After not being able to find contractors that have reviews, I rolled the dice on using Finchum Construction to complete an outdoor bar project that I started myself. Although I am decent at creating things and DYI projects, I felt I would be happier if I just paid a contractor to finish the outdoor bar. I was quoted $675 to have the concrete counter top made and adding stucco to the block wall base that I made.
After Chris Finchum gave me the quote and we agreed to go through with the project, he told me it would be about a couple weeks before he could start the project. No problem with that. The day before the project was suppose to start, he told me he had to delay the project for another week. Ok...
Chris and a guy working for him started on a Thursday, and he was done less than 24 hours after pouring the concrete. I'm not an expert, but I figured you are suppose to let concrete sit longer than 24 hours before pulling the mold and everything off and saying you're done. I am a rather nice person, and I made the mistake of paying him the remaining balance that morning before he finished.
When I got home later that same day, I got to the house before he was finished, but he was out somewhere else so I went to do a few errands and come back. When I came back, I noticed a corner of the counter top was cracked off and on the ground, and this accident happened while I was out doing those few errands. When I looked closer, I noticed everywhere on the edge of the counter top was cracking and looked like complete crap. I could even tell he tried to apply some kind of coat/sealer to hide the shoddy job. Either he tried to hurry through with finishing the stucco, or he just simply didn't care, because there are large sections of areas where he just simply didn't take the stucco and cover it all the way to where the counter top started. Granted, no - people aren't really going to get down on their knees and look that low, but it just goes to show there was no attention to detail or caring about doing a good job.
After I was done checking out the monstrosity, I called Chris up. I used an upbeat voice at first to try to get a read for what this guy will say if I don't sound mad at first. I asked him "Hey, just checking to see what day you're going to be back next week to finish the project". He told me everything was done and I'm good to go, and he doesn't need to come back. This is where my mistake of paying the guy in advance before he completed the project. Also, the lumber that was used for the mold was just sitting on the ground in the dirt, so the guy wasn't even planning.
Once he told everything was good to go, that's when I wasn't trying to hide the fact that I was mad. I sent him pictures and he was "shocked" and apologized for the problem. He said he could come Monday right after the weekend and check it out and try to come up with a solution. Monday rolls around and he comes over, sees the really crappy job he did, and tried coming up with some solutions to fix it. One solution was to make a wood edge along the counter top to hide the ugly work, and another solution was to take some puddy looking stuff, and fill in the cracks, which were around the whole entire counter top. I told him I wanted a concrete counter top, not a concrete counter top with wood edges, and the puddy he used looked like crap because it didn't match the color of the concrete he poured. I came up with the idea of cutting back sheet of wood he used as the base so you couldn't see it unless you got down low, and then manually remove the concrete that was chipping off and finish it by polishing it so it looks good. We agreed on doing my idea, and then I waited.
October 31st: After not hearing back from him for 10 days, I called him up and asked him what's going on and why he hasn't called me. He told me he was busy and wasn't able to get back to finish my project. I thought that was crap and told him he could have at least got in contact with me and let me know that he won't be able come back to finish right away. Apparently he thought not keeping me in the loop or talking to me after 10 days was a normal way of treating his customers. I wonder how many more days of silence I would have waited if I didn't call him up. So magically, after I called him 10 days later and he gave me the excuse of being to busy to finish my project, he said he could come back on Monday, 4 days from the day I called him.
I thought it was a bunch of crap that he can magically schedule time in his busy schedule to complete my project only because I gave him the call. I told him to not bother with finishing the project, I gave the guy way too many damn chances to make things right, and I had enough. I had more things I wanted to do with my house, and you would think people would do a good job and have good customer service in order to get more repeat work, but not this guy. No way I would ever recommend this guy. read more