Rial Construction

The project started out fairly good, with no complaints about the work performed by the subcontractors Rial Construction (RC) hired. Several problems occurred during construction, and were not taken care of to our satisfaction because RC did not involve us in the decision making process. The first problem was that the existing roof did not tie into the new roof to our satisfaction. The remedy RC came up with was to construct and install a cupola to cover the 'lump' where the existing roof comes in higher than the new roof, but to date, RC has not done so. The next problem arose when a heat register was not placed in the proper location in our living room. It wound up partly in the living room, that is carpeted and partly in the kitchen, that is not. This register would not sit flush with the floor and the only remedy offered by RC was to build up the lower area with wood trim rather than relocate the register to its proper location. Another problem arose when, during construction, RC forgot that we wanted a utility tub in the laundry room. Once we realized the omission and brought it to their attention, the only solution was to install an extra wall to run the additional plumbing to and to attach the tub to. As the deadline date approached and RC was behind schedule, the quality of the finishing work was not done to our satisfaction. RC 'finished' on July 19th. Since then we were left to finish/redo a number of items; such as the closet shelving, latticework around the front porch, polyurethaning the doors, woodwork and the majority of the trim throughout our new home, along with the caulking in the bath/shower units and windows and paint touchups. They claimed we ran over budget by $2,500, which we did on our kitchen/bath cabinetry allowance. But we also paid for $2,500 of items that should have been covered under the allowances, the hot water tank ($450), and did not deduct the $1,800 they owed us for running 18 days over the deadline date. Several weeks later, we noticed a problem with the way the new fiber flooring was installed. When we asked RC to come back to go over the flooring issue along with a number of other concerns, he was too busy with new projects and sent his wife (who helps him), along with the subcontractor who installed the flooring, out instead. The subcontractor donated the labor and RC was to pay for the underlayment to fix the flooring problem. But when the subcontractor ran short on material and could not reach RC, we had to pay for the rest of the materials. The subcontractor took the receipts because he said RC agreed to pay us back for the materials, but to date, they have not. We also had to remove our new front door, cover the opening with plywood, and take it to a local shop to have it professionally painted. RC was supposed to have this done during the construction but did not. When we questioned this, he told us the door came painted. When we called the company where the door was purchased, they confirmed that the door was only primered and needed to be professioally painted. Today is September 4th and we finally finished all the items/redos/touchups. We have spent over $1,500 more in materials along with countless hours and several vacation days to complete the work. We will never hire a contractor again without requiring three references and physically inspecting the work & talking to all the references!