A United Construction Inc

Review: I hired A United Construction for a remodeling job on my basement. The contract stated the work shall commence on September 3, 2013 and the estimated completion date was to be September 27, 2013. A United Construction did not contact me on September 3 at all and the work did not commence until September 4, 2013. As of October 11, the work is still not complete. Things were cordial between A United Construction and myself until October 7 when my contractor **. [redacted] did a brief walk through of the basement. Upon walk through we discussed the following issues:

1. The trim work was done inadequately, caulking was used to filled gaps in several areas and there is one area where no attempt was even made to cover the gap.

2. The door leading into the closet was cut only from the bottom leaving the doorknob 27” from the floor instead of the standard 38”.

3. On October 3, A United Construction hid dirt and rock from window demolition in my backyard, behind some trees without my consent. When I discovered it, I immediately contacted **. [redacted] to have the dirt removed as my contract states that all demolition materials will be removed from the premises. I was promised it would be removed by October 7 and it still remains as of October 11.

4. On October 4, during the carpet installation the installer ran out of staples and was instructed to use screws to secure the carpet so that the work would not stop before **. [redacted] arrived approximately 30 minutes later. **. [redacted] stated that he just wanted to job complete, whatever the means. Upon completion of carpet installation every staple was visible and some were on top of the stairs posing a safety risk. In addition, there was an approximately one inch lip of ragged carpet up onto the wall up several of the steps, there was a hole visible where two pieces of carpet had been improperly joined even though I purchased enough carpet for a single piece to cover the entire stairway, and the bottom step was wrapped patchwork style with parts of the bottom step still visible.

5. The contract states that the old vinyl flooring would be removed prior to the installation of the new laminate flooring. A United Construction did not remove the old vinyl floor before installing the new laminate floor. Upon completion of the installation of the laminate flooring I noticed multiple uneven spots, including some that have already begun to break only two weeks later. A United Construction sent an employee to attempt to repair the uneven spots on October 7. The employee discovered that the uneven spots were due to the new floor being placed upon the old, uneven flooring that was not removed. He was able to fix one spot but my requests to remove the old vinyl tile, as per the contract to fix the several additional spots have gone unanswered.

A United Construction did a walk through with me on October 7 where I expressed my concerns with the quality of the work and work not done as per the contract (removal of dirt and removal of old vinyl flooring). My contractor agreed the work was not done to contract and left abruptly after seeing the scope of work that needed to be redone due to improper installation. To date, no further work has been done to the basement. Despite several attempts to contact A United Construction I have not received any answer as to when any of the remaining work (described above) will be completed. Additionally, the day that I requested the new laminate be removed so that the old vinyl could be taken up, as per the contract, I received an invoice for plumbing work done during the bathroom remodel. The work was done on September 11 and via text message we agreed that the amount to be paid for the changes to the bathroom was $140 in allowances. I paid this amount via check that was cashed on September 17. No mention of any additional charges for this plumbing work was made until I asked for my flooring to be redone. The contract states that "any changes to the terms of this agreement, including additional services or work to be performed, or additional funds to be paid, must be evidenced in writing, signed by both parties.". Nothing of this nature was ever completed for the bathroom and yet **. [redacted] has told me that he will stop work for nonpayment if I do not pay this new $2,400 charge that we never agreed to.

Throughout this entire process **. [redacted] has blamed every instance where he has not been able to satisfy one of my requests on “the company” and his boss. Yet, I have asked to speak to his supervisor repeatedly and my requests for his contact information have been ignored. I recently discovered that the owner of the company is a man I only knew as Ben who has been in my house several times and who was so rude to me that I asked **. [redacted] to not allow him to return to my home. Never once did either of them indicate that Ben was the owner of the company and Ben, knowing full well, that I wished to speak to **. [redacted]’s supervisor never came forward to try to resolve the issues that I have had with A United Construction. Instead, he let **. [redacted] use “the company” as an easy way to tell me no when they did not want to complete something in the manner that I requested.

Over the past 2 weeks the professionalism of A United Construction has plummeted. **. [redacted] refuses to come to the work site anymore, I have been threatened with legal action if I don’t pay the new invoice, **. [redacted] will not answer my emails until after 8 pm even though he is making requests for me to be in my home early the following morning and he will not answer my phone calls. At this point, two weeks past estimated end date, I need the work in my basement to be finished per the contract so that I don’t lose the opportunity for a roommate to move in. A United Construction has slowed the pace of the work considerably, will hardly communicate with me and refused to give me any sort of revised estimated end date until October 11, stating that A United will not be back to finish my work until three weeks from now. Although, A United told me on October 11 verbally that he could have someone out to fix all the issues on October 12. I have been asking about the completion of my basement since October 4 and no word of a three week hold until October 11. The work that needs to be finished is due to A United’s lack of attention to detail. In three weeks, the dirt will have been in my backyard for a month, and will kill all the grass underneath it.Desired Settlement: I want A United's invoice to be dropped and to not be threatened with a lien on my house anymore. I want the work to be completed on my home early the week of Oct 14 so that my roommate just getting stationed in the DC area has a place to live.

Business

Response:

The project started off on a good note but then things took a turn for the wrong direction when she asked us if we would do some drywall work for a price that would not even cover our cost. After that things changed a little. Since she thought that we were charging too much to get the work done but since she did not understand all all aspects that went into her desired work there was not way to come to a compromise. We then installed the bathroom in the manner of which we had all agreed and after we began installing it she said that she wanted to change the location of the bath tub. This involved more work but she kept insisting that everything is easy to do and that she did not want to pay for anything. After we accomplished the work we invoiced her for 2 days of work due to her changing her mind for the price of $2,400. We can send a copy of our contract if you would like. Also, in our dates for initiating work and completion of work, they are described as estimated dates and therefore the deadline is negotiable in our contract. By the end, we said that we are not charging her the money and we just want her to be happy and finish the job for her. She made many complications, we even did more free work. When we first had the contract we did not speak about making the basement into an actual "room", when we were signing we told her that when we pulled the permits we would do it as an additional room and not a finished basement. For final inspection we had to do additional work for a vent, which we did not charge her for to make her happy and complete her job.

The customer is one of the most difficult customers we met and no matter what we did for her, she didn't appreciate nothing. I guess we live and learn to pick our customers more selectively in the future.