Rocky Mountain Rustics

Well it started out okay. D, I will call him, not sure if I should use his name, but he is the owner and operator of Rocky Mountain Rustics. He found the problem with the plumbing and rotted floor and gave me the added bid to fix. He reported leaking faucets and I was able to include an area in the basement that needed to be sheetrocked. He gave me a name of a colleague who did carpeting and arranged for him to give me a bid. The work was going on and he was moving at a good pace. We decided to re-texture the entire homes walls up and down. He pointed out after talking with me that I was too picky and would never be satisfied with the many many many patches and retextured areas. I agreed and he gave me a price for texturing the entire home. He pointed out the ceilings would not match the nice new walls and it was decided to just go ahead and paint the whole home. Well the bid for the carpeting came back from his colleague and it was really high, double my own bid and did not include new pad. I had already purchased the new carpet so I just needed the carpet and pad installed. I did not choose his colleague and this is where it seemed to really go wrong. I never felt real comfortable with D, and just plodded along as the work was progressing and he did have several good ideas, he did not however like talking to me about how the work was to be done. I have done alot of this kind of work and I don't think he liked working with a informed consumer. I never told him how to do the job, I simply would ask if he knew that say, the vinyl floor needed to have a 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the walls for expansion and contraction recommended by the manufacturer of the floating floor. Things of this nature, I just wanted to make sure I knew what I was paying for. He did not like me doing that, even though I always tried to be tactful on how I would ask. Anyway, I asked him if I could have the carpet layers come in and start and he said yes, though not enthusiastically, he said it would be no problem and I scheduled them. I even had them ask to make sure it was okay and he told them it was. He complained about them after they got there and he could not get along with them. They did take off and not come back the first day and did not tell anyone and he was upset about that, but from what he told me they did not have anything to do with what he was doing, so I am not sure why that upset him, but it did, the language started then. They said they had a family emergency and apologized to me and him for leaving and not calling when they returned the next day. I figured they were all grown men and adults and it was over. I get a call an hour or so later from the carpet guy saying that D had a fit, spilled paint all over the kitchen floor and left. I go to the house and sure enough there was paint in several puddles on the kitchen floor and paint splattered on items in the kitchen. The carpet guy called because they did not want to be blamed for the mess. I thanked them and I cleaned up the mess. D was gone for a day and a half before he returned and now he was under the gun to finish on time and he blamed the carpet layer, this could not be any further from the truth, he was running behind because he was not there doing the work. I did not mention that I had payed for some small items that he included in his bid. I gave him several advances on his bill and never gave him even a second of grief when he asked. He worked on the remaining items straight for over 24 hours. He was grumpy. I went in to inspect and made a conserted effort to compliment the things he had done well, such as the texturing. There was some real bad areas and he did a good job fixing them. I also told him of some areas I did not like and he basically did not respond to any of my comments. Too make this very long story end quickly and I have left a lot out. I was tired of dealing with him and decided just to pay him and be done with it. Here is what I have been doing the last 4 days. Touching up paint he should have done right, caulking areas in kitchen and repainting, glueing down some flooring planks he installed that did not stay down, puting on light and plug plates he did not put screws in at all or the wrong plates in the wrong rooms, or a mixture of all, painting some trim that had a stain he did on some woodwork that ran down on the trim or he just screwed it up, putting up toilet roll holders he did not put on tight or at all, hooking up cable tv to the plates in the wall he did not, even after I specifically asked him about one that looked like the cable had fallen into the wall, I had to retrieve it and hook it up. He did not paint the entire ceiling as he should have, he did not paint the closets at all, he did not clean the place up as he said he would, in fact I have had to hire a cleaning lady to come in and clean up after him and the house in general, another $140. I am sure I could go on but why bother. Bottom line is I paid him and knew I would be doing alot of what I paid him to do, just to be done with his theatrics and temper. He did not finish the job well at all, he made excuses about carpet layers and seemed to be awful after I choose a better priced carpet installer. His guy would have cost me an extra $500 dollars. In fact his guy was charging more per yard than all the installers I had give me bids. Well that is my story and I have left tons out. I would not recommend him for any job, especially after I have been finding more and more that he did wrong, did not do, and the things I had to redo. I think he did some things well but in the end he didn't care about the job. I have had my own business and I never did anything at anyone else's home that I would not want done that way at my own home. I felt if it was not good enough for me or mine it certainly was not good enough for a paying customer. From what I can tell this may be the way he would do the work at his own home and my point is mute then.