I recently hired Mitchell-Rollerson Construction LLC to install a new ceiling and will NEVER use…read morethem again.
First, there were issues with billing. Eric wanted about 3/4 of the cost up front as a down payment, which I later came to find out was more than the legal maximum a contractor can ask for in the state of Maryland (which is 33%). Additionally, Eric wanted the rest of the payment before the job was done. Finally, Eric wanted the checks made out to himself instead of the business and asked if cash was possible. I find this type of billing suspicious.
Second, I found the quality of the work to be unacceptable. This was not a complicated job--all that was required was to take down and dispose of some moldings, take the light fixture down, put drywall over the existing wood ceiling, paint, and reinstall the light fixture to be flush with the new ceiling. Eric estimated that this job would take 2 days. At the end of the 3rd day the job still wasn't done, but Eric said it was finished. Eric waited till the end to tell me that the light fixture couldn't be made flush with the ceiling. What he did instead was cut a bigger hole and try to use drywall compound to embed the light fixture in the ceiling. The light was embedded unevenly, the area around it wasn't sanded nor painted, and Eric didn't clean the drywall compound off the light fixture. After a quick Google search, I found that Eric was incorrect about it not being possible to make the light fixture flush with the ceiling; all that was needed was a $2 raised round cover. Additionally, there was another portion of the ceiling that needed another coat of paint, and Eric put the moldings outside behind some stairs instead of disposing of them.
Finally, Eric was anything but punctual, which affected his ability to get the job done timely. He said he would show up at 9:00am each day and that the job would take 2 days. The job took 3, at which point the contractor said the job was completed even though it wasn't. He showed up at 12:30pm on the first day, 11:30am on the second day, and 10:30am on the third day. Each time he had a list of excuses of why he was late. Also, without measuring, Eric said that he believed it would take 4 pieces of drywall but would bring 5 in case. Then he only brought 4, and it turned out he needed 5 putting him behind schedule at the end of the first day.
I ended up fixing this myself. Because this was done incorrectly to begin with, fixing this involved removing the light fixture, cutting out part of the ceiling since the hole for the light fixture was too big, installing the raised round cover, installing new drywall, paint, and reinstalling the light fixture. I also needed to replace the light fixture because after removing it I found that the contractor had scratched it up with his putty knife and bent it to make it look like it was coming straight down from the ceiling (as a result of unevenly embedding it in the ceiling to begin with). In addition, I asked Eric what paint he used and he mentioned two different paints, neither of which matched the shade of white and sheen that he actually used. This resulted in me also having to repaint the entire ceiling.
I sent Eric the bill for the materials I needed, a new light fixture, and my time. He has not agreed to reimburse me for any of it.