I'm writing this review with respect to all parties. As a home owner and family man I never want to harm any business nor take any financials away from families especially those with children. I have always respected every person that walked into my house as I expect those to do the same. From the beginning my wife and I put our trust on Thalmadge Jimmon Howard (goes by Jay) and told him that we've been saving our money to upgrade our home. We signed a contract to remodel a complete guest and master bathroom and addition in our written contract was to fix our kitchen faucet. By word agreement Jay also mention that he would fix our front panel door; replace screws and purchase our door knobs in his account to reduce our price from Lowes. In honesty he did fix our kitchen faucet and purchased 8 door knobs total and replaced screws in our door panel (Door Knobs total cost $280). At first he mentioned to us that he will only charge $50 to replace all door knobs and replace the screws in our door panel; courtesy to customers. After walking away from his own project due to firing his crew for not showing up he is now charging us $800 for the door knobs and to fix our front door panel.
Timing - Howard's word was that he will complete our project in three weeks. After poor project management and failure to over seeing his own people this project took from May-Aug. Every morning I would had to call Howard or Thomas to find out if they were going to show up. Thomas is an employee of Howard that basically was the only person that had the lead on this project. If Thomas didn't show up then the entire crew didn't work. Unfortunately, Thomas was not dependable that made this project linger for weeks. After poor labor management Howard claims he ran out of budget. In all, Howard claims that we caused most of the delay due to upgrades. First of all, tile was brought to us to choose from, mirrors we paid the difference, and we purchase major purchases. We gave him the opportunity to show us all receipts as requested to negotiate but always failed to do so. He expected us to only take his word and failed to follow through with receipts.
Budgeting - from the start Howard was giving 50% of the agreement total dollars. This was plenty to purchase all materials for both bathrooms. Before he started in the second bathroom he asked for another 35% and shortly after he asked additional $1,000 which should've covered materials and labor. After starting on the second project materials were not being purchased which was causing his people to be delayed. After long weeks we took the initiative to purchase materials and called Howard to let him know we will be purchasing materials but it will be taking off from his balance as he agreed. He was upset because his people failed to drive to Lowes and purchase materials under his account. This was poor management if you ask me, and poor planning on Howard. Why do his people need to stop and purchase materials daily. We purchased materials but we stopped after we noticed we met our due balance. We confronted Howard about how can he be over budget if we made major purchases: guest vanity, half of master tile, spare shower door, master bath tub, total paint for master and he still didn't purchase our master glass shower seamless door. Howard claims that he should be paid for incomplete service and missing materials of $2,800 when he still owe the owners more than 50% work to complete in the master and unpaid materials.
Contractors expertise - After hiring a second contractor to clean up the poor job that Howard and Howard completed I will have to say that this contractor is very poor and very elementry level. Left trash in our garage and didn't cleaned before he walked away; no respect. It's a shame because he cleaned his materials a day before he walked knowing what he was going to do then text me that he is walking away and fired his entire crew. He left a shovel, a light stool and a scraper because it was underneath a table which we left outside for him to grab. Our police department contact Howard to pick up his items but never showed up.
My advise - After long consideration I know that Thalmadge Jimmon Howard is not going to repay nor commit to his mistakes. My advise to all people working with Howard and Howard Contracting or thinking about hiring a contractor please run a background check and find out if he or she is dependable. read more