A&J Home Contractors LLC

A lot of people we called, nobody would return our calls, they wouldn't even come, they wouldn't even call back, but A&J did. We had them on two separate occasions, once we had to get the gutters put on the front of house because when the house was built, we weren't the original owners, but for some reason, the builder never put gutters on the top of the main roof in the front, and the guys who checked the house when we buying the house said that there was no problem, and then the water will be flowing down on the porch roof, so we finally got these guys and they put that in and that worked. Last summer, we had a lot of rain and the water was overflowing out of a leader on one side of the house in the back, and we realized that we needed another leader. There was only one leader for the entire back of the house, so they came and put a new leader around the back. That was probably what the other company didn't want to come because they don't want to do something that is not the whole house, but these people did and they put a new leader in and the problem was solved. They did it right and they did a good job. Actually they ended up having to replace the entire gutter and leader on the back so that it would fit properly, and they were fighting bees, we had a hornets' nest in one of the gutters that we didn't know. When the guy went up there, all of a sudden there were all these wasps coming up, so they had to spray that and get them washed and then go from there. They were just like their name, reliable. We called them and they called back. Everybody else, they do the small jobs beside the big jobs. We will use them again in the future.

The gentleman who was in the crew did excellent work; however, I don?t think the company is in business anymore. We also had our front windows replaced with bay windows and were supposed to have grids put in and we still don?t have the grids put in. The crew members did a good job. The problem was with the owner of the company who promised everything and did not tell the people what they were getting. He messed up the whole thing. The quality of work was great. The problem was with the way the owner runs the company. They really did a great job. We told the owner when we wanted the job to start but he wanted us to pay a part of the money in advance. We were fine with that, but he neglected to tell his office manager that we had paid that amount. The office people did not have the general contract that we were given. We had to show them a copy of what we had. I would hire them for the quality of work purpose, but I would not hire them for business purpose. We spoke to other people who had used them before hiring them and they had nothing bad to say about this company. I think the owner was responsible for all this.

The experience was a long,costly, tiring, nightmare that cost $15,796 (not including costs for town permits and third party electrician to fix sub-contractors work). Original contract price was $15,997, but with change orders (initiated by contractor-$1,800 additional electrical, $1,500 fire blocking) price inflated to $19,296. We called A&J Home Contractors in late May of 2010, regarding a finished basement. Joe Janas and his assistant came to our house on June 1 and provided an estimate, shortly thereafter. We accepted the offer and agreed to contract price of $15,996.50. We made a down payment to Joe (who drove from Toms River to our home in Aberdeen to accept the same day) on 6/10/10 for $9k. The job description included an estimated time to complete of 3 weeks. We weren?t able to secure the permits from the town, until August 13 (A&J highly recommended doing it w/o permits from the beginning). Each item on the application that was rejected became a roadblock with A&J to rectify. Finally, workers came on 8/18 to paint and drylock walls. The same day I was notified by Joe that the electrical work would cost $3,600 more, but he would be willing to absorb $1,800. The increase was due to the location of the electrical box in the garage, compared to the basement. However, this was evident when the initial estimate was provided. Payment was made the next day on 8/19 (his son came to pick up the check). Workers weren?t able to return until Tuesday, 8/24 due to the smell of the drylock and paint. The same day I was notified that an additional window would need to be installed in the basement for ventilation reasons. Joe agreed to absorb cost from final contract amount, but required $2,500 payment immediately to cover expenses. Framing was done on the 24th and 25th of August, but not finished until the 28th of September. I called daily throughout the month and was told they were scheduled to come, but they never showed. The Aberdeen town building inspector came on Friday 10/1, commented that framing was fine, but fireblocking was required to pass inspection. Electrician and A&J worker came on Saturday 10/2 for about 6 hours and installed wiring and addressed fireblocking issue. Inspector returned on Friday October 8, noted 4 items with the wiring that were out of code and indicated fireblocking had still not been addressed, appropriately. Spent about $250 on wiring and asked a friend who was an electrician to address electrical issues. He spent roughly 20 hours of his time re-wiring the basement and bringing it up to code. The inspector returned on 10/15 and passed the electrical, and he agreed to send the code requirements to the A&J regarding the fireblocking issues. Finally, received a call on Friday 10/22 from Joe that he now understood the fireblocking requirements, but they were excessive and would cost an additional $6-7k. However, he agreed to accept an additional $1,500 so we could complete the job. I indicated I would pay $1,500 with final bill. Fireblocking wasn?t installed, until 11/4, passed inpection on 11/8. Insulation was installed on Tuesday 11/9 and passed inpection on Tuesday 11/16. We didn?t hear back from Joe until the Friday after Thanksgiving 11/26, we were down in Baltimore where my 12 year old daughter was in the hospital recovering from back surgery. He indicated workers were coming that day to begin spackling. I had my sister at our house, but the workers didn?t show until Saturday. Worker returned to spackle and tape on 12/2 and again on 12/13. Joe called on Saturday, 12/11 about paint color and carpeting. There was an urgency (on his part), to finish the job by year end (very big job was beginning in January), but additional payment was necessary. They sent an employee to our house from Toms River within the hour to pick up another $500 check. I called repeatedly, throughout the remainder of December, January and into February, but haven?t received any return calls. Calls to the office now go directly to voice mail. In summary, I?ve made payments of $15,796 of a total contracted price of $19,296 (82% ). This does not include the cost and time (20+ hours) of another electrician to re-do the work that the A&J hired electrician was paid (including an additional $1,800 over initial contract price) to do initially. This does not include the constant calls to A&J?s office and the # of days planned to ensure I was home when they were suppose to come (and then didn?t show). Currently, the basement has been dry-locked, framed, sheet-rocked, wired, insulated and a window has been installed for ventilation purposes. Painting, carpeting, lights, drop down ceiling, doors and heat remain outstanding. The original contract was signed nearly 9 months ago and included an estimated time to complete of 3 weeks. A complaint (case# 80172853) to the Better Business Bureau was filed (2/7) , but we received a reply (2/17) that the complaint was returned as non-deliverable, they?ve either moved or gone out of business.