We hired Richards's General Services, also known as SewagePros, to demo and renovate a master bath…read moreand full hall bath. They asked for 50% down, on a labor only estimate, which we paid. The key to the home we gave to Sean, who came out to collect the deposit, never gave the key to the workers. We asked Sean when work would start, but he couldn't be reached. We kept calling the office to find out who was in charge of the job, and finally Carlos confirmed he was in charge. The only two workers Carlos and Kenny, came out to start work but were not given the key to the home. We never saw the key again.
The two men demoed the bathrooms that day and said over the next two weeks they would begin renovation. We were on vacation for those two weeks,and when we returned, nothing had been done since demo. When we called Carlos to ask why, they said that other emergency work took priority over our renovation. A few days later, two men showed up and began working. Their typical day was to show up, figure out what they needed, and leave to go get the supplies which we paid for as they would get them. They would then return, do a few hours of work and leave. Some days no one would even show up. During this time, Carlos was fired for some reason, but no one from the company let us know until we asked Kenny.
About 4 weeks later all that was done was 60% of a hall bath and 10% of a master bath. During this time the owner, Richard Rosser, II, called to say he would need more money. He threatened to pull the guys off the job if we didn't pay. This was during the COVID timeframe, so getting contractors to come out was difficult. We agreed to pay the additional deposit. The next day Kenny sent a text saying the tile work in the hall bathroom was done. We went over to see it that evening, and that was the same day we called to tell them not to come back. Tile work on the floor was uneven and had the wrong color grout; tile behind the tub was uneven and had bumps around the entire tub; backer board they used behind the tile was not the same thickness as the sheetrock so it left a budge; they also cut the tile midway up the wall that left a line throughout the tile all the way around the tub; niche for soap and shampoo bottles was supposed to be included but was never put in; few days later found out the plumbing under the new tub leaked, mixed grout in the hallway bathroom which clogged all of our AC filters with thick dust; cleaned grout buckets in our kitchen sink scratching it, used our kitchen trash can to mix grout; and used our shop vacuum and drop cloths among other things. In the master bath, they cut out wall studs rather than routing plumbing through them and installed sheetrock that later had to be removed because they did not run electrical before installing the sheetrock. So many other things to list that went on, but in short it was a nightmare dealing with this company. After $15,000 we still had no usable bathroom in the house.
The contractor we hired to fix and finish the work said it was the worst work he had ever seen by a contractor. When we contacted Richard's for our money back, we dealt with Amy (who we had never before heard from) who wouldn't even tell us what her position was at the company. She stated us asking for money back was like theft since they did the work. Our final option was small claims court. The owner Richard Rosser did not show up. Instead, he sent someone who in court tried to say we never paid them any money. We had receipts to show all the deposit money we had paid.
The judge after reviewing the pictures and hearing our testimony, awarded us the max for small claims of 5K for the hallway bathroom. We have since tried to collect the judgment from Richard's, but they will not respond to our phone or emails.
