Blue Ridge Buildings Plus

Review: 1. 20 ft. of block wall is off line about 5-6 inches. Erics response was “I did not know you wanted it straight” ; 2. The rafters are not square to the deck/building resulting in the clear roof material not being aligned with the rafters; I was told to just live with it. 3. Issues were caused because the floor and walls were in place long before the roof and it rained several times while waiting for the trusses. Interior doors were damaged and the floor insulation has water in it and mold and mildew may result in the future. 4. There are rust stains on the existing deck and the concrete pad below as a result of the compressor used. 5. The existing exterior siding was cut poorly to fit the new trim and there is a 3/4 gap at one section and a saw blade mark running through another section. I was told to just caulk it, which is not a solution.Desired Settlement: To date the builder has shown no interest in correcting his mistakes or fixing the additional issues created by his poor workmanship. He has threatened legal action because I have yet to pay the 20% commission for his overseeing the job even though he did not, and I requested a billing adjustment and a refund of monies paid for the work that will need to be redone by a professional. The estimated refund should be approximately $2,500-$3.000. Keep in mind that in order to correct the block wall, it will have to be torn down, hauled away, the surrounding bank re-dug, the footer re-dug and poured, the block wall rebuilt, plus materials and the wall being filled with concrete and rebar. There is also an inconvenience factor.

Business

Response:

Even though the customer still owed $750 on the roof trusses which the contract said should be paid at end of framing, he refused to pay anymore, but expected us to continue work on his job. The job contract was a Cost Plus arrangement so the customer pays us only on the work that we completed and the material that we used, so we went out of our way to keep the costs down and even let him use our air compressor and stapler for a day free of charge to install siding, now he is complaining about rust stains that I assume resulted even while he was using our compressor. At the same time he asked us to do things different than we would have otherwise done, but agreed to because of the Cost-Plus contract. For ex. we always install the crawl space opening in the side of the block wall, yet he asked that we place it in the interior floor of the building, then insisted on insulating the floor before we closed up the subfloor. The roof trusses did not arrive for several weeks, so the rain water drained down through the crawl space opening into the insulation that he had installed. We never install insulation until a building is dried in completely. Now he complains that it is wet and somehow our fault. Another ex. he purchased all the doors and window himself and asked when they should arrive, which I recommended a day that we would be there to install the windows and exterior sliding door. When the doors arrive we help offload the doors and windows--- and he also had ordered three interior doors-- we never order interior doors until the building is dried in for a dry place to store them. I warned him that they should not get wet or they would be ruined and even attempted to cover them, but we had not purchased them or understood that they would arrive with the exterior doors-- nor would we install anything in the interior of the building. When they got wet from rain, he blames us for telling him it was okay to send the doors, though he ordered them. The final example was when he asked that we cut into his existing house siding to install flashing, because it is lap siding and varies in depth up to 1.5". I used a chain saw to notch in for a trim board, when it proved to be too narrow for the trim board, he asked that I use a circular saw because he thought the chain saw was tearing too much of the siding. This proved only nominally successful as well and he now complains that I mis-cut it by 3/4" Since he refused to pay the last invoice we have not been back to finish any more work, and the issue with this trim cut just came up. Also, I never told him to "just caulk it." Though a colored caulk may be the only solution.Now, to the issue of the retaining wall. We have only a small backhoe capable of digging footers and small excavation, which proved to be good, because the space that we had to work in would have been impossible for a larger backhoe. The footer was dug straight because I was present to mark off the line, but it rained several days after that, so by the time we got back to pour it, we had to dig it out again and it the process it got moved out of line slightly. When our employee, [redacted] was laying up the block wall, it became apparent what had happened and he discussed it with the customer, showing him we would have to bend the last 20' of the wall only 5" to remain on the footer. As a result of the discussion with Dave, I was under the impression that the customer understood that the 48" high retaining wall would have a slight 5" bend, but would cause no long-term issues, thus my response to him, "I did not know you wanted it perfectly straight." Later when it became apparent that the customer would make an issue of the dirt retaining wall being out of line 5", our employee [redacted] discussed it with him and even offered to move it; [redacted] said he would not let this be a cause for not paying the completed work. Now he denies it.On October 17, we sent email:"[redacted],Ok, the way [redacted] explained it to me, the wall would have run off the footer if he had set it in a straight line, but per your conversation with [redacted] later, you were not going to make that 4" out of line retaining wall an issue. We can discuss this together with [redacted] if you don't remember this. Why are you making this an issue now? As far as the roof being out of square 2" at most, that was a problem with the old deck that you wanted used. If you recall, you asked us to use the pre-existing lower end of the deck and we placed the 4x4 roof support post at the outside corner of it. Unfortunately it was not square to the building, therefore the roof is minimally out of square, but will cause no issues in the future. You heard the Inspector say himself after inspecting the work that "these guys don't cut corners." We bent over backwards to accommodate your used lumber and make things work in a less than ideal remodel job. Please don't make us take this to a legal solution. We don't have customers sign legal contracts for no purpose. Pay us this week a reasonable amount and we can work out the difference later. We have bills to pay.Thanks,Eric"Then on Oct 21, I sent him, "[redacted], If you pay another $1500 on the last invoice of $3000, we'll call it even. Obviously, I wish the wall was straight and the roof perfectly square, but it will not hurt the longevity of either."This customer has complained about the cost of the job from the beginning even though we clearly discussed the 20% commission charge on all of our labor and material before hand. And in no way can it be said that the work we did was overcharged at $15,000. Did I handle this job perfectly and manage in the most efficient way, No, I made some mistakes, due to some mis-communication and having to work with existing material, though we can clearly say that we tried to make corrections as carefully as possible. Otherwise, we have a 99% customer satisfaction and would be proud to show our work on this project to anyone who would like to see it. In fact, other visitors to this job site have commented about how attractive this project turned out. At one point on the job, I drove out to the site to measure the dimensions on the trusses for height and width, since it is connected to the existing structure. After I billed him for the time, the customer was very unhappy that "I would actually charge him to make a trip just to measure trusses." The thing of it is, I will always measure trusses myself before I order them.My offer still stands, that we will write off $1500 of the final $3007.18 balance. Due to an ongoing misunderstanding with the customer and a refusal on his part to be happy with our work, we are not offering to move the wall 5", because it is our belief that the customer will find another excuse not to pay or make us responsible for some other issues; even though all of our work has passed Floyd County inspection with flying colors. Again, this was a Cost-Plus contract and had no definable end to the job. Because the customer has not paid the third draw, he is in breach of the contract, even before we get to the final balance due.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.For one thing most of the response is fabricated and some of it is simply a lie. I tried to discuss the issue of the wall being out of line in his office. At that time he was flippant in his response stating he did not know I wanted the wall straight. At that time I asked him to pull out the blue print I gave him that showed the wall straight. At no time did I ever agree that the wall could be put at an angle. His excuse that his equipment was not big enough is poor at best. If he could not do the job with what he had, then he should have stated such. However, the area was dug out at least 2-3 feet along the footer by a professional excavator so there should be no reason why the wall was not lined up straight. That this was a cost plus labor contract has no bearing on the quality of work. Eric eludes to materials provided when in fact he provided most everything except for a few 2x4s and some existing deck material. This has nothing to do with aligning the wall, squaring the building or making sure the roof ribs line up with the rafters. You can see in his comments an acknowledgment that the job is not done perfectly telling me it will not affect the longevity of the project. That there is an esthetic value to the exterior of the house that has been diminished seems of no concern to him. He admits the chain saw chewed up the exterior siding but is upset that I have a complaint about it being cut out of line. I did not tell him to do a poor job.Most builders I have talked with state they order all the material to make sure the building is dried in before putting up walls. Eric put up the walls and then came out to measure even though he had a blue prints and a foundation to work from. The trusses did not arrive until well over a week later. This is poor planning on his part . There may be future issues resulting from the water damage in the crawl space. I paid all bills that were presented, making 3 different payments, until the final bill. My understanding is the job is not complete until done properly. Notice, there is no offer to correct the issues I have noted, only excuses from the contractor, even blaming me for the poor workmanship. The final bill includes $2500 for overseeing the project by the contractor. If he had done his job as he stated he would when I hired him, payment would not be an issue. One does not pay for defective work and a poorly done job. Even the building inspector stated this was poor workmanship and suggested I write a complaint. I am not sure what other information I can provide since the original complaint listed the issues and he has admitted to not doing a good job.Regards,[redacted]

Business

Response:

To be clear, we did not admit to doing a poor job. If you read what I wrote, it is that we made some mistakes and tried carefully to correct them. This is what we would do on any job where a mistake was made. Instead we would be pleased to show anyone the work that we did for this customer. Also, I called the building inspector in Floyd county to verify what he said about our workmanship, because we know that he said, "these guys sure don't cut any corners" which we documented earlier about our framing work. The building inspector told me in fact that he did not call our workmanship poor, but that he was asked by the customer what he thought of the trim cut that is 3/4" off on the existing rustic 1" lap siding and he thought it didn't look right. What the customer did not tell the Inspector at the time was that we had not been back to complete the job since payment had not been received on the previous draw. I asked the Inspector and he said there was nothing else about our work that he would call unsatisfactory on this job.Earlier when the customer came in our office to make the payment for framing we also gave him the bill for the trusses ($750), which we had just received, but he only paid the invoice in hand, so he in fact did not pay all the framing draw and yet was expecting us to work beyond what the contract dictated. At this point, we were hesitant to do any further work for this customer, because he had been complaining so much about our work performance, but went ahead and completed the work up to the trim board in question.My point about our small backhoe was not that it was too small to complete the job, but that we were helping the customer out by using our small backhoe in the tight space which was like a 13 feet x 40 tunnel that we were working in with the deck on one side and the bank on the other. Digging a footer perpendicular to the house and then parallel with the dirt bank and the deck was no easy task. Though the heavy rains undoubtedly caused the footer to be off line and wasn't discovered until later. We even asked that a larger backhoe be brought in to back fill and grade after the retaining wall was complete.This job cost our company $12,500 for labor ($25 per man hour) and material(no markup) with an additional $2500 charged for profit and management fees. The customer still owes $3000 for the work that we completed on a Cost-Plus contract, so there is no outstanding work that the contract dictates that we complete. But the mistake that we admit to was misunderstanding the customer to be okay with bending the retaining wall 5" (which my employee still affirms that he was) . We can only offer $1500 reduction from the $3000 balance.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. Nov 26, 2013 To the Revdex.com, Please note I was out of town when the reply was sent and am just now receiving this message. Before I even respond to the business let me add to my complaint that the deck roof over the entrance leaks. I could not tell this until we had a decent rain. 1. While it is true the inspector said these guys don’t cut corners, this was in reference to the amount of materials used in the wall framing only and has nothing to do with the block wall or the roof which the inspector did not check until the final inspection. My complaint has nothing to do that portion of the job. 2. Eric admits he made some mistakes and states he tried carefully to correct them. I need to ask what he has done to correct the mistakes. To date no one has been out to correct the issues, let alone carefully. The mistakes have just been ignored with a threat of legal action sent along with the final installment bill. 3. Just because digging a footer perpendicular to the house “was no easy task” is no excuse for a job done incorrectly. Stating the “rain undoubtedly caused the footer to be off line” is childish. The footer is offline because it was not measured and dug correctly. As is his nature Eric does not take responsibility for his mistakes but chooses to blame other sources. To date it has been the fault of the customer, the customers materials and now it’s the fault of the rain. Once again, I never stated it was OK to put the wall at an angle let alone 5 inches off in a 20 ft. length. I don’t believe his employee stated that’s what I said but if he did it might be because he is the one who laid it up. I will remind Eric that the plan was to eventually add a garage to the guest room and continue both the back wall and roof line. That will be very difficult to do now. 4. Making a statement that he would be pleased to show anyone the work he did does not validate anything. What the inspector may or may not have said is not the point either but to be clear the inspector told me I could file a complaint against his license and has sent me the website to do so. That he asked for a larger backhoe to backfill the wall has nothing to with anything but just muddies the issues. 5. Eric admits the roofing material is not lined up properly but he blames it on the materials he used because they were the customers. The only materials that were used on this section were some existing 2 x 6 treated lumber on the deck floor joists and these were cut to length by his employee. The materials have nothing to do with the clear roofing material not being in line with the rafters. Again he has not done anything to correct the mistake. Add to this the roof has been leaking with the overnight rains. 6. Apparently he believes I should accept the faulty workmanship because it will not affect the longevity of the building. In other words, I will have to look at his mistakes as long as the building stands. If I do decide to add the garage I will either have to tear down and rebuild the block wall, which will be costly, or find a way to put the outside wall at an angle to the rest of the garage. This is not acceptable. 7. In his previous reply Eric seems to be complaining I only paid $15,000 for a building that should have cost more. Erics part was to prepare the footers, lay the block, construct the frame, as well as roof and side the building. I agreed to the hourly wage he requested plus the material cost. Until the discovery of the major faults with the wall and roof I paid the invoices he presented immediately and take offense to his statement that I would try to find a way not to pay him. As an aside, I have requested copies of the bills for the materials several times but have yet to receive them. I hired another to plumb the building, I did the wiring, and hired others to do the drywall work and tile work. I hired someone to stain the building and I purchased and installed the flooring. I also did the interior painting. If one adds the cost of materials and labor other than what Eric did then the building cost thousands more than he states. Everyone else has been paid in full because they did the job correctly. The only reason Eric has not been paid in full is because the job is not complete until the mistakes are fixed. The only leverage I have is withholding the final payment until the job is completed correctly, which I believe is what our contract is, or an adjustment made so I can hire others to fix what he should have done right in the first place. As it is, I believe he owes me money because just tearing down the wall, removing the materials, re-digging the footer, pouring concrete, rebuilding the wall and filling it with concrete will cost more than his invoice. Eric knows this which is why he is not correcting the issue himself. If one adds the cost to replace the insulation, lap siding and possibly the roofing material along with labor this will be thousands more than his invoice. Eric claims he has tried carefully to correct his mistakes but the truth is he has chosen to ignore the problems and is expecting me to pay in full for a job poorly done. I do not know what the next step is but the back and forth emails are tedious and it appears there is not going to be a resolution. I believe it is time for me to involve my attorney or perhaps we could ask Judge Judy to resolve the issue on national TV.

Consumer

Response:

Consumer did not respond to offer of arbitration.

[redacted] are two of the nicest people and will do anything to help and make sure you get what you need. The product and service is outstanding.

I have dealt with this business a couple of times in the last 12 months. They built an addition against my house. They were very professional and efficient. The owner gave me a quote, stayed in budget, and finished before his deadline. They used quality materials, which is why I have purchased materials from them since then. They all were very nice to work with and they did a great job. I referred them to my son and he has been very pleased with them also.