Warning!
He was hired to remove old knob/tube wiring from a 2 story house (each floor is one apartment). We had 2 conversations that I wanted the entire house's knob/tube wiring removed. Contract only stated 2nd floor (which I missed, my fault).
Payment: Started the job, got his "half deposit", and to my non-surprise, the next day - NO SHOW. The day after - NO SHOW. It was 4 days before he came back - just me waiting for him to show, texting him saying "are you coming today" and getting a reply "sorry, can't". 100% unprofessional!
A family member was home every day & I heard how he always complained about how he was getting screwed, and how he took at least 45 minutes to 1 hour breaks all the time. When on the job, it was for only 3-4 hours a day. This was at most a 3 day job, however, from the day he started to the day he finished - it was 13 days. Yes, seriously, 13 days!
12 days into the job, family called me to say the refrigerator was not working and the breaker was "tripping". When I investigated, I discovered that he ran the new bathroom wire to the refrigerator breaker. He said it was "temporary", so he caused a malfunction, then left it like that for us to discover later. I removed his wire and presto, a working breaker and a working refrigerator.
Upon inspection of the breakers, I discovered he ran 14 gauge wire to 20 amp breakers, a HUGE no-no as you can burn the house down that way! Again, he said it was "temporary". Sorry but you don't *EVER* put 14 gauge on 20 amps. An important point on his "temporary" comment - For the entire job, the breaker cover was OFF, yet when I went to look at the problem that evening, the cover was ON, so if the wiring inside was "temporary", then why was the cover ON? I strongly feel he was covering up his sloppy work hoping I would not notice it.
His ladder broke the plaster wall in several places, apparently it is my responsibility to fix what he damaged.
On the final walk through, I discovered the following issues:
1) The 2nd floor basement light switch was completely removed, so I had a working light switch and now I don't
2) The 1st floor apartment basement light switch was not working properly. We spent over 1 hour arguing that he needed to fix this because that wire "came from" a junction box that he was working in. The fix took less than 5 minutes, yet he complained and argued with me for over 1 hour about it
3) A 2nd floor wall socket that he rewired had an open ground. He said it was not his responsibility to fix it. I said, yes, you ran that new wire, so you need to fix it. More moaning and complaining that "he's been screwed on this job" and "out of his generosity" he rewired the 2nd floor porch light. I was like "huh, the 2nd floor porch light is part of the 2nd floor" - he said nope. I said "seriously - how is the 2nd floor porch light not part of the 2nd floor". At that point I said, you can fix the wall socket or leave. He threatened to call the city because I did not "pull a permit". I said "I hired you & under state law and city ordinances, YOU HAVE TO pull the permit, not me & that I'd be happy to discuss the situation with the city and the state contractor's board." Several minutes later, the wall socket was properly grounded.
4) In the contract it stated that 4 closets were to have pull/chain lights installed in them. Only 3 were done. When asked about it, he said "the closet was too small to get into". Oh, so you moan and complain about stuff you have to do per the contract, but don't even bother to tell me -- until I discover that you did NOT do work per the contract.
Summary
- Extremely unprofessional, No shows/No communications, constant complaining
- In my opinion, I feel he was covering up his sloppy work hoping I would not notice it.
- No permit pulled, then threatened me with action when it was his legal responsibility
If you want to hire this man, just don't read more