Jason V Lauban Construction, Inc

We contacted Jason Lauban on 9/24/2012 to get an estimate on having improvements to our home. We decided to hire him to do this based on their website, which was impressive, and the fact that Jason Lauban advertised 15 years of experience in this field. Prior to this project, we had worked with his father, Vaughn, with the idea to have an addition (den) added to our home. Mr. Vaughn was professional, paid attention to detail and we were impressed. In the end, we decided to put off this project, as our income had dropped. But we felt like Jason would do a good job with this smaller renovation project. I met with Jason at our home on about 9/25/2012 and we went over a list of things we wanted done. On 10/10/2012, he sent a subcontractor to also talk to me about this project. There were problems beginning right at this point. The subcontractor said he had been told that we wanted a porch with a roof on the the back of our home. He even said plans had been drawn up for this. I told him no, we had not asked for a roof over the patio. I felt like we needed to go over all the projects we had talked with Jason about, in case there were any other misunderstandings with the subcontractor, and I mentioned this to the subcontractor. But he said "no", that wasn't necessary. In hindsight there was clearly a lack of communication taking place. For instance, we specifically asked that siding for our aluminum awnings in the back yard be included in the estimate we got. The subcontractor and I talked in detail about this. However, when we got the first estimate, it did not mention the sides for the awnings. So we asked if the sides for the awnings were included in the price and Jason said it was not. That it would be very expensive to do this. He did send a second estimate to us including that cost and we decided not to add the sides because of the cost, but still I wondered why if we asked for this, and discussed it with the subcontractor, it was not included in the first estimate. My feeling was it was either a miscommunication or an oversight by the contractor. I am glad we asked, because if we had not, we would not have known it was omitted and assumed that it was going to be done. Another example of miscommunication was having steps coming off of the patio. I had asked for steps when Jason and I talked. After the concrete had been poured for the patio, I asked the subcontractor about the steps as it seemed odd they had not been poured. He said he had not been told we wanted steps. He said he could add steps but I decided against it. By this time I was ready for this job to be finished. The communication between Jason, his subcontractors and us was not the best. I thought what we had discussed when starting the job was understood. And as you can see by the examples above it was not. Also, it could have been better if Jason or the subcontractor would have kept in touch with us as to who was to show up and when. Our property is gated. Therefore, either I or my husband needed to be home to open the gate. There were times that this was a problem when we did not know when workers were coming or not. There were other times that we were told workers would be here on certain days, and a week would go by with no phone call from anyone. There were a few days that it rained and I understood that they would not come on those days. But there were days it was not raining, and no one showed up and we had no idea when they would. In fact, by this point, my husband would call Jason to find out what was going on and when by this point. Finally the job was completed on 1/4/2012. The work performed was very good and I am happy with it. The communication during the job was not good. I would like to mention, to Jason's credit, that he did point out a crack in an exterior wall of our home that we had not noticed and told us to keep an eye on it, as it could mean our foundation might be shifting. I am grateful for that. Also, we needed some dozer work done in the yard, and Jason recommended a man who did an excellent job. I would not recommend this contractor if you want a job done timely. I also feel we should have been more informed of the progress, or what to expect next, or who was showing up next. And lastly, he never made a follow up visit to check on the completed project. Instead, he sent the final bill via email and asked "how were things @ the house." I do not think this was very professional in my opinion.