Should have trusted my gut. First I had to call about 4 times before I got a return call. I was about to find someone else, but my girl wanted to give him a chance. We talked and took the measurements and explained what we wanted. The day before he came to discuss and finalize things and was saying the numbers were off and that things had changed. He did the numbers and was telling me that the numbers are wrong. I guess he did not take good notes.
It was estimated to take 5 days. They started on 8-8-20 and did not finish until 8-18-20. The first day the guys came to do work they were supposed to show up at 7 and did not get here until 10. I was told because they were picking up supplies and it took a while. Well then they should have not said they would be there at 7. Then they worked half a day and when I called him, he did not even know that they were not here working on the project.
Another day no one was there. I sent out a text after 9:30 and his response was "My guys had and inspection this morning for a pool" Now I don't have a pool at my house so I'm not sure what that had to do with my project. If all this additional stuff was not going on it may have only took 5 days.
We specifically said we wanted to have concrete under the A/C unit. Well the day before the concrete was supposed to go down they were talking about just going around. Saying that it was not possible and that he would never say he would do that. Integrity is the most important thing to me and that right there was it. If half of the work would have not already been done I would have told him to just leave. Luckily we were able to get a hold of the people to move it and cost an extra $700.
We were told that the door had to be moved up a little. I was fine with that. Well he decided to put down the concrete and not put the door up until the next day. I called him and he said he could not put it up with wet concrete. I asked why it would not be done before putting down concrete considering he knew we had 2 dogs that could get out. His comment was "Oh". I'm sure that made everything ok. My girl had to take another day off after already taking extra days from the extra days that it took. He said we don't count weekends. Then why do you work on weekends and not count the days you work?
I then got a crack on the concrete so I ask if we need to wait some time in case we get more cracks. His reply was "It's concrete it will crack. It's going to crack. Do some research please. It will help you out a lot. A whole lot. You compact, place rebar steal cut control joints to prevent it much as you can. This is California we always moving and concrete is not mad of rubber". I can't imagine building a website for someone and it crashes and I say it happens. I could not even think of doing that to a client. Then he continue to say to "walk around the neighborhood and you will see cracks. Look at your driveway you will see cracks." I did and did not see any cracks.
I thought I was hiring an expert, but why would I have to do the research for what I'm hiring out for? I guess I should have people go do research on building a website...yes that would be ridiculous. I'm the expert I go and build the website.
We also had our outlet broken and hose torn up. They did not even tell us what happened, we noticed it and approached them. The outlet was repaired, so we thought, the cover was put on, but the outlet itself is loose.
Throughout this process we were asking questions and he seemed to get frustrated with the questions.
At the end, there was compact material on my yard and my gate entrance. He asked if I wanted him to clean it up? At this point I just wanted him out of my house. I can't believe someone has to ask to clean up their own mess. The stakes and the rope was also left there.
I gave him two options of what I wanted for my retaining wall to be and he chose it for me. In the end, we went with a completely different choice.
We had someone ask who did it and we could not even give the referral because I would not want anyone to go through what we went through. I hope no one goes through what we had to go through. read more