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C. Haynes Construction

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C. Haynes Construction Reviews (3)

In February of 2015 the above mentioned customer and I came to an agreement to start a remodel project on their home. I have many detailed emails between us that can be provided if needed. I will attempt to give my side of the story below to the best of my ability. Upon our original meeting the...

customer and I discussed a number of projects that he wanted done on his home. He stated that he was a detail oriented person and we discussed several issues with the original construction of his home. We both agreed that the house was constructed unusually and wrong in a lot of areas and would need a lot of hard work to get right.  I left and provided him a quote on all the items. The original quote was $9250.00. The customer had me re-work the quote and change some items on it. The next quote came back at $8950.00. The customer asked if I gave a discount for cash. I replied that I usually give a 5% discount for cash which would come roughly to $8500.00. After a conversation I was given the impression that the customer could only afford $8000.00. Here is a copy of our  copy of our agreement.   I agreed as a courtesy to do the job for that price. The customer agreed to purchase all materials except for Hardi backer, thin set, grout and glue for the laminate counter tops. I was also supposed to purchase the crown moulding for the hallway.  One of the largest items on the list was installing rough sawn tongue and groove cedar on the ceiling of his kitchen and living room. The customer stated that he had purchased the wood a while before and had it drying in the living room. There was a large pile of it. He assured me he had measured it and that there was plenty of wood to install on the entire ceiling.  The customer also did not want us to haul off trash from the job as he had a cheaper way to dispose of it. The night before we started the job I received an email from the customer with a list of "demands/instructions" from the customer on how to do the work on his home. This is something I have never received from any customer. We arrived at the job the next day and the customer gave us the starting draw of the job of $4000.00 cash. I personally oversaw my guys installing protective paper on the Saltillo tile floor. Saltillo tile is known to be handmade tile with many defects, colors and variations. This floor was at least 30 years old so it had lots of wear marks, scratches, chips etc. Over the high traffic areas we also applied 5 Mil plastic. We covered all the carpet with 5 mil plastic and I personally covered his stainless steel fridge and dishwasher with 5 mil plastic to protect it.  We started work on the ceiling immediately. Very soon we noticed that the ceiling was at least three inches out of level with the low part in the middle.   We informed the customer of this and he said he understood,  "just make it as good as possible" We ended up purchasing special laser levels and I had two guys work for at least three days to shim the ceiling where needed. We ended up having to remove a large portion of sheetrock from the ceiling to get things more even. This was not part of our original talks or plans but it was necessary to complete the job. We also bagged and stacked all the extras trash for the customer.  I did not send the customer a Change order I just took care of the extra work as courtesy.  The customer when home watched us work very closely. He gave us lots of instructions and demanded multiple times that things "be Perfect". He wanted us to use only long boards on the ceiling. He was very picky about which boards should be installed.  No short cutoffs. My guys wanted to quit and did not like working for him. Upstairs above the living room was where the bathroom was, he wanted tiled. Upon removing carpet from the floor in there, the same problems below were mirrored. This is by far the worst out of level floor I have ever seen. I instructed my tile crew to install Hardi backer on the plywood and  float the floors to best of their ability before installing the tile. I left for the day after this.  Late that afternoon I received a phone call from the customer. He sounded very upset and demanded that I come to the job immediately. I got there as quick as possible which was approximately 7:00 pm. He stated that we were rushing through this job and we hadn't floated the floors in the bathroom and they were still out of level. I informed him that I had instructed my crew to float the floors. We went up stairs to look. The floors were better then before but in one corner sloped down approximately one inch. He informed me this was unacceptable. I agreed to remove all tile in that area as the thinset was still wet. When pulling up the tile I saw that my crew had applied about 1/2' of floor float to that area. I guess they weren't use to floors that out of level too. I informed the customer of this and told him I would have the crew return and re-install the tile in that area with additional floor float even though it's not ideal to have that much floor float below the tile. There simply was no other way to mask the problems with the construction of the house.  I felt that I resolved this situation as best as I could. Meanwhile below, install of the wood on the ceiling was progressing very slowly.  We were already about $1000.00 over budget on labor by this point. The job just could not be done quickly because of the above mentioned issues. Once my carpenters had finished installing wood in the kitchen I installed the laminate countertops with contact cement from [redacted].  After the first day, they were mostly completed with a few minor things still needing to be done. The next morning when I showed up the customer was waiting for me. He was extremely upset. He showed me that laminate was loose in several places. I was shocked as I have never had something like that happen before. He implied that I wasn't a professional and wasn't doing quality work on his home. This did upset me as the glue had failed and we were working very hard in a difficult situation. I did however apologize that the countertops were coming loose and assured the customer that it would be fixed. I removed the laminate and cleaned all the glue off. I purchased a different brand of glue and the countertops were re-installed. This time they adhered properly.  I had my tile crew come back out and finish the upstairs bathroom and install the tile back splash. As we had agreed the customer was supposed to provide all materials except what was mentioned. He did not provide enough backsplash tile. I called him and told him. He agreed to purchase some more over the phone and I made a courtesy trip to pick it up at no extra charge.  At this time I thought I had resolved all the issues. We soon discovered that there was not enough cedar to finish. There was only enough for about three quarters of the ceiling.  The customer informed me that he would purchase more cedar but it would be at least a couple months before it would be ready to install as it needed to dry like the first batch. We cleaned up all our plastic and paper, vacuumed and I hand wiped the Saltillo tile floors.  We also stacked the remaining scrap wood, blew the front porch off and hosed it down as well. Later that final day I received a text from the customer saying this,"Need my tube of color match caulk from Travis tile, need counters, cabinet doors, back splash, kitchen floor,  bathroom floor, carpet, etc cleaned cleaner than when you arrived, repair like new is your motto and cleaning is a part of the job.I will be inspecting kitchen floor today for scuffs.Thanks". Also he sent this the same day,"And make sure my left over tile upstairs stays with me, anything of overage the customer paid for stays with the customer"I felt that was unnecessary to send the texts and kind of rude. Like I would want a half box of leftover tile or a half used tube of caulk!!! Anyways the customer paid me the next draw of $2000.00 and we left. The work completed this far was originally valued at $6900.00 before the discount I had given him.  The total amount paid to this point was $6000.00. My costs were at $7200.00. I was of the understanding that the customer would contact us when he was ready for us to come back and finish the ceiling and painting. About a month later one of my workers received voicemails and texts from the customer asking him to do side jobs for him. Almost a year went by and I did not hear anything from the customer. I assumed that the customer had found another contractor to finish his project.  Over winter break almost 10 months later when I was on vacation I received a couple emails and texts from the customer and his wife wondering why I hadn't contacted them to finish the job and could I please come finish. Since I was out of town until the second week of January I didn't respond. They also sent texts to one of my workers trying to get ahold of me.  When I arrived back in town I contacted them back and we set up a day to come finish the ceiling. I purchase new plastic to cover the carpet where we worked. We arrived and installed all the new wood. There still was not enough wood to finish. We ended up using 5-6 of the scrap boards from the last trip to finish. When finished, we used the customers vacuum to clean the floors and blew off the front porch again. The customers wife said everything looked nice and thank you. I told her I would schedule the painters to come paint. Less than two hours after leaving the customers wife texted me saying that two of the boards we installed on the ceiling were cracked and we must come and fix it. I replied that we wouldn't be coming back. They purchased the wood to install and it was all gone. I hadn't personally noticed any cracks in the boards when installing but it was possible there were cracks in it. It is rough cedar and by nature usually has cracks, knots etc in it. If you start looking closely at the ceiling you can find all kinds of issues with the wood. Many of the boards are cupped, minor cracks, rough spots etc. I felt that it was unreasonable for them to expect a perfect ceiling when using this product and with other issues mentioned on this home. She replied that it was unacceptable for me to say this and asked me what I was going to do. I responded that I felt I can not make them happy no matter what I do and I no longer want to work for them. Even though I was under no obligation I mailed them a $1000.00 refund check as a courtesy for the issues detailed above. My costs by this time on the job were $7800.00 with the extra trip. So basically I have given them $2800.00 of my money. After a week or so they sent me a 3 page letter detailing all the things they didn't like about me and accusing me of gouging their floors, scratching the fridge and dishwasher. Also they told me there were rough edges on the countertops and over the past year had torn multiple shirts on it and it needed to be re-done. They also accused us of leaving their house a mess. I know when I left the first time, I ran my fingers on all edges of the counters to check for rough edges. I have also detailed above the efforts to protect and clean the home. It was cleaner when I left then when I came . I feel that this is nothing more than a money grab and I believe the customer wants the work done for free. Why did the customer wait almost a year to bring up any of these issues? The work in my opinion looks very nice considering the circumstances. I have been in business for 11 years and this is the first complaint ever to the Revdex.com. I have an A+ plus rating with the Revdex.com and over 50% of my customers are repeat or referrals. I have a 98% customer satisfaction rating with thousands of customers served. That is unheard of in my industry and doesn't happen by accident. This $1000.00 refund is by far the highest I have ever given anyone. I'm trying to satisfy this customer but I don't think I can.  With the $2000.00 remaining from our original agreement and the $1000.00 I sent him he should have no problem finishing the painting. [redacted].*Update.Last night I received an unexpected phone call from the customer asking me if I wanted to settle. I was not expecting to hear from him. I told him if he gets me a written estimate for replacing the laminate from another contractor I will reimburse him that additional amount up to $1000.00. I don't feel I owe him this, but will do this to be done with this issue.  I feel this goes far above and beyond to make things right. The customer must also withdraw the complaint to the Revdex.com to receive this additional credit.

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