STEELE CONSTRUCTION

Donald "Hopper" Steele and Brenda Steele caused a major setback on our home building project. I paid them $24,650 up front to clear land and lay stone for a 1300 foot long driveway. The amount was that high due to the stone for the driveway being $18,000. A couple days before it was time for Steele to purchase the stone, they asked for a meeting and presented me with a bill for $8080, "due upon receipt", because the job and rocks were taking longer than expected. Yes, one could say "Rock Clause", but no additional equipment was needed to remove rocks, and everyone knew the surface rocks were there from the start. They were clearly visible and factored in from the initial contract, which totaled $50,180. Brenda Steele wanted me to cough up $8080 that day or they would leave. Needless to say, I didn't, because the contract was for the scope of work and a set amount. They wouldn't give me any assurance that they wouldn't do this again and it felt like extortion. I found it fishy that they needed the additional money right now when it was time for them to buy the stone for which I had already paid them, weeks before. They packed up their bulldozer and quit in the middle of the job! In the end, they refunded $8800 of the $24,650. Besides the money, it took an additional month to find and get a new excavator started. When Donald Steele was "working", which was pretty much every other day, he thought it was okay to ignore the surveyor's "Limit of Disturbance" stakes as well and did not follow the plan at all. In the end, I was very glad to have a new excavator who did a much better job than they ever would have done. My advice is don't ever use Steele Construction for your project! The work is poorly done and excessively slow with shoddy equipment that breaks down. They try to change the terms of the contract in the middle to get more money when you are deep into the project. Just stay away from this excavator!