I really wanted to like these guys. I hired Plaster Pro to do stucco repair, caulk, and paint the…read moreexterior of my house this past May. I will start with the positive. Shivon, the owner, and Geronimo, his subcontractor are very nice people. But that's essentially where the good vibes end. Just another contractor disappointment.
From the very beginning, it was clear something was amiss. They were in such a hurry to get the contract signed and start work. But when the time came to start the job, very little was happening. There were maybe 1 or 2 people here at any given time to tape up all the windows and do some of the stucco repair. But days would pass and no one would show up. The house was uninhabitable because all the windows were sealed with plastic during some of the hottest days of the year. I would ask repeatedly why we weren't moving along and I was told by Geronimo, "we still don't have materials." Which begs the question, why are starting a job you don't have materials to do? Why are you sealing up my house with temperatures in the 80s and 90s if you don't have stucco or paint?!?!?
This became the refrain for the next several weeks. (This was supposed to be a 2 week job.) We pushed into June... then July. The material issue never seemed to get resolved. Then it became about weather which is understandable. But that was just a few days here and there. Ultimately, sunny days would come and go and maybe Geronimo's brother or sister would show up to texture things. But this created another issue. The quality of the work just wasn't there. How can there be any continuity if every step of the way, the process is piecemeal. Well, this is where the contractor should be the first line of defense when it comes to quality control. But Shivon was disappointingly pretty absent throughout the process. I can count on one hand the number of times he made it out to my house. I would call and text and no response. I'd then call his office manager (his wife, Ellaine) and he would get right back to me with some excuse as to why he didn't respond the first 3 times. I would see Geronimo more frequently, but his skill set was just not there and he, frankly, seemed more interested in securing direct jobs from my neighbors then doing the job I paid Plaster Pro for. So, I became quality control but my Spanish isn't great. So, there was definitely a language barrier. So, if my contractor is basically AWOL, what am I paying $22K for?!?!?
In the end, the job never got finished. There are windows that didn't get fully caulked. Sloppy paint work. Sloppy texture work. The house clearly didn't not get a full two coats of paint. I can actually see where there are two coats and where there aren't. I have stucco and cement glopped onto my pavers and roof. Paint on my window screens. And they used red duct tape to seal my windows as opposed to Painters tape. So, I have duct dried tape glue on my window frames. And there's an entire section of stucco on the garage I had identified to Shivon on our first meeting that is separated from the substrate that never got repaired! Shivon did ask for the balance of what I owe them but the terms of the contract are that the work must be 100% complete. He insisted Geronimo said it was complete, but here's the wrinkle. If Shivon had bothered to come out and do a final inspection, he'd know it wasn't. But he left it to me because he was too busy to give Geronimo the final punch list. True Story. He ultimately relented and said he'd come out to take a look. But the last text I got was "Good Afternoon, how does this Thursday look for us to meet?" I immediately responded the same day with "What time?
That was August 23rd. I haven't heard from him since.
In the end, it was Shivon's son, Isaiah, that clued me in to what may have been at play here. From the sounds of it, they do a lot of high end work for rich people and celebrities. So, in the end, I was likely not a priority. But, though $22K may not be a lot of money to Shivon and Plaster Pro, it's the most I've spent on this house outside of buying it.
Update: I've started uploading photos of how their shoddy work and cheap materials can't even last one NY winter. I'll keep adding pictures since it's only February. What a waste of money and time.
