TesCon Inc.

Up until the contract was signed things went well. Just before we signed their sales rep Bob introduced us to Sam (subcontractor) and told us he would be supervising the construction of our home. This lasted about a month after they broke ground. We planned and built on a hill and Bob said before we signed that he was good with building on the hill and quote was good. A few days into the dig Bob calls to tell us he didn't plan for enough fill material and we needed to pay more. A few more days past and he didn't account for the labor to scatter the dirt from the basement on the property ( the plan from the beginning). At this point Sam was pretty much gone not to be seen until we got TesCon's owner Jeff involved due to Bob's inability to manage our project and sell. At no point before did Bob, Jeff or Sam sit down with us to walk thru the drawing or the construction process. We had to request a sit down meeting with Bob to do this and get some questions about the process answered. Make sure you get any change orders / estimates from Bob in writing. He would quote us one things then bill us more. After this happen a couple times I provided him with a Change Order Form for us both to signoff on. This lasted a little while, but Bob would still verbally tell us a price and want a decision at that time which we asked him repeatedly to get us costs for add ons in writing and give us a couple days to decide. Their framing contractor would pull his tool trailer off the hill on Friday and it would snow over the weekend and may lose a whole week. This happen a couple times. Their drywall finishers were smoking in the house (we asked this not to happen) and I had to tell Bob about it when I was out mowing. Their subs would leave doors unsecure and we find them wide open with rain blowing in at times because no one was there supervising or making sure the job was closed up at the end of the day. Bob told us a few times he would get some job locks on the doors and it eventually happen after we started tying them closed with some wire. We were fortunate that TesCon allowed us to provide some of the items for the home and use our own subs for a few things, but we asked Bob for a timeline so we would know when he needed these items or we had to get people there to perform tasks. I know timelines will change due to weather, parts delivery, etc, but it was off a couple weeks about a week after we got it. Seemed as if estimates were too aggressive maybe they applied to a 1500 sq ft home not a 3200 sq ft one. In doing so the timeline was useless. We had to reschedule our painters a couple times due to drywall guys not being done which also caused us to have to reschedule the tile work. Bob blamed us for the plumbers not wanting to work/ get done because they weren't making money on faucets and such (plan was for us to provide from the beginning). He blamed us for the bank not paying them for stuff he had on the draw request when the work was not done when the inspector came out. Coming down to the end of the project it was time to talk concrete. We had an allowance for pads, walks and such. We would ask Bob what we could do for that allowance he would not have an answer. He just said let him know what we wanted and he would get quote. This was pretty common. For someone who reminded us repeatedly that he had been in this business for 25 yrs he always had to back to us on a price for a change or how far an allowance would go. Sometimes a couple weeks later. After getting us the price on what the concrete we wanted would cost twice the allowance they wanted an answer then. At this point due to this, questions regarding misuse of part of an allowance, blaming us for plumbers and bank we asked Jeff (owner) to remove Bob from project and get Sam out there as we were told he would be. Jeff did this. Once Sam got back onsite he discovered some interesting stuff. The basement was flooding with any measurable quantity of rain. Sam and Andrew thought they found the problem with the drains in the window wells. They cleaned the basement thoroughly. It looked great until it rained a couple days later. Flooded again. They then found that the person (one of TesCon's subs) backfilled with nearly all dirt. Sam dug all this out and replaced with stone and problem seems to be gone to date. Then anyone who would have done it denied it. Again lack of supervision cost them time and more loss of respect by us. At this point we were trying to get answers one drainage/ water control from Jeff/ Sam so we could finalize concrete plans. Jeff had his ideas, but said it was too much for them to handle. We then brought in am excavation/ landscape company we had worked with in the past to get work done. Due to our "indecisiveness " and rudeness to his subs (he has no tradesman as employees) according to Jeff we parted ways and finished the house ourselves and with our own subs. If you choose to use Tescon here are my recommendations: insist on sit down meeting with Jeff and Bob in advance of signing. - get everything in writing after the initial contract price. - get in writing who will be supervising project and what supervision would entail. We didn't expect someone to be there all day, but be there in the morning to make sure who is supposed to be there is, stop by a couple times during the day and be there at end of day to see things are cleaned up and site secure. I feel our project would have gone totally different if Sam had been there as promised rather than Bob instead of being at TesCon's Homearama homes. - Check plan closely with scale. We asked for 36" of stone around house. Drawing scaled at 42" some areas have over 48" and we got $6000 bill during the settlement stage.

Up until the contract was signed things went well. Just before we signed their sales rep Bob introduced us to Sam (subcontractor) and told us he would be supervising the construction of our home. This lasted about a month after they broke ground. We planned and built on a hill and Bob said before we signed that he was good with building on the hill and quote was good. A few days into the dig Bob calls to tell us he didn't plan for enough fill material and we needed to pay more. A few more days past and he didn't account for the labor to scatter the dirt from the basement on the property ( the plan from the beginning). At this point Sam was pretty much gone not to be seen until we got TesCon's owner Jeff involved due to Bob's inability to manage our project and sell. At no point before did Bob, Jeff or Sam sit down with us to walk thru the drawing or the construction process. We had to request a sit down meeting with Bob to do this and get some questions about the process answered. Make sure you get any change orders / estimates from Bob in writing. He would quote us one things then bill us more. After this happen a couple times I provided him with a Change Order Form for us both to signoff on. This lasted a little while, but Bob would still verbally tell us a price and want a decision at that time which we asked him repeatedly to get us costs for add ons in writing and give us a couple days to decide. Their framing contractor would pull his tool trailer off the hill on Friday and it would snow over the weekend and may lose a whole week. This happen a couple times. Their drywall finishers were smoking in the house (we asked this not to happen) and I had to tell Bob about it when I was out mowing. Their subs would leave doors unsecure and we find them wide open with rain blowing in at times because no one was there supervising or making sure the job was closed up at the end of the day. Bob told us a few times he would get some job locks on the doors and it eventually happen after we started tying them closed with some wire. We were fortunate that TesCon allowed us to provide some of the items for the home and use our own subs for a few things, but we asked Bob for a timeline so we would know when he needed these items or we had to get people there to perform tasks. I know timelines will change due to weather, parts delivery, etc, but it was off a couple weeks about a week after we got it. Seemed as if estimates were too aggressive maybe they applied to a 1500 sq ft home not a 3200 sq ft one. In doing so the timeline was useless. We had to reschedule our painters a couple times due to drywall guys not being done which also caused us to have to reschedule the tile work. Bob blamed us for the plumbers not wanting to work/ get done because they weren't making money on faucets and such (plan was for us to provide from the beginning). He blamed us for the bank not paying them for stuff he had on the draw request when the work was not done when the inspector came out. Coming down to the end of the project it was time to talk concrete. We had an allowance for pads, walks and such. We would ask Bob what we could do for that allowance he would not have an answer. He just said let him know what we wanted and he would get quote. This was pretty common. For someone who reminded us repeatedly that he had been in this business for 25 yrs he always had to back to us on a price for a change or how far an allowance would go. Sometimes a couple weeks later. After getting us the price on what the concrete we wanted would cost twice the allowance they wanted an answer then. At this point due to this, questions regarding misuse of part of an allowance, blaming us for plumbers and bank we asked Jeff (owner) to remove Bob from project and get Sam out there as we were told he would be. Jeff did this. Once Sam got back onsite he discovered some interesting stuff. The basement was flooding with any measurable quantity of rain. Sam and Andrew thought they found the problem with the drains in the window wells. They cleaned the basement thoroughly. It looked great until it rained a couple days later. Flooded again. They then found that the person (one of TesCon's subs) backfilled with nearly all dirt. Sam dug all this out and replaced with stone and problem seems to be gone to date. Then anyone who would have done it denied it. Again lack of supervision cost them time and more loss of respect by us. At this point we were trying to get answers one drainage/ water control from Jeff/ Sam so we could finalize concrete plans. Jeff had his ideas, but said it was too much for them to handle. We then brought in am excavation/ landscape company we had worked with in the past to get work done. Due to our "indecisiveness " and rudeness to his subs (he has no tradesman as employees) according to Jeff we parted ways and finished the house ourselves and with our own subs. If you choose to use Tescon here are my recommendations: insist on sit down meeting with Jeff and Bob in advance of signing. - get everything in writing after the initial contract price. - get in writing who will be supervising project and what supervision would entail. We didn't expect someone to be there all day, but be there in the morning to make sure who is supposed to be there is, stop by a couple times during the day and be there at end of day to see things are cleaned up and site secure. I feel our project would have gone totally different if Sam had been there as promised rather than Bob instead of being at TesCon's Homearama homes. - Check plan closely with scale. We asked for 36" of stone around house. Drawing scaled at 42" some areas have over 48" and we got $6000 bill during the settlement stage.

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