Mike Reed

This project turned out to be nothing short of a Disaster. He was hired to create a patio area around our new in-ground swimming pool that was installed this past summer and is situated at the bottom of a hill. On the day that he arrived with an excavator/digger to begin the job, both the pool contractor and I came out and told him not to fill in the creek that runs through the property and behind the circular stone bench. He did not like taking instructions from me, the female homeowner, and went ahead and filled in the creek anyway. He also failed to create a drainage system of any kind at the bottom of the hill to catch water that might come down in a storm. The first time we had a significant rainstorm, after 3 hours the mud began to breach the filled in creek and pour over the patio, through the stones in the bench and down the hill and into the pool. The pool was not just brown, it was actually filled with mud. (Our first pool party was scheduled for the following weekend and some of the youngsters present went racing down in hopes to catch frogs - it resembled a pond!). The pool contractors were kind enough to come out with an extra mega-filter and work with me night and day for more than a week to restore the pool, but from that time on we knew we had a real problem. We were unable to see the bottom of the pool for a total of 9 days. At my insistence, Mike came out with the excavator and dug out the creek, but actually asked me to pay for the machinery! In an effort to make certain that he would make good on that and his promise of sinking the pool filter blowout hose that was eroding our beautiful, old rock retaining wall, I agreed to pay for half the bill. He spent about an hour digging an unsightly ditch where the creek used to be, which compromised the new black chain link fence that he'd installed, and then disappeared. I gathered that he was racing off to another job with the excavator that I paid for. When I tried to get him to return and fulfill the second half of his promise, he kept putting me off, saying he would get to it "soon." This went on for several weeks, until I asked him if he'd rather deal with my attorney, to which he said he can now never work on my property. Speaking of the fence, he failed to use corner couplers, which makes the fence look awkward wherever it turns a corner, and there are several places where the space at the bottom is so gaping that our two large dogs can get out, and we live on a busy road. Today our old hound escaped, which prompted me to finally take this step of warning other customers. In short, this guy has a very bad attitude and business manner towards customers. His son, who is in college studying to be an engineer, and he got into a loud argument on the job one day, and the cursing and shouting could be heard all over the neighborhood. He smoked and threw cigarette butts all over the yard while he worked. He came to the back door every day asking for a check in large amounts for materials, indicating that he has no credit with the local suppliers. I told him at the end of the job that I have a policy, learned the hard way, of withholding a portion of the last payment, usually 10%, for a period of two weeks in the event that I find a problem with a job. He pleaded with me to pay in full, because he was desperate for the money, so I gave in, because it was awkward in front of his two sons. Now I have no leverage or recourse whatsoever. Even the grass seed never "took," and my mower pointed out that it had been seeded on sand, not the top soil for which I had paid. I have owned my home, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has 32 rooms and a large carriage house on an acre, for 15 years. When I bought it, the place was an absolute wreck, and over time I have lovingly restored and improved the property to the tune of about $700,000 of my hard-earned money. I have hired virtually hundreds of contractors and workers over the past 15 years, for everything from roofing, plumbing, electricians, painters, you name it, and out of all there have been a few bad apples along the way. Overwhelmingly, however, the workers have been great, if not fantastic, and most have taken pride in their work and in helping to transform and return this in-town property to its former glory. I can honestly say that Mike Reed ranks as the WORST worker that has ever set foot on this property, from his attitude, behavior on the job and downright stupidity in ignoring our warnings about filling in a creek, for goodness sake, and providing no drainage, leading to a very expensive fix. Indeed, I have been forced to hire a Civil Engineer to deal with what he said would have been a very straightforward solution, had it been addressed while the patio and bench were being built. The Engineer and the "fix" that is now required to remediate the drainage problem come at a price tag of a whopping $14,000.00. I can not afford to fix this until next spring, so now, everytime it rains we are outside bailing mud, dragging sandbags and stressing to the max that the pool will once again fill with mud. Not to mention the spring thaw. This experience makes me wonder if the knock-down drag-out fight that Mike had had with his son that day might have been over the poor engineering of the patio, non-existent drainage system and/or filling in the creek. Later on that day Mike muttered something to me that his son was a know-it-all. Maybe he ought to have listened to him. The only reason that I did not give him a Lousy on the quality, is that the paving stones look decent, and the design aesthetically is pleasing. Another factor that induced me to pay in full on his final day on the project. The stone bench, however, is a terrible design, and the stones on top are just placed there with nothing holding them into place.