Boone Trail Construction

Description of Work: Contracted Austin Felts to do an estimate for remodeling a bathroom and laundry room. We were to furnish all materials and he was just to supply labor. He promised to do the work himself and bring one other person whom we had used in the past--a qualified professional carpenter whom on which we could depend to do excellent, quality work. Upon arrival, Austin Felts wanted $45 per hr. for each person. We told him that was extremely too high. Other carpenters do these jobs for $20 or even $15 per hour. So he said that he would do both rooms for $1,000. He was to come on Mon. with his employee Eric Faw. When Mon. came, Austin was late. When he did show up, he only had one old man with him that was a dishwasher at a local restaurant. No experience with carpenter work at all. They began the job of remodeling the bathroom with wall board which we had purchased at Lowe's for $47 per box. They totally got liquid nails all over everything!! Immediately they ruined several pieces of Armstrong flooring by cutting it incorrectly when they began the floor. Neither of them knew how to snap the flooring together properly. Instead of waiting to get help, Austin continued putting the flooring down with gaps where the pieces were not snapping completely. He even resorted to putting nails at the edges to hold the flooring down, which states specifically on the box of Armstrong flooring not to do!! He never bothered to read directions!! The next day, they took up the toliet, which was a disaster--water everywhere. Then it would not go back down in place at the end of that day, and Austin had me to call professional plumbers to come to correct his mistakes. He told the plumbers when they arrived that he would pay half the bill when they finished and mailed the bill to us. They corrected his problems the next day, and the bill turned out to be over $300.00 The had to go under the new sink as well to fix the leaking pipes which he had not mentioned to us, and the faucets at the tub were leaking as well. Austin did not come that day, but returned on Sat. to see what the plumbers had done, and to get paid!! The job was not finished--no caulking around the new tub nor sink. Facings had not been put back nor the door hung. No moldings were put around the flooring. My husband instructed Austin that he must come back on Mon. to finish the job. We pointed out the ceiling which had been ruined by them by hitting it with pieces of the wall board. Several divider strips were not completely up to the ceiling, leaving spaces in the corners, not to mention the gaps in the flooring. My husband told Austin at that time not to bring the "dishwasher" back with him--to come alone, and he would help him himself to put the finishing touches on the job. At that time, Austin finally told us that Eric Faw (his professional carpenter) did not work with him any more. Then and only then had he been honest about that fact. If we had known that, we would not have contracted Austin Felts to do the work. Austin proceeded to tell us that he could paint the ceiling, and try to fix the flooring and the corners, but he wanted his money to pay his "dishwasher" for work done. We told Austin that since he had priced the job for remodeling bathroom and laundry rooms both for $1,000 that we would only pay him half since he had only worked in the bathroom and we did not want him to come to do the laundry room. He said that if we paid him $750, that he would come back on Monday to finish the bathroom and help Gary get started in the laundry room. I should not have paid him, but we trusted him to do what he said, so I wrote him a check for $750. However, he never returned our calls, never finished the caulking, would not return the $250 of overpayment, and what was the worst of all to us was when he refused to come to clean up the debris around the house he had left. All carpenters clean up after themselves!! Needless to say, I made a complaint to the BBB. They have tried to resolve this issue, but to no avail. They have exhausted their means, and have listed his company, Boone Trail Construction, on a list of unreliable companies in Northwest North Carolina.