APEN DOR BUILDERS

Unresponsive communication and repeated broken promises. Here is a classic example of someone who cannot be taken at his word. We agreed in the fall of 2016 that the job porch construction would start in the spring. I reached him in April and he said he was “finishing up a roof, which would take a couple of weeks and will start in May when I can make your job top priority and knock in out in a week or 2 at most.” Every Monday morning I would send a text, and then email, and then call to find out what was happening. I have records of all these attempts. Invariably I would not hear back for several days, usually a week, sometimes 10 days. Each time when I finally did reach him, there were always more promises “I will absolutely be there next week and finish it up” but then no one would show up, and no call to let me know why. The only time he responded in a timely manner was when we were arranging a time for him to meet me to get paid. The job finally got started in late June or July and was not done until November. Disregard for safety. During the local wildfire, which burned within a mile of my house, he stopped in the middle of installing my metal roof and left a bare plywood frame exposed to floating ash for over a week until I insisted he complete that portion of the job. Another time he left a 1.5 foot drop at the base of a staircase for over a week where he was supposed to pour a concrete step – and only came to fix it after I sent an email with concern that someone would break their neck. Did not follow architectural plans. The roof was supposed to be extended over the new stairway, but instead of 3’ out from existing roof he made it 3’ out from the wall, so the stairway is not totally covered by the new roof; the porch floor was extended out 6 inches into space for no apparent reason; the stairs on one side are 5” away from the wall of the house leaving a gap in which to drop car keys or groceries. Poor quality of final product. Here are just a few out of multiple examples: In the summer of 2017 we had over 12 weeks of warm dry weather. By the time he got around to sealing the raw wood, it was in October – November, raining, cold, with temperatures below freezing at night. The seal did not take well. There are random pieces missing from the floor and filled in like a patchwork, mitered corners were slapped together unevenly with sharp screws sticking out the bottom, wood trim around the windows was torn and patched with putty in big globs, the sidewalk was torn up to build a driveway and pieces buried under load of gravel which he promised me would settle, but became un-driveable. I had to people to fix these things. Did not pay his sub-contractor. As if all the above wasn’t enough, 2-3 months after I paid him off, I got an email from the subcontractor saying he had never received payment. It took and addition 4-6 weeks of time for me to engage in negotiations with the subcontractor to settle this matter and he finally paid his portion of what was owed to the subcontractor.