HC Lane & Son LLC

I contracted HC Lane & Son build a pool with waterfall feature – on a concrete deck cantilevered off a hill. This is a complex structure and I, as the owner, decided to be the GC. The value of the HC Lane & Son’s contract was over $100K. Travis Lane assured us that he understood the complexity and would work with the others contractors to coordinate his scope of work with theirs. Travis’s first deliverable was the shell of the pool which he personally supervised. There were issues that delayed the project by 3 months to correct. His lack of experience became obvious. He would repeatedly question why other contractors on the project did not show him respect. His lack of experience and his interactions were the obvious reasons and led to a lot of tension between him and the other contractors. In the final stage of the project, my friend and I stepped in for 2 weeks to help Travis on his scope of work to make deadline. Travis consistently complained how he was not paid enough on what was his contractual obligation. He begged me to release the last payment even though the job was not complete because he needed funds to pay subcontractors. I reluctantly released the last payment with his assurance “I am not going to leave you hanging.” Immediately after that, the response from Travis was “I am not coming out to finish the open items.” I repeatedly requested follow up on the open items – to which he responded they would treated as “extra charges”. The contract I have with HC Lane & Son carries a 5 year warranty. I have no confidence that Travis will honor the work or obligation and with all the difficulties of working with him, he was ultimately fired from this project. Throughout the project, communicating with Travis was very challenging and disturbing. His text messages to me and my wife were often emotionally charged and occasionally personally attacking. Simple questions such as “when will you be onsite to take care of this issue?” were often answered with rants. He constantly complained about the working conditions and threatened to report them even when the engineer on the project and a local officials marked that conditions were in compliant. He does not meet challenges well – often responding with complaints, excuses, and finger pointing. Travis’s sense of design and craftsmanship are good. We all do wish him well and hope he develops the professional maturity needed. I would strongly caution against contracting with Travis at this point. For now, he does not have the experience to manage a project with any complexity and is emotionally unfit to run a sound business. Travis’s response to this review, as in so many things, will be a lot of excuses and finger pointing. Please contact me at cuonghdo@yahoo.com if you have further inquiries.