Landowners Construction

Unprofessionally and incorrectly done work with plenty of damages done to my home as a result! Future damage is also now imminent.Firstly, This job was to re-level my single wide mobile home. The job quote of $435.00 over the phone was increased to $475.00. They didn't give me the invoice until after they had already started the job. When I called the owner [redacted], he told me I must have misunderstood. Then I asked [redacted], the lead man of the crew of 3, how long they have been doing this type of work. He said he has been doing this for many years and that one of the other 2 was his younger brother that has been working with him for about 8 yrs and the other guy was new and had only been working for them about 3 weeks. As soon as they started jacking up the house, I was inside and could easily tell that they were jacking up only 1 of the 4 jacks they lined up on 1 side. Needless to say, I started looking around my house (and taking pictures) for any damages because I could hear the wood behind the drywall in my computer room cracking! Right away I found a broken wall in my living room. I immediately brought [redacted] into my home , showed him the damage and told him that as a maintenance man of 20+ years, that the wall ONLY broke because they did not jack up the house slowly in increments across the 4 jacks. [redacted] told me not to worry that that was normal and the house would be perfectly fine after they were done with the entire job. He also stated that he would talk with his crew to make sure things were being done right. A little while later, when they were on the other side of my home, they did the same exact thing! They were jacking up the house with only 1 jack to at least 3" , which caught my attention real quick! and then all of a sudden, POW! Something broke badly. I immediately went to see what happened. I tried to get outside but my glass storm door was jammed solid into the top of the door frame so I went out the back door and went around to see what happened. When I asked [redacted], he said "Oh, your window exploded. We never had that happen before" I was completely upset by this and told him again that this happened only because they were jacking up the house totally wrong! He assured me the window would be replaced that day. [redacted] tore out 3 of the 4 Glazier bead strips from the window and I told him to stop and leave the last 1 in so all the leftover broken glass wouldn't just fall out. To take it out when they had the new glass. I called owner [redacted] and he told me to not pay until window was fixed. Several days later, [redacted] shows up with glass & wanted to use old glazier bead (which was destroyed by him) and I told him NO, the job has to be done right. He left the glass, came back several more days later and said new bead is not available and that he was just going to "Goop in" extra silicone to hold the window in. I told him no way they were going to rig my house ugly and that they should have just had a glass Co. do the job and it would've already been done day 1. Owner [redacted] called me a few minutes later, tried to tell me he has "tried in good faith twice to fix window" I told him that's not my fault he sent his guys to "Rig" my window shut. I was so upset that I made a mistake and told him that since the glass was here, I'll do the job myself and for him to discount my bill by $30. He immediately said "Done" I cleaned out all the old glass and when I put the new piece of glass in (I did a dry fit) the glass dimensions had been measured wrong by [redacted]. I have since looked under my home and have found that they used 2x4's on top of the blocks instead of 2x8's that should be used to distribute the PSI load evenly across the blocks. I'm pretty sure now that I will start experiencing a lot of my pier/beam blocks to start breaking. I also found the Hurricane straps are very loose as well and have found a couple ceiling cracks and another broken wall. God only knows what (hidden) wood framework has been badly damaged as well. To add insult to the damage, I found that [redacted] had thrown at least 30+ cigarette butts all around my yard and who knows how many under the house.Desired SettlementThe resolution that *I am seeking/insisting upon, is that the company, Landowners Construction, LLC have my home re-leveled professionally and properly by a different contractor of my choice (or Possibly *at my discretion, their insurance company's choice) *I am also seeking/insisting upon, that After my home is professionally and properly re-leveled, that specialized contractors repair all of the damages incurred to my home that were caused by their negligence and incompetence. *I am also seeking/insisting upon, that all of this work be completed ASAP before further damages occur as a result of the very "Shoddy & Unprofessional" work that they did to my homeBusiness Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted], ManagerContact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@yahoo.comOn the date the crew was at the job site, I was made aware of the broken window situation, which my crew leader informed me of when it happened. I immediately ordered new cut glass, but it was late in the evening and the order could not be fulfilled until the next day. I brought the glass to my crew leader the next day and he brought it to the customer's house to install. The customer had already threw away the trim pieces (strips of tin) that holds the glass in, so I attempted to locate more of the same material at the glass company I purchased the glass from, Glass Services on Texas St in Bossier City. I had a piece for them to look at. They informed me that particular trim material was no longer available and that the best we could do was to silicone the glass in, and they also stated that was the exact method they would have used. My crew went back the next day to install the glass and the customer would not allow them to install the glass with the silicone, no matter what. He insisted that the trim pieces were still available and that he'd take care of the problem himself, if we discounted the price $30.00, a number which the customer came up with. The customer did mention the broken sheetrock while on the phone with me, which not one person on my crew was made aware of, even when they did a final walk-through when the job was finished to make sure all the interior doors worked. The customer did say to me over the phone that he was not concerned with the supposed sheetrock damage and that he'd take care of it. I fully believed that the customer was satisfied with the discount that we gave him and that this matter was fully resolved.This was the last contact I had with this person. He did not attempt to contact me to let me know he was still not satisfied and to give us an opportunity to resolve his complaint. He did however, make a claim with his insurance company, which led to both his and my insurance companies contacting me. I have not contacted him as I do not have his number any more.The very act of leveling a home does come with the inherent risk of something breaking or cracking, especially sheetrock. To think otherwise would be like saying that someone can bend chalk without it breaking. We cannot be liable for any inherent risk. It does happen from time to time, plus there is no way to determine how the sheetrock was installed, nor whether it was installed before or after the house was set in place, as well as if was installed to resist movement. The customer mentioned that we increased the price and that he was not made aware of that until after we began. This is not true. We have never quoted a job less than $475 for this type job, ever.We have been using 2x4's and 2x6's for shoring material for many years with zero callbacks for damage. This concern is without merit as it is sufficient material for this type job. There are a great number of piers under the house to distribute the weight evenly.The customer is requesting that another contractor come to relevel the home again, however we use the same water level method that manufactured home installers use, which ensures that the home is level at both ends of the frame and every point along the frame in between. This is the very best anyone can expect as the main support piers are only underneath the frame. Some houses do have perimeter piers on both sides of entry doors and at specific points determined by the manufacturer. These are only to prevent sagging in these areas and any other outside wall are not supported in any way, therefore are reliant only on the floor joists extending beyond the frame. We have completed a great number of these type jobs, with no complaints, only praise. We do not leave a job nor collect a check until the customer is satisfied, ever. This complaint has come as a complete surprise, as it is the very first and only one in as many years we've been in business. I believe these complaints could very well have been resolved had the customer simply called us. Again, we had fully believed this customer was made whole with the agreed upon discount. We are not perfect, however we do back up our work. Our spotless record with both our customers and the Revdex.com over these many years leads us to this conclusion, however we'd be glad to address the 2x4 issue, tighten any loose straps, and double check the leveling.Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)The Response given from the Manager (Mr. [redacted]) of Landowners Construction, LLC on Nov 4th contains outright lies & exagerations in order to "cover-up" his and his work crews' faults and negligence on the job & the damages done to my home.-First and foremost, I have to mention that the Manager (Mr [redacted]) was NEVER at my home during the time the work was being performed, nor did he ever show up during the course of the entire job to do any type of personal inspection. With that being a fact, he did not know of any of the incidents that had happened until I had called him 1st, then the crew leader called him 2nd. Nor did he have any knowledge of conversations that I had with his employees during the course of the job or even if the job was being conducted correctly & professionally.Starting with the wall that was broken as a result of the work crew improperly jacking up the house:*I IMMEDIATELY took pictures then went outside and got the lead man to come in to look at it. I showed him and told him that I had 20+ yrs as a maintenance engineer and that the wall had only been broken as a result of his crew not jacking in small increments across the 4 jacks but instead jacked up on only 1 jack too high all at once. ( I could tell this because I was in the house while they were jacking) His answer to me was that the wall would be fine when they completed the job, that this was "normal". He added that he would make sure his crew were doing a proper job.-The 2nd problem was the window exploding on the other side of my home. I immediately went to inspect what had happened, could not get out the front storm door as it was jammed shut, went out the back door and asked the lead man what happened and he pointed it out and said "Your window exploded" "We never had that happen"He said they'd have it fixed that day. I Immediately called the Manager to report the issue and at the same time, that is when I also mentioned the wall breaking earlier. I told him specifically that his crew was jacking up the house way too much on only 1 jack at a time! The Manager told me that they can jack up in increments of approx. 1 1/2" safely and I told him that they obviously jacked up double that. The Manager did tell me that they will have the window fixed but as it was getting later in the day, that it might be "tomorrow". When I went back outside, the lead man was on his cell phone talking to the Manager. The lead man then started improperly prying and tearing out the glazier bead strips from around the window. He was just tearing them out! They are made of thin aluminum and because of this they were destroyed. If removed properly, they may have been reusable. I had to stop him from removing the last strip so the rest of the broken glass would not fall out. I then told him to take a piece of the original so he could match it up and he agreed and did so. NOTE: I was the person who sealed up my own window with plastic and cardboard in lieu of it getting replaced. The "Crew" did not offer to seal it up pending repair.[redacted]PLEASE ALSO NOTE: The Managers response as to when the glass was ordered is an OUTRIGHT LIE! He states that the glass was immediately ordered which would have been Friday July 24th, the day of the job, and given to his lead man AND brought to my home the next day.[redacted]The FACT is that the lead man came back to my home with the glass 4 days later on July 28th! NOT THE NEXT DAY AS MANAGER STATED!! I still have the original glass here at my home and it has the Invoice from Glass Services attached to it with an order date of Monday July 27th. (The job on my home was done on Friday July 24th and Glass Services was NOT open Sat 7-25 OR Sun 26th) Be it also known that when the lead man returned 7-28, he wanted to use destroyed glazier bead and I refused a "rig job"[redacted]The next fact is he and another worker returned on 7-30 to install with silicone only, instead of doing it properly with glazier bead & I said no way again to a "rig job" AND when I explained this to the 2 of them, the other worker was shaking his head in agreement with me on not doing it wrong. I know for a fact as well that it was July 30th because the crew was already at my home when I had just returned at about 5pm from taking my Mom to a Birthday dinner.The lead man called the manager who in turn called me, and in a hasty decision under duress and anger, because he was complaining, I reluctantly blurted out I'd do it myself since I no longer trusted the competency of this company. This was a stressful mistake because when I was able to attempt the glass installation, I found it to be the wrong size AND ALSO that the window frame is crooked & my home is bowed and Absolutely not level. The Manager states in his response that I never notified anyone on his crew of my broken wall but the truth has already been stated twice now that I had IMMEDIATELY notified the lead man and in fact made him come into my home right away to see the damage. The details and his reply of that is noted earlier (above) I also notified the Manager that 1 of my bedroom windows was crooked and only shutting on 1 side. To this, he told me to wait a couple of weeks and if the house didn't settle properly and I still had the problem that all they could do would be to add a pier stack directly under the window.Also, just because the manager states that a water level was the method being used, does not mean that the crew doing the job were trained well enough to use it properly. Especially because I was told that 1 of the workers had only been on the job 3 weeks with them and also the fact that the lead man told me personally "I don't do this s[redacted] anymore, I just supervise"After hearing him tell me that, I went outside a few times to see how they were doing and more than 1/2 the time, the lead man was just sitting in a folding lawn chair next to the side of the house. However, I did see him at the end of the job with some wrenches in his hand and I asked him if the Hurricane straps were going to be re-tightened in which he replied, "Yeah, I'm gonna do that right now. That's the easy part"Well, I can honestly say, the straps are very loose. The house is also very uneven and is in the worst level (unlevel) condition it has ever been in my 7 years living here!3 weeks after the job, my front door has been extremely hard, if not almost impossible to close and it is still that way. It's never been like this ever. Also, during the job, we were in a "no rain" drought for quite some time. Now that it has rained, my skylight has leaked very badly with water filling into a kitchen cabinet, onto my floor and ruined my ceiling as well. The bedroom window I told the Manager about on day 1 has also leaked rain in through it to where I've had to change towels there that are getting soaked. I have found a few new cracks in my ceiling as well as a new crack in the wall I noticed later. My house is noticeably crooked and not level.The Manager does state that he is willing to correct the leveling, tighten the hurricane straps and change out the 2x4's they have placed on my blocks and all of these items DO need taken care of right away.....BUT I am very leary of the same company coming to do the work since I also have several additional problems as a result of the job that they performed. I don't have confidence in them at this time so I'd like them to correct the problems either through professional contractors (specific to each problem) or to authorize their insurance company to handle the repairs. Either way, the damages need to be addressed as soon as possible.**PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE DONE MY BEST TO MITIGATE ANY FURTHER DAMAGES BY PURCHASING A TARP & MATERIALS AND HAVE INSTALLED THIS ON MY ROOF. Also by putting towels in the crooked non closing window and changing them as often as needed. If I find other areas where I personally can mitigate damages, I will gladly do soFinal Business Response We would welcome the opportunity to make this customer whole again, to the extent that we would mitigate his concerns about the blocking and strapping, and would seal up any leaks on the roof. I do not believe that the window can be repaired to an original state. I have spoken with several glass companies and including manufactured home supply companies, all of which stated that the trim the customer threw away does not exist anymore. That should not have been done by the customer. The only alternative I have found is to replace the entire frame, but it would not exactly match the other window frames.As for the dating accuracy, it was some time ago and that is what I remember. As for what the crew did or did not do, I have to rely on what they tell me if I am not on site.This customer resorted to making a claim on his and our insurance companies, and here at the Revdex.com, even after agreeing to a reduced price for our services. We were fully in agreement as far as we knew and this claim is still quite a surprise to us.Again, we welcome the opportunity to do what we can to make the customer whole, but only to the extent of any mistakes we made while there and to seal the skylight in goodwill. This customer may have other maintenance issues that he is assuming we are responsible for, however these are impossible to determine. We were hired to re-level his home, and this does come with inherent risks. From this point on, all customers will be made aware of these risks up front and in writing, no matter how small the job.Final Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)It appears that Landowners Construction LLC states in their latest response that they would like to make me "Whole again" by correcting their mistakes and damages, But they are being very vague in their response as to what damages they are willing to have repaired by stating the possibility that some of my damages cannot be proved to be a result of them attempting to re-level my home. I can assure you that I did not have a broken window, broken walls, leaking roof, cracks in my ceiling, warped ceiling, leaking window in my bedroom or a front door that is extremely difficult to close (or open) prior to them causing all of these issues. I've lived here for 7 years now and have never had any of these issues ever. I do own the home for the record. I am now paranoid to light a fire in my wood burning fireplace in fear of burning my house down since one of the broken walls is just a couple of feet from the fireplace and the fact that I heard the wood cracking in the adjoining wall as they were jacking up the house improperly in the same immediate area. Even though I brought the "lead man" into my home to see the broken wall immediately after it happened, and he said it "was normal" but would make sure his 2 man crew was doing a proper job, they did the same exact "over-jacking", on 1 jack only, on the other side of my home and exploded my window amongst other issues.**I am, however, willing to resolve this complaint with Landowners Construction, LLC if they are willing to personally discuss and agree with me a fair and reasonable monetary settlement for the damages I have incurred to my home as a result of their services in order for me to complete those necessary repairs needed to my home. I honestly feel that this would be the fairest & most honest option and that it would make me "whole" as they have stated that as their intentions.I'd like to note that I would absolutely not be unreasonable in any way if they agreed to this type of negotiation. I only need to make the necessary repairs and be made whole and nothing more.Also, if we agree to negotiate and do settle, I would agree to have been made whole and I will certainly consider Landowners Construction, LLC to be a very honest company and will remove my complaint without any further actions.They are welcome to contact me personally by phone if they would like to reach an agreement