In sum, nothing but bad things to say about Steve. He's not only a bad carpenter, but also a bad…read moreguy. I hired he & another carpenter from S. Lake to work on my remodel in Incline. They had the chance to turn a bad situation into a great one. Instead, they decided to suck all my $ away, literally sitting around in lounge chairs playing on their phones & planning their next jobs. What little work Steve did he either took way too long or it was unacceptably poor quality. What's more, he worked hourly & routinely lied on his time cards.
Here's the details. After I hired him, I quickly realized Steve was slow, inexperienced, & error prone. He was not accomplishing much & after it took him 2 wks to trim out a window wall, I told the "foreman" I was not happy with Steve, especially since he also made a big error - he told me a piece of walnut that was clearly not grain-matched with the other pieces it was mitered to would match when the lacquer went on. Naturally, it wasn't so. So I told the foreman to have him fix it. Steve never owned up to it & charged me to fix it. Then he started to install hardwood floor steps - another week. This time he admitted it was taking him a long time. Then onto some hand rails - another week & poor performance again - uneven & popping off the rails. In between these projects, he worked on doors. One door took him four hrs to hang, handleset was uneven and mortise was not flush (many had this problem). There were myriad examples of his poor craftsmanship. One time I had some very expensive granite being installed. He couldn't get a cabinet lift to work while fitting the granite in. So he said I had to cut the granite down. Naturally, he was wrong & I lost a lot of $'s b/c he had them cut a seam into it. I'm still looking to replace it. At one point, he told me his background was as a handy man. That explained it - he did not have the chops to work on a multi-million dollar home. Steve is just a talker.
All the while, Steve was living at my house. While I knew that was bad (makes them too comfortable) he theoretically provided security. But then he couldn't be reached (even though he was always on his phone) & it went to his head as he really thought he was the boss. But he not only couldn't finish his projects, he also couldn't manage subs. He was so disorganized I had to remain as project manager & had a tracking list for him. He couldn't get things done on it & the job is still ongoing (May '14).
Anyhow, I knew he was weak sauce & was going to fire him but I kept thinking we were almost done & it would be good to keep a resource around if he could be motivated. But it just kept dragging on & he kept slacking so I knew I had to fire him (less is more). But the foreman said he'd do a good job on the hardwood floors. So I kept him for that & he was okay but was such a pain to deal with - I was trying to explain to him the pattern I wanted in terms of putting good pieces in the main areas and he copped such an attitude. Weird given he was working hourly, i.e., do whatever I want, it doesn't cost you anything. It was no wonder that he would regularly butt heads with people on the job. He would routinely criticize my best carpenter for going to fast. It's always a blend of speed and accuracy but Steve had no reason to criticize this guy. Other than the fact that this other guy just made Steve look bad by working circles around him.
His final day was comical - I told him not to show up but he did anyhow. He spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to hook up an ipod docking station that turned out it was too late to do. Naturally, I had it on his list for mos. & he always neglected it until it was too late to put it where I wanted it, the whole time saying he was going to do it & it would be really easy.
Worst part is his ethics. The whole time he worked there, he was working w/the foreman on setting up their next jobs (talking on the phone) & playing on his phone. The only thing he was good at was DJ, he picked some mean beats to hang out to... He worked about half the time he was there, which means I paid him 2x what I was supposed to. Furthermore, he not only was a slacker, he lied regularly on his time cards. And at one point, he asked me if he could use the toilet even though I had a temporary one outside for the workers. I told him "no" b/c that could go really bad if people disrespected it. At one point, I asked him if he'd been using them b/c all the toilets were installed & he assured me he was using the temp. So one day, I found a roll of toilet paper in the bathroom where he'd shower. Sweet, lie straight to my face. So this man is an incompetent liar. How he can live with himself, I do not know. I would never hire this guy to do anything for me. But if you can't help yourself, don't pay him hourly. Do a fixed bid & know that he is an unlicensed carpenter & you have no recourse for his terrible work & that he will be out of business when you ask him to fix it.
