This guy talked my 79 year old mom into letting him do a number of unpermitted remodeling projects…read moreat her rental house. He told her he was a licensed contractor, which was a straight up lie. We did everything we could to keep her from hiring him but she went with him because "he's a nice guy." Give me a break! He doesn't know a plumb line from a plum tree.
He clearly had no idea what he's doing. She was convinced that she was getting a "good deal" but when the work needs to be redone, it will cost her more in the long run. Examples:
Kitchen Remodel:
~ He installed the cabinets from the ceiling down, rather than using a layout line. Since it's an older house, the ceiling isn't level, which means that the bottoms of the upper cabinets are not level with each other. It also means that they were installed too high. Instead of your standard 18" clearance between counter and upper cabinets, the gap is 24". This means that the bottom of the upper cabinets are a full 5' off the ground. The bottom of the microwave range hood is 5 1/2' off the ground!
~ He did a tile backsplash but clearly didn't know much about tiling. I guess he just couldn't figure out how to work around the edges so he just left them unfinished.
~ He tiled the floor with tiles that were utterly incongruous the rest of his "design." He must have added too much water to his grout mix, because it immediately began to pit. The grout is also unevenly applied and amateurish looking.
~ When one of the upper cabinets wasn't going to fit because of a support beam across the length of the ceiling, he simply sawed a chunk out of the beam, leaving the edges open and unfinished.
Bathroom Remodel:
~ He installed new bathroom cabinetry that jutted out too far and prevented the inward-swinging door from opening. To deal with this, he removed the door with the intention of flipping and rehanging it so that it opened outward. Then he drilled new holes on the opposite side of the frame for the placement of the hinges. But you can't just flip a door upside down and expect the hinges to line up! Plus, the door frame was built for an inward-swinging door. So the door is upside-down and installed on the wrong part of the frame, with extra drill holes in the frame. You've got to see the pics to appreciate the craziness.
~ He did a jacked-up, monkey-ass plumbing job on the sink. Whatever he did, there was almost no water pressure to the sink. My mom just had to hire a plumber to fix the problem and fortunately he was able to take care of it.
The Deck:
The property is on the water and the deck needed repairs. No question there. Aaron convinced my mom that he could rebuild it for cheap. We did everything we could to scuttle the project because were were terrified something disastrous would happen. Like, literally, someone getting hurt or killed. He moved forward with the project while she was still examining options, ripped out the deck before getting her final approval and without providing her with any plans or a detailed quote, and then began demanding money from my mom for the rebuild. When she balked at doing a rebuild he began to threaten her with litigation. So she let him proceed. It's been a disaster. He used the wrong sized bolts and instead of resting the joists on the new pilings, he bolted the joists onto the side of the pilings. It's completely seismically unviable. It needs to be rebuilt but it cost my mom every penny she had. We literally do not know what to do.
Ask for a written quote (he either doesn't know how to write one or he was just playing dumb with my mom every time she asked him for one). Ask about his employment background or training that qualifies him for the work. Ask to SEE his license. When my mom demanded his license number he gave her a phony one, apparently not realizing that it was easily verifiable on the state licensing website. Ask for a written plan and a completion guarantee. Or just find someone who actually knows what they're doing.
BTW, one of the classic examples of financial elder abuse is when an unlicensed person talks a senior into doing unnecessary, un-permitted work at a discount. Seniors are particularly vulnerable to being talked into allowing this sort of work because they're frugal and often grateful for the help. Many of them remember "back in the day" when they or their spouses would do the work themselves without any problems. And while I don't think Aaron started out with malicious intent, this is the situation he put her in. He needed work. He created a trust situation with her where she was willing to do almost anything he asked, sight unseen. It took a tremendous amount of pressure from her adult children to get her to start resisting his constant pressure for her to pay him more and more for his crappy work. We're just really glad he's finally out of her life (she still thinks he's her hero).
