Cook Construction Contracting

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Cook Construction performs work that it is not licensed to do. Cook's unlicensed roofing sub-contractor caused over $100K damage (and counting) to the home. The roofer's insurance company refused to cover the claim because the roofer was not licensed to be doing the work in the first place. Cook's own insurance company initially agreed to cover the loss since Cook was the contractor who signed the contract. Cook and its insurance company stopped answering calls or responding to emails, even from an attorney. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR YOU WILL REGRET IT.

On July 3rd my upstairs toilet overflowed, seriously damaging my living room ceiling. On July 4th I was putting my townhouse on the rental market. On July 5th I was leaving on a 3½ week vacation. I was in a serious bind. I called Mr. Cook who came over and checked the damage. He made a few calls and arranged for a crew to start repairs on the morning of July 4th, a holiday. They showed up on time and were very professional and polite. They covered the floor and carpet, then cut out and replaced a 4ft by 4ft section of damaged drywall. The next morning the crew arrived early and painted the entire living room ceiling. They were done and gone before noon. And we were on the road by 3:00PM, ready to enjoy our vacation. Without Mr. Cook’s quick response, our townhouse would not have received the attention of potential renters that it did.

Cook Construction was recommended to me by a handyman services contractor who said she used them on her own house. Jesse and Nicolas were one of several companies I contacted for an estimate to repair or replace the approx 5 x 10 front porch on my house. They responded quickly to my request, came out to give me an estimate, were prompt, friendly and asked questions to understand what I had in mind. Unlike some of the companies I contacted, they took measurements and photos, and gave me two estimates: one for repair and one for replacement of the porch. Their price was comparable to the other estimates I got, and they offered ways to re-use salvageable materials as appropriate, which ended up saving me about $1,200 versus other bids. As soon as the crew lifted the decking and got a direct look at the condition of the framing, it became clear the porch had to be rebuilt; the roof framing turned out to be in even worse condition once the decorative trim came off. Because they had already given me an estimate on the total rebuild, this only slowed the project down slightly while Nicolas and I discussed some questions about what materials to use. Throughout the project, Jesse and Nicolas were very responsive to phone or email questions, addressed a concern about the new gutter overflowing in heavy rain (which turned out to be caused by a blocked sewer line) by proposing creative, minor fix at no additional cost, and were polite and friendly throughout the process. The project took about three weeks from start to finish, although there was probably a week's worth of time when work was stalled while waiting for specific crew members who had been scheduled on other projects. Because Nicolas was very good about keeping me updated on the project and because this was an exterior project and didn't interfere with using the entrance of the house, I was fine with that. All the crew with whom I interacted were friendly and willing to answer questions. They removed all the materials from the demo promptly and did a really good job of cleaning up the site when finished. The final result looks great, protects the front of the house, and is a huge improvement. I'm very pleased.

On 7 May 2012I entered into my contract with Cook Construction Contracting and the work is STILL incomplete. The problem began, when I noticed standing water in my basement in July 2012 following a thunderstorm. Mr. Cook met me at my home and indicated the water was due to the sewage ejector pit and pump appeared to have been unable to keep up with the nor'easter storm. However, I asked him to explain why in only three areas in the basement there was standing water. He explained those were the lowest areas and when the fast storm came through it settled there. Although very skeptical, I accepted his response. In mid-September 2012, another storm came through and again, my basement flooded. Mr. Cook and Mr. Nicolas Rivera visited my home and checked the ejector pump plug and attributed the flooding to the ejector pump possibly lost power and I should think of getting a marine back-up battery installed in case I lose power again. I explained, I believed there was more than a problem of lost of power to the ejector pump and the sump pump but they were not working because of another problem which needed to be corrected. Mr. Cook and Mr. Rivera ASSURED me, if that was the case that it was another problem, they would immediately address it. On 29 and 30 October 2012, Hurricane Sandy came to the area and left torrential rains in the area and approximately 2 or 2.5 feet of water was left throughout my basement. In complete disbelief, my basement looked like an Olympic size swimming pool. I have photos showing paint buckets floating across my basement floor. I immediately called CCC to advise my basement had 2 feet of water and that the ejector pump and sump pump they installed had failed. I made repeated calls to CCC to discuss options; unfortunately, CCC did not respond until 5 days later. On Monday, 5 November 2012, Mr. Cook and Mr. Rivera came to my home. They too, were shock when they saw the water. I gave each of them 2 construction strength plastic bags to walk across the basement floor and to look at the ejector pump. The ejector pump was stuck and defunct but the sump pump was working. Mr. Cook removed the rear sump and moved it to the front and pumped the water out my front basement window. He apologized for not contacting and responding me earlier on my flooded basement. He indicated, he would have his plumber Gus (Last Name Unknown) return to assess the problem and how to move forward to correct the problem. CCC's plumber did not return to repair the failed ejector pump, instead I hired at my own expense a licensed and certified plumbing company. According to the plumbing company, I needed to separate the two systems; the rain water and sewage systems to solve the basement flooding and re-pipe the system from going through the ejector system. By keeping the rain water system completely separate from the waste water system, it would eliminate the flooding. I paid twice for my sewer line to be rerouted at a cost of Three thousand one hundred and fifty dollars ($3,150), absent of the frustration and one day missed wages for the work to be performed correctly. Wanting to move forward, on 13 December I met and proposed to Mr. Cook, I wanted to work towards an amicable resolution of this issue and was willing to close this chapter if your firm replace and install no later than 3 January 2013, a new insulated basement window and install a wrought iron security bars on the basement window at my home that was damaged during the excavation process. Or, I proposed an immediate refund plus the cost of the installed insulated basement window and wrought iron security bars that was damaged by CCC during excavation. Again, CCC did not want to fulfill its obligation, instead, CCC demand top dollars for inferior work. I would never use CCC again and recommend Home Depot and any insurance company to stay away from CCC because Mr. Cook does not oversee the work and is an absentee project manager who does not want to be held accountable or responsible for the subcontractors working under his company's name. Finally, ALL of the negative comments about CCC from me and other customers are an accurate assessment.

I would warn people not to use them. Two people had recommended them to me. I had to move quickly. At first they were fine. Their problem was that they used subcontractors who were not supervised. Their electrician was great. The floor installers that actually put in the finished floors were good. The floors were beautiful. They had a crazy crew supervised by a man named Eduardo. I called him Eduardo and his merry band of thieves. They stole all my tools and destroyed my cable modem. I moved all my personal belongings and they were supposed to cover my furniture. They covered it with plastic that was thinner than bags from the dry cleaners. If they had told me, I would have bought heavy plastic and done it myself. One night I came home and they had left the second floor window wide open with no screen down or anything. They ruined parts of the new floor. There are gouges in the new floor where they moved stuff that they shouldn't have. I have an antique velvet settee and they put heavy metal stuff on it so it has a few holes in it. I had to get all the upholstered furniture cleaned. They got paint all over everything. The painting had to be done 3 times. I evicted Eduardo from the basement and then from the upstairs. The owners had to come and finish the punch list and it is still not finished. Eduardo ruined my shutters in the bedroom. He lied to me. He told me he took the shutters to a paint store and the paint that was on them wasn't their paint because they were using a water-based paint and the paint on them was an oil-based paint. He said they were cleaning them off out of the goodness of their hearts and that was how the shutters got stained. They didn't paint right and they didn't put tape down. Aaron Horner, the number two man in the company and the project manager of my rebuild, is no longer with the company, which told me something about the company. He said that they tried to repaint the shutters and they wouldn't take the paint. The two owners promised to buy me new shutters and I still haven't seen the shutters. I called yesterday and a new guy said they were going to paint the shutters when I had been promised new shutters. They are just bad. They stole all my tools. The only thing they left was a hammer that the dog had chewed on the handle. I've only been back in the house for six weeks and they started the work in July. The insurance company paid $30,000 so it was not a small amount of money. It was complete frustration. The good work that they did got overwhelmed with the bad. The price was reasonable. Eduardo put in subfloors and painted and he was lousy. The electrician and actual floor installers were excellent. Their punctuality was pretty good.