Residential Technical Services Inc

We went to visit the remodeling site on a daily basis.We were overwhelmed and had our interior decorator run interference for us to help manage the remodel. She experienced the same issues we did. We even hired an outside contractor on our own to reconfigure and install the closets in our house. Mr. Siracusa kept losing the information we gave him about the closets and we were getting impatient with this maddening issue. At this point, at what we thought was the halfway point in the remodel, my husband and I discussed if we should fire RTSCO as our general contractor. It was that bad. We did not do this. The Siracusas were family friends and we didn't want to rupture the friendship. We also did not want to go to the trouble and expense of hiring a new firm mid project. We also discussed this with our decorator. We thought the project would be done in a few short months and we could move on. We were wrong on many counts. During the remodel, there were not people there to receive goods at times. Our decorator can confirm this. We had a new toilet disappear from our house. Only one finish carpenter was on the jobs for weeks at the time. During spring break of 2011, we found two elementary age children assisting their parents in drywall work. The children were literally mudding our walls when we walked in the door. This was in a house with unfinished floors, wiring and with other construction hazards. We called Mr. Siracusa and he said he was unaware of this situation. He came over and had the kids removed. When we moved into our home after a year long remodel, we had a water leak three times in our laundry room. The leak was first found in mid summer and we requested that it be fixed at that point. We were assured the problem was fixed. We moved in 11/28/11 A licensed plumber did not fix our faucet as we requested and it leaked in the same spot. After the third leak at the same faucet,the water damage spread to the floor below. We called Mr. Siracusa to come look at this, his wife, Bev, who was our house keeper, also called him to look at this. He did not come. When I called him, he said to, "just let it dry out." Instead, I called Servpro and our insurance agent. The leak caused over $5,000 in damage which our insurance paid. We were in our house less than a month when this happened. Mr. Siracusa never even came out to see the damage and we fired him. We waited a week for him to show up. He never came. We had to have the laundry room floor torn out, ceilings torn out and a hardwood floor torn out in our entry closet the month we moved in. Our home was torn up for about three months. Also immediately after move in, but before we fired him, we found problems that Mr. Siracusa had said he fixed. Leaking gutters, sticking doors, a malfunctioning front door lock and moisture around our air conditioning vents. We asked numerous times during a year long remodel that these things be fixed. He assured us they were. Some of these issues still cause us problems to this day. They are outlined below. We were literally locked out of our own front door several times after we moved in. Both we and Bev, Dennis'swife who was our housekeeper, had requested he fix that lock. It was obviously not fixed. During this time, I saw Mr. Siracusa and his assistant, Harry, adjust the hinges on a glass cabinet door. This was a plate glass door that was over four feet long and about two feet wide.The plate glass door fell on my husband several days after they worked on the hinges. Mr. Siracusa also advised us that a table weighing 1,100 pounds was safe to place in our house. After we fired Dennis, we doubted this advice. We hired a structural engineering firm to verify this. It was not safe and could have caused catastrophic damage to life and property had it been put in place as Mr. Siracusa suggested. We had to add 1/4 steel plates on our floor to make it safely bear that amount of weight. The entire ac system was redone during the renovation. We noticed months before we moved in that water had condensed and was dripping from ac vents. Mr. Siracusa had adjustments made and said the problem was resolved. We also directly questioned him as to why the amount of ac units were doubled on our house. We added about 600 square feet of heated space to a house with approximately 3,000 square feet. He assured us that we needed that many units. At that point we still trusted his judgement and believed him. We first noticed mold growing out of our ac registers in 2011. We called the subcontractor for the ac system, Mr. Doug Miller in to look at this. He said that he could make adjustments and fix it. We called him back in 2012 and 2013 to address the same problems. The extra moisture also warped books and furniture in our home. My husband and I also suffered from numerous respiratory illnesses. We also called in two other ac technicians who added crawl space ventilation and a dehumidifier. After this, we still had mold growing out of our ac vents. In June of 2013, we noticed mold growing on numerous places in one room of our house. We called Mr. Miller to come out again, but the problem was not fixed. We hired a mold remediation company in October of 2013 to come clean our home and tell us how to get rid of the extra moisture.We were having all these problems in a home that was totally remodeled by Mr. Siracusa in 2011. The mold remediation company said the extra moisture was due to an improper ac installation, something we questioned Mr. Siracusa about several years prior. Mr. Miller couldn't find the problem and we had to hire a second contracting firm to come tell him how to repair our house. The moisture problems were caused by too much ac tonnage being added to our home. Almost double the amount of ac tonnage that we needed was installed. There were ac vents and duct work that were also uninsulated. There was a meeting of a mechanical engineer, an ac engineer and a company representative from Goodman AC to discuss problems with our ac system. It was determined that the extra ac units had to be removed and properly resized. The duct work had to be reworked and the ac vents and ductwork also had to be properly insulated. I do not know why our house passed inspection and Mr. Siracusa did not catch this glaringly obvious mistake, especially since we had questioned him about this. Because of the worsening mold/moisture problem and recurrent respiratory illnesses, my doctor advised me to move out of our home in Nov. 2013. We have been out of our house since then and have incurred tremendous expenses. $5,000.00 or more a month. These expenses will not end until we are back in our house and which our insurance company will not pay. They said they don't pay expenses that are caused by "bad workmanship." The cost of mold remediation is not covered by our insurance either. Expenses which would not had occurred if our ac had been properly sized and insulated. Mr. Siracusa was responsible for supervising the work and insuring the "successful completion" of our renovation. It has been anything but a success. We wish to be compensated for our costs and for all the headaches we have experienced during and after our renovation. We have furniture and rugs that are less than three years old that need placement or repair, our soft belongings,clothes and curtains have all had to be either dry cleaned or thrown out. We chose to dry clean them at a considerable expense. Our renovation woes do not end here. Since hiring another contractor in November, 2013 to trouble shoot issues with our home, we have found numerous expensive problems. I expect we will find many more before they are done. Copper gutters were improperly secured to our house with galvanized nails, rot was found under a toilet in our master bathroom and in front of the shower. The attic insulation is installed backwards with the faced side facing the roof, and there are problems with our subfloor. We want restitution and or repayment for these issues and the other issues we have listed. We also want payment for all the pain and aggravation we have endured at the hands of a "friend." We have contacted Mr. Siracusa with these concerns and asked for restitution. He refused this request. He also wanted to know why we waited this long to contact him. It was not until Nov. 2013 that we realized how costly the needed repairs were. By law there is a three year window to get restitution for contracting mistakes. He assumes no responsibility since he used licensed contractors and our house passed inspection. It is my understanding that it is the job of a general contractor to catch problems and supervise work. How our house passed inspection and all of these problems passed Mr. Siracusa's notice, we do not know. He also said we could hire him to fix things.

I would definately use them for roofing but not anything else

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