McDonald Construction, LLC

My contractor (Brian) was recommended by Angi to build a large composite deck including a roofed and screened section. The contract cost was $75K and included electrical, roofing, and screened in scope in addition to the foundation, structure, and composite decking. I paid Brian $35K as a down payment to start the work and purchase the materials. Brian was not familiar with the Huntsville building codes and found out he needed to perform more work on the foundation than planned. He also was having difficulty finding skilled workers and struggled throughout the project with employees not showing up, performing poorly, and stealing tools. His employees according to his statements had drug issues and past criminal records and he eventually ended up firing all of his workers for poor work ethic and quality issues. Brians personal work was completed with high quality but he did not have the skilled labor necessary to successfully complete this project. A couple weeks into the Job Brian asked for more money. I questioned the timing based on the amount of work performed and minimal material purchased. He confessed that he hadn t been working for the past two years due to an injury and was delinquent on a business loan. The loan company had taken money from my down payment directly out of his account. In an attempt to avoid losing my money I agreed to start purchasing the material and funding labor to keep the job going. He also confessed that he only had a framers license and would use a licensed electrician and roofer to review his work and sign off for the final inspection. He said he had used his father in law and another friend to do this in the past so not to worry. With the staffing issues I started from the beginning to volunteer my labor and use of a skid steer to perform a significant amount of work. Brian stated he would provide a significant discount in the end for all my help. The quality issues continued throughout the project due to his employee issues and I made a mistake myself that cost a couple days of rework. With the foundation requirements, higher composite costs, and my request to add a privacy screen I estimated a new total cost of $88K and Brian thought it should be $90K so we were working to a $90K cost rather than the contract value of $75K. I kept asking about the electrical work and he kept pushing it off saying he was having trouble getting time from his father in law and another friend. I found out later that his father in law was dead and his friend had moved to Georgia and didn t have an Alabama license. At this point it was just him and his brother working and Brian was complaining about heart issues, financial struggles and a marriage falling apart. On the last day Brian showed up to work he asked for another payment and I told him with this payment we were at $90K that I had paid with both direct payments plus material purchases. He also had already received the money to buy the remaining material but had not ordered it yet. On his last work day he decided to remove the shingles from my roof in preparation for installing the roof joints even though there was still significant deck work to accomplish. After this day Brian said his ER doctor told him he could not work until the heart specialist checked him out. After a few days I received this last text from him

Our double decker deck with roof required a very skillful, professional contractor. Brian McDonald is just such a contractor. He went over every detail of his plan with me ensuring I was comfortable before work began with shoring up the two-story roof then removing 6x6 lower posts and 4x4 lower posts replacing one at a time. They also replaced the entire two level stairway to the ground level with a more stable and durable rebuild. We will be using Brian for future indoor projects as well.

The work was completed on time and on budget, and it was exactly what we wanted.

Personable, on time, does excellent work, Brian is a man of his word.

Very honest. Made me feel that i had made the right decision in hiring them to do the work. On time, took advantage of the weather to ensure the work was done on time. My aunt also hired them and was very pleased. Brian McDonald will be my go to company for all future home. construction and remodel and repair projects