Chapman Construction

We first met with Chapman in February to plan for our spring job, He was timely and polite and had good ideas to lend to the planning. We started our walk through on the front porch we needed to take down the old roof and completely rebuild it. We would redo the the front columns and railings. In addition he was to remove one of our front doors (the house had been a two family at one time) and install a window. From the porch we walked into our house straight through to the back of the house where we took him to the back stair case. We had a very steep cement stair case with no railings on it. I explained that we needed to have railings installed. I told him that my son had had a spinal cord injury and he wasn't able to go up and down the stairs without a railing and that it was to be considered the most important part of the whole remodel. So that was the job, the roof and remodel of the front porch, remove the door, install the window and put the railings in on the back stairs. We had a few visits and a few emails and then he was supposed to bring the final paper work and begin. On one of his early visits to the house he suggested that I use my phone to send him a photo of the railings from the side of the house that we were trying to match for the back. I did that and he checked that he got the text while I was standing there. Additionally he whipped out his tape measure to measure the span for the railings, and discussed how far apart they should be. The next step was that he was to come by with the written proposal and the drawing for the permit. But then his other job was running longer than he had anticipated and so he showed up late by about 10 days, with the paper work of the final proposal and permitting papers. He blamed the people he had been working with for adding on to their job. (Now I suspect they just wanted him to finish what he had agreed to.) We were foolishly eager to get our job started so we accepted "porch remodel as per plan" on his proposal. We foolishly assumed that since we had been so clear about all of the elements of the job from day one, including the fact that we needed the railings for a child with a disability, that the porch roof job also included railings for our back steps and a window replacement from the start. (The final proposal was also a couple of thousand dollars more than he initially quoted for the porch job so we assumed it included all the parts- yes we were stupid- but we had been so clear in all our prior discussions there was really no way to know he had something else in his mind.) But then when he finished the roof he said that was all we had agreed upon. He was ready to bolt. This was a boldface lie. I had said on our first and second meetings- "you get the porch roof job because it comes with the railing job in the back." The railings were of extreme importance to us and we had made it clear as a bell from the first meeting throughout. He pretended he had never heard about them before though he did finally acknowledge that he had a photograph that I had texted him of what the railings were to be from a month before. Our other complaint is that we had asked him to use a trex-type product on the bottom of our porch columns to help prevent rot and he said he would and then he didn't. Overall the porch roof seems to be reasonably well built- but the supporting columns and the window trim got finished hastily (some would argue that it didn't get finished!) and it was clear that he was in a hurry to get on to his next job. He knows what to do in terms of carpentry skill but it is apparently hit or miss as to what he is actually going to do. SAVE YOUR MONEY and save yourself the aggravation- hire someone else. One of the craziest aspects of this situation is that before this job started to go south we were quite pleased with his work ethic, he was showing up early in the morning working a full day and cleaning up the work site at the end of the day. We were so pleased with how the job was beginning that we began a discussion about doing some major renovations on an out building we own. He seemed eager to do that big job. We were polite and respectful with him and I can't imagine that he would be so penny wise and pound foolish as to screw us over on the railings and window and then risk loosing the big barn renovation we have planned, but that is just what he did. He looked at me blankly as if he had never even heard about the railings before. He also couldn't explain why he had ordered the new window weeks before if it hadn't been a part of this job. It was beyond disturbing. This is certainly not the first time we have hired carpenters and contractors, we have never before had these kind of communication issues. We did whip out the check book and write him more checks to finish the job as we were desperate to get this project finished- and then even having milked more cash out of us- he short changed us on the window molding in a big way and we are now left with more finishing to do on our own. I realize we were trusting and that makes us fools- but at least you can hopefully now learn from our mistake.

Jack has done work for me for years. He is meticulous, thorough, patient, professional and clean. His work is beautifully finished. His estimates are accurate and the only surprises are that the work is always better than anticipated.