Two Brothers Home Repair

I am EXTREMELY unhappy with this company. Ultimately, there were SO many big & little problems, both during the project & upon ?completion? of the work. The contractor is ?done? & I have numerous paint touch-ups to do personally. A shelf that was specially built & added along one wall was done COMPLETELY contrary to how I specified (as well as the wrong size) ? because the owner refused to correct this, I now have to arrange with & pay another contractor ($100-200?) to completely re-do this. There was also an electrical issue that was beyond this contractor?s expertise (& which was explained to this company in advance) electrician phone estimate $100-200. Part of the work was to replace/relocate the ceiling exhaust fan & paint the ceiling. Mike, the owner, opened a section of the ceiling, but it couldn?t be relocated I very specifically stated to both Mike & his brother, Rich, that I wanted the ceiling done in the simplest, fastest, cheapest way ? that I really didn't care about the ceiling. Rather than patching, they framed studs all along the ceiling, then nailed up drywall ? at the additional expense of materials + took ~a full day. Later, when I checked on how they were progressing, I was dismayed to note that they had nailed up additional drywall (another wasted cost of materials) on the ceiling above the tub (which was already soffit-like) & on the side of the ?soffit.? I absolutely did not care about this at all &, I was totally dismayed that that they did this without asking, or even informing, me of this (at all times, I was no more than ~10? from the bathroom ? either in the adjacent living room or office). When I became aware of what they had done, (1) I expressed concern that they installed drywall, rather than greenboard, over the tub & (2) I very specifically announced to both that they should not do anything [other than what was in writing on the estimate] without 1st checking with me. By the end of the 1st 2 days, all that had been accomplished was removal of the old fixtures, the work that I had not wanted done, shopping for materials, installation of drywall on the walls & installation of floor underlayment (they actually dryfit the new vinyl sheet on top of the old vinyl sheet &, fortunately, I saw/stopped this in time to demand that the old vinyl sheet be removed ? which literally took ~1-2 minutes ? & the written estimate specifically included ?[r]emove. . .floor vinyl?). After they left on the 2nd day, I reviewed the written estimate & noted 2 major discrepancies between what was written & the work that was performed: that the old flooring would be removed & ?install ¼? sht rock floor to ceiling? ? yet drywall was installed in lower section only. Mike advised that, in order to complete the work, they would need 2 additional consecutive days & he insisted that he wanted to complete the work on the following weekend ? but the next time that I would be able to be home for 2 consecutive days was not for another 4 weeks, which meant that I didn't have use of this bathroom for nearly another month ? & that I did not need to be here. From the very 1st time that I met with Mike for the estimate, I was adamant that, because work had not been done to my satisfaction on many previous occasions by other contractors when I was not at home, no work would ever again be done without my being present. Mike reiterated that I could give him a key or, if I were here when he arrived & left, I could trust him not to steal anything, but that was never my issue; it?s that, in general, & ? as demonstrated on even the 1st day with Mike, in particular (even when I was present!) ? I couldn?t trust that the work would be done to my satisfaction. In order to ensure that the balance of the work would be done to my satisfaction, I felt that I not only needed to be nearby in my house, but that I needed to hover over Mike & Rich, checking the progress of the work, every few minutes. Upon arrival on the 3rd workday, I pointed out these inconsistencies [of the written estimate specifying installation of drywall from floor to ceiling versus the actuality of installation of drywall only on the bottom ?half? of the walls] to Mike (including mention that the estimate price was based upon installation of drywall on the entire wall[s]), who was very defensive. I also stated that I definitely did not want them to do any work when I was not at home for all of the reasons stated above. Mike again pushed for the work to be completed on the 2 days of the following weekend; when I reiterated my non-availability, Mike got very huffy & said that I might have to wait until September. He finally calmed down, then made arrangements to come back with his brother in the evening, a few days later. On that evening, we scheduled a return for alleged completion on 2 consecutive weekend days, 3½ weeks later. They did return on that Sat. One problem was of their own making, that, when they installed the new underlayment, they did not remove the old one, which raised the level of the floor and, therefore, the threshold ? which necessitated trimming of the bottom of the door so that it could close. They had previously made a big deal out of the exterior venting from the exhaust fan, yet somewhat jerry-rigged it without any ?finishing?/painting (please note that I was perfectly happy with how it had been & this was a totally unnecessary expense of material as well as time). Mike was here alone on Sunday, ready to finish up what he anticipated as a few very minor touch-ups & was aggravated when I delineated my concerns. I walked through the room & pointed out problems, especially that the shelves were not installed per my instructions & MANY areas for paint & caulk touch-ups. Each time that Mike said that he was done, I walked through the room & again pointed out areas for paint & caulk touch-ups that he kept missing. Mike is now gone & there are STILL touch-ups that I will have to do personally, as well as the ?cutting in? at wall/ceiling. Also, they used standard white caulk throughout, yet I have no white in the room whatsoever (except for the ceiling exhaust fan) ? they could easily have purchased a color-matched or standard tint (light grey at floor, off-white for elsewhere), so this really stands out & I will either have to unhappily live with it or, yet again, pay more to have the white removed & then new caulk put in. Most importantly, however, is Mike?s refusal to fix the problem of the incorrect installation that he created with the shelves that he made. I will now have to pay for new materials to start from scratch & to pay another contractor to remove the existing shelves & molding plus build, paint & correctly install the new ones. These shelves, along with a new GFCI outlet to the left of my medicine cabinet (so that I can plug in my Waterpik) were the key elements to the entire design of the bathroom ? & I do not have either one of these! I also had purchased two heavy-duty pieces of plastic to affix to the wall next to & behind the toilet ? immediately adjacent to the cat?s litter box ? for easy-wipe down. Other than additional paint touch-ups, this is the last part of the project on which Mike worked & which I did not see until after he left. As Mike was preparing to leave & was requesting payment (original statement for $1,575, with $500 deposit at beginning of job, plus I paid for all materials up front), I asked about allowance for having to pay 2 additional contractors to follow him, 1 to re-do the shelves & an electrician. He allowed $200, although I?m fairly sure that it will cost me AT LEAST twice that amount, as well as the cost of the wood. I then showed him his Angie?s List page, which I had only recently read through to the bottom, on which it states that he offers a 10% senior discount, which should have been $157.50 (the discount should not count against what I will have to pay to additional contractors), but he discounted only $75. Mike did not charge sales tax, which I do not believe is legal. It was not until just after Mike left that I discovered yet another problem, that he had affixed a small piece of heavy-duty plastic to the FLOOR, to go UNDER the litter box (and would be completely covered by it) ? what on Earth would be the point of that?! I immediately called Mike. He claimed that I never said that I wanted it to go on the wall, but I very definitely did so, several times (in fact, in MULTIPLE e-mails prior to the start of the job, I expressed my concern about protecting the wall around the litter box & what he might suggest ? in particular, we had MANY e-mail ?conversations? about a wall product called Marlite that he recommended for me to use instead of drywall, relating the outcome of my numerous online investigations, numerous telephone calls to potential suppliers & several in-person visits to various stores). I now have to not only do the work myself (not easy, due to having to cut around the plumbing that connects the toilet to the pipe behind the wall ? which I absolutely stated to both brothers before the toilet was fully in place ? & because I likely don?t have a sufficiently heavy-duty cutting tool to do this), but, because the 1st piece was cut in a way that renders it unusable to cover the space on the wall, I could only throw it away & I now have to purchase an additional piece (ANOTHER $37.44, including tax), because cutting a single piece into two will not cover a big enough area. After several minutes of conversation, I verbally pushed Mike to, at least, cover the cost of my having to pay this additional materials expense; he said that he would have to return to my house for a replacement check, to which I agreed ? but Mike then stated that he was too far away. Mike then VERY reluctantly offered, upon receipt of a new check from me in the mail, to destroy my original check; I got him to agree to return my original check to me.

They were very good. They did what they said. It was simply replacing a door. They took a couple of weeks to get the part. They called, came in and put it in. I was happy with the service.

Mike arrived on time and replaced three lighting fixtures (two ceiling lights and a ceiling fan & light combo). He did a very nice job, cleaned up, and didn't seem to mind my curious dogs. It was a very good experience, and I will definitely hire him again!

On time, great work, cleaned up so good first time is why we had them back again.Planning our 3rd job!!

The work was excellent. Mike arrived on time and hung some shelving from Pottery Barn, put together my son's bunk beds (they were 'unbunked at the time) and hung some heavy artwork on the wall. His work was executed perfectly and the price was very reasonable. We plan to have him come back again to build some cabinetry in our mudroom and family room.