Porter Construction has been working on our condo association building for nearly two years now. They are over a year past their original estimated completion date and over 50% over budget. An important part of large construction projects is managing risk, but the Porter team seems to have amplified risk. They do not seem to understand the city permit process, with long work stoppages related to claims that they are unable to obtain permits. Apparently the city has shut them down in the past for not having permits.
When you add to this what seems to be a complete disregard for the safety of the site, workers, and residents of the building, you should consider the risks of hiring Porter to be very great. Amongst the safety concerns on site:
* Porter employees frequently don't wear masks in enclosed public spaces, including exits, despite having been asked a many times to do so, and masks being required by Oregon law. This is in a property with at-risk residents and public businesses. Workers seem openly hostile to the idea, at one point one of them yelled at me for wearing a mask as I was exiting my own home.
* Workers have blocked all exits to the building while conducting work, creating a serious egress and fire hazard for residents on site.
* Electrical connections have been grossly mishandled, including instances where live, ganged electrical cords have been run through rain gutters with the ends left in puddles of winter rain water next to home exits.
* Crews do not communicate with owners and have created unexpected hazards, for example one resident awoke to their home filling with smoke and debris as workers were dry cutting material with a saw directly outside their door, prompting the resident to call the fire department in a panic.
* Site safety and cleanliness is not a priority, and public sidewalks and community spaces are frequently filled with shards of metal, nails, and other debris. At one point I cleaned up all of the construction debris left under scaffolding to clear public right of ways.
Porter seems incapable of following through on any job in a timely manner. Scaffolding and plastic sheeting have been up around the building for almost a year now, and work on exposed walls stops for months at a time while crews try to get permits or turn their attentions to other projects. The lack of planning and resource allocation is astounding, and the project has seen several changes of leadership. While there have been some unexpected damage that has needed some readjustment of scope, the delays no long seem to be attributed to just those issues.
While all of this is happening, there are two construction projects next door that are operating very quickly and efficiently. In less time than Porter has done their work, a site next door was demolished with a new five story building erected on it. Another building next door was entirely gutted and retrofitted to handle new businesses, which will be in place before Porter is anywhere near complete.
With terrible communication, a disregard for safety, apparently no expertise and obtaining permits, and showing a complete inability to come up with a plan and handle contingencies, I strongly suggest you consider other contractors for your major construction needs.
Since Porter started their work, six residents have moved out (some permanently, some temporarily) because of the working conditions created by Porter Construction. For context, there are only 10 residences in the building. Four property owners have tried to sell their home or businesses with no luck as the construction drags on with seemingly no end in sight.
Update:
A temporary structure Porter erected on site collapsed during the winter storm, bringing down hundreds of pounds of wet snow and ice into an egress. A second structure covered the second egress. These structures were put up to protect work that had apparently been completed in the autumn, and it is unknown why the left them up. Regardless, they had no load-carrying capability and created what could have been a life-threatening hazard. One of the workers blamed the event on "mother nature". I was horrified when I woke up and realized it was only luck that kept me from being in that space when it failed. read more