Santa Fe Sustainable Living

Whatever you do, don't pay him before the job is absolutely completed to your satisfaction! The job went from January to May. The price paid was just for the work. The supplies, tile, windows, grout, vent hood over range, vents in bathrooms, and more were paid for separately. The first part of the project involving demolition and basic construction went well and we were very pleased. The workers were happy and arrived on time while doing demo and construction. The roof, however, we were later informed by a roofing company, according to code, should have had a vent, which had not been installed. The vigas that were installed were too green and seeped resin onto the new wood floors installed by others. Additionally, the interior finishing work was very poor and very problematic. There were 2 plumbers. The older one, who handled installation of the radiant heat in the floor was ok but the other one, who handled kitchen and bath plumbing was totally incompetent, had drug problems, and was in trouble with the police. He put radiant heat controls in the wrong rooms. Bathtub faucet was not secure, it wiggled. Water poured from both shower head and faucet simultaneously. Water pressure was weak. He installed wrong size water lines. Plaster job was ok but workers did not know how, and made it plain that they did not want, to do tile work. Workers were angry over having to do tiling. One was heard whimpering like he was having a nervous breakdown in the bathroom as he was doing tiling. Then he was angry at me about having to put previously agreed-upon decorative tile in plaster around the newly plastered fireplace. Contractor called me and suggested I do it myself. In the other bathroom tile had to be ripped out and re-applied because of the poor job done by another worker who had never tiled before. The bathroom vanity was installed not centered under the mirror. Some of the tiles and the vanity were going to have to be removed in order to correct the low pressure problem. The wrong type of thermostats were installed for the radiant heat so they burned out after using for a short period and had to be replaced at a cost of $50 each. At one point, when much of the work, but not all, had been completed, the contractor asked for full payment, saying he needed to pay the crew and there was only 3 days left of work. Since we had trusted him up to that point and there had been unexpected projects added to the work, we agreed to pay him everything but the last small part. As soon as we paid him, his attitude changed. Previously, he had been friendly and nice. We had bought barbecue for the whole crew. Then, once we gave him most of the money due, he became hostile, he stopped coming and the crew came rarely, and when they came, didn't do much. The contractor then started asking for the final payment. There was a long list of things that had not been completed, smoke alarms not installed, shut off valve not installed on kitchen sink, door handles not installed, overflow plate on tub not installed, and much more, plus the low water pressure problem in the bathroom. He asked for a list of things to complete. I gave him the list. The guys would come for a while and leave and still the items on the list were not done. Then the contractor would ask for payment. I would give him the list again. The guys would come, and leave, and still most of the things on the list were not finished. The contractor would again ask for final payment. We went through this for weeks. Once when I again sent him the list, he told me I was trying to make him jump through hoops like a dog. I tried to explain we were not adding items to the list, it was the same things they just weren't doing. When it came time for clean up, the crew came over and suggested the home owner, well past retirement age, should do it himself. They did a poor clean up job. The bathroom plumbing problem was still not addressed. The tub/shower was not useable and we did not want to pay him until it was fixed. His plumber, the ok one, was not available and it could not be determined when he would be available, we were very stressed and frustrated by this time, so we let the contractor go.