Where to start... Everyone said my husband and I were crazy for even contemplating a home renovation. General contractors have about the same reputation as car salesmen (except about 10 times worse), but we made sure to do our homework and interview MANY general contractors in the Charleston area. We narrowed it down to two, and decided to choose Rob Hanawalt of Inspired Construction. He seemed to be a diamond in the rough. His appearance was so non-threatening, he was well-spoken and intelligent, and above all he seemed extremely passionate about his work, craft, and customer service. Unfortunately for us, he has proven to be anything but. Our experience with him has lasted for over a year now, and the nightmare seems to be never-ending. Our project was a large project, but was one that he assured us he had the expertise to undertake. The job went over budget, well over the time frame (as it still has not been completed 100%), and has left my family with hardwood floors that need to be replaced and will likely cost us tens of thousands of dollars to fix. Here is a list of just some of the specific issues he failed to complete:
- He failed to have proper knowledge of how to install our bamboo flooring throughout our house. He failed to properly manage his subcontractors while they were installing our floors, and could never provide us with full documentation on the type of glue that was used during installation. Our floors now need to be replaced and could cost us up to $30,000 to replace! When we asked him to file a claim with his insurance to fix the problem, he denied any wrongdoing and threatened my husband and family.
- He failed to have proper knowledge of Charleston County code requiring our house to have hurricane protection shutters, which cost us thousands of unexpected dollars to create and install.
- Our yard was left in shambles, with nails, concrete, piles of dirt, bricks, paint cans, and other debris strewn about. When we brought this to his attention and asked him to clean up the mess, he told us that the yard was not a part of his "scope of contracted work" and that we basically should have expected our yard to be destroyed during our renovation. Instead we had to spend days cleaning up the mess ourselves, as well as having to hire outside help to do the things we could not do ourselves. We also had to just pray that our young children would not hurt themselves while in our yard. Our children's safety was obviously never a concern of his...
At first we were devastated by this huge blunder caused by Inspired Construction. We tried several times to bring the problems to his attention so that he could attempt to rectify the situation, but unfortunately that didn't work. Not only did he deny any wrongdoing (which we figured he would do), but he went so far as to blame the problem on us, the clients, and threaten us with all sorts of outlandish things.
Honestly, there are many more issues to report on, but I am tired of thinking about it at this point. I have never in my life dealt with someone so unprofessional, dishonest, disingenuous, and lacking of common decency. There is not enough room on this page for me to express the entirety of grief and aggravation that he has caused my family. PLEASE, for your own sake, DO NOT hire this company to do any sort of work on your house. You will regret it. The phrase "wolf in sheep's clothing" was created to describe individuals like Rob Hanawalt. read more