Were to begin? The beginning is best. I interviewed several contractors and then received a referral to Sal. He "SEEMED" laid back, was prompt on all meetings, and came across as "knowledgeable". With the positive referrals we decided to move forward on a minor remodel (10 interior doors, demo exterior wall to add French doors, frame in laundry, 200sqft of tile in kitchen, 5 windows, tankless water heater and about 600lnft of base / case) which he estimated at 3 week project starting 08/01. Knowing what I know now I will not make a positive referral of Sal or his company and here's why:
First- On day 4 (2 days after being delivered) I noticed 1 of the windows was the wrong size and notified Sal via a Text message, this was a Saturday and he said he'd look on Monday. Come Tuesday I inquired and he basically blew it off saying it was all good, no problems etc., etc. basically shrugging it off as if he couldn't be bothered because he ordered them and has a great attention to detail, NOT!!! (PLEASE KEEP READING FOR EXAMPLES AND PICTURES) My feeling he never looked because after all what does a homeowner know, Ha-ha. He finally acknowledged after 3 weeks that the order was inputted wrong by the company which took 3 more weeks to come in, however he never admitted the delay was due to this but rather that those interior doors were delayed, this was seemingly not true as I later discovered. The reason I believe this is because there were still tags on the interior doors that showed his name, project etc. with a delivery date in Mid-August. At the time not really a huge deal as I decided to order 2 more doors that I should have included or better yet possibly should have been suggested.
2nd - The mess and do I mean massive. From demo in Kitchen you expect dust but not in the entire house and I mean everywhere, (see pics). My feeling is they did a horrible job taping off the kitchen to contain and this is based on painters that I have replacing ceilings right now that have fully contained all dust in 1 area they are working and by the end of day it is completely clean.
3rd - The tankless water heater. I guess I did not do enough research, but again as one who states to be a professional you'd think he would have made the suggestion, YOU MUST INSTALL AN INLINE WATER FILTER. Had I known I would have ensured to have one ready so it could have easily been added to the piping while the job was being done. Now I can pay a plumber an additional $475 in labor to come out and install or fry the heat exchanger within 2/3 years (per Noritz and other plumbers).
4th - The little things. This is where the attention to details is important (see all pics) I have no idea why someone would cut base boards this way but it looks horrible and not one word was mentioned. The transitions from hardwood to tile in kitchen was damaged in demo (okay I understand things happen) but nothing said or resolutions offered to fix and the other one I have no idea (looks like they pried it up to match the level of floor). The laundry room that was framed in also had a pantry added with shelving. We discussed the measurements of those shelves several times and I even left them written down on Fridge for his reference, but in the end looks like he did his own thing placing one shelf way too hi that is basically useless dead space. (I did have him cut back about 6" to make access but just looks bad, SEE PICS) Also from the beginning we said we wanted a door there and he seemed to not remember which had to be ordered hence another excuse for delays. There is still no casing nor base boards in my sons closet which has been paid for and still waiting. I was originally told the store ran out of material, (aka Ganahl Lumber). (I just picked up the material myself and they laughed that someone said they had run out, hmm.)
5th - The fridge with the notes. Job "almost completed" now Oct 9th. There is a water line from under the sink going to fridge that was never leaking, and the area completely dry. I know this because they removed all the old tile down to sub floor and was all good, plus all the new base boards and no water, moisture etc. The PEX is only 3 years old and not brittle. Come to find out the line "somehow" got a pinhole leak inside the wall and under the house spraying continuous water for weeks. I called Sal and to his credit he did come out but got very confrontational and said there is no way he damaged that because he does such great work,see all above examples +pics. Needless to say after all this I had no confidence. When he came out I don't know what I expected him to say nor do but maybe some reassurance would have been a good start. He did remove a section of wall to run a fan and dry out, but this was a bad idea because there was already MOLD growing. I will remedy these newly developed problems on my own through insurance and hope for the best, putting Sal and "Kraftman" in my rearview read more