BOSCO

Meeting Eduardo from BETANCOURT'S CONSTRUCTION went well the first few times.We needed a new roof put on our house due to leakage and mold issue. My wife and I had heard about Eduardo through a work colleague who used him for a flood damage job at one of her properties. So my wife and I checked out BETANCOURT'S CONSTRUCTION along with 5 other local companies. We went with them because they would give us zero interest, if we put a third down-that's what he said. So we put a third down and when he came the night before with the contract it showed interest-3%. I asked him, he said his wife told him he couldn't do it for 0%. We already turned the others down and really needed the roof so we reluctantly agreed, and asked him then to use the correct decking CDX and not the OSB since we are now paying extra - the 3% he had on the bid. He verbally agreed and we signed the sheet-after I hand wrote in the correct decking type. They show up-tear off the roof and when the decking comes it is OSB-not the CDX we agreed too. He said he couldn't get the other in time (our roof is now torn off), so we went with the OSB. Well the roof leaked at the first rain by the chimney-he had to come out three times to fix it, but never did- it still leaks. Several times we called-no reply for 3-7 days each time we tried to get a hold of him.One time he said, sorry I was in Mexico- well what business man leaves without a back-up plan?After the third time he sent someone out to fix it and it didn't work he said he couldn't fix it, that it was not his fault it was a chimney issue. It never leaked until he replaced our roof.

He sent over a helper of his who didn't speak much English and didn't have tools. I spoke enough Spanish so it was okay, but I had to furnish all of the tools. Betan Court never showed up except to collect money. It was totally awful and not a good experience at all. They charge quite a bit an hour and he said he would send a crew in and this crew consisted of one very nice man. He was very accommodating, but if I had not been there every minute and translating things for him it would have been a disaster. He did know how to lay tile so when it was obvious he couldn't do other things on my list I had him put in a partial tile floor in a closet and a slate floor where the deck opened into the bedroom and he did a very nice job on both of those things even though they weren't originally on the list. It took him an hour just to read the directions to put a door knob in meanwhile I'm paying him. Any handyman should know how to install a door knob. It was a totally bad experience and Betan Court is a rip off. He promises all kinds of things but you only see him to collect the money.

We loved working with the owner who was very conscientious but had a difficult time communicating with his workers.

We liked them. The price included the materials. They did a lot of work. I didn't see anything I disliked. We thought we got good value for the money. There were no delays. The quality of the work seems to be okay. The work still looks good now. There might have been one minor miscommunication about a shower fixture, but we thought that that was as much as we didn't tell them as they didn't ask. It was a shower fixture we bought and it was plumbed in correctly, but it was as much as not explaining what shower fixture we wanted as them not asking. That was the only glitch I can recall.

How I wish I didn t have to write this particular report as these folks were great to work with. They ve done several projects for me over the past few years and had been relatively professional and good to work with. But, there are several things now that they ve worked on that are falling apart or show a clear lack of understanding in what the particular job entailed. I was relying on their expertise to solve problems. For example, we had some rotten wood siding that they replaced. Recently, it has been discovered that the support directly behind this siding was also rotten and had been for some time this is something they should have seen and brought to my attention as they were removing the old siding. The worse offense however is a drainage system that I had they build which has never worked properly. They ve been out several times to repair it as it spews water in our house. This last time, they said they d be out on a Friday but they never showed. I had to go elsewhere because we had puddles of water in our home. I called them to let them know the situation but they weren t helpful. When the new folks looked at it, they found all sorts of structural issues with the system and pointed out several places where essential aspects were either incorrectly done or missing altogether. This has results in thousands of dollars in damage to the walls, the door frame, and the main door as water had flooded the interiors of those walls and warped/distorted the wood frame and door not to mention that I have to pay someone to rip out the entire system and start from scratch. Again, when I brought this to their attention, I did not get any sympathy. Unfortunately, I will never be using this company again they were nice and professional in the beginning but ultimately the quality of their work showed a real lack of understanding in what each job required.

They did a great job. We had another contractor come out and give an estimate for remodeling the bathroom, and he quoted us $20,000. Edwardo came in and quoted us $10,000. The people that came in to work in the bathroom were very hard working and very quiet, which I appreciated. I was home during the day, and they would close the door and work all day. Edwardo was very nice and professional. They were quick to get the job done. The quality of the work is great! We will definitely call them to do our basement remodel and would recommend them to others.

Eddie is great to work with. His is extremely polite, trustworthy, and more importantly on budget. His guys work very fast and hard. Overall we were very satisfied with the work he did, and he made sure everything he did is what we wanted. Since this was our first remodel project, we could have been better at communicating exactly what we wanted for fixtures, light placement, and some minor details.

I would not use this guy again for a few reasons. 1) He had some guy do the work who did not speak English, wore sunglasses (even in a dark garage), and left my tenant's door open while he went out for what not. 2)Talking to him on the phone was very hard to do because he always picked up his cell, even if he was driving. The feedback was awful and made communication very difficult. 3)At the end of the day I called to see if the work was done. He said it was and wanted me to bring him a check for the balance RIGHT THEN. I told him that wouldn't work for me as I don't live at or even near this property and that he should have mentioned it before if it was so important for him to get paid the day of. It turns out it was on the contract I signed with him, but when I admitted that I had missed that part he said, "That's OK. I was having a bad day that day."

Most of the work seemed to go okay the day it finally happened (an accident involving Eduardo's new worker forced rescheduling 3 days after the original date). However, when I placed about 7-10 articles of clothing on the clothes rack in the closet, it collapsed. My husband fixed it a few days later, and now it holds about 50 hangers no problem. One of the toilet paper holders in the bathrooms is so loose you have to be gentle with the TP so you don't knock the cylinder out. The robe hook in the 2nd bathroom was over an inch off center in a relatively small door. And a piece of black plastic lawn edging that had bordered the shrubs that were removed was strung across the former location of the shrubs at a 45 degree angle instead of being parallel to the house. Well, I gave Eduardo the benefit of the doubt and scheduled a visit to repair the deficiencies. He never showed up!!!

Called Eduardo, made an appointment for an estimate the following day October 5. Eduardo was on time for the estimate. He gave me his rate information and estimated the time for the job as 2 full days, possibly 3 if things go slow in the crawlspace. He said he would have his man out on October 15. They arrived on time and got right to work. They did the caulking, vent repair, door repair and removed the arbor on the first day and save the tough job in the crawlspace for the next day. Although Eduardo had told me in his estimate that the crawlspace might go into a third day, they finished the job in two. Except for a lunch break, Eduardo's worker seemed to never stop. The work was finished by the end of the second day. I was very satisfied with Eduardo and his worker. He wasn't pushy, and offered me various alternatives as we discussed the work.

The project started off great... the crew showed up on time. They put down plastic and some of our old bath rugs to protect the wood floors in the hallway and the rest of the house from contractors dust. It's difficult to say who got the house dirty, but after the plumber came, there was dust covering every surface of our living room (not sure why the plastic came down). The tile work they did was good... they were using stain resistant grout which is difficult to work with. The one complaint we had was the border around the floor. We wanted a black dot border one tile-distance away from the wall going around the perimeter of the room, but on one side of the room, the dots were hidden by the floor trim. When we pointed this out, they came back and re-placed those tiles, and now all looks great. They hauled away all debris and made the dump run... my only desire would be that they had cleaned up a little better in the area where they mixed the cement.

It went great. He and his team were professional, he was able to come out immediately to give an estimate and the work was time in a timely fashion. The siding in the back looks great, the best part is that he really matched the existing siding, so it looks pretty seamless with the rest of the house. Just a note that the actual price did come in over the estimate and that is only because they discovered additional rot behind the siding and that needed replacing as well.

Eduardo communicated well from beginning to end. He replied promptly to my initial response to his ad. He showed up on time to give me an estimate for the work. We set a date and he sent a confirmation a few days before he was to arrive. On the day of the job, he was on time - exactly. He worked continuously, even while answering my questions. He cleaned up at the end of the job and left the room and hallway the way he found it. It was a terrific experience and I'm very glad I hired him to do the work!