Caliber Home Restoration

I learned of Jon Lutton through internet searches and wish I could take back that day of my life. We hired Jon to finish a home renovation that had been started by another contractor. The total estimated time to complete the project was 4 to 5 months. Just shy of 1 year into the job and nowhere near finished, we finally fired Caliber and entered arbitration because even though he didn't finish anything, sub-contracted out all of the work that was done, messed up everything he touched, continually lied to us, installed items that didn't meet the historic requirements, and didn't show up for days on end with no explanation, he still sent us a bill for $45,000 after we fired him. Just a few examples to illustrate the shoddy work Jon does: - new sub-floor was installed in the laundry room and master bath but it was the wrong thickness of plywood and it wasn't anywhere near level. The laundry room door wouldn't even open because the floor was installed on the wrong plane in addition to not being level - on top of this floor, tile was directly applied to the plywood with no greenboard in between. All the tile and sub-floor had to be ripped out and replaced. - Jon claimed he had done projects before the met Baltimore City CHAP guidelines however he ordered nearly $10,000 of new windows that didn't comply with CHAP rules. These are just a few of the items that were done incorrectly or so poorly that they had to be re-done. We spent $30,000 by our new contractor to repair Jon's shoddy work. Finally, just as we got into arbitration, Jon dissolved his company and moved all of the assets to a new company. He is a crook. Do not hire him.

While I would not say Jon Lutton is a crook, he is a pretty lousy contractor that subcontracts nearly everything, and because he has such poor attention to detail, the work that he does or his guys do can be sub-par, and usually is. Jon was my third choice in a home renovation through a large bank. My other choices were either booked or had issues dealing with the bank paperwork and approvals. In this effort, Caliber was reasonably good, and even an inspector from the bank told me Caliber would do the work contracted. I did not at the point know that to a bank (for example), a window is a just a window, even if the work quality is low and not sized quite right. Keep that in mind when dealing with accountants! Jon originally told me the work would be about 60 days. It was about 60 days before anything happened. The house is about 80 years old, mostly original. We had 5 months to do the work before move-in, and we had to end up moving to a temporary apartment for three months because the work was not finished. Of course we didn't consider that expense when we had this in mind! -Windows: Wood frame, aluminum clad windows were improperly sized (about 1.50" narrower than should have been) and shimming was much more than ideal. They were installed in one day and I was not even told of the issue. Once I saw them I wasn't happy but because I wasn't there they were already all in! Company rep says what they did is not ideal but installed ok, so too bad for me, basically. -Drywall guys were drinking beer on the property. Jon rarely checked on them but he did end up firing those guys. -Electrical guy OK but forgot to reinstall wire for front porch light. It is still out and I have to fix that. -Carpet guy was great. -Painters good but did shortcuts like not removing HVAC vents and painting around them. Really? -Plumber (minor work) ok -framing OK, but they did not plum all surfaces well. A new stub wall in our attic is so out of square that putting up a temporary baby gate is not possible (3/8" out over 18"). -Tile, not great -HVAC guys OK -wood floor refinishing OK In the end, the work was not great, Jon didn't really care about completely satisfying us or doing the best job possible, and I just wanted him gone. I feel like we probably got 50 cents on the dollar for what we put in.

The original prices that were quoted were on the high end compared to other estimates I received. I chose to have them do the work because I felt that they understood what I was looking for. I ended up purchasing most of the materials so that I would save on the overhead they would charge. They pretty much just subcontracted all of the work. I had to have my personal plumber come in to do the plumbing work because their plumber was not available and was also charging them more than they budgeted for. My plumber did all of the work PLUS extras and they weren't even compensated for all of it. Caliber Home Restoration failed to pay them for the entire invoice. Caliber Home Restoration also tried to cut corners so that they didn't have to do as much as work in the long run. Of course, I made them come back and do it right. They ended up charging me for items that were clearly not a charge in the budget I signed. I had to fight them on this and finally I just said that I will not pay them and if they have a problem with that, then we can go to court. I had to contact my attorney to get involved because I was refusing to pay for something that was never agreed upon. To sum up, the job started out okay and I was happy with them in the beginning but as things progressed, they seemed to get worse and by the end of the renovations, I was very upset with them and clearly I will not use them again nor would I recommend them to other people.