I am not a fan of public shame or being the town crier, but after a year of working with Robin Stanley/ARDS, and the increasing complications of his behaviors and workmanship, I am left no choice but to inform other customers for their own protection.
Some of the work Robin does has a great result, and others are completely unacceptable. As a customer, you are not able to predict which outcome you will get. He promises post-project inspections to meet your satisfaction, but I never got one of those after a full remodel of a single family home across two floors and two outside decks/patios. My experience is that Robin chooses quality licensed contractors to work with him (electricians, etc), but his construction work crew is a different story. Over the year we remodeled my house, he went through 3 phases of crews, all with mixed results in the quality of their work. There were long stretches where he didn't have anyone and would not show up on the work site for days, even when promised, which cause major delays that nearly ruined the final deck project. These work crew changes eventually led to a phone call from a probation officer informing me and other customers that there was a convicted child molester from his crew who had been working on my house, and they needed information about if there were any children in my home. When I told Robin about this, obviously concerned for the safety of my family, he didn't respond for weeks, and then after I pushed for a conversation on this, his single email reply was defensive and simple: "I am not required to check people's criminal background." No concern expressed, no apologies, and no plan of action to protect future customers.
For workmanship, although Robin brings in licensed professionals, he then takes shortcuts and doesn't call them for some of the critical installations, so he violated his GC license by performing work that those licensed contractors were supposed to do - and then charged me for it. When I confronted him on this and informed him that it was a violation of his GC license, he denied it until I provided proof of his emails & invoices to me on this specialized work. At which time, he sent a written apology, but no offer to ensure the installation was done properly.
For work completed, he left about 25% of the work undone before abandoning the worksite. I was left with exterior fascia boards half painted two stories high in areas that I could not reach and now have to pay another person to complete the job (after I paid ARDS in full). There were areas of the remodel speckled everywhere that were never completed. Instead of giving me a full estimate for the entire house remodel of over $100K, he parced out each task, which then allowed him to constantly make "adjustments", overcharging me for smaller areas of the work. When I finally confronted him on this after consulting with another contractor on his methods, he vehemently denied some of our agreements until I produced emails and signed contracts to prove it.
After abandoning the job site for 2 months, with no communication to return and finish the projects he left behind as we entered a rainy holiday season with exposed wood that he didn't treat or paint, he sent me $6,000 of invoices for additions and duplications to the initially agreed upon contracts. When I questioned these, he threatened to put a lien on my property, so I had to hire an attorney, who again, instructed me to show him written proof of all our agreements, and Robin only then apologized and dropped all those false charges. When Robin needs money, he is very communicative, but when it comes to closing out the work and addressing customer concerns, he is MIA for weeks on end.
So after a year of working with ARDS, I am left with a new large picture window that does not meet code ($2000 fix), fascia boards and soffits that are half painted, a side porch that is unfinished, a deck with cracked lumber railings, and miscellaneous other window and door framing issues that I have to hire others, and pay again, to fix. I am also pursuing a complaint against his GC license where I found there is another violation already on his record, which was posted after we started working together, so in my initial deep dive on his company wasn't visible to me.
I end this tough review by saying that I believe Robin is overall a decent human being, but as business person, he is completely out of his league as a GC which leads to poor decisions that are dangerous for both the structure he is working on and the people who live in it. I cannot recommend ARDS to anyone after my experience, especially if you have children in your home. read more
