Hello. So its been a month and half since the F3 tornado ravaged my neighborhood in Prattville (see previous post for pictures/details) and hurt my house and killed my mothers and my car. So life is been ok living in these apartments and my moms doing ok after falling down the apartment steps. I sold my grand am junker to some of the roofers that worked on my house. My brother went and bought a new civic and I got his old car (well my dads that was given to him to use, same with the grand am to me). So I’ve been periodically checking on the progress of our home to see what all they’ve (the company working on our home, who of which I am not gonna name at the current given time) done. So I went this past Saturday (March 29th) and so did my parents. Well they have a new roof on there and they replaced some of the fascia board (that’s he boarding on the edge of the roof under where the shingles overhang). The only thing is, after the tornado we had to put plastic over our home to keep it from getting extensive water damage so we used strips of wood to hold it down and by doing this we nailed these pieces of wood to the fascia board. Well they removed this wood and some of the fascia board was damaged, but not all of it replaced??? You think they would have maybe asked my parents if they would like to have it all replaced so that it would be all uniform and neat. Well they didn’t and now it looks like patchwork, new/old/new/old… and even tho the new stuff is only primed, its a different texture than what we have up there now so even after you paint it it will obviously look different. And some of the board is just old and rotted. You will see pictures in the gallery I made. so thats not to big a deal really I don’t think, they did what they were told well….
After checking things out and talking with my parents. It seems like they are cutting corners so that they don’t have to spend all the money that’s been given to them. Also there is some stuff that was just done sloppy. Here goes some things we noticed that seems like they’re cutting corners or just doing a sloppy job.
After reading through this blog and these points, would you comment and let me know your thoughts with or without any kind of construction experience.
1.) They replaced the roof which looks good, but the wind turbines on top were damaged and were replaced. They on the roof which is angled, but looking at them from the backyard straight on, they are not even straight, they lean a bit to the left…
2.) Under the fascia board, the wood that covers the rafters then goes to the brick and then theres the molding (I assume thats what it is) that goes over the angle of the board and the brick. Well at one point by the lines that come out and go to the outside ac/heater unit they molding isn’t even at wall, it drops lower that the molding on there other side. There is a picture in the gallery)
3.) The ventilation for the exhaust fan in the kitchen comes out to the roof to where as of right now its just a hole in the ceiling and a hold in the roof thats covered by a piece of plastic. Hope it’s secure so that it wont leak into the house.
4.) The back sliding door, one of the windows were busted during the Nader, well so this leaves an open area to get into the house, and it wasn’t even covered when we got there Saturday afternoon. So pretty much anyone could walk into the house and do whatever or the fact that it rained last night and pretty good to, so I’m sure some water got into the house, but I don’t know if it was gonna hurt the sheet rock much.
Inside the house:
5.) The den (the back of the house with the glass sliding doors) had old wood paneling for walls. In our contract/estimate it says they will remove the paneling and put in sheet rock. Well after examining the switches and socket areas cut out in the sheet rock on the wall you can see the wood paneling. They didn’t even remove the paneling, they just put sheet rock over it…WTF?? That just seems like a cheap way to avoid paying for the labor to remove the wood paneling and then put the sheet rock down. But they are being paid to do that, yet they did not! You can see in the pictures. Hell even the holes cut for the outlets are sloppy.
6.) The kitchen was supposed to have the wood paneling removed and guess what, it just has sheet rock over it. What the hell man! Also in the kitchen, the ceiling was to be removed and replaced as it says in the contract and that they’re being paid for this well…..they didn’t remove the damn ceiling, they patched it up (see pictures). Are you supposed to patch a sheet rock ceiling??? And where they did patch the ceiling, the electrical access holes for lights, they holes almost look like they just punched a hole in it (although I’m sure they cut it, but still looks crappy). Also in the ceiling, you can still see watermarks from the damage!!
7.) The walk in area on the side of the house, supposed to have a new ceiling in there as well as replace the cabinets there and the wall that was behind the washer and dryer. This has not been done yet, but I will check back to see. But we need to get a plumber to check out the plumbing there while they have the wall removed. Then theres the storage room thats right there when you walk in to your left. They patched the ceiling in there and the ceiling is cracked in some spots. Ceiling was supposed to be replaced in there I believe.
8.) The master bedroom. The ceiling was to be replaced in this room as well and guess what??? They just patched it up. The ceiling in the closet was to be replaced and it was patched, but it also looks like they freaking nailed the ceiling down to I’m assuming to wood above the ceiling (you can see the picture). The area around where the light is cracked and coming apart.
9.) The hallway bathroom. In here a piece of wood came through the wall and according to the contract they were to replace this wall, well the just patched it with sheet rock (see pictures).
So thats the most of it, there are some other stuff if you look in the gallery and see my comments. I’d like to hear your comments. The crap that they’ve done so far just seems like they’re cutting corners and they’re being paid for the full job and only doing a shortcut and keeping that money. Some of the other things we’re paying for hasn’t been done or isn’t there, for example there is supposed to be a port o potty for them to be using, theres not one at the house.
Just seems like some real shitty things they’re doing to us. From this contractor we’ve heard that they have some big job in Montgomery coming up and it seems like they’re cutting corners so that they can be done in time to work on this big job. I dont think they should be freaking cutting corners, they should be doing the work that was stated in the contract and getting the quality we’re paying for and not the quality that gets done the fastest and works out better for them. We’re gonna talk to our insurance guy about this. If nothing is done about this, then I’m going to report this to some news stations about a certain company taking advantage of tornado victims. They shouldn’t have taken the job if they didn’t think they could finish it right. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Well so here is the gallery of pictures from the house.
Might take a few min to load so give it time, it’s a 110 pix. Click Here.
So if you or you know someone that might know more about this that can get me some feedback to tell our insurance guy and what not and any comments from anyone would be good for that matter.
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So on a different note, life has been going ok since the tornado. Been hanging with friends, making new friends, and working. I’ve got friends with babies and friends with babies coming very soon. Look forward to seeing all these new creations concocted up. Then we have movies I’ve seen lately. Last week I endured a movie called “Caligula” and it was definitely an interesting movie. Go watch it and you’ll just be like, wow what the hell was that. Caligula was a ceaser and apparently a very f’d up ceaser. Then I saw “The Orphanage” in the middle of the week at the Capri with some friends of mine. That was one creepy but good movie, should be coming out to rent soon, check it out!! You’ll like it. The director was the same as Pan’s labyrinth, Cronos, Hellboy, and Soon to be hellboy 2, hobbit I, II and that is Guillermo del Toro. Then Thursday night I watched “The Mist” which I enjoyed, nothing like a movie with some nifty monsters in it, they ending was the best part tho, go rent it! I’ve also recently gotten into a new series which is pretty frackin good, haha. Battlestar Galactica the new TV Series. Rented part of the season 1 from blockbuster and now i’ve gotta rent the rest! Great stuff.
Friday night was pretty fun, went out to eat with my friend from work, Allison and a friend of hers. We went to Kabuki, mmm lots of good sushi and octopus for me and some tofu! Yum! Afterwards we hung out and watched a bunch of stand up comedy on Comedy Central. Saturday was a lazy day, didnt do much of anything till about 3’sh I think when we went to our house. After that I went to my aunt and uncles house to give my cousin her bday gift which was a t shirt that read “Come the the dark side, we’ve got cookies” quoted by V. And I got her some Oreo cookies haha. Hung out with them for a while then went to a good friends house, John and Cyndee (who are one of several friends about to pop out a baby) and watched Apocalypto which was pretty good. Didn’t get home till 4am. Slept most of today and did some cleaning and what not and now I’m typing this thing. One thing that has made my weekend kinda crap is the fact that a tooth of mine (one I’ve had a root canal on) has been bothering more than usual. So I gotta get to the dentist and see if he can get this problem resolved. Bleh! Alright, well thats it.
Thanks to everyone for their time and any help you can give me on the repair situation.
Word!?!
Filed under: canon, gallery, simpleviewer | Tagged: alabama, apocalypto, baby, battlestar, battlestar galactica, cheapskates, construction, contractor, damage, friends, fun, galactica, home, lame, mist, movies, orphanage, prattville, repair, sushi, tornado
Looks to me like they’re doing some pretty crappy work. They patched what they’re supposed to be replacing, haven’t replaced important things and didn’t square anything up. And sheet rock over paneling?? Even I know that’s wrong. You need to contact the Greater Montgomery Home Builders Association and let them know what’s going on. If they can’t help you, they’ll tell you who can. You need to get someone one top of this. *hugs*
I won’t be too much help. I don’t have any experience with big home repairs but sounds like you might have to get a lawyer involved or at least threaten to. You and your dad may need to stay on top of them by popping by when you have the time. I know you guys are busy but I would think if one of you stopped by often they would start to get worried and a better job. Maybe that’s naive but I hope they would. Also, possibly writing a summary and posting it on consumerist.com and then add a link to here for the full details.
Alright, so like I told you, we had a fire and had to go through something similar to this.
First of all, keep ALL paperwork in order. Contracts, amendments to contracts, any communication about it. Especially make sure you have EXACTLY what they were supposed to do, and how much they were to get for it.
Second, say something NOW. Tell them that the job they are doing is NOT satisfactory. They should either fix it to your standards, or they should not be paid for it and someone else can fix it.
We got the city building inspector involved. We had him come to the house and he personally said that he would not approve ANY of the work that was done. So if you can, do this. Get a letter from him stating exactly how he feels about the work that has been done.
Also, Alabama is an at will employment state. That means that you do not have to have any reason to fire someone. This is of course unless your contract says otherwise. If so, then read your contract and figure out exactly what you need to do to get rid of these people.
Our city building inspector said that companies do two types of jobs. Good and insurance. If it’s an insurance job, they go the cheapest route possible of getting things done. They don’t really care about quality because they know how much money you have to spend and they are going to make as much profit as possible…even if that means screwing you over in the process.
Now, I will warn that when we fired our guy (he was acting as our representative and we were the official contractors), he put a lien on our house. He claimed we owed him money, even though he actually owed us a couple thousand dollars. If this happens, you either have to sue and prove that you don’t owe money, or you must wait 6 months and you can petition to have the lien removed. Unfortunately, when we tried to sue, the guy went MIA. The sherrif could never find him to serve him the papers. Anyway, so make sure you keep very good records of what money was paid and what exactly that was to cover.
Hope this helps!!!
Yeah, I would have to agree with everyone else, this work looks terrible. Hope they get their act together.