Fred Berry Const

March 3, 2017 Fred Berry Construction LLC 2000 West McAfee Ln. Amarillo, TX 79118 (806)356-1280 Mr. Berry was hired to do a bathroom and kitchen remodel which began approximately August of 2007 and ended approximately March of 2008. We paid Mr. Berry $27,753.76 for the project. We also paid various retailers for tile, flooring, countertops, bathroom and shower fixtures, etc. as well as other contractors for a total of $45,338.68. In June of 2011, we inherited our three grandchildren and the number of showers went from about 2 a day to 5. My wife began to notice the carpet in her closet, which is adjacent to the shower, was wet. We tried to determine the cause of the leak and I caulked around the floor of the shower. It seemed to stop it for 3-4 months. Again it leaked. I used a 15 year sealer all over the shower and it stopped it for about a year. I began a process of recaulking about every 3-4 months and it still leaked into her closet. Shortly afterwards, she noticed a smell coming from the closet. I cut a section of the carpet out and found mold. I tore the sheetrock out as well as wood trim and shower tile to expose the mold. We were able to destroy the mold but the wall on the floor was rotted and we could see the shower pan had formed a trough pouring water out. In March of 2016, I asked a friend of mine who is a contractor named Jerry S. to look at it. He said it was installed wrong and would leak sometime. My plumber, Bill S. was over a few days later and I asked him to take a look. He stated that it was the way not to install a shower pan at all. I asked a tile contractor named Marty S. to come by and he agreed that it was never installed correctly. Finally, I called another contractor, Terry O. to have a look and it was unanimous that it was never installed right. I finally called Mr. Berry to have a look and see what he would do. Mr. Berry came by, looked, took a dozen or more pictures, and even stated that it wasn’t done wrong, but not the way he would like to have it done. I told him to see what he could do, and he came back with a bid of $10,762.50 to repair it with no consideration that it was installed improperly when he was the general contractor. Mr. Berry brought a plumber and discovered a leak in the shower pan and saw how water poured out the trough from the pan. He also brought someone from Amarillo Floor with him and he stated that we needed a new pan and we also had a problem with the weep holes in the drain and mold around the edges of the shower floor which always was wet. The shower never would drain out. There still is about ¾ inch of water that stands under the floor in the shower all the time. There is also a flat spot in the sub-floor which holds water. I had asked Mr. Berry to file a claim with his insurance company and he did not want to. He stated he only guaranteed his work for a year, but offered to split the cost of repairs with us which left us with a bill over $5,000. My wife and I agreed that since the leaking began just over three years after the project through no fault of ours, there should be more consideration. Mr. Berry came back with a phone call stating that he thought he could salvage the glass block wall sitting on the shower pan and reduce our costs to $1,800. I remarked that it sounded fair, but let’s see if his insurance company would pay anything for the damage done. Again, he did not want to file a claim. Eventually I called the insurance agency and filed a claim to see if we could get any reimbursement to reduce our costs. His insurance company declined coverage because the policy he had did not cover the damage, not that Mr. Berry had no liability. I contacted Mr. Berry to accept his offer of $1,800, but he became very angry that I had filed the claim and refused to do anything. It is our contention that the tile contractor working for Mr. Berry installed the sub-floor incorrectly, installed the drain weep holes incorrectly and installed the shower pan incorrectly. Our contention is backed up by the fact that the various professionals that examined the shower all agreed with us. If someone spends that much money on a shower and it leaks because we took more showers, then something is wrong. We believe that Mr. Berry should have fixed the shower right at no charge to us. UPDATE Please refer to the enclosed pictures. We began demolition on March 13, 2017. After tearing out the cement board on the back of the shower, we discovered a huge problem. The bottom shelf had been leaking for a long period of time. It was never built to drain water away from the wall. Instead, it leaked back into the wall as shown in the enclosed pictures. The wall studs were totally rotted and had been so a long time. You could crumble a 2 x 4 in your hand. The adjacent wall studs and insulation were soaked and there was water standing in a hole in the foundation. It had never been poured correctly, so there was an 8” trough between the shower and exterior wall of the house. Why it wasn’t done when the house was built is indeed a good question. But why Mr. Berry did not fix it while they were repouring the adjacent foundation is totally negligent. If you see a problem and don’t fix it, that’s just wrong. We had to pour over 15 80lb. bags of cement to fill up the hole. It didn’t stop there because we found a nest of ants in the insulation which had to be exterminated since there was a hole in the exterior brick due to no foundation. Fortunately, there was no evidence of termites. It was also determined that the drain weep holes we clogged and it looked like steel wool was put around them which eventually rusted and totally clogged up. There was no way for the water to go, except in the wall. Don R. Hollingsworth 2515 Stardust Lane Amarillo, TX 79118 (806) 355-9143

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