Chris Sands Construction, Inc.

Executive Summary: Excellent quality, but a complete and utter financial train wreck. For a more thorough write-up, as well as photos of estimates and invoices, please refer to my Yelp review of Chris Sands Construction, Inc. THE GOOD So let?s start with the good. Mr. Sands is a great contractor, at least as far as the final physical product is concerned. The work that he did for us was, for the most part, high quality; only a handful of relatively minor mistakes were made. The mistakes that he did make were fixed on his own dime, or at least so he claimed; there was no way to actually validate this with the level of detail we were provided on his invoices (more on that in a bit). On a job as big as this one, that is saying a lot. Not every contractor in the world can handle a job that involves ripping out the entire foundation of a home and supporting the home so that it remains level while a new foundation is built. Additionally, he came highly recommended by other professionals. The work itself is 5 stars. THE BAD Financial When it was all said and done, our job ended up being 96% over budget. For those of you who think that number must be a typo, let me write it out in words: NINETY SIX PERCENT. To give you a clearer picture of the financial impact to us, the initial estimate for this job was $163k. However, when it was all said and done, we had written checks to Mr. Sands totaling $329k. We had no reason to question his estimate; $163k is a whole lot of money, right? Who hears $163k and thinks, ?Hmm, I think that?s understated by 96%?? We certainly didn?t. In fact, we thought, ?Wow, $163k seems a little pricey, but since Mr. Sands is highly recommended, so let?s not cut corners. Let?s hire him anyway.? To make matters even worse, Mr. Sands didn?t even wind up performing all of the work that was included in his job estimate. My father had to step in and take over some of the less demanding tasks toward the end of the project, since the project outlay was ruining us financially. Mr. Sands did not purchase any of the lumber for the deck except that for the joists, nor install it, nor did he purchase or install the rock veneer. He also did not purchase or install the wood flooring for our new addition, or frame out any of the rooms in the addition. So he managed to exceed budget by 96% without even performing all of the tasks outlined in said budget! Now, was some out-of-scope work performed? Sure, but nowhere even remotely in the vicinity of 96%. I put together my own Excel spreadsheet comparing budget costs to actual costs, and I calculated the total cost of out-of-scope items to be roughly $45k, or 28%. Furthermore, there were multiple out-of-scope items that we never would have approved had we been given a more accurate financial estimate at the outset. Unfortunately, the grossly understated estimate led to a number of unfortunate choices during the course of this project, such as moving our propane tank and re-routing our power lines. Neither of those things needed to be done; we only approved them because we thought the job was going to cost $163k, and therefore, we thought we could afford a couple of extras. These were unwise choices that were based on an extremely faulty job estimate. I have to admit that personally, I find it hard to believe that a contractor who has been in business for, say, +/- 30 years could prepare such a grossly understated job estimate completely unintentionally. If that kind of misstatement were truly an accident, then as far as I am concerned, it represents job negligence. It is unacceptable to present clients with information that flawed. It puts the clients? financial well-being at risk. It certainly put our financial well-being at risk. If I were reading this review, my reaction might be: isn?t it your job as the homeowner to rein in the contractor? To ensure he is on track and prevent this kind of gross overrun? I don?t disagree with this sentiment, but we encountered two problems every time that we tried to gauge progress. First, Mr. Sands has an uncanny knack for dodging any and all attempts to pin him down or get a commitment on anything. I honestly think he could have been a politician with his ability to answer a question without -actually- answering the question. Don?t believe me? Try it for yourself sometime, if he?s currently working for you. Every time we tried to find out how long a task might take, we got this response: ?Well, it depends on X, and on Y, and on Z.? I can?t think of a single time we tried to get a firm commitment and actually managed to get one. It?s always ?well, there?s this, and that, and the other.? Blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah. I?ve never worked with anyone so squirrely before, and it drove me absolutely crazy. Second, once we got to $150k in spending, we asked Mr. Sands for a ?Cost to Complete.? He put together what was essentially a second estimate that was presented to us mid-August (when he was 4 months into the job). At that time, he estimated that we could finish the job for $93k (this excludes his estimate for the work on the deck, since my father ended up doing this work). However, between August 25 and the end of the job, we actually paid Mr. Sands $177k, or 90% more than his SECOND estimate!! You?d think the estimate would be more accurate as you got closer to the finish line, right?? Well, think again. Even now, months later, I am still flabbergasted when I think about it. Ethical When he was wooing us as clients, Mr. Sands indicated that because he lives in our neighborhood, and would have no commute to our job site, he would be giving us a 6% reduction in his profit and overhead rate (from his normal 16% to 10%; see attached photo of the job estimate). This wasn?t something that we asked for; rather, he offered it to us. We, in turn, factored it into our decision to hire him. When we received our first bill, we immediately noticed that he had invoiced at a 16% profit and overhead rate. When I presented him with his quote, and asked what had happened to the agreed-upon 10% rate, he replied with, ?Oh that, that?s a year old. I?m not going to honor that now.? Umm, excuse me? My disgust must have shown on my face, because after a pause, he then offered a pathetic excuse, something about how we hadn?t started our job in December, and he had to maintain his liability insurance between December and April. Frankly, it didn?t ring true to me, and I think it was just the first thing he could come up with off the top of his head. First of all, we weren?t able to obtain our permit until December 2012. That?s not our fault, it?s the County of Santa Clara?s. Secondly, we never said that we would start our job the second we got our permit ? who starts a job in the middle of the rainy season? What sort of moron would do that? As far as I am concerned, it was a flimsy excuse offered to cover the fact that Mr. Sands simply had no intention of ever honoring his promised 10% rate. I was, and still am, livid. Had it been up to me, we would have fired Mr. Sands on the spot for the lack of ethics he displayed that day, but clearly, I was overruled. However, I lost all faith and trust in Mr. Sands from that day forward. I find myself second-guessing his motives for everything now, which is a lousy way to feel about somebody you are giving hundreds of thousands of dollars. To his credit, Mr. Sands bowed to pressure from me midway through the job (when it became clear that we were going to vastly exceed his job estimate), and reduced his rate from 16% back to the agreed-upon 10%. However, he did not do so until we had already paid him $147k at 16%, which translates to an extra $8,800 in ill-gotten gains. Even if I buy the whole ?insurance premiums? argument that he made, I am fairly confident that his insurance premiums for 4 months were nowhere near $9k. On a related note, the entire practice of charging clients a percentage of total job costs strikes me as a huge racket, regardless of industry practice. At one point, Mr. Sands indicated that part of the justification for that percentage is the fact that he has connections and can secure the cheapest subs for the job. Not necessarily true. I obtained independent quotes for the following during the course of the job: windows, tree work, fumigation, floor refinishing, and downstairs drywall. In all cases except windows, I was able to obtain lower bids than those procured by Mr. Sands. Mind you, I wasn?t scraping the bottom of the barrel, either ? I only contacted companies with 4 or 5-star ratings on Yelp, or A/B ratings on Angie?s List. Needless to say, we ended up using my contacts for the tree work, fumigation, floor refinishing, and downstairs drywall. I find it unsettling that I was paying Mr. Sands 10-16% of total job costs when he wasn?t necessarily even locating the subcontractor with the best value proposition. The lesson here? Future clients should consider obtaining independent bids on subcontracted work whenever possible. Don?t assume Mr. Sands has your pocketbook?s best interests at heart. If anything, there is a large conflict of interest because of the way that he bills ? the more Mr. Sands is able to invoice you, the more he takes in through profit and overhead. Miscellaneous This is a somewhat minor, but Mr. Sands provides virtually no detail with his invoices (see attached photos). All you will get is a 1-page summary with a few line items totaling anywhere from $15k to $40k. It?s not nearly enough information to provide clients with any way to ensure invoicing accuracy. Should you wish to hire him as your contractor, I recommend insisting on copies of all subcontractor & material invoices, as well as time cards for him and his crew, from the get-go. You will regret it if you don?t. I speak from experience on this.