I had a rough go with Patrick Casey. He did work in my new condo including painting, fireplace…read moresurround, and master bath redo. This took place between September and December 2017. We had many problems and cannot recommend Patrick/Casey Co. Here are some of what we experienced:
1) We were not Patrick's top priority, so despite promises to the contrary, he was not regularly present on the job, did not meaningfully oversee the work, and did not have a reliable hardworking crew on-site. As a consequence, project completion was around eight weeks over schedule and significantly over budget. The completion delay cost me thousands in rent and other expenses. This is after he begged for payments in advance of contracted work being done/timelines being met, and then didn't deliver on promised work and timelines (not even close).
2) He did not do a good job putting the bid together and as a consequence we didn't have clarity on the work being done, or a system for changes to the contract. I realize that I also hold responsibility for this, and I should have done more to protect my interests. Just one example from his end....despite my repeated requests, he failed to provide a drawing of the master bath remodel. As a consequence, we had misunderstandings about what work was agreed upon. Thus, I now have a naked water heater sitting in my otherwise completed bathroom that was supposed to be covered behind a cupboard, but he claimed it was never part of the quote. He did at some point offer to build it for cost, but by then it was too little, too late.
3) When the work was done (in his opinion) he wanted to tack on additional charges for unanticipated work. However, with one exception, he did not communicate to me in advance about the additional work needs or costs. He just expected me to have a spare few thousands of dollars on me to cover things that he hadn't quoted or discussed with me. I tried to work with him, and made generous offers and payments towards resolution, but he had little "give" on his end. He then threatened to put a lien on my place if I didn't pay. But luckily I did my research and saw that he hadn't taken the upfront steps needed to be able to pursue a lien. *I urge anyone hiring a contractor to make sure they sign a waiver of lien.*
4) I will note that when Patrick wants to do quality work, he can. I hired him because he did good job on a friend's project. However, standards for quality of work were definitely not met with respect to my bathroom shower. Two key problems: First, I wanted a two-headed shower for showering with a friend. He installed it, but plumbed it so that only one shower worked at a time. He seemed bewildered when I objected. As a consequence, I ended up paying a plumber a couple thousand more to get it right. Second, and this is probably my biggest complaint from the whole job, he installed a glass shower door intended to open both by pulling out and by pushing in. However, it only opens when you push it in because when you push it out, the bottom of the glass hits the bathroom floor and it won't move further than a few inches. While this might seem small, it's proven incredibly annoying and awkward when getting in and out of the shower. He engaged Cascade Glass for this door installation, and I tried to call them about 25 times, just to even find out the cost of repairing, and they never responded to me.
5) Other examples of sub-standard work include:
- Installing a fan light from which the glass dome promptly fell, narrowly missing a head.
- Placing wood floor unevenly with air gaps between floor and concrete underneath (he did fix the worst area).
There are other things, but these are the highlights. Often when trying to address these issues he was either unresponsive (even MIA) or hostile. I tried numerous times to figure out how we could end of a good note, but he didn't meet me halfway.
Patrick has the potential to be a very good contractor but it seems he needs help managing his work, contracts and customer relations.
If you do decide to hire him for some reason, please be smarter than me and make sure you have clarity on the agreements, costs, system for negotiating changes, and that he agrees not to threaten you with a lien. He is a talented person, so I hope that he is able to do better by future customers.
FYI, I waited about six months to write this review because I wanted to live with the work for a while, and give myself some time/space to make sure that I was in a frame or mind to be fair in this review. So there you have it.