HOME MAINTENANCE ASSOC

Horrible!  I gave them a third of the total payment 2 days before the April 2011 tornados came through.  They told me they would get started the next week.  I didn't hear from them for 3 weeks after that.  They came on a Wednesday and laid new concrete, which we requested.  They didn't show up again until the next Monday to start on the columns.  They were done by Wednesday and requested the second part of the total payment.  I gave them a check.  Later that day, my husband climbed on a ladder to inspect the top of the columns and discovered that a number of columns were not even touching the house.  They were cut too short and the crew used conscruction adhesive to fill in the gaps.  These columns were to hold up part of the second floor of our house.  I stopped payment on the check that night and my husband called the site manager to tell him about the check and we were calling the city building inspector (I specifically requested a building permit).  The next morning the site manager showed up at our house, demanding to know why I stopped payment.  I told him why and he threatened me saying I was obligated to pay him.  Also, that's when the building permit showed up (1 week after work started).  The building inspector came later in the day and said told us that the concrete was not up to code and he asked the city engineer to get involved.  The city engineer said he wasn't touching it and said to hire a structural engineer.  I found one on a Thursday afternoon who came on Friday.  He took pictures and prepared a report over the weekend.  We found product information on the columns specifiying the approved load and proper installation.  The report was sent to the contractors.  I had to pay someone to put up temporary bracing until the contractors would agree to fix the columns to the engineers specifications and a stop work order was put up on our house by the city.  The contractors kept telling me they do not answer to engineers, only to the city building inspector.  The city building inspector had the city attorney send them a letter detailing the problems.  We ended up having a meeting between the city building inspector, city engineer, and contractors to tell the contractors what they had to do to fix our columns.  They finally resumed work after a month of temporary bracing.  We scheduled a meeting with them to finalize everything and they handed me another bill for three thousand dollars to cover the extra concrete and repairs.  I told them I wasn't paying it until they justified every penny that they were trying to charge me.