First, I'd like to apologize to anybody who has hired DSR in the past year. I was counseled not to post a review of our experience due to the potential for litigation. Now that a settlement has been reached, here is our experience:
I'd like to note that this review is my opinion based on our experience. Most can be verified by documentation and photos. We entered into a contract with DSR in March of 2020 to have a 12'x16' room addition built onto our home for a little less than $30,000. The very first thing that DSR did (following site prep that is) was have the foundation poured over a foot too narrow. Imagine that, a "professional contractor" who can't even get the basic dimensions of the room right. DSR partially fixed this, "on their dime", but pretty much immediately after, unsubstantiated excuses for cost increases began.
Long story short, after countless screw-ups and general incompetence, we called the city to have the room inspected. In spite of his professional and legal obligation to do so, DSR had not gotten a permit for the job. Upon inspection, the city presented us with a list of a dozen code violations, many of which were just a category containing several related violations. One of the items was "shear nailing", which is how you are supposed to attach plywood to the frame work. DSR couldn't even do such a basic task correctly. Also, all the plumbing, which DSR claimed to have had a licensed plumber perform, but actually did himself, was completely wrong.
At this point the city stepped in and tried to get DSR to fix all of its screw-ups. DSR basically said sure, but you have to pay for it. At that point we got an attorney. Just to illustrate the character of this guy, at one point in the negotiations, once DSR got a real attorney (I say that because he wrote the most ridiculous counter-offer and claimed it was from his lawyer) DSR claimed to not have the money to pay to fix his mistakes. Meanwhile, he DID have the money to buy two new trucks, a new snowplow that I estimate to have cost $5,000, and take a vacation.
So now that we have reached a settlement, we are going to tear the room down and start over. Seriously. It is that bad. In all we paid DSR $32,000 for basically nothing. Even with the settlement, we would have been better off to just burn a bunch of money than to have hired these clowns.
If you made it this far and still think hiring DSR to do something more complicated than picking up dog poop off your lawn is a good idea, I first recommend getting a lawyer to review all contracts. Call the city yourself and ask about permitting and inspection, don't trust DSR to do it. Permits are public record, DSR has applied for like 6 in the entire time he has been in "business", in spite of all his bragging about all the jobs he had done. Triple check that he is actually still insured; I'd be amazed if his insurance company kept him after this. Like actually call the insurance company and verify it yourself. Or seriously, just take half of your budget and burn it and wait a year then hire somebody else. I wish that's what we had done. read more
