Central Minnesota Renovations, LLC

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/02/01) */ Mrs***- Central Minnesota Renovations Incprides itself in our quality of work, as well as exceptional customer serviceUntil today, we have had no complaint of any kind filed with the Revdex.com, or any other consumer review serviceI hope that we can resolve yours both quickly and to your satisfaction, and I hope in the end you will feel differently towards us Because today was this first time we have been notified of any dissatisfaction you have with our work, we have been unaware of your concernsI can assure you that had we been contacted, we would have listened, and we absolutely would have taken action Our records show the following: 9/3- First email, contained insurance paperwork I began a review of your paperwork, and determined that amounts allowed to be inadequateWe agreed to have both a flooring and cabinet contractor complete estimates to send to your insurer 9/16- Flooring estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to insurer 9/28- Cabinet estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to your insurer 10/9- Insurer approved both estimates 10/13- Corrected insurance paperwork arrives1st mention of bathroom fan issue 10/26- You and your husband agreed on a flooring selection 10/27- OUR CONTRACT SIGNED- DOWNPAYMENT At this time I contacted both the floor and cabinet sub-contractors to let them know we have a contractBoth indicated they would be available in late November 11/5- Agreed on flooring start date of November 30th, in an attempt to avoid Thanksgiving 11/24- Cabinet contractor starts and completes work 11/25- Two issues are identified with the work of the cabinet contractorCabinet contractor agrees to return the following week to correct these 11/30- Start DateFlooring contractor cannot begin until TuesdayTo avoid delays, I personally uninstalled the old hardwood flooring 12/1- Flooring contractor begins work, estimated at 5-business daysBegin work on Bathroom 12/3- Cabinet contractor resolves both issues from previous workCustomer indicates they are satisfied with the resolution 12/4- Flooring contractor completes work ahead of schedule, bathroom is completedPainting is also completed ahead of schedule 12/10- Return to trim kitchen and dining areaAll work completed I would like to address a few statements from your complaint, to be sure that we are clear about our work and the timeframe involved You had indicated that it took almost months for us to do our workFrom the day you signed a contract to complete the work, until the day we completed was actually daysAnd most of this time was spent waiting for the flooring and cabinet contractors to become available for youWe actually spent a total of working days in your home(11/24, 11/30-12/4, 12/10) You have a new baby in the home, so I imagine that it seemed like and eternity to you, and with good reasonI also had a new baby in my home this year, and having work done on my home would have been tough, so I understand You mentioned the time it took to fix your bathroom, indicating that I had delayed this workYour complaint states that you asked me to make this repair in September, and that I indicated I would complete this in mid OctoberOur email correspondence indicates that the first mention of the bathroom fan issue was 10/Sometime the following week, I met your husband to your house to discuss the bathroom, and the possibility of him replacing the fanLater that week, he indicated that he would not be able to complete this work himself, and I agreed that CMR would do itWe also agreed that we would complete this work at the same time as the other work to be done, so we would spend less time disrupting your home As of yesterday, something must have happened in your bathroom to lead you to believe that our work did not fix the issue you previously had with your fanBecause I havent had the opportunity to look at your bathroom since this new discovery, I cannot tell what may be the issueI can say that your new fan is large enough, and high qualityYou also have a new exhaust vent, which was not hooked up previouslyIf you are having water issues with the exterior wall at this time, it is unlikely to have anything to do with your fanI would assume that you have either a roof leak, or an ice damI would be more than happy to determine the cause of this at no issue, and even clear an ice dam if needed free of charge You mention that your cabinets are longer than your counter tops as a result of our workThis was one of the two issues with the cabinet contractors work on 11/This issue was resolved to your satisfaction on 12/ Your complaint states that we discarded your kitchen trim without asking, and insinuates that we attempted to charge you $for new trimThis is not accurate, and needs to be correctedWe discarded the old trim with permission, and had promised to replace it with all new trim, adding base quarter round trim to improve the appearance in both the kitchen and dining areasI was clear that I wanted to do this for you to ensure that our work looked great when we completed, rather than reinstalling old faded trimI offered to do additional trim work on areas not covered by our contract, in order to have all trim in the kitchen and dining areas be new, and offered to do this for $Again, we installed new trim along the floor where we removed the old trim at no charge, and offered to do additional trim for a charge if you wanted Your complaint states that the painting quote was last minute, and overpricedAfter receiving the quote, you declined to have us paint your kitchen ceiling in order to save moneyBut we wanted your kitchen to look great, and painted your ceiling for free Your complaint states that we incorrectly re-installed your kitchen closet doorsYour kitchen closet doors were incorrectly installed when we arrived, as was explained to both you and your husband at that timeYour closet doors are bi-folding, and were too large to fit in the size of opening they were installedThis is why your openings had large scraped areas of drywall where the doors rub as they close Your complaint describes a method I used to shave off the bottom of a solid wood door so that it cleared your new flooringYour complaint is accurate, we did use this method, because it works wellRemoving the door to cut off the bottom edge works as well, but using a saw on the bottom of the door risks chipping the edges of the wood as it is cut To address your summary and desired resolution, I say the following: I would be happy to come assess your issue with water intrusion in the bathroom, and if it has anything to do with your fan installation I will pay for any and all damagesIf you have an ice dam or roof leak causing the water damage, I will fix either at no chargeI would love the opportunity to prove to you that we do care about our customers greatly, and will go to great lengths to satisfy their needsI wish that you had verbalized your unhappiness when I could have had an opportunity to avoid this Revdex.com complaintAs a general contractor, problems will always arise, customers will have concerns, the unexpected can happenBut we always take care of our customers, and we would still love to take care of you and your husband If you or your husband feel comfortable, please contact me immediately and I will make myself available tomorrow so we can identify and fix your water issueNo hard feelings at all, just call and I will helpIf you prefer not to call, email or text is perfectly fine I hope to hear from you, Seth D [redacted] Central Minnesota Renovations Inc [redacted] Seth@ [redacted] .com Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2016/02/07) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) There were plenty of phone conversations that happened that account for various follow ups, requests for dates, requests for assistance in who to contact for help in picking out the right flooring, etcThe information listed in the response above is a small sliver of the full picture, and a heavy stretch of the truth, at bestAt the end of the day, it's all "he said, she said" because much of the communication was via phoneHowever, my complaint still stands with our bathroom wall bubbling We hired a contractor aka Seth, because we are not handymen or do-it-yourselfersWe hired a contractor to work on our behalf and provide expertise, and from the first conversation, we asked if Central Minnesota Renovations could handle doing the job as soon as possible, quickly and efficiently, and correctly to fix the issue and damageWe were assured these three objectives could be met We didn't know what was causing the damage in the bathroom - Seth came and assessed the bathroom, Seth looked at the wall from both the inside and the outside, and Seth determined the fan was bad or wasn't filtering correctly, and when he started the job he assured us the problem would be resolved with the work they were doingWe relied on Seth to determine the problem, give us a reasonable estimate to fix it, and complete a quality job to fix the issue and make the bathroom look 'as good as it did before the damage occurred'Having the same issues two months after the project was completed means he either didn't know what the problem was, didn't know how to fix it, or chose to take shortcutsHe had his opportunity to come and assess the problem and fix itWe trusted him as an expert to handle the project and he failedI'm not going through the entire process with Seth againI'm not taking the risk of a failed second project, or the headaches and frustrations we endured by working with him the first time We asked our local contractor to take a look at the bathroomHis crew determined that to fix the issue the correct way, the wall should have either been fully mudded to smooth out the original cracks and bubbles, or the wall should have been cut out and replaced with drywallInstead, the local contractor could clearly see that they simply put mud over the actual cracks and bubbles and tried to even it out by patching it with the mudIt was our understanding prior to any work being done that the wall was being replaced with drywallIt wasn't until the work was complete that we found out they decided to mud over the cracksWhen questioned, Seth assured us this wouldn't be an issue In addition, the contractor said latex paint was used over the plaster on the wallHe said any painter should know you can't use latex paint over plaster in a bathroomThe moisture gets behind the latex and pulls the paint away from the plastergiving it the appearance of bubblingWe checked the extra paint left behind after the project and confirmed it is, in fact, latex paintSo the wall needs to be fully redone - either with a full mud, or with drywall, as should have been done originally, and then repainted with the correct type of paint Seth's response above points out that there could be moisture in the external wall, or a roof leak or ice damOur contractor looked at the roof and outer wall (just like Seth did before starting the project) and didn't see signs of other issuesHe can't determine if there's moisture in the wall until they get behind the wall and lookSeth's "crew" was supposed to be in that wall two months ago - the same issue is happening now that we saw several months back, so if there is moisture in there now, there should have been moisture in the wall at the time the project was completedIf Seth saw signs of moisture in the wall during the project, it should have been addressed and fixedNothing was mentioned to usBased on what our contractor did see when looking at the wall earlier this week, he thinks the problem is simply that the wall wasn't fixed right the first time, but will let us know if there's more to it when he opens up the wall and can confirmAll of these steps are the same steps that SHOULD have been taken when the project was underway the first timeAnd this is the reason I'm filing the complaint Again, we relied on a contractor to handle the job for us and make sure the job was completed correctly and with a high level of standards and qualityIt appears and sounds like this was patched together at best, rather than fixedAnd clearly the problem wasn't resolved and now we're having to start the project over to have it done the right way, costing us more time and money, and more frustrations We are not having Seth come back to fix the jobHe had his opportunity to earn our trust and our business, and failedWe need the job done, and we need it done correctlyThe estimate received from the new contractor was $to redo the wallThis does not include repainting or cleanupI've attached pictures of the wall Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2016/02/09) */ Mrs***- You have made it clear that you do not accept my offer to remedy your concerns at no charge, and that you do not believe it is in your interest to work with our company to resolve this issueThis is your prerogative and we will respect your decisionI will attempt to properly respond to your concerns, and propose an additional remedy In my previous response, I detailed dates of significance relating to the course of the relationship between you (and your husband), and Central Minnesota RenovationsI did this not to demonstrate inaccuracies in your complaint, but instead to make very clear the facts relating to our relationshipWe understand that you are unhappy with our company at this point, but also wish to ensure that our attempts to resolve the issues at hand are considered with honesty and integrityThis cannot be done if the facts are not clear to all parties involved Your follow up states that you believe the timeline to be false, or misleadingYou state that telephone conversations had between you or your husband and CMR are not accounted for in the timelineWhile it is accurate to say that the above listed timeline does not account for each and every communication exchanged, it is indeed accurate in its intended purposeAs I have stated before, the timeline simply details dates of significance in our relationship To avoid further argument regarding your one outstanding complaint, I respond with the following: During the course of repairing your bathroom, we had discussed the possibility of simply repairing the cracks in the exterior wall plaster, rather than knocking out the plaster wall and replacing it with drywallOur discussion weighed the difference in costs, and you and your husband elected to repair the wall, rather than replace itIn your defense, I did agree with this course of actionIt was my belief that the exterior wall could be permanently fixed with little cost, and without complications in the futureEvidently, that exterior bathroom wall was not salvageable To be abundantly clear, you and your husband elected to repair rather than replace the exterior wall to save costsI advocated for repair rather than replacement in order to save costs for you, as I believed the wall to be salvageable Your complaint also states that our painting sub-contractor used an interior paint which was not intended for bathroom or wet-use You were charged $for repainting the bathroom You were charged $for repairs to the exterior wall CMR is not only willing, but feels obligated to refund to you those items we charged you that must be fixed or replacedYour new contractor has estimated the costs of replacing the entire wall to be $750.00, and I believe that estimate to be both accurate and reasonableCMR is willing to refund to you the amount of $to reimburse you for the costs of the exterior wall repair, as well as repainting the entire bathroomThis of course means that you will have an additional expense of $in paying your new contractor to replace the wall entirely I believe that this offer is both reasonable and equitable, as you would have incurred the additional $expense for wall replacement had you elected for CMR to replace the exterior wall rather than repair it I will also reiterate my previous offer of cost-free remedyIn my previous response I offered to both inspect the ongoing issue, and well as remedy the issue at no cost to youThis offer still stands Mrs***I offer to have our people replace your bathroom drywall, as well as paint the bathroom with properly rated wet-use paint at no charge Lastly I offer my apologiesOur painting sub-contractor has apparently made a very obvious mistakeI will contact them immediately to notify them of this error in paint selectionWhile I am sure that this was simply an oversight, it is worth noting in order to eliminate future mistakes I hope that one of these offers is acceptable to you and your husbandPlease contact me at your convenience to let me know which offer you prefer Thank you, Seth D [redacted] Seth@ [redacted] .com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/02/01) */
Mrs***-
Central Minnesota Renovations Incprides itself in our quality of work, as well as exceptional customer serviceUntil today, we have had no complaint of any kind filed with the Revdex.com, or any other consumer review service
I hope that we can resolve yours both quickly and to your satisfaction, and I hope in the end you will feel differently towards us
Because today was this first time we have been notified of any dissatisfaction you have with our work, we have been unaware of your concernsI can assure you that had we been contacted, we would have listened, and we absolutely would have taken action
Our records show the following:
9/3- First email, contained insurance paperwork
I began a review of your paperwork, and determined that amounts allowed to be inadequateWe agreed to have both a flooring and cabinet contractor complete estimates to send to your insurer
9/16- Flooring estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to insurer
9/28- Cabinet estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to your insurer
10/9- Insurer approved both estimates
10/13- Corrected insurance paperwork arrives1st mention of bathroom fan issue
10/26- You and your husband agreed on a flooring selection
10/27- OUR CONTRACT SIGNED- DOWNPAYMENT
At this time I contacted both the floor and cabinet sub-contractors to let them know we have a contractBoth indicated they would be available in late November
11/5- Agreed on flooring start date of November 30th, in an attempt to avoid Thanksgiving
11/24- Cabinet contractor starts and completes work
11/25- Two issues are identified with the work of the cabinet contractorCabinet contractor agrees to return the following week to correct these
11/30- Start DateFlooring contractor cannot begin until TuesdayTo avoid delays, I personally uninstalled the old hardwood flooring
12/1- Flooring contractor begins work, estimated at 5-business daysBegin work on Bathroom
12/3- Cabinet contractor resolves both issues from previous workCustomer indicates they are satisfied with the resolution
12/4- Flooring contractor completes work ahead of schedule, bathroom is completedPainting is also completed ahead of schedule
12/10- Return to trim kitchen and dining areaAll work completed
I would like to address a few statements from your complaint, to be sure that we are clear about our work and the timeframe involved
You had indicated that it took almost months for us to do our workFrom the day you signed a contract to complete the work, until the day we completed was actually daysAnd most of this time was spent waiting for the flooring and cabinet contractors to become available for youWe actually spent a total of working days in your home(11/24, 11/30-12/4, 12/10) You have a new baby in the home, so I imagine that it seemed like and eternity to you, and with good reasonI also had a new baby in my home this year, and having work done on my home would have been tough, so I understand
You mentioned the time it took to fix your bathroom, indicating that I had delayed this workYour complaint states that you asked me to make this repair in September, and that I indicated I would complete this in mid OctoberOur email correspondence indicates that the first mention of the bathroom fan issue was 10/Sometime the following week, I met your husband to your house to discuss the bathroom, and the possibility of him replacing the fanLater that week, he indicated that he would not be able to complete this work himself, and I agreed that CMR would do itWe also agreed that we would complete this work at the same time as the other work to be done, so we would spend less time disrupting your home
As of yesterday, something must have happened in your bathroom to lead you to believe that our work did not fix the issue you previously had with your fanBecause I havent had the opportunity to look at your bathroom since this new discovery, I cannot tell what may be the issueI can say that your new fan is large enough, and high qualityYou also have a new exhaust vent, which was not hooked up previouslyIf you are having water issues with the exterior wall at this time, it is unlikely to have anything to do with your fanI would assume that you have either a roof leak, or an ice damI would be more than happy to determine the cause of this at no issue, and even clear an ice dam if needed free of charge
You mention that your cabinets are longer than your counter tops as a result of our workThis was one of the two issues with the cabinet contractors work on 11/This issue was resolved to your satisfaction on 12/
Your complaint states that we discarded your kitchen trim without asking, and insinuates that we attempted to charge you $for new trimThis is not accurate, and needs to be correctedWe discarded the old trim with permission, and had promised to replace it with all new trim, adding base quarter round trim to improve the appearance in both the kitchen and dining areasI was clear that I wanted to do this for you to ensure that our work looked great when we completed, rather than reinstalling old faded trimI offered to do additional trim work on areas not covered by our contract, in order to have all trim in the kitchen and dining areas be new, and offered to do this for $Again, we installed new trim along the floor where we removed the old trim at no charge, and offered to do additional trim for a charge if you wanted
Your complaint states that the painting quote was last minute, and overpricedAfter receiving the quote, you declined to have us paint your kitchen ceiling in order to save moneyBut we wanted your kitchen to look great, and painted your ceiling for free
Your complaint states that we incorrectly re-installed your kitchen closet doorsYour kitchen closet doors were incorrectly installed when we arrived, as was explained to both you and your husband at that timeYour closet doors are bi-folding, and were too large to fit in the size of opening they were installedThis is why your openings had large scraped areas of drywall where the doors rub as they close
Your complaint describes a method I used to shave off the bottom of a solid wood door so that it cleared your new flooringYour complaint is accurate, we did use this method, because it works wellRemoving the door to cut off the bottom edge works as well, but using a saw on the bottom of the door risks chipping the edges of the wood as it is cut
To address your summary and desired resolution, I say the following:
I would be happy to come assess your issue with water intrusion in the bathroom, and if it has anything to do with your fan installation I will pay for any and all damagesIf you have an ice dam or roof leak causing the water damage, I will fix either at no chargeI would love the opportunity to prove to you that we do care about our customers greatly, and will go to great lengths to satisfy their needsI wish that you had verbalized your unhappiness when I could have had an opportunity to avoid this Revdex.com complaintAs a general contractor, problems will always arise, customers will have concerns, the unexpected can happenBut we always take care of our customers, and we would still love to take care of you and your husband
If you or your husband feel comfortable, please contact me immediately and I will make myself available tomorrow so we can identify and fix your water issueNo hard feelings at all, just call and I will helpIf you prefer not to call, email or text is perfectly fine
I hope to hear from you,
Seth D***
Central Minnesota Renovations Inc
***
Seth@***.com
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/02/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There were plenty of phone conversations that happened that account for various follow ups, requests for dates, requests for assistance in who to contact for help in picking out the right flooring, etcThe information listed in the response above is a small sliver of the full picture, and a heavy stretch of the truth, at bestAt the end of the day, it's all "he said, she said" because much of the communication was via phoneHowever, my complaint still stands with our bathroom wall bubbling
We hired a contractor aka Seth, because we are not handymen or do-it-yourselfersWe hired a contractor to work on our behalf and provide expertise, and from the first conversation, we asked if Central Minnesota Renovations could handle doing the job as soon as possible, quickly and efficiently, and correctly to fix the issue and damageWe were assured these three objectives could be met
We didn't know what was causing the damage in the bathroom - Seth came and assessed the bathroom, Seth looked at the wall from both the inside and the outside, and Seth determined the fan was bad or wasn't filtering correctly, and when he started the job he assured us the problem would be resolved with the work they were doingWe relied on Seth to determine the problem, give us a reasonable estimate to fix it, and complete a quality job to fix the issue and make the bathroom look 'as good as it did before the damage occurred'Having the same issues two months after the project was completed means he either didn't know what the problem was, didn't know how to fix it, or chose to take shortcutsHe had his opportunity to come and assess the problem and fix itWe trusted him as an expert to handle the project and he failedI'm not going through the entire process with Seth againI'm not taking the risk of a failed second project, or the headaches and frustrations we endured by working with him the first time
We asked our local contractor to take a look at the bathroomHis crew determined that to fix the issue the correct way, the wall should have either been fully mudded to smooth out the original cracks and bubbles, or the wall should have been cut out and replaced with drywallInstead, the local contractor could clearly see that they simply put mud over the actual cracks and bubbles and tried to even it out by patching it with the mudIt was our understanding prior to any work being done that the wall was being replaced with drywallIt wasn't until the work was complete that we found out they decided to mud over the cracksWhen questioned, Seth assured us this wouldn't be an issue
In addition, the contractor said latex paint was used over the plaster on the wallHe said any painter should know you can't use latex paint over plaster in a bathroomThe moisture gets behind the latex and pulls the paint away from the plastergiving it the appearance of bubblingWe checked the extra paint left behind after the project and confirmed it is, in fact, latex paintSo the wall needs to be fully redone - either with a full mud, or with drywall, as should have been done originally, and then repainted with the correct type of paint
Seth's response above points out that there could be moisture in the external wall, or a roof leak or ice damOur contractor looked at the roof and outer wall (just like Seth did before starting the project) and didn't see signs of other issuesHe can't determine if there's moisture in the wall until they get behind the wall and lookSeth's "crew" was supposed to be in that wall two months ago - the same issue is happening now that we saw several months back, so if there is moisture in there now, there should have been moisture in the wall at the time the project was completedIf Seth saw signs of moisture in the wall during the project, it should have been addressed and fixedNothing was mentioned to usBased on what our contractor did see when looking at the wall earlier this week, he thinks the problem is simply that the wall wasn't fixed right the first time, but will let us know if there's more to it when he opens up the wall and can confirmAll of these steps are the same steps that SHOULD have been taken when the project was underway the first timeAnd this is the reason I'm filing the complaint
Again, we relied on a contractor to handle the job for us and make sure the job was completed correctly and with a high level of standards and qualityIt appears and sounds like this was patched together at best, rather than fixedAnd clearly the problem wasn't resolved and now we're having to start the project over to have it done the right way, costing us more time and money, and more frustrations
We are not having Seth come back to fix the jobHe had his opportunity to earn our trust and our business, and failedWe need the job done, and we need it done correctlyThe estimate received from the new contractor was $to redo the wallThis does not include repainting or cleanupI've attached pictures of the wall
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/02/09) */
Mrs***-
You have made it clear that you do not accept my offer to remedy your concerns at no charge, and that you do not believe it is in your interest to work with our company to resolve this issueThis is your prerogative and we will respect your decisionI will attempt to properly respond to your concerns, and propose an additional remedy
In my previous response, I detailed dates of significance relating to the course of the relationship between you (and your husband), and Central Minnesota RenovationsI did this not to demonstrate inaccuracies in your complaint, but instead to make very clear the facts relating to our relationshipWe understand that you are unhappy with our company at this point, but also wish to ensure that our attempts to resolve the issues at hand are considered with honesty and integrityThis cannot be done if the facts are not clear to all parties involved
Your follow up states that you believe the timeline to be false, or misleadingYou state that telephone conversations had between you or your husband and CMR are not accounted for in the timelineWhile it is accurate to say that the above listed timeline does not account for each and every communication exchanged, it is indeed accurate in its intended purposeAs I have stated before, the timeline simply details dates of significance in our relationship
To avoid further argument regarding your one outstanding complaint, I respond with the following:
During the course of repairing your bathroom, we had discussed the possibility of simply repairing the cracks in the exterior wall plaster, rather than knocking out the plaster wall and replacing it with drywallOur discussion weighed the difference in costs, and you and your husband elected to repair the wall, rather than replace itIn your defense, I did agree with this course of actionIt was my belief that the exterior wall could be permanently fixed with little cost, and without complications in the futureEvidently, that exterior bathroom wall was not salvageable
To be abundantly clear, you and your husband elected to repair rather than replace the exterior wall to save costsI advocated for repair rather than replacement in order to save costs for you, as I believed the wall to be salvageable
Your complaint also states that our painting sub-contractor used an interior paint which was not intended for bathroom or wet-use
You were charged $for repainting the bathroom
You were charged $for repairs to the exterior wall
CMR is not only willing, but feels obligated to refund to you those items we charged you that must be fixed or replacedYour new contractor has estimated the costs of replacing the entire wall to be $750.00, and I believe that estimate to be both accurate and reasonableCMR is willing to refund to you the amount of $to reimburse you for the costs of the exterior wall repair, as well as repainting the entire bathroomThis of course means that you will have an additional expense of $in paying your new contractor to replace the wall entirely
I believe that this offer is both reasonable and equitable, as you would have incurred the additional $expense for wall replacement had you elected for CMR to replace the exterior wall rather than repair it
I will also reiterate my previous offer of cost-free remedyIn my previous response I offered to both inspect the ongoing issue, and well as remedy the issue at no cost to youThis offer still stands Mrs***I offer to have our people replace your bathroom drywall, as well as paint the bathroom with properly rated wet-use paint at no charge
Lastly I offer my apologiesOur painting sub-contractor has apparently made a very obvious mistakeI will contact them immediately to notify them of this error in paint selectionWhile I am sure that this was simply an oversight, it is worth noting in order to eliminate future mistakes
I hope that one of these offers is acceptable to you and your husbandPlease contact me at your convenience to let me know which offer you prefer
Thank you,
Seth D***
***
Seth@***.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/02/01) */
Mrs. [redacted]-
Central Minnesota Renovations Inc. prides itself in our quality of work, as well as exceptional customer service. Until today, we have had no complaint of any kind filed with the Revdex.com, or any other consumer review service. I hope...

that we can resolve yours both quickly and to your satisfaction, and I hope in the end you will feel differently towards us.
Because today was this first time we have been notified of any dissatisfaction you have with our work, we have been unaware of your concerns. I can assure you that had we been contacted, we would have listened, and we absolutely would have taken action.
Our records show the following:
9/3- First email, contained insurance paperwork.
I began a review of your paperwork, and determined that amounts allowed to be inadequate. We agreed to have both a flooring and cabinet contractor complete estimates to send to your insurer.
9/16- Flooring estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to insurer.
9/28- Cabinet estimate sent to you, then you forwarded to your insurer.
10/9- Insurer approved both estimates.
10/13- Corrected insurance paperwork arrives. 1st mention of bathroom fan issue.
10/26- You and your husband agreed on a flooring selection.
10/27- OUR CONTRACT SIGNED- DOWNPAYMENT
At this time I contacted both the floor and cabinet sub-contractors to let them know we have a contract. Both indicated they would be available in late November.
11/5- Agreed on flooring start date of November 30th, in an attempt to avoid Thanksgiving.
11/24- Cabinet contractor starts and completes work.
11/25- Two issues are identified with the work of the cabinet contractor. Cabinet contractor agrees to return the following week to correct these.
11/30- Start Date. Flooring contractor cannot begin until Tuesday. To avoid delays, I personally uninstalled the old hardwood flooring.
12/1- Flooring contractor begins work, estimated at 5-8 business days. Begin work on Bathroom.
12/3- Cabinet contractor resolves both issues from previous work. Customer indicates they are satisfied with the resolution.
12/4- Flooring contractor completes work ahead of schedule, bathroom is completed. Painting is also completed ahead of schedule.
12/10- Return to trim kitchen and dining area. All work completed.
I would like to address a few statements from your complaint, to be sure that we are clear about our work and the timeframe involved.
You had indicated that it took almost 5 months for us to do our work. From the day you signed a contract to complete the work, until the day we completed was actually 43 days. And most of this time was spent waiting for the flooring and cabinet contractors to become available for you. We actually spent a total of 7 working days in your home. (11/24, 11/30-12/4, 12/10) You have a new baby in the home, so I imagine that it seemed like and eternity to you, and with good reason. I also had a new baby in my home this year, and having work done on my home would have been tough, so I understand.
You mentioned the time it took to fix your bathroom, indicating that I had delayed this work. Your complaint states that you asked me to make this repair in September, and that I indicated I would complete this in mid October. Our email correspondence indicates that the first mention of the bathroom fan issue was 10/13. Sometime the following week, I met your husband to your house to discuss the bathroom, and the possibility of him replacing the fan. Later that week, he indicated that he would not be able to complete this work himself, and I agreed that CMR would do it. We also agreed that we would complete this work at the same time as the other work to be done, so we would spend less time disrupting your home.
As of yesterday, something must have happened in your bathroom to lead you to believe that our work did not fix the issue you previously had with your fan. Because I havent had the opportunity to look at your bathroom since this new discovery, I cannot tell what may be the issue. I can say that your new fan is large enough, and high quality. You also have a new exhaust vent, which was not hooked up previously. If you are having water issues with the exterior wall at this time, it is unlikely to have anything to do with your fan. I would assume that you have either a roof leak, or an ice dam. I would be more than happy to determine the cause of this at no issue, and even clear an ice dam if needed free of charge.
You mention that your cabinets are longer than your counter tops as a result of our work. This was one of the two issues with the cabinet contractors work on 11/24. This issue was resolved to your satisfaction on 12/3.
Your complaint states that we discarded your kitchen trim without asking, and insinuates that we attempted to charge you $600 for new trim. This is not accurate, and needs to be corrected. We discarded the old trim with permission, and had promised to replace it with all new trim, adding base quarter round trim to improve the appearance in both the kitchen and dining areas. I was clear that I wanted to do this for you to ensure that our work looked great when we completed, rather than reinstalling old faded trim. I offered to do additional trim work on areas not covered by our contract, in order to have all trim in the kitchen and dining areas be new, and offered to do this for $600. Again, we installed new trim along the floor where we removed the old trim at no charge, and offered to do additional trim for a charge if you wanted.
Your complaint states that the painting quote was last minute, and overpriced. After receiving the quote, you declined to have us paint your kitchen ceiling in order to save money. But we wanted your kitchen to look great, and painted your ceiling for free.
Your complaint states that we incorrectly re-installed your kitchen closet doors. Your kitchen closet doors were incorrectly installed when we arrived, as was explained to both you and your husband at that time. Your closet doors are bi-folding, and were too large to fit in the size of opening they were installed. This is why your openings had large scraped areas of drywall where the doors rub as they close.
Your complaint describes a method I used to shave off the bottom of a solid wood door so that it cleared your new flooring. Your complaint is accurate, we did use this method, because it works well. Removing the door to cut off the bottom edge works as well, but using a saw on the bottom of the door risks chipping the edges of the wood as it is cut.
To address your summary and desired resolution, I say the following:
I would be happy to come assess your issue with water intrusion in the bathroom, and if it has anything to do with your fan installation I will pay for any and all damages. If you have an ice dam or roof leak causing the water damage, I will fix either at no charge. I would love the opportunity to prove to you that we do care about our customers greatly, and will go to great lengths to satisfy their needs. I wish that you had verbalized your unhappiness when I could have had an opportunity to avoid this Revdex.com complaint. As a general contractor, problems will always arise, customers will have concerns, the unexpected can happen. But we always take care of our customers, and we would still love to take care of you and your husband.
If you or your husband feel comfortable, please contact me immediately and I will make myself available tomorrow so we can identify and fix your water issue. No hard feelings at all, just call and I will help. If you prefer not to call, email or text is perfectly fine.
I hope to hear from you,
Seth D. [redacted]
Central Minnesota Renovations Inc.
[redacted]
Seth@[redacted].com
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/02/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There were plenty of phone conversations that happened that account for various follow ups, requests for dates, requests for assistance in who to contact for help in picking out the right flooring, etc. The information listed in the response above is a small sliver of the full picture, and a heavy stretch of the truth, at best. At the end of the day, it's all "he said, she said" because much of the communication was via phone. However, my complaint still stands with our bathroom wall bubbling.
1. We hired a contractor aka Seth, because we are not handymen or do-it-yourselfers. We hired a contractor to work on our behalf and provide expertise, and from the first conversation, we asked if Central Minnesota Renovations could handle doing the job as soon as possible, quickly and efficiently, and correctly to fix the issue and damage. We were assured these three objectives could be met.
We didn't know what was causing the damage in the bathroom - Seth came and assessed the bathroom, Seth looked at the wall from both the inside and the outside, and Seth determined the fan was bad or wasn't filtering correctly, and when he started the job he assured us the problem would be resolved with the work they were doing. We relied on Seth to determine the problem, give us a reasonable estimate to fix it, and complete a quality job to fix the issue and make the bathroom look 'as good as it did before the damage occurred'. Having the same issues two months after the project was completed means he either didn't know what the problem was, didn't know how to fix it, or chose to take shortcuts. He had his opportunity to come and assess the problem and fix it. We trusted him as an expert to handle the project and he failed. I'm not going through the entire process with Seth again. I'm not taking the risk of a failed second project, or the headaches and frustrations we endured by working with him the first time.
2. We asked our local contractor to take a look at the bathroom. His crew determined that to fix the issue the correct way, the wall should have either been fully mudded to smooth out the original cracks and bubbles, or the wall should have been cut out and replaced with drywall. Instead, the local contractor could clearly see that they simply put mud over the actual cracks and bubbles and tried to even it out by patching it with the mud. It was our understanding prior to any work being done that the wall was being replaced with drywall. It wasn't until the work was complete that we found out they decided to mud over the cracks. When questioned, Seth assured us this wouldn't be an issue.
In addition, the contractor said latex paint was used over the plaster on the wall. He said any painter should know you can't use latex paint over plaster in a bathroom. The moisture gets behind the latex and pulls the paint away from the plaster... giving it the appearance of bubbling. We checked the extra paint left behind after the project and confirmed it is, in fact, latex paint. So the wall needs to be fully redone - either with a full mud, or with drywall, as should have been done originally, and then repainted with the correct type of paint.
Seth's response above points out that there could be moisture in the external wall, or a roof leak or ice dam. Our contractor looked at the roof and outer wall (just like Seth did before starting the project) and didn't see signs of other issues. He can't determine if there's moisture in the wall until they get behind the wall and look. Seth's "crew" was supposed to be in that wall two months ago - the same issue is happening now that we saw several months back, so if there is moisture in there now, there should have been moisture in the wall at the time the project was completed. If Seth saw signs of moisture in the wall during the project, it should have been addressed and fixed. Nothing was mentioned to us. Based on what our contractor did see when looking at the wall earlier this week, he thinks the problem is simply that the wall wasn't fixed right the first time, but will let us know if there's more to it when he opens up the wall and can confirm. All of these steps are the same steps that SHOULD have been taken when the project was underway the first time. And this is the reason I'm filing the complaint.
Again, we relied on a contractor to handle the job for us and make sure the job was completed correctly and with a high level of standards and quality. It appears and sounds like this was patched together at best, rather than fixed. And clearly the problem wasn't resolved and now we're having to start the project over to have it done the right way, costing us more time and money, and more frustrations.
We are not having Seth come back to fix the job. He had his opportunity to earn our trust and our business, and failed. We need the job done, and we need it done correctly. The estimate received from the new contractor was $750 to redo the wall. This does not include repainting or cleanup. I've attached pictures of the wall.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/02/09) */
Mrs. [redacted]-
You have made it clear that you do not accept my offer to remedy your concerns at no charge, and that you do not believe it is in your interest to work with our company to resolve this issue. This is your prerogative and we will respect your decision. I will attempt to properly respond to your concerns, and propose an additional remedy.
In my previous response, I detailed dates of significance relating to the course of the relationship between you (and your husband), and Central Minnesota Renovations. I did this not to demonstrate inaccuracies in your complaint, but instead to make very clear the facts relating to our relationship. We understand that you are unhappy with our company at this point, but also wish to ensure that our attempts to resolve the issues at hand are considered with honesty and integrity. This cannot be done if the facts are not clear to all parties involved.
Your follow up states that you believe the timeline to be false, or misleading. You state that telephone conversations had between you or your husband and CMR are not accounted for in the timeline. While it is accurate to say that the above listed timeline does not account for each and every communication exchanged, it is indeed accurate in its intended purpose. As I have stated before, the timeline simply details dates of significance in our relationship.
To avoid further argument regarding your one outstanding complaint, I respond with the following:
During the course of repairing your bathroom, we had discussed the possibility of simply repairing the cracks in the exterior wall plaster, rather than knocking out the plaster wall and replacing it with drywall. Our discussion weighed the difference in costs, and you and your husband elected to repair the wall, rather than replace it. In your defense, I did agree with this course of action. It was my belief that the exterior wall could be permanently fixed with little cost, and without complications in the future. Evidently, that exterior bathroom wall was not salvageable.
To be abundantly clear, you and your husband elected to repair rather than replace the exterior wall to save costs. I advocated for repair rather than replacement in order to save costs for you, as I believed the wall to be salvageable.
Your complaint also states that our painting sub-contractor used an interior paint which was not intended for bathroom or wet-use.
You were charged $225.00 for repainting the bathroom.
You were charged $125.00 for repairs to the exterior wall.
CMR is not only willing, but feels obligated to refund to you those items we charged you that must be fixed or replaced. Your new contractor has estimated the costs of replacing the entire wall to be $750.00, and I believe that estimate to be both accurate and reasonable. CMR is willing to refund to you the amount of $350.00 to reimburse you for the costs of the exterior wall repair, as well as repainting the entire bathroom. This of course means that you will have an additional expense of $400.00 in paying your new contractor to replace the wall entirely.
I believe that this offer is both reasonable and equitable, as you would have incurred the additional $400.00 expense for wall replacement had you elected for CMR to replace the exterior wall rather than repair it.
I will also reiterate my previous offer of cost-free remedy. In my previous response I offered to both inspect the ongoing issue, and well as remedy the issue at no cost to you. This offer still stands Mrs. [redacted]. I offer to have our people replace your bathroom drywall, as well as paint the bathroom with properly rated wet-use paint at no charge.
Lastly I offer my apologies. Our painting sub-contractor has apparently made a very obvious mistake. I will contact them immediately to notify them of this error in paint selection. While I am sure that this was simply an oversight, it is worth noting in order to eliminate future mistakes.
I hope that one of these offers is acceptable to you and your husband. Please contact me at your convenience to let me know which offer you prefer.
Thank you,
Seth D. [redacted]
Seth@[redacted].com