Seneca Creek Contracting

Review of Chris Newman and Seneca Creek Contracting Chris Newman and Seneca Creek Contracting (Brandon and Bailey) produced the worst customer experience we have ever had. When we met Chris we liked him. He seemed personable and knowledgeable. He described himself as a perfectionist who is always “on site” when working a job and that he does not work on multiple jobs concurrently. Chris misrepresented himself. He was on our site 6 out of 32 days and he is certainly not a perfectionist. Our contract stated that the project takes approximately 4-6 weeks and at the half-way point the 2nd payment of 40% was due. Chris requested this payment after 4 days of work. The team removed and painted our popcorn ceiling. They took a short-cut and did not use a primer before painting. At week 6, we touched up the walls and pulled off the “frog tape;” their paint peeled off the ceiling in strips!! We then hired our own professional painter to redo the ceiling. The dry wall work was horrendous. Chris agreed that the small wall was an issue but he refused to re-drywall it. Our biggest problem with Seneca Creek Contracting was electrical. Chris claimed his company does everything to code. We had an electric inspection done (Chris refused to pay for it). The inspector told us to get an electrician to redo the work. We had to pay professional electricians $1,800 to come in and fixed multiple code violations! There were too many violations to list but not knowing about requirements for GFIs and installing the oven incorrectly were serious. The oven install could have resulted in a fire. The crew were constantly using our supplies such as our broom, dust pan, ladder, and Shop Vac. Where were their supplies? The workers used our garage for sawing, cutting and drilling. There was sawdust everywhere; on my golf clubs, the shelves, grill, … etc. They never cleaned up the sawdust. We paid for professional work from Seneca Creek Contracting, but we did not receive it. Their work was shoddy. There were many, many miscommunications between the designer (Brian from Artisan Kitchens) and the installers which affected the project and its timely completion. The installers were not experienced at installing frameless cabinets and it shows. They struggled trying to level and fix many drawers. They were terrible at drywall, painting, placement of knobs and electrical. Chris will tell you that he wants to make you happy. But, this turned out to be just words, not action. In our experience with Seneca Creek Contracting, the priorities were installer and money first and customer last. They were expensive but we were willing to pay for quality, however, Seneca Creek produced shoddy work.

unknown

Chris came to my house on May 28th to look at work that is needed but never got back to me with an estimate yet as of today June 21. That leaves me wondering if he's capable of doing the job or not. I will update review if he gets back to me but, with it already being over 3 weeks so far, it isn't likely.

Chris Newman was a pleasure to work with. He was prompt and courteous. The quality of his work and attention to detail are very much appreciated. Each week he explained what would generally be accomplished and this helped me understand what was involved. The project took approximately six weeks, two weeks longer than originally anticipated. I would hire him again in a flash.