Mother Magnolia Inc

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I would like to share my poor experience with Mother Magnolia so that others hopefully won?t go down the same road. In a nutshell, I hired Mother Magnolia and worked with Tom Scoble, who is the president/owner, to build an in-ground pool and pool bathroom in my backyard. In the end, Mother Magnolia did not build a bathroom for me because they wanted to raise the price. Tom accused my wife and me of asking for too many ?upgrades.? But even when we asked him to build the bathroom without the upgrades, for the original price, he refused. In addition, we ran into problems with Mother Magnolia?s workmanship?leaking spa wall, leaking plantar wall, unexpected gas line problems?that either cost us more or took a long time for Tom to address. I absolutely would not recommend Mother Magnolia to anyone. If you are interested in the details, please read below.

My wife and I had always dreamt of a pool with an accompanying bathroom for our backyard. We acquired a few bids for the project and Tom really impressed us; he was friendly and articulate, really seemed on the ball, and even had experience with HGTV. We really thought we found a winner, so we proceeded with a design-build arrangement for a fixed sum, which meant that Tom would conceptually design and then subsequently build what we wanted for a pre-determined price.

The first inkling that something was not quite right was when Tom informed us that the bathroom permit process would be convoluted, requiring a public hearing. At that time, my initial gut reaction was to postpone the project until we had both the pool and bathroom permits, but Tom wanted to push ahead with pool construction. He essentially guaranteed me that the bathroom permit would be ready by the time the pool was finished.

Fast forward a couple months later and the pool was near completion. There was some lack of attention to details?concrete and other stains on the stucco, broken outlet cover, damaged exterior molding, dirt and sand left behind on the street?but overall a decent job. BUT one big problem emerged: Tom did not anticipate a problem with our old gas meter and never consulted the gas company. Basically, our old meter could not provide enough gas for the newly installed spa/pool heater, so it needed to be upgraded. It also needed to be moved to the side of the house instead of being in its original street-side vault, so that there would be enough space. This meant that I was unnecessarily charged by Mother Magnolia to get the gas line out to a useless old meter. I was also charged for extra work to connect the line to the new meter. Naturally, I objected, but Tom convinced me that this situation was completely unexpected, but I had this gnawing feeling that if only Tom had talked with the gas company from the start?

Then ANOTHER big problem emerged. Contrary to what Tom predicted, the bathroom permit was taking longer to acquire?so much longer that the pool project was done and he wanted his final payment for the entire project and was going to just credit me for the bathroom portion.  He emailed me what he called a ?change order? for pool upgrades that I had asked for and in that same email, he ?credited? me for the bathroom. I was under the impression that I wouldn?t pay him for the bathroom part until that portion got started. But what it really meant was that I gave up my rights to have the bathroom built?more on that later. Still trusting Tom at this time, I paid him accordingly to his change order and even gave him his final payment for the whole project, although the bathroom was not even built.  Stupid mistake, I know.

Anyway, months later and AFTER Tom has taken a vacation, we have the bathroom permit and structural engineering and Tom drops a bomb on me. He CAN?T do the bathroom for the original bid price. He would like to do a time and materials contract instead. With no leverage because I already paid him his final payment and not wanting to void our pool warranty, I was left with no choice but to find another contractor. I suspect Tom had underbid the bathroom to make the initial package look better. The bathroom was eventually built by a better contractor (CALECCO for those who are curious), but cost me significantly more.

As if these problems were not enough, after the bathroom was built by another contractor, after I decided I did not want anything to do with Mother Magnolia and Tom Scoble, I started seeing water stains on the exterior wall of the spa. I knew it had to be a leak from somewhere, but Tom really dragged his feet. He said it couldn?t be a leak because the stain was above the water line, but what about capillary action?! He even suggested maybe the stain was from a sprinkler hitting it. He would offer a small fix, like repainting the wall, and we wouldn?t hear from him until we literally contacted him three times for another small fix. Eventually, after many months, it turned out to be a crack in the grout and he had to re-tile and re-grout that area of the spa (which, by the way, resulted in a chipped tile). So far, the problem seems to be fixed, but now we have a problem with water leaking out of our plantar wall.

I was so exasperated during this last part that I consulted an attorney about my options. There are only so many kicks you can take until you can?t take it anymore, and the attorney said I most definitely had a case. We eventually went all the way through arbitration?which by the way is a clause that Tom puts in his contract. The arbitrator basically said that the ?change order? email that Tom sent me and the fact that I paid him on his new terms meant that I gave up my rights to have the bathroom built. The arbitrator did agree that Tom should pay for the plantar wall leakage, which by the way Tom denied all the way through arbitration. He was lucky that the spa wall stain was fixed, otherwise that would have been on the agenda too.

Anyway, for all of you who read my long story, that?s my experience. In summary, here is Mother Magnolia run by Tom Scoble, who is an articulate, seemingly friendly guy, who appears to have quite a bit of experience. Yet, when problems do arise, it seems like we fall back on the same contractor games, which another reviewer has pointed out. In fact, there are several poor reviews of Mother Magnolia; I just wished I had Angie?s List before I hired. And Tom will dismiss your problems, as other reviews have suggested, and weasel out of his responsibilities. Bottom line is I wanted a pool bathroom built from the very start and he did not meet that expectation because he wanted more money. I ran into a problem with the gas meter that could have been addressed from the very start, so for those of you building a heated pool/spa, keep that in mind. Lastly, I had problems with spa wall stains and plantar wall leakage that Tom was slow or unwilling to address. With so many other contractors out there, why take the risk with Mother Magnolia? I certainly won?t be using them again and would never recommend them to a friend. But if you do decide to roll the dice with them, just make sure EVERYTHING is in writing and do not be a nice guy.

Capable of quality work, but poor attention to detail, and lack of oversight by owners resulting in unrepairable construction including new concrete steps that were not sloped properly so water pools up on them. When shown to contractor/ owner he made excuses and would not admit is was done incorrectly.
Company also skirts the law regarding deposits by requiring a large payment on the first day of construction.
In short if you hire them check every detail and don't allow them to demand large payments in the agreement you sign.

Overall, a good job on design.  Execution took far longer than originally quoted and for really no good reason.  Tom seemed to disappear for weeks here and there.  Communication was difficult as well, or more difficult than it needed to be.  Seemed to be classic contractor games, so in one way it was expected in another it was disappointing because you assume Tom might be different than other contractors.  The price was high for the work done.  On the plus side, Tom stepped up when others did not want to take the job because of a perceived degree of difficulty, being on a slope.  But it was basically a lawn, irrigation, some planer bricks supporting two small gardens and 20-25 fruit trees planted.   

We thought the experience was going to be tough, but Tom and Ramon kept the job going and let us know what was going on. Even now a few months later, if we have questions, they are always available. Great job!

They took way too long to get the project done. The project cost a lot more than expected. We had several miscommunication issues. The workers did a good job, but the communication was very poor. The project initially started out ok, but it ended up lasting from about 8 weeks into 8 months.

We were able to use Tom's services on short notice and Tom and his team came in and did most of the job very quickly. However, some of the final details look a long time to get resolved. Later, when I realized that the entire garden wasn't being adequately watered by the sprinkler system, it took him forever to get out here and partially resolve the situation (we are still having a few problems). I didn't appreciate Tom's dismissal of our concerns regarding which roses to plant in order to have the most disease-resistant stock -- he said we're going to have to do maintenance anyway, so it really doesn't matter if the roses are low care or not.

The work was done very well. I was impressed with everything. They were on time and friendly and made sure to answer all of our questions. They have done work for us before and they came recommended by some of our friends. I think the price was reasonable. I was happy with the service.

They have very good service. Tom is articulate and responsive to client. The crew is efficient. Jobs are completed without interruption. On bid and on time. Great service and reasonable prices.