David Faust

On June 3, Dave Faust showed up while I was having a friend build a set of treated lumber front steps for my house. He said he was a union mason and showed us his union card. He grew up around me and knew nearly everyone that I grew up with. He talked a great line. He talks a lot. He offered to rebuild the cheek walls for $1200, which would include tearing down the existing (crumbling) walls, cleaning the brick, pouring a footer and rebuilding the walls with the existing brick. He also agreed to replace the lentels above a window and a door that were rusted out and install a glass block window. We did not agree on a price for the lentils and glass block at that point. I gave him $600 to buy materials get started and off he went. Dave showed up on June 4 and tore down the cheek walls. He said the glass block windows needed to be "special ordered" because the window was an odd size. (I should have detected the BS right away. You don't special order glass block windows, you buy them in sizes as close a possible to what you need, then make up for it with mortar). I asked him for the receipts for the "special order" and other materials. He said he had them at home and would bring them the next day. He somehow talked me into giving him another $300 towards materials and to pay his son, who helped tear down the cheek walls. That was my mistake - he seemed trustable at that point. June 6 he poured the footers (not level, but he said he'd make up for it with mortar between courses). He didn't have the material receipts. June 9 he returned to begin building the cheek walls and over the course of the entire day he laid 3 courses of brick on one wall. That's about 30 bricks in 8 hours, which was OK at that point because I wasn't paying him by the hour - still no receipts though and no materials for lentel or glass block work. . The next day he showed up with his son, then left his son there all day while he "went to buy mortar" and red dye for the mortar. He reappeared in late afternoon without the red dye and proceeded to lay 2 more courses of brick without colored mortar. I noticed the mortar didn't match and he said that the dye weakens the mortar and he'd grind out the joints about 1/4" and backfill with colored mortar - more BS - he has a line for everything. He lays a brick or two, then talks on his cell phone for 20 minutes, then repeat. Then he didnt' show up for 3 days, with no explanation. When he showed up on June 13, I spoke to him about slow pace of the work poor appearance of the work he'd done. He assured me the work would be done by June 15, but that the cost was going to be double, or $2400 because he hadn't counted on it taking this long! I did not agree, but said we'd discuss after I saw his completed work on the one cheek wall he'd started. He showed up the next day while I was out of town for work and nearly completed the right side wall. The only trouble was, it was not level, nor plumb nor did it have consistent mortar joints! In some places the bricks were tight up against each other with no apparent mortar and in others the mortar was an inch thick! The bricks in the original wall tied into the porch bricks like interlocked fingers. His work was so bad that one course of cheek wall brick tied into the porch wall at the 11th row, came out and returned into the porch wall at the 12th row! I took pictures, The top horizontal mortar joint is a TRIPLE thick mortar joint - literally 1.5" thick, to make up for his compounded errors in level to that point. I consulted with another contractor, who looked at the work and said "Does he even OWN a level?" Daves' terrible attitude, refusal to show any receipts for materials, poor work ethic and constant talking on his cell phone led me to the decision to fire him before he did any more damage. I tore down his shoddy work before the mortar had a chance to set (and fully bond to my existing brick, ruining it) and hired the contractor friend that built my treated lumber steps to do the work. It was done in 3 days, is level, plumb and looks great. Today I found out that Dave Faust is now going around telling people that not only did he build the brick cheek walls at my house, but also the treated lumber steps!! I joined Angie's list for the sole purpose of warning others NOT to hire Dave Faust for anything. I wouldn't let him shovel the snow from my walk. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!