Bard Construction Co

They were highly recommended by a friend of the family and turned out to be a bust. They left huge nails outside all over the backyard and all over the inside of my attic. They swiped bottles of beer and I had to call them 4-5 times because they missed a small corner of the siding. I am still chasing them to get the warranty on the siding. They also did work on my downstairs apartment. They pulled the windows out and put the wood back in that they pulled. The wood that they put back in was broken so now someone has to come to reframe the windows.

Initially the contractor Bard comes off as a nice older gentleman who wants to help you get your job done, and as you tour your kitchen there are a lot of " we can throw that in there", "no problem", etc. You feel like you are getting a special deal because of these little statements made during the initial meeting. We did meet with another contractor who we loved, however (we later found out due to a misunderstanding he was actually cheaper) we thought his estimate with the electric and the plumbing would drain savings. We were shown a CAD sketch of kitchen which looked like what were wanted. He later brings an actual picture, still looks like what we want, but he fails to explain what are and are not cabinets, later we find out to be empty spaces (wasted space). The plumber needed to replace the stack which had been leaking all the way from our 2nd floor tenants bathroom down through our apartment to the basement, so when there was any significant amount of water used there would be puddles in the basement. (Making unhappy tenants that they would not have water for an unknown amount of time, as would we.) The plumber stated that he guaranteed it was fixed, and later we had water leaking out of our ripped open wall. T he plumber comes back the next day and with one glance says, " Oh I see the crack in the pipe.. no problem". Could you not see the crack large enough to put your finger through the day before? (while working at that they moved from using saws to sledge hammers with our bathroom wall on the other side with cabinets and decor, which ended up with the cabinet hanging halfway off the wall and the assistant rips it the rest out of the wall, complaining how poorly the cabinet was hung while I picked up what was left of the Lenox China Tulip Vase, and the dirt all over the bathroom floor from the Ivy planter that was in top of the cabinet., No apology just complaints that we need to hang such objects better. I left the house furious, and they said they would clean it up, which meant we will put the shattered vase in the planter and leave the dirt all over the sink , parts of the floor that required any effort to sweep.. They then returned to the stack which they did finally fix. We would see Bard, the contractor, when he decided he would work on the kitchen, which meant we never knew when he was coming, so he asked for a copy of the key so he could come and go as he pleased. (I was leaving for back surgery so we would be gone the weekend, and my significant other would be there the next Monday.) No work was done because they didn't work weekends. He would arrive long enough to look like he was about to do something and then leave a crew, which needed a case in manners. One young man had the "F*%@%" word come out of his mouth while he worked behind our house right by our elderly women neighbors, who like to walk in their back yard a lot during the day. Finally, it took asking him to respect the fact that there was a lady in the house and 2 ladies next door who do not appreciate his limited vocabulary and to show some respect. I informed Bard of the crew's behavior during most of the day leaving garbage everywhere and helping themselves to the soft drinks in our refrigerator (2 cases in three days). The foul mouthed young man was back the next day with the same demeanor. During this time we thought that the cabinets were ready any day now, and the counter tops would be right behind since we picked them out first. A week and half later,Bard comes in with 3 cabinet door samples and says pick a color. We had already done this. So it was at this point almost 3 weeks later he ordered the cabinets. We got to a point where we asked for a schedule of when he would be here, got our keys back, asked when the counter tops would be ready, and when we could expect a finish date. As we looked at the cabinets they didn't look right, in the corner he took a 2 door, 2 drawer cabinet and shoved one cabinet back 6inches from the wall. (more wasted space). With that setup you would have to crawl into the one cabinet to get anything towards the back. We had had enough, told him the counter tops were not going on until he fixed the disaster in the corner, the crooked doors on most of the cabinets, the molding that separated from the cabinets above the stove, the area of crown molding above the top cabinets that looked like it had been broken and a different shade of wood was used (which he said they only make 8ft lengths of the moldings so it had to be cut at an angle so it would fit), every nail hole in the cabinets was visible (later fixed with rubber cover up), a cabinet that was supposed to go next to the stove was at an angle, the door that was put on backwards so both adjacent doors go to the right when you open them, the floor laminate that was raised above the rest, the tape that was visible through the plaster, the door had been shaved too much at the bottom and you could see the back landing under it, the trim on the edge of the floor laminate was higher than the rest of the hardwood and had no support under it so this flimsy piece of would crack every time you would walk over it (only a matter of time before t broke), and the removal of debris seemed to be our trash cans several days which included a bag of garbage someone had placed in the back of his truck. That bag of garbage had been there long enough to produce a large quantity of maggots. He asked me for some bug spray, which I gave him. Thought the maggot bag dilemna was over but we had started planting a garden, and as I was in the farthest corner you could smell this horrid smell coming from somewhere. Thinking it was my back neighbors (sorry) I walked backed towards the house where we keep the cans and the smell became overwhelming. I went to the can an realized he threw his maggot bag of trash in our trash can. So I called him and asked him if that was the bag, and he stated."Yes, just put some bleach on it and cover it with a lid. I asked one of the guys to toss it in the can and cover it, but I guess he didn't". So our house had now become his landfill?!? After a few words of dissatisfaction of this rude gesture, he said nothing, then said good bye and hung up. The next day the trash can was gone, and never returned. Too bad it was one of the newer ones, and having one less trash can with tenants in our building, and the recycling separation, you seem to need every can you can get. He came the next week and fixed the errors, covered the raised laminate with the stove, straightened the crooked cabinet , adjusted the doors, put on the knobs we purchased, added another wood laminated edge to meet up to the bottom of the door, used screws to support the step off strips that cracked when you walked on them, never changed the way the one cabinet opened and couldn't since the knob was installed (his response, "Who's gonna notice, and it still opens. Looks fine." He nailed backed in the separating molding ( the floor molding is now visibly separating from the wall, UGH!) So now that these things were fixed and the counters were late again, we had him turn the corner disaster into a shelved area we came up with, but yet again he didn't do what we asked. We wanted the shelves to form an an "L" and be easily reachable. We now have a shelf in the very back you have to crawl into the space to get to , so we decided we would put our holiday stuff there,etc. We then asked about the back splash and the built in microwave which as his contract read was part of the estimate. He laughed and said he doesn't buy the tile for the back splash,and certainly not a microwave (this one we could understand a bit, but thought it was part of the cabinet section). $500 later we had the microwave, and a $100+ for the tile. The one man that did the tile did an excellent job (it was not Bard). When we were down to the painting, we notice the plaster work was horrible, as well as the covering of the tape. We were then informed that painting was not included, however his son does this type of work and would get an estimate (to do what the initial plaster guy was supposed to do). He happily brought over the paint sample refusing to use the paint brand we chose (Valspar), and would only use Benjamin Moore paint. The estimate came to a ridiculous $800 plus the cost of the paint around $200. So the estimate of $14950, came to $18940. A $4000 difference can break someone, not to mention, travel home for Christmas, going back to school for a semester, or for a single a parent paying the mortgage, utilities, gas, you know. This whole experience made me ill. We did opt out of using his son for the painting and plaster, just can't find it in us to give that company more money.