I recently hired the Leeman Brothers for a small drywall job (a 400 sq ft room). They began the work on time as promised. The 2 laborers who hung the drywall however, covered over 3 outlets and a gas pipe. The drywall was plainly not flush in these 4 places. They also overlapped a portion of the ceiling, which was obviously way out of wack. I contacted the owners before the texture went on and they came out and tried to fix the problems. The drywall where they covered over the outlets however, was still not flat/flush against the studs. The ceiling was fixed satisfactorily. After the room was textured and they were paid. I realized there was a 4th outlet that had been covered up. I cut this one out myself but the drywall is still not flush and needs to be repaired. Not long after this I noticed that there were about 5 good sized cracks in the seams on the walls and ceiling. I called them back out to look at the work and they said that the reason it cracked was because the room was not "conditioned", meaning it didn't have a heater in it during the winter. When I said I didn't think that was the case, the owner gave me a huge attitude about "arguing" with him. I politely said I'm simply saying that I don't think that is the reason it cracked. Given that this space and another attached 700 sq foot portion of the same unconditioned space had been sheet rocked for 30 years and there wasn't a crack anywhere. The whole building is very well insulated. Not to mention when new homes are built they are often sheet rocked months prior to being conditioned. These cracks appeared within 1 month, perhaps sooner. His attitude continued pointing out how long he had been in the business. They said they would come and fix the cracks once the space was conditioned. I hired a new drywall contractor to do the second portion of this drywall job. He noted a few things about the Leeman Brothers work. One was that one of the cracks the drywall was not secured to the ceiling joists and could be pushed up. The ceiling joists are level with proper spacing so it was not the fault of the framing. He also noted that they used fiberglass tape on ALL the seams instead of paper. Apparently, using fiberglass tape isn't recommended, unless you use a special mud or else it will crack. I brought some samples of the mud to drywall experts as well as my current drywall contractor. All of them said that they used the wrong mud and scoffed at the notion that the cracks were due to it not being conditioned space. I am now noticing more cracking in this room. The only way to fix this problem is to dig out and remove all the tape and redo it with the proper materials. I received an estimate for $600 to have this work done and asked the Leeman Brothers to refund me $600 so I can have someone else do the work and I will sign off stating that I do not hold them responsible for this job from this point forward, or to fix the problem themselves in this manner. That e-mail was sent on June 13 They did not reply until 6 days later on June 19th stating that they wanted to come and see the the mud samples and as of July 1st, they have yet to do so and I've made myself available for them. Keep in mind I live just a few minutes from their office.
I wouldn't hire the Leeman Brothers to patch a hole in my drywall let alone do a job of any consequence. And as for their customer service, I'll let their response, or lack thereof, speak for itself read more
