These guys are a complete nightmare. When I say "these guys", I mean James McCullough, really…read more He's the owner, and he employs random teenagers to do actual work. Note that this business seems to have multiple addresses (Lisburn, Dromore, and Belfast), and I've also seen the company associated with an A. McCullough, as well as "James/Jim".
As to WHY they're a nightmare:
a) James/Jim/"A." seems to be only interested in a quick, straightforward job that he can make a profit on. I employed him to solve a dry rot problem, but he showed no interest in establishing the CAUSE of the dry rot (i.e., where the damp was coming from), and quickly made it about removing and replacing the floor, rather than getting to the heart of the issue, or making sure the rot would not
spread.
b) Asks for money in advance (often listed as a sign of a bad builder), and apparently has a history of refusal to pay for his work. Whilst arguing with him that no proper builder would ask for money in advance, he explained that he was asking for it in advance because people had refused to pay him before. I had a lot of doubts then and should have told him not to bother, but needed the work done urgently, and I'd invested my time in him already, so I hoped for the best. Big mistake.
c) Does not show up on time, deadlines slip. When he does show up, it's to say hi, agree prices, ask for money in advance, tell his laborers to do the work, then disappear again. Even his workers are not there often.
d) Constant monitoring required. On EVERY aspect of the work that I saw, I found problems, and had to tell him to do it properly. Even then, it was a shoddy job.
e) Not doing the work I paid for. For example, I paid him to replace an entire door frame with treated wood. I caught them talking about just cutting out a small part of the frame and putting in a new piece of wood. Likewise, I paid them to strip a meter of plaster and replace it. Instead, they stripped 2/3 of a meter, clearly to save materials and time, at my expense. Worse, a meter is the proper distance for dealing preventing dry rot spread, and they ignored this. As another example, I paid for treated wood, expecting this to be wood that was pre-treated (impregnated under pressure). Instead, he bought normal wood and painted it with an anti-fungal solution.
f) Shoddy, careless work. When replacing the door frame, they damaged a lot of plaster around it, and didn't bother to fix it. I had to get other builders in to finish this, to finish plastering (because they were doing such a bad job already, and wanted 2x the going rate for the plastering work, etc.). Worse, they "installed" a silicon damp proof course, which seems to be completely useless. This is supposed to be installed by drilling holes into the brickwork, and pumping silicon into the bricks under pressure, so that it penetrates all of the gaps in the bricks and forms a layer, spreading between holes. Instead, they drilled THROUGH the wall, ruining the decorated living room wall on the other side, and pumped silicon through the wall, so it plugged the hole they had just drilled. No pressure involved, and therefore useless, besides ruining another room which they had no reason to touch.
g) Teenagers, or people in their very early 20s, do the work. Nothing wrong with that; it'd be fine if they'd grown up with builders for parents, been taught the trade from an early age, etc. But these are inexperienced laborers, not tradesmen.
h) Seriously risking the health of myself and his young workers. Workers spray extremely hazardous substances (substances that are banned in some countries, and don't appear to be the normal chemicals for the job) without masks. I was given no warning to avoid breathing the stuff, to stay out of the house, etc.
i) No thought, or concern for property. They sprayed a cloakroom, without even bothering to tell me to remove coats etc. They also left a radiator off the wall, without the valve properly switched off, so when I came home a few days after they left (while waiting for a concrete floor to dry) I found that the heating had come on, and depressurised the entire heating system by pumping ALL of the water onto the floor. And his company is supposed to specialise in damp control.
In my opinion, Home Protection Services / James McCullough, should not be allowed in the building industry, much less allowed to deal with major, potentially ongoing problems such as damp and rot. Avoid at all costs.
