Alaras Home Pro

Everything started out great. Basement was water proofed, the deck was built and new doors and windows put in. Was making progress payments when certain projects were done. During the construction of the shower and installation of carpet however, something changed. When building the shower I stressed there was a water shut off right above the shower and would need access. The shower was built without this access. I was leaving for vacation and the contractor said the carpet and shower would be done before I returned and asked if they could get paid before I left for vacation. Because I had no troubles with completion of the previous projects and I didn't think twice about paying them. Plus I worked with his brother so I trusted him. Upon my return from vacation the bathroom shower was still being tiled and hadn't be grouted and the carpet was not done. The owner's wife came by a couple times to check the drying of the tiles but after that there was absolutely no communication as to when the shower will be done or when the carpet was going to be done. After also most two months of NO communication from this contractor I started making phone calls. I contacted the carpet store where I had picked out my carpet and the carpet hadn't even been ordered. I talked with the Manager and he said that ALARAS was into him for a lot of money. OH BOY. I decided to take him to court and get the remaining amount of money back. The night before small claims court I received a TEXT not a phone call asking to not go to court and that they promise to get the project done. I went a head with small claims and won. ALARAS didn't even show up for court!!

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First off, the owner is a very nice guy but I think I allowed him to take advantage of me. We had a small bathroom with shower/tub that we wanted remodeled. I gutted the entire bathroom before Alara's showed up to start work. I wanted him to install a new shower, tile the floor, new texture (knock down), paint, install a toilet and cabinets plus new door. He also did some basic wiring because we added a sconce light. Since we had two other bathrooms I always told him to fit me in when he's ready to do this job instead of rushing. I've had other contractor's that rushed the job on other projects and I felt like they weren't doing a good job. I think Alara's took advantage of this because there were times an entire work week would pass without seeing them here and no phone call giving us an update as to when they'd fit us in. Then, there were times when he would show up after doing another job and he'd seam rushed probably because he knew we weren't pleased with a lack of work being done here. So he'd show up when not really ready to devote time here but knew he better do something. The finished product: First off the shower door, on rollers, would not stay shut because the sub-contractor that he hired to do the plumbing put the tub in off level. So, while taking a shower we'd have to hold or prop the door closed or water would spray on the floor. The verticle seem where the shower stall meets the dry wall has about a half inch gap on the bottom tapering to a tight fit as it travels up the length of the seem. Looks terrible. The knock down texture on the walls looks like something I would do! Lots of flat areas where he pulled too h****** the texture, basically scraping it down to the dry wall. Several gouge lines in texture where there was a dry clump of mud that got drug with the trowel. One area looks like he rested his arm on the wet texture as it looks like a forearm imprint on the wall. The tiled floor is pretty good, however, instead of running a row of tiles up tight against bath tub he cut them short and put grout in the 1/4" gap. This could be ok if the tub and walls were square, however, since they are not, the grout line along the tub tapers from 1/4" to flush. This made the narrower part of the grout line unstable and began crumbling soon after completion. His first attempt at installing a new door was done too high. The bottom of the door was approximately 2" above finished floor height. This meant that when someone was sitting on the throne, people walking past the bathroom could see their feet from under the door! We wanted a sconce light added to a wall in the bathroom. He told me electrical wasn't his specialty but would refer to an electrician he knew for some Q&A. A bathroom with lots of water flowing and high humidity is defiantly not the place to dabble in electricity! The vanity and recessed medicine cabinet was done to our satisfaction. I've heard, from a contractor's point of view, that the hardest part of being a contractor is getting paid in a timely manner. I paid him on the spot when the job was complete. It's frustrating when the finished product looks so poorly. Guess I should have been better at scrutinizing the job before payment was made.