My first complaint with Mr. Raines and Raines Construction is regarding lack of time management. My barn was projected to finish within four months. The construction crew broke ground in June, and by December of the same year, the barn was approximately 65% completed, per the barn kit manufacturer's estimate. Secondly, Mr. Raines did not sufficiently assess the blueprints before providing me with a contract. As a result, Mr. Raines underbid the project and then later attempted to pass cost overruns to me (despite the contract being a fixed-bid contract), claiming that I had made changes to the original design. Additional details which were communicated to him directly from the kit manufacturer regarding the proper storage of material were ignored. Storage of building materials outside, coupled with the increased time to complete the project, resulted in approximately $38,000 of wood damage once the weather turned. My final and most costly complaint is with regards to the quality of work done. I believe the project for which I hired him was outside the scope and capabilities of his crew, both in terms of the complexity of the design and time to complete. Mr. Raines inaccurately represented his abilities to me when I hired him for this project. As a result, there is approximately $200,000 worth of repair/rework that still needs to be completed, including replacining a leaking roof, adding rebar to cracked concrete floors, restaining the exterior to protect from weather damage, rehanging uneven stall doors, and additional excavating costs to divert water away from the foundation.
Ultimately, Mr. Raines refused to continue working on the project after I declined to cover his overrun costs, leading to a lawsuit which has taken three years to resolve and personally cost me over $32,000 in legal fees, as well as a barn that is damaged, poorly constructed, and has significant additional costs to complete compared to the contract and bid that Mr. Raines provided.
Based on all the reasons listed above, I cannot recommend hiring Mr. Raines to build your barn. read more