeling our home. My husband & I made 3 trips to Kentucky to view homes before making a bid on our present home which of course was accepted. Based on Mr. Hill?s continuous comments about how various aspects of work in the homes we viewed was done cheaply or incorrectly, how he was a perfectionist who used only the best materials & did the highest quality of work, as well as our viewing his own home which he indicated he built himself, we contracted with Mr. Hill to do various work in our home. This work included painting the inside walls, doors, & trim, trim replacement, construction of a new interior staircase, & renovating the outdoor front porch & steps. We paid David Hill a total of $16,700.00 for his work: $6,525.00 up front, $6,675.00 at ?completion? (although the staircase was never totally finished), & $3,500.00 via the title company upon closing on the house. Although we were greatly displeased with the work David Hill performed, we felt obligated to pay the remaining balance because we signed a contract with him. When we conveyed our displeasure to him, he became very defensive & rude & told us he thought we were being ?picky.? I even took him through the house to point out the problems with his work; however, he refused to view the entire home & told me that he did not believe he could do anything to please me. Following is a breakdown of the work Mr. Hill did: 1. Mr. Hill replaced the existing trim in our home with brand new trim. In many instances, this brand new trim was gouged or cracked. Instead of replacing these damaged pieces of trim with undamaged pieces, he installed the damaged trim. In several instances the brand new trim was broken (had pieces missing along the edges) & Mr. Hill used some kind of putty to try to sculpt what the board was supposed to look like. There are areas where the trim is not flush with the floor. There are areas where the trim has been unevenly joined or mitered incorrectly. There are places where the trim is coming loose from the wall or pulling apart in the corners & at the mitered areas. 2. I had requested that satin paint be used to paint the interior of the home. Mr. Hill called me before purchasing the paint to inform me that a flat finish paint was the better choice. He indicated that satin finish would ?show every little imperfection in the walls.? Because I liked the paint in his own home, I asked him what type of paint was used there. He indicated he would need to call his wife to ask her & would call me back. In the meantime I called my brother, who has extensive home remodeling experience, to ask if I should use satin or flat finish paint. My brother indicated that satin finish should be used in the kitchen & bathrooms but flat finish should be used in the remainder of the home. When Mr. Hill called back, he told me his wife indicated that flat finish paint was used in their home. Based on this information & the information I received from my brother, I told Mr. Hill to use the flat finish & thanked him for alerting me to this before purchasing the paint. I told him I knew nothing about paint & chose the satin finish only because it was more expensive & I felt that meant it was the better choice. Mr. Hill agreed to purchase the flat finish paint. However, after going through all of this, Mr. Hill decided on his own to purchase the satin finish paint anyway, even though we had just agreed that he would purchase the flat finish, because satin finish is the paint I initially requested. Please note that I am not complaining about the painting job done in our home due to any ?imperfections? showing up from the drywall such as roughness or depressions in the drywall itself. I am complaining about the splotchiness of the painting. Wall paint was slopped onto the trim. Trim paint was slopped onto the walls. Paint was slopped onto the toilets, sinks, tubs, shower, fixtures, countertops, sides of cabinets, floors, & tile. Mr. Hill did not offer any excuse regarding the sloppiness of the paint job except to tell me I was ?picky? & nothing could please me. He blamed the splotchiness of the paint job on the use of the satin finish paint. Not surprisingly, I spoke with a Porter Paint representative regarding the splotchiness of the painting job done in our home using their satin finish Hi-Hide paint. This representative told me that this particular paint is one of their best sellers. In his words, they have sold ?boatloads? of this paint over the years & if there had been any problems with paint coverage being splotchy, he would?ve heard about it by now. 3. Mr. Hill was supposed to replace the inside stairs, add a decorative railing in the open area, & replace the original railing at the wall. These stairs & railings do not comply with building codes. The railings are positioned too high. The depth of each step varies from 11-1/2? to 11-3/4?. The height of each step varies from 6-3/4? to 9-3/4?. Also, there is a ?lip? on each step that hangs over the step below it. This ?lip? is part of the depth of the step. The measurement of the ?lip? varies from 1-1/2? to 3-1/4?. The varied measurements of these "lips" are dangerous, especially at the top step where the lip measures 3-1/4" while the "lip" on the next step measures 2-3/4". This extended measurement of the "lip" on the top step makes the next step not as deep as the others. You must be very careful when you are walking down the stairs as you inevitably bump the back of your calf on this "lip" ... & when you are walking up the stairs & are not paying attention, your toes will catch on this extended overhang & you will trip & fall. These stairs are an accident waiting to happen. Also, the stairs, railings, & ledge above them were never finished. They were stained but never sealed. 4. The outside porch stair railings were cut incorrectly. They are crooked & do not line up with the posts. The posts were also placed incorrectly so that they hang off the sides of the bottom step. With regard to the posts being placed incorrectly, Mr. Hill told me the installer ?admitted me made a mistake? when positioning the posts but there was ?nothing that could be done about it now.? Mr. Hill told me to plant a daylily in these areas to hide the mistake. Mr. Hill's work in our home was sloppy, amaterish, & of poor quality. My husband & I are retired on disability. We spent most of our savings on our home & the remodeling work we asked Mr. Hill to perform for us. We are now faced with the task of trying to find the money to hire someone who is truly qualified to redo this work correctly.