We hired Robert to renovate a room in our home in Homosassa, FL. It was a challenging job, but he…read morewas confident that he could handle it. After I got the original estimate from him, I immediately told him I wanted to move forward with the project, because he had put in a floor for me and I was fairly happy with the work. When he agreed to take the job, he told me he would start it in "about a month." When I followed up with him a few weeks later, he told me it would be an additional month before he could get to it. He was scheduled to start on April 18, but a day or two before he was scheduled to start, he notified me that he wouldn't be able to start until April 20.
His timeline for the job was two weeks. But even the first day on the job, he only worked about 5 hours. He also told me that he couldn't work on Fridays, so he was only going to put in 4 days a week. This pattern continued with him working only a few hours on each day. The job stretched out and then he took a week off at the end of May. He finally declared the job done on June 3.
After he left my home, I went in to take a closer look at the job. I found several problems that I hadn't noticed in the few brief moments I was able to check things out before he left. When I received his revised invoice (which was almost $1,100 higher than the original estimate and which I felt comfortable with so long as he corrected the problems in the room). I sent him a list of the items that needed fixing - as follows:
1. The area under the cabinet needs something to cover the open space left by removing the drywall.
2. The door frame on the outside of the door should be the same color as the door. If there is not enough paint I will get some more.
3. There is paint on the glass on both sides of the door and on the window that needs to be cleaned off.
4. After you get the drywall off the porch, all the dust needs to be cleaned off the walls, floor, doors and screens. The mats on that floor also need to be cleaned up.
5. Jim's fans need to be cleaned up and put back where you got them.
6. The frame on the inside of the double door needs to be sanded and repainted as does the frame around the window.
7. Several of the outlets and switches, as well as a couple of the lights don't fit tight against the wall. This needs fixing.
8. There several spots where the green paint looks thin and needs touching up.
9. When you ran the wire up thru the floor for the phone and cable, you took the wire under the beam instead of over it. This won't work. It has to be redone.
After sending him the above information, I noted two additional problems:
1. He had failed to install the trim strip along the entrance into the room on the edge of the hardwood floor.
2. One of the French doors going onto the porch was not meeting up with the weather stripping, leaving a sizable gap between the door and the jamb.
In response to my email, Robert made it clear that he would touch up paint, but he had no interest in fixing any of the other problems. He did reduce his increased invoice by $500 and told me to hire someone else to fix the problems.
The most annoying part of this whole situation was that while he was working on the room, my entire house was open to the screened porch and the air conditioner was cooling the air outside. Also, Robert was constantly tracking drywall mud and other debris through my house and not cleaning it up. His work area was always a complete disaster to the point that I was afraid to go into the room because there was so much debris laying around.
Robert is a nice guy and some of his work is good, he just bit off more than he could chew with this project and his disjointed work habits exacerbated the entire situation for all of us. Unfortunately, I would not hire him again and due to the circumstances surrounding this project, I am pretty sure he would not be willing to work with us again, even if I wanted him to.
