Ace Quality Construction Services, INC

Every trade was late to finish and there was little or no supervision on site. We also received lien notices from suppliers he didn't pay.

We did work for ACE and had to put leans on two building because he took the customers money and never paid his subs. I lost thousands of dollars because of this Guy and he is driving a brand New Camaro!! This Guy should not be in business he should be in JAIL. It is people like this that make it so hard for the good honest working contractors to stay in business. NEVER use this guy or work for this guy.

This job was performed for a first time small business. As such, the budget was extremely tight with little room for overages due to a bad economy and strict funding. The contract was signed in November of 2012 and an estimated 60-day timetable for work was given. Demolition occurred within two weeks and proceeded reasonably quick. The removal of the floor presented a challenge due to stubborn vinyl tile that could not be removed. A special floor scraping machine had to be rented and caused our first unplanned overage. These sort of surprises were expected and don't reflect on the contractor. Design: During the design phase, we met with the contractor and their recommended architect to draft the blueprints. The meeting went well as did the follow-up conversations. The delivery of the finished plans had several mistakes and had to be sent back to the architect causing delays in the permitting process. I believe these mistakes were avoidable had the architect taken notes during the meeting. Construction Construction started in December. The first major issue occurred when the sawcuts for the plumbing under the floor occurred. The water used to cool the blade flowed under the walls of the two neighboring businesses. Water damage was reported to our landlord and required the contractor to come out to rectify. The remainder of the rough out occurred without issue and the city inspections encountered very few problems. The finish work was completed in an acceptable manner and only a few minor items needed fixing before accepting the completion of the job. Upon delivery of the commercial appliances, their electrician did not know how to wire the plug for the commercial oven resulting in the oven not working. The appliance vendor recommended an oven specialist who had to come out and set the phases correctly for the oven to work. Timeliness: Throughout the construction process, there were numerous days where no workers showed up to the jobsite. There were also many days where work started late and finished early. Because our landlord waived 3 months of rent to allow for construction, it was critical that we finish within 90 days. At the end of the job, we were almost 60 days past the expected completion date. We had to pay one month of rent on a space that was not producing income. I truly feel the original timetable could have been met if the work crews worked more days and/or worked full days. Communication: The biggest challenge with the contractor revolved around communication. As construction proceeded, there were a number of times where unexpected expenses occurred. In one such example, the architectural blueprints for the cabinets were not followed when a price was given. When the cabinet maker asked for payment on diagramed cabinets, the contractor didn't realize the final cabinet counts and stated that to get all the cabinets per the blueprints, we would have to pay more money than quoted. In another instance, when asked when the ceiling tile would be replaced, the contractor said that cost was not covered in the price of the build out. This additional cost in materials was purchased and friends helped with the installation. In another case, when the final plumbing was occurring, we were notified that the toilet, sinks and faucets were not included in the price of the build out. These items needed to be purchased separately. Post Construction: Within the first 60 days, we experienced issues with the stained concrete floors. Bubbling and peeling of the floor occurred in large sections of the floor. I submitted warranty claims to the office manager to have this repaired. Often, days/weeks would go by without a response back. I would have to inquire repeatedly in order to response. When meetings were scheduled to look at the issue, the workers were a no-show more than once. Legal proceedings were started, but resolution was achieved when I worked directly with the owner. The floor was recently resurfaced, but regrettably, it is starting to peel again. while the owner agreed to resurface it, we declined feeling that the tradesmen are not fully competent in this procedure. In another case, we experienced a foul smell from the commercial 3 compartment sink. A review of the grease trap installation documentation showed we were missing a p-trap and an air vent. After some convincing, the contractor's plumber reluctantly corrected the p-trap issue which has not rectified the issue because the venting is still required. Again we will not use their plumber feeling he has not done acceptable work so we will need to hire outside source to fix this problem. We are currently working on another warranty claim for a wall mounted hand sink that has separated from the wall. Final Thoughts: I am very aware that this job was not a large scale or big money making job for the contractor. I feel that I was competing for time and resources with other higher paying jobs through the entire process. Therefore our construction got put on the back burner so to speak and was not completed in a high quality manner. Also, I took for granted the communicated build costs covered more than what was actually done. The contract and subsequent invoices were very vague resulting in a lot of miscommunication throughout the build out and after completion of the project. More information needs to be written into the contact as to what is/isn't covered.