Homework Remodels

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As November 2013, Homework Remodels started remodel October 2012 took one year and we still have issues. Here is summary   Checked Contractor references, talked 2  many people & were impressed that he had certain credentials & was even featured on HGTV. Job was to be done in six weeks.   Demolition  a disaster, Homeowner ended up cleaning up    Workers left pee puddle in bedroom on plastic—probably fell out of cup. Bathroom available for workers.  Other trash, cups and debris not picked up. PM  assigned 2 job verified this was an issue after we continually complained.   Subs/workers working at house not constantly supervised by PM.   Plastic  not installed in all rooms 2 protect against dust and debris.    PM did not receive direction from Contractor. Each day PM unsure what he was to do.   Subs/Workers & PM showing up at our house was sporadic   Wall in bedroom moved  a foot out &  told it was not a load bearing wall by Contractor. Once they got further into the attic again it was discovered it was   Workers cracked the top of the concrete sewer pipe. Concrete was poured  on top of the cracked pipe after homeowner noticed crack. Contractor said the crack did not go thru it & it was fine   Treated wood not installed in framing of bathrooms, and 2 remedy  the mistake copper sulfate was sprayed on wood. Fumigated out of our house for 4 days. Contractor tried 2 paint Kilz & Red Guard over it & did not work. Ended up removing wood & replacing.   Ended up having the original hard wood framing removed due to this error. Unsure at this point if the structural integrity of  house was jeopardize since  2 x 4 planks were cut from bottom to mid way & replaced w/ new wood & apparently reinforced properly.   Ceiling opened up in both bathrooms to remove all swamp AC ducts. Plumber/AC contractor tried 2 patch old swap vents, feel off ladder-- broke  glass dish(est. value $150),damaged vintage stereo w/ scratches & dents & broke speaker(value unknown) & scratched a few things including tv table worth $200, pushed a $800 clock hard against the wall leaving indentation & scratched the wood floor. Had drywall mud all over house. Wood floor scratched from plumber & from duration Masonite was on wood floor causing groves in wood floor & chips in beveled flooring.  PM  admitted that job took 2 long & the Masonite put on the wood floor caused some of our wood floor damage.   Cabinets initially installed over wet & unfinished dry wall .Upon homeowners noticing the drywall repairs, contractor removed cabinets & fixed dry wall.   Countertops not installed right, (contractor admitted only used one of the sink templates to mark the countertop material) sinks should have been used individually as each sink is made individually. Sinks are under mount& countertop does not hang over.   Cabinets have been constantly realigned, repaired & are two inches shorter than we ordered & not the quality represented.   Shower floor tile was not ordered as wanted. Ended up getting 3 x 3 & not 2 x 2. Contractor had tile guy cut 3 x 3 tiles .   Toilets were installed & copper pipe  had to be adjusted as plumber  did not plan for Toto toilets. One of the toilets makes a draining sound after you use toilet & before you flush.  Pipes in ceiling makes  CLANK CLANK noise now.   Walk in Shower floor tiles in bathrooms had to be uninstalled, cement jack hammered out 2 fix problems w/ floors not sloped  as it ended up flooding bathroom after taking 1st shower. 3 x 3 tiles removed & replaced w/ porcelain mosaic tiles. Once floors were jack hammered after they had been repoured, they had to be repoured again, & re-sloped.   Misc issues with glass tile installation, cracks, gas line, drywall and electrical.   April 2014   Contractor still owes us a refund for overcharging us for tile work, he did fix most of items mentioned above. Contractor submitted some change orders.   Still have loud CLANK CLANK pipe noise, and  toilet issues.   Contractor provided credit for cabinets, countertop & misc items(due to his negligence) but we still need to get refund due back to us settled.  We have been asking & we are still trying to get resolve.   Condensate line inside  AC/air handler backed up.  Findings: insulation from ceiling clogged the line & the round cut out(from AC duct install) along w/ insulation was left inside of our air handler. Water pooled inside of our air handler inside of our house & underneath near  wood floors. Condensate line could not drain due to the debris. Old evap AC  duct work replaced by Contractor sub.  When doing this, the AC subcontractor said he would clean the air handler coil inside the unit as insulation had fallen down into the air handler. When we confirmed this w/ Contractor he denied this was done.  The debris in the coil where found when we had line back up and unit serviced. See pictures and video by going to youtube and putting in homework remodels gone bad or Google homework remodels gone bad—there are 3 videos.

Overall, we had a very bad experience. We received $5,000 worth of work for $14,500. Tri-lite refuses to refund the difference of deposits paid toward future work that we never contracted to do. Tri-Lite had a lawyer send a letter threatening to sue me for defamation of character if I complained. Tri-lite missed several of its own self-imposed deadlines and generally took days to return phone calls. When it came time for Tri-lite to submit a bid for the addition construction phase, they bid $139,000. Knowing what the other bidders bid, Tri-lite submitted a bid that was so high (25% to 43% higher than competing bids) we could not accept it. Both of the other bidders were licensed with the Registrar of Contractor with no documented complaints who came highly recommended with references from similar jobs. Tri-lite contacted the $112,000 bidder who suspiciously withdrew his bid.

THEY DID AN ESTIMATE FOR A 2 ROOM ADDITION. THEY WERE EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD TO WORK WITH, VERY RESPONSIVE AND PROACTIVE. THEY WERE EXCEPTIONALLY OPEN TO CUSTOM DETAILS AND CAME TO THE HOUSE SEVERAL TIMES TO WORK OUT IDEAS AND UNDERSTAND THE DESIRED FEATURES. THEY WERE NOT CHOSEN TO DO THE CONSTRUCTION ONLY BECAUSE THEIR PRICE WAS TOO HIGH. THEY HAD BY FAR THE BEST RESPONSE AND SCHEDULE. I WOULD DEFINITELY HAVE THEM BID AGAIN ON ANY FUTURE PROJECTS AND IF SCHEDULE WERE A PRIORITY WOULD HAVE CHOSEN THEM FOR THIS ONE.