J D's Drywall

John was extremely responsive to my every question from the beginning to the end of the project. He gave 150%. I would hire him again and will highly recommend him to others. I am sorry to say that I had a very bad experience with JD Drywall. I hired this company while still living in Southern CA to complete a drywall job in Carmichael, CA, which was to become my new home. It was a straightforward job drywalling a @230SF room with a 6-foot slider, one window, an entry door, and standard outlet/switch boxes. This room was in a garage; the two walls facing the exterior had a 6” concrete base. The studs above that base had been built out to meet it for easier drywalling of the area. John Drinkwater, the owner of JD Drywall, made an on-site visit and saw the situation before he gave me his estimate. I paid him the first half that estimate before work began. In the end, JD Drywall left chaos in its wake. The drywallers (1) did not bring the drywall to the floor on those exterior walls (thus, two of the walls were not complete), (2) pushed the drywall up against the entry door so hard that the door would no longer shut properly, (3) covered up six outlets, (3) did not complete edging work on two interior walls, (4) drywalled over wire rough-in for the mini-split system, and (5) did not remove drywall debris/broom-clean floors as per the contract I signed. From afar (500 miles away in Southern CA), I paid John Drinkwater in full, assuming that he had completed the job as agreed. I gave him a glowing review without seeing his work because, unfortunately, I trusted him. A week later, after arriving at the site and seeing the mess he had left, I wrote John a letter detailing the problems. He replied by email several days after that, saying that he had been sick but would do whatever was necessary to rectify the situation. I explained that I would have someone else resolve most of the problems and invoice him for the cost. I assured him that I had no intention of overcharging him but simply wanted reimbursement for the expenses incurred to me to rectify his mistakes and oversight. He agreed to pay. About a week later, I sent him a letter detailing the costs involved in rectifying the situation, which came to $380.00. The actual cost to me in time and effort was much more as anyone in the business knows (including John). Still, I tried to be fair to John and asked him to pay that sum by May 15. Instead, he said he could only justify $240 of that amount. I replied that it was not up to him to second guess how much time and money it took me to rectify his mistakes, and I reiterated that I expected full payment by May 15. I am sorry to say that he has neither paid that sum nor contacted me further. He agreed to do a job he did not do. He agreed to pay the cost of rectifying his mistakes and has not done so. His silence and inaction have now forced me to give this review and proceed to small claims court.