A-Z Handyman

This guy Ernest Oullette is not a capable contractor. Does not adhere to or understand building codes nor is he concerned about client safety. He built a simple set of steps for my mother in law which do not comply with building code as for acceptable rise and run tolerances. The building codes clearly states what is acceptable. Considering the maximum allowable variance on stair risers is 3/8 of an inch and his variance is over 3 inches. This creates a trip hazard and the woman that uses these steps is 71 years old. He became very belligerent on the phone when confronted with the issue and tried spinning the fault to the home owner. He came over to look at the steps again unannounced then made a call to the home owners daughter and proclaimed that there was nothing wrong with the steps and we could call the building inspector or the Revdex.com or anyone else we wished. This guy is arrogant. To the builders out there this is what he calls fine and meets code.

the ground to deck height is 26" high his first step riser is 4 3/4" the second is 7 1/2"
you get the point!

common builder knowledge says ground to deck height is 26" there will be 4 total steps each riser will be 6 1/2" with no variation!

Mr. Oullette also did not provide and estimate for the work and requested the check for payment be made out to cash, and did not provide a receipt of payment.

Mr. Oullette We will have the steps inspected and a report on the findings generated. and post the results.

P.S. Apart from the blatant disregard for building codes. The workman's ship is also poor as the fit and finish of the carpentry is sloppy.

Review: We are writing to you in hope that you can help us with a situation that we are dealing with. Quite

frankly, we are at a loss as to what we can do. We hired Mr. Ernest Ouellette of A-Z Handyman, [redacted], NY [redacted] on March 13, 2013 to remodel the upstairs of our home. A contract

was signed on March 13, 2013 (copy enclosed) and a down payment of $4,000 was paid to Mr.

Ouellette. A total of $13,400 was paid to Mr. Ouellette (A-Z Handyman).

As you can see from the enclosed pictures, the work done by A-Z Handyman is horribly substandard and,

in fact, further damage was intentionally caused to the house by them.

1) Part of the work to be done included removing a damaged bedroom window and wall area in

the master bedroom and walling up the area. After the wall was completed, water would

literally stream down the inside of the wall each time it rained. (We had a brand new roof

installed several years ago and the roof had not leaked since that time. It did not leak until after

A-Z Handyman completed their work on that area. Mr. Ouellette was called back twice and

shown the water streaming down the inside of the wall. He stated to me that if I "could hold

out until Monday he would be back to fix the wall". He never returned. We were forced to call

a roofing company, [redacted], to come and repair the leak above the bedroom wall. They

found several small nail holes above that area that allowed rain to come through. (This area had

been the very last area of the bedroom to be sealed up, which we thought was very odd at the

time. Prior to that Mr. Ouellette had asked me if Iever go up on the roof, to which I replied

"no".)

2) Mr. Ouellette stated to us on one of his first visits to the house that he would "tighten up" our

stair railing at no charge. The stair railing was not part of the contract we signed and we did

not ask Mr. Ouellette to do any repairs on the railing. We came home one evening to find

several of the stairway spindles no longer attached at the bottom. When we confronted Mr.

Ouellette regarding this and expressed our concern for our grandchildren possibly getting hurt,

he agreed he would fix the railing. After he "fixed the railing" we are left with one spindle

missing because it had been broken in half and several other spindles in bad condition. The

banister is also now damaged with numerous dents. On one occasion Mr. Ouellette stated that

he had a friend that specializes in "these old homes" and would find a spindle to match the ones

we have. As yet, this has not happened and our particular spindles are not available in any of

the stores we have looked at. We have two grandchildren aged 1 year and 3 years old which

makes havinga missingspindle a very dangerous situation since they can now fall through. We

will now be forced to replace the entire thing at great cost.

3) A-ZHandyman removed without our prior knowledge or permission a very lengthy metal

heating duct, approximately 12-15 feet in length, in the master bedroom and replaced it with

a plastic heating duct. When I asked him why he had done this, he stated the plastic version "is

more expensive but better due to condensation". We checked this out at our area [redacted] and

found that the plastic version is relatively inexpensive in comparison to the metal version. It is

our belief that the metal heating duct was removed solely for the purpose of scrapping it for the

money since it was still in good condition and did not need to be replaced. It should be noted

that the metal heating duct was removed and replaced very quickly one day while we were both

away at work and without asking us first if we wanted it replaced. Isn't removing items from

someone's home for the purpose of scrapping illegal??

4) The trim over the doorway to the master bedroom was replaced with what looks like a dirty

piece of white wood from the trash. The remainder of the trim around that door is done in a

dark stain. The threshold of that same doorway was left unfinished and hazardous to walk on

after Mr. Ouellette cut away the bedroom carpeting beyond what was necessary. Also, the

door no longer closes when it was easily closed prior to A-Z Handyman doing their work. It is

our belief that Mr. Ouellette did these things intentionally so we would want him to replace the

carpeting with a new wood floor.

5) One section of the doorway casing in the guestroom is completely missing on the inside of the

doorway. The trim in several other areas was done very poorly and will need to be replaced.

6) In the process of A-Z Handyman doing their remodeling our bedroom dresser was damaged.

The bottom drawer was broken and several scratches occurred on the top of the dresser. When

Mr. Ouellette was asked to please treat our possessions "gently" as the dresser is made of solid

wood and it cost us a great deal, he brushed by me stating that he "didn't have to listen to this

kind of talk". Stain was dripped on the comforter of the master bed which forced us to have to

replace it. Boards with nails on them were leaned up against our piano causing scratches to the

surface. Prior to this, there had been no scratches on our piano.

7) A new laminate floor was laid down in the hallway as part of the contract. In the process of

being installed, several gouges occurred in the new floor. These gouges were never repaired.

8) We had given Mr. Ouellette a key to the house upon hiring him so that he could let himself in

and out without leaving our home unlocked when we weren't home. Our key was never

returned which forced us to replace all the locks in the house at our expense.

9) A middle bedroom was painted as part of the contract. We came home one evening to find that

the entire room - ceiling, walls and window trim - had all been painted orange. We couldn't

understand why a person who had painted rooms before would do such a thing. It is our belief

that this was done intentionally so that A-Z Handyman would be paid twice for painting the

same room. This was also the case with painting the stairway. Smudges were found after the

first painting which necessitated the stairway being painted a second time. However, the edges

were not painted as part of that second painting which means that the stairway will need to be

painted yet a third time.

10) There is now a small chip in our porcelain bathroom sink caused by paint brushes and

equipment being rinsed out in our bathroom sink. Contractors we've hired in the past rinsed

their equipment outside using a hose and not in a good bathroom sink.

11) The new ceiling that A-Z Handyman installed in both our guest room and the middle bedroom

has formed a large crack across the middle of the ceiling. A newly installed ceiling should not

have any cracks in it if it was properly installed.

From the day that Mr. Ouellette learned what our occupations are (Electrical Engineer, Secretary)

he appeared to see what he could do to add to the bill. He tried on several occasions to get us to

add to the job (replace the roof over the porch, re-route the upstairs heat, install French doors, etc).

When we said no to these extra jobs the quality of his work decreased and the damage to the house

increased. When we pointed out items of Mr. Ouellette's work that needed to be corrected, it

seemed that he intentionally caused more damage to the home in hopes of being paid extra to

repair the work. The contract stated that all work was to be done in a professional manner. This

was hardly the case. At one point, when going to Small Claims Court was discussed, Mr. Ouellette

laughed and said that they can't take something from someone who doesn't have anything. Mr.

Ouellette advertises that he is a licensed, fully insured contractor. He should be held responsible for

the damage that he has caused in this house and for the cost of repairing the damage. It should also

be added that we have since learned that this is not the first time Mr. Ouellette has done this type

of dishonest work. We trusted him to do an honest, quality job. He greatly abused this trust.

We welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you. You may contact us at our home phone

number ###-###-#### or my work number ###-###-####, extension [redacted].

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mrs. [redacted]

Business

Response:

On my behalf I Ernest Ouellette, response to the complaint your office received. This is the first and only complaint I have received about the Contract I have completed and had been paid for in full with out any questions or complaints. On the Satisfied completion of the job as stated in contract. As further response to the complaints that has been stated. My contract does not, state anything about roof repair as in there statement, they had a new roof. I did not do anything to cause the roof to leak our work was only to be done to the interior of the house. The more I read the complaint the more I cant believe what I am reading. I am so sick of the lies that the [redacted] are making that I am considering taking legal actions against the [redacted] on this mater, they are sending you pictures of work not yet completed and things we did not do at all. I believe they are trying to commit Fraud against me by trying to use the first none sign proposal alone with the second proposal that was signed to get me to do more work for free. In response to the list of complaints number 1-11.

1) I was called back just once to look at the water leak. At that time I again reminded the home owner I do not do roofing and that I had nothing do to with the new roof they told me they had done, but to contact the roofing contractor to repair the lead on the roof and to call me to set a time for me to come back to repair the leek, because until the roof is fixed it would be a waste of time for me to do anything to the interior ceiling of the bedroom. I did tell them to put a small hole in the water bubble to let the water out so it would not cause more damage, by the pictures they did not do that, so any more damage would be at their lack of response.

2) As you can see from the picture the home owner in the stairs is a big man, He him self has stated he has problems walking up the stairs and he must use the railing to walk up the stairs and they are in bad shape. We talked about replacing the railing but they did not feel they wanted to spend the money to do so. So now I feel they are trying to make me replace the spindles at my coast do to his damage.

3) The heat duck that we replaced was 15 feet long it was just a thin metal duck pipe that was not insulated and was loosing heat,we replaced the old duck work with new insulated coiled duck with outer cover of plastic to control the heat lose at they knowledge and permission.

4) The trim over the door way is the same trim that was on before we begin to work the home owner decided to reuse the trim and that it just needed panted, witch we did using [redacted] brand primer and paint. The picture they sent is before the work was done, and done right. We had no reason to cut back the carpeting in the threshold for any reason.

5) The so called missing casing in the guestroom and any other door was not something we had anything to do with, we only worked on what the contract called for.

6) Before work was started the home owner and my self looked at the dresser that was already damaged and that I would cover it because they did not want to remove it from the bedroom so it stayed at there responsibility.

7) There is no statement in my contract about laying any laminate to the floor just 1/4 inch sanded plywood.

8) I was told to keep the key so they would not have to leaving the house unlocked, I been waiting for a call that the roof has been fixed, I did not get the call so I dropped the key back off.

9) As stated in contract the home owner has full choice of color of paint to be used and we only used what they pick out. We were to install drywall only to stair way walls only not to paint.

10) We never used the bathroom sink, I have a 5 gallon bucket with a brush washer to clean our brushes not a sink.

11) If there is any cracks in the ceilings that we installed it would be the cause of the failing foundation walls and the major floor beams. There is major holes in the foundation that the homeowners are aware of and do not want to repair. I informed them of the possibility that could happen but they still wanted to do thework, and they would be responsibly for any later problems.

I been in business for over Twenty Yeas and never had a problem with a customer that I did not take care of I have a very good reparation and I do stand by what aver job I do, I did give the [redacted] a list of home owners I did do work for, for them to ck my work. I just do not understand why they did not call me before they went this far, we not only walked throw the job when the job was completed but they had no problem in paying me for the job. If I do here of any more problems with the [redacted] I will take this to court.

Ernest Ouellette dbaA - Z Handyman Remodeling

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

We have read Mr. Ouellette's response to our complaint and cannot believe what he has said. We stand by what we said in our original complaint as the complete truth. The pictures we sent speak for themselves as to the quality of Mr. Ouellette's work. We have plenty more pictures to further prove our case if need be.

1. We had a complete new roof (including the plywood) put on our house several years ago by

[redacted] Company. The roof is still under the warranty. Prior to the roof being replaced, a

section of our bedroom wall was damaged due to the condition of the roof. The wall was not

repaired at the time; only the roof was replaced. We had had no leaks in the roof since its

replacement until A-Z did the remodeling job. Since the cause of the damage had been fixed,

we felt it was no big emergency to fix the wall and decided to wait until we had saved up

enough money to remodel the entire upstairs. From the pictures, you can see the amount of

water coming down the bedroom wall (AFTER A-Z installed new drywall and painted the room.

Prior to the remodeling job, the master bedroom was done in mint green. A-Z painted the

master bedroom, at our request, burnt orange.) If this amount of water had been coming down

the wall every time it rained over the past several years, the carpeting in the corner of the

bedroom would be completely destroyed as well as the ceiling in our family room below it! You

may come and look for yourself and see that the carpeting and ceiling are intact. Explain to us

why there was no leak in the wall prior to the remodeling job but a major leak afterwards!! Mr.

Ouellette states in his response that he does not do roofing. Then why did he quote us $800 to

replace the roof on our back porch? (The porch roof was not included when the roofing job was

done several years ago.) As we stated before, Mr. Ouellette was called back twice to see the

leak in the new wall. The first time he came back, he went up on the roof and stated that the

leak was due to a problem where the three sections of roof come together. He said he would

build a piece to take care of the problem. We were under the impression that he had done this

until the wall leaked again. He was called back once again to look at the problem. He broke

open the large bubble of water and let it spill on the carpet. He never said anything to us about

making a small hole in the water bubble. (Since the wall leaked every time it rained, making a

small hole wouldn't have made a difference either way.) He then told me that if I could hold out

until Monday, he would be back to repair the leak. He never returned again and we were forced

to hire [redacted] to come out in an emergency. They can attest to the amount of water

that was coming down the wall. As a quick fix, they sprayed the roof above the leak with "[redacted]". This stopped the leak. They then returned a few weeks later and repaired the roof. Our

neighbor's living room window faces our house and they can attest to the problems we have

had with the bedroom roof only since A-Z was here, and not before.

2. Yes, my husband is a big man. How does being big cause dents in a banister, a spindle to break

in half, and a spindle to get damaged beyond repair at the very top? We've lived in this house

for over 27 years. None of these things happened until A-Z "tightened" the railing. This can be

proven by simply looking at the pictures that were sent of my husband standing on the stairs

during the period of time that A-Z had torn off the old paneling on the stairway down to the

lathe, prior to installing new drywall. All of the spindles are present in those pictures and in

good condition. I can enlarge the pictures on my cell phone if a closer look is required. Mr.

Ouellette did offer to replace the railing, but it would have been at our cost. Why should we

have to pay to repair something that he damaged??

3. We had no knowledge of the metal heating duct in the master bedroom being replaced until I

came home from work one afternoon and it had already been replaced with the plastic version.

How can this be considered prior knowledge and permission?? We would have said no if we

had been asked since the heating system has not given us any trouble in the 27 years that we

have lived here. Also, we have the remaining piece of the heating duct attached to the old vent

in our possession as Mr. Ouellette left it behind in our bedroom. It is not thin metal as he states.

You can judge for yourself by taking a look at it. It appears to be heavy gauge aluminum.

4. The white piece of old wood trim above the master bedroom door is what A-Z installed and not

what was there before as he states in his response. If the picture that we sent is one taken

before A-Z supposedly painted and primed the trim, then why is the trim that is there at this

very moment still dirty old white wood?? We've lived in this house for 27 years and there have

been plenty of guests in this home who can testify that ALL of the trim in the master bedroom

was in a dark stain prior to the A-Z remodeling job. The door also use to close, which it doesn't

anymore because of how the trim was installed. The threshold of the master bedroom doorway

is how A-Z left it after installing the bamboo floor in the middle bedroom. The carpeting was cut

back a good 3-4 inches beyond what was necessary which makes walking on the threshold

hazardous now. We are not even sure how this situation can be corrected.

5. The door casing in the guest room was removed by A-Z in the process of remodeling that

bedroom. The ceiling was replaced, a new subfloor installed, window replaced and everything

painted. The door casing was never replaced. We have had guests stay in that room over the

last 27 years, including our son who occupied that room for a period of time. All of these people

can testify that there was a complete door casing there prior to A-Z remodeling that room. The

old trim from that room still sits outside our garage to this day.

6. The bedroom dresser was damaged by A-Z and not prior to as he states in his response. In the

process of them moving it around, the bottom drawer was damaged. Luckily my husband was

able to glue a piece onto the underside of the drawer to fix it. The scratches that occurred on

the top of the dresser were caused by tools, etc. being placed on the dresser during the

remodeling job. We were constantly picking up pop cans, water bottles, etc. from on top of the

dresser during the remodeling job. The tools they used during the day were removed when

they left each day.

7. It is true that the contract does not include installing a laminate floor in the hallway. Mr.

Ouellette recommended installing bamboo flooring in the middle bedroom. He said he had a

large supply at his house that he was willing to sell us. It was in a light color though, so we went

to [redacted]'s and picked out a darker bamboo flooring. We were going to have [redacted]'s install the

floor but Mr. Ouellette convinced me that [redacted]'s would charge us twice as much to do the

install. I told him that we still had a good supply of [redacted] flooring left from when the family

room floor was done and we wanted that to go in the upstairs hallway. He offered to install

both the bamboo floor and the [redacted] floor. This is one of the reasons why he was paid more

than what the original contract specified. If he only did what the contract called for, then why

did we pay him almost twice the amount??

8. If Mr. Ouellette returned our house key, we would sure like to know when and to who since we

still do not have the key! It sure would have saved us a great deal of time and expense if he had

returned the key.

9. The stairway was painted by A-Z. If you look at the stairway, it includes a very high area on the

second floor which we would not be capable of painting. (We don't even own a ladder!) Mr.

Ouellette purchased the [redacted] paint which he recommended for all of the rooms. He was able

to match it from an old can of mint green paint so it would match the rest of the living room.

Once again, this is one of the reasons why he was paid more than what the contract specified.

10. On a daily basis I was washing orange paint, green paint, etc. out of my upstairs bathroom sink.

If he was using a bucket as he states in his response, why was the paint constantly in the sink?

11. It is true that we have a missing boulder in our basement foundation that we will need to repair.

However, this is not the cause of the cracks in the two bedroom ceilings. If the foundation is the

cause, why is it that the only two rooms that have formed cracks in the ceiling are the two

rooms that A-Z remodeled? Also, last week we had guests come and stay with us. One of the

guests is a contractor from [redacted]. He looked at the cracks and told me that this is the type of

crack you find when the ceiling is improperly taped and insufficient screws installed. Mr.

Ouellette never discussed with us the possibility of cracks forming as he states in his response.

We paid Mr. Ouellette in full for the work he did because we did not want him to use that as an

excuse for not returning to repair the roof, wall and stairway. We took him at his word that he

would return to do these things and gave him ample time to do so. He failed to keep his word and is

now lying about the entire thing. He states in his response that if we give him any more trouble he

will take us to court. We are willing to go to court to settle this if need be. Rest assured we will

bring with us all of the evidence and witnesses to show the court the extent of our claim.

Respectfully,

Mr. and Mrs. [redacted]

Review: [redacted] dba A-Z Handyman Remodeling falsely presented himself as a certified contractor capable of satisfactorily completing an addition to our house per building codes and specifications. His poor workmanship and lack of knowledge of current construction techniques resulted in a substandard addition. Starting with an inadequate foundation and use of undersized joists in the roof structure. This will require the need for roof to be entirely rebuilt. The back door was not installed properly and electrical system needed to be redone to meet code. Builder failed to supply a plumbing vent system which required opening of finished wall and roof. As a result of all these problems we incurred additional delays and expenses. Builder also took materials from garage that had already been paid for.Desired Settlement: Builder needs to reimburse us $4000.00 for the added expense and distress we incurred to correct these problems.

Business

Response:

In regard to the complaint, ID of [redacted]. I have a sign contract with [redacted] aks [redacted] as how the contract was made out to [redacted] and [redacted] NY [redacted]. To build a 10'x10' room addition, [redacted] known to me as the husband and home owner purchased a building permit from the village of [redacted] as the contract to build the addition, I was hired to build the addition to there specification. At the start of the job it was bad weather and very wet ground, however the [redacted] was in a rush to get the job started and completed in a rush. My first proposal I made the proposal to use a block foundation, but the [redacted] wanted a solid pour foundation so that is what we did against my surjection due to the wet and cold weather we were having but there did not want to delay the construction, by contract we were held to continue the foundation was poured and was acted by home owner and building inspector as we were let to believe by home owner for he had taken out the permit and was responsible for all inspections. We completed the frame structure including the roof, complete with sheeting, again the home owner led us to believe all was good and we could complete the insulation, wiring, and pluming and he would have it inspected. We were told to go fourth and we installed all the interior window and pr-existing door, one window that was added as an extra window at the coast of $ 325.00 than the contract called for. At that point I reminded Mr. & Miss [redacted] any thing we did other than what was in the contract would be an above and extra coast to the contract, they stated to my self and foreman they under stood, than they decided they wanted a poured concrete floor under the addition, we had to brake throw the existing stone foundation into the crawl space to the new addition. Than we had to remove Two sheets of plywood siding from the exterior wall that was sheeted and pour cement for the floor. I informed the [redacted] that we had to order a min of Four yards of concrete and we would have to hand dig the dirt out form under the addition be they did not care they just wanted it completed. We worked ever day we could that the wet weather aloud including working on Saturday and Sunday when the weather aloud. Any and all delays that was taken was on the action of the [redacted], they told us they were having company for two weeks and they did not want any body working, on the Four day, Mr. [redacted] called and asked me to remove all my tools from his house, when I asked why conceding Avery day after work when they came home they always stated to my workers and my self how good the job was going, His response was they had family member that needed money and they did not want to just give it the them and they felt I made enough profit that his son or brother would finish the job. At this point I have retained a Attorney and I will be asking for the $ 2,000.00 dollars I had in extra labor and materials, as well as $ 15,000.00 plus coast, depending on the amount false statements the [redacted] have to say.

Thank you

Dba A- Z Handyman Remodeling

[redacted] dba A-Z Handyman Remodeling falsely presented himself as a certified contractor capable of satisfactorily completing an addition to our house per building codes and specifications. His poor workmanship and lack of knowledge of current construction techniques resulted in a substandard addition. Starting with an inadequate foundation and use of undersized joists in the roof structure. This will require the need for roof to be entirely rebuilt. The back door was not installed properly and electrical system needed to be redone to meet code. Builder failed to supply a plumbing vent system which required opening of finished wall and roof. As a result of all these problems we incurred additional delays and expenses. Builder also took materials from garage that had already been paid for.