AUGEDAHL CONSTRUCTION & CBNTRY

They were recommended by a friend and locally it was difficult to find someone to do a small addition. They seemed capable and said it would be an easy enough project. They started framing the project in November but work was slowed down in December-January due to holidays and winter, which meant the side of the house for the addition was open through the winter. I asked how they could work thru the winter and they assured me they could. OK well we had to heat the place and did try to keep things as closed up as we could. Weather complicated progress and completion but it took forever for other reasons. Sometimes they had to reschedule. We did not quibble with them on price but made it known that we wanted a match to the workmanship and high quality of this home as constructed. They said they were able to do so but they did not consistently. With final payment after all was done, May 2007, I sent them a two page letter with 16 specific concerns and that if issues arose I expected them to resolve these. They never responded. Here are just a few concerns, some were minor some not so and always they had an answer initially, and quot;that's how we do itand quot; or and quot;it meets code.and quot; 1. The crawl space walls are 6and quot; wide while the architect's plans were drqwn for 8and quot;. They hired the architect and did not follow his recommendation. They said 6and quot; met code. 2. We have 1 1/8and quot; marine grade plywood as the sub flooring in the house and asked that the same be used to meet quality. They said it was not available, they used 3/4and quot; strand board. We have learned that what we wanted to match the other flooring was available. There was a mismatch and 1/2and quot; slope to the addition floor from the original structure, which they smoothed over and fixed after it was pointed out to them. 3. Original roof deck where the addition was joined onto the house was not totally removed. No fire blocks were installed at roof deck to walll structure. 4. Wall exterior sheeting is 3/4and quot; strand board on the addition while the rest of the original house is 7/8and quot; Celotex. 5. No grab bars were installed in the shower as expected. The worker advised that the shower walls were not built to accommodate that. 6. Worker mistakenly cut a hole in the sub floor at the shower edge and patched it with scrap 2x4. When questioned the worker said it would be OK. Some very irritating mess ups toward the end of the job happened when they were anxious to be done and frankly we were wanting them gone. One that particularly exasperated me was they called for carpet to be installed over a filthy dirty sub floor, which even the carpet installer acknowledged he would not lay carpet onto. They sent a worker to clean it up at my insistence and rescheduled the carpet installation. Some of their crew casually had tossed wooden chips, debris, dusty trash into the air ducts and did not cover the ducts adequately while sawing so we had filth all over the house as it blew through. Remember it was winter and we had to use the furnace. My husband who is a normally an easy going guy, a reasonable man became beyond annoyed, disgusted and had many arguments with them. I had to end up being the go between and that is preposterous because I usually have the bad temper. One day they left a dirty rag hanging from inside the bathroom panel access to the shower pipes, again careless work by someone's son. It was almost comical but in the final days we were not laughing. We have heavy thick plaster in the rest of the house and they said that was no longer available, it is. They used something cheaper, it looks good but did not match the quality as we expected. Over all, the addition looks nice. We have been satisfied with the job and visibly from the outside it matches the original house so well that it could not be seen as an addition. It is sad that we did not get the level of craftsmanship we expected and were willing to pay for. Their price seemed very reasonable and they took no progress payments which is the agreement they presented, full payment on completion. The cabinetry is solid oak and that work is good quality. The walk in closet shelving and cabinetry is very solid and good. The crown molding they built and installed in the living room looks great. The walk in shower in the bath is OK but should have had a bit more slope into the drain. I would not want to repeat the experience. We are the customer and expected better service. I know that human beings are imperfect and make mistakes, but how these are recovered tells the true tale. Now October, 2013 we have just discovered that the roof is leaking, slightly we hope,somewhere on the front of the house where the addition was added. I called them Monday 10-21 and was cordially assured they would take care of it and that Davw, the owner would call me. He has not. I called again today, 10-23,. I am still waiting. I really wish I could give them an A rating, because they are local and family owned, but our experience was not overall optimal. It is kind of a stretch to give an over all B, but they were above what might be average and up until now there have not been significant problems. I hope they will take care of the roof issue. I will return with a review about what happens.

We have everything planned and they start the work next week. They are very well known in the area and we chose them because we know their work.