California Custom Builders

Description of Work: I bought my dream house in San Jose and Hired Mr. Ishoo owner of California Custom Builders. I was under time constraints as Mr. Ishoo knew and assured me the job would be completed in two weeks. In the third week disaster struck. Mr. Ishoo assured me the job was completed on April 30, 2010. I went to the house on May 1, 2010 and walked into the house and my kitchen, dining room, hallway, and living room was soaked with water. The water was so deep it went through my shoes to my socks to my ankles. I called Mr. Ishoo who said he would be right over. The reason why he was in the neighborhood was because unbeknownst to me he was giving tours to my neighbors of my house trying to promote himself and get additional jobs. Although he was not finished with my house he was hired by my neighbors to remodel their kitchen. I had no idea he was conducting tours in my home. I had not moved in but I had furniture in the home and had brought items from my home weekly and storing them in my garage. I might add I moved into a retirement community so most of my neighbors use canes, limp, or use walkers etc. Very easily one could have fallen in the middle of construction. Mr. Ishoo did not realize that if any of my neighbors hurt themselves they would have had to sue me since he does not have insurance (I can only assume). So Mr. Ishoo and his employees had already started remodeling my neighbors house and he came over and I brought him in and told him he had to do something. Mr. Ishoo had just installed new hardwood floors a day or two before. I was sick. Mr. Ishoo looks around tells me he will be back and 45 minutes later he comes back with a small shop/vac. By the way when he was gone he called me and asked me to "CUT HIM A CHECK". I still owed him $2,500.00 upon completion. I never gave it to him. Mr. Ishoo has no idea and obviously no money and did not know that a small shop/vac was not going to do the job. I called a friend of mine from work whose husband is a Manager for a General Contractor and was in the water damage business. I called him and asked him to come over. He came over on Sunday at 5:00PM. Mr. Ishoo had called me on Saturday-May 1, 2010 at 2:30PM and said there was nothing more he could do that day. I came to lock up the house and Mr. Ishoo locked up the house-Closed all the windows and doors. I knew then that he did not know what to do. On Sunday Mr. Ishoo met me at the house with no equipment, no fans, nothing. He again asked for money. I at that time told him I do not want him near my house. He had reinstalled all the appliances in the kitchen and although we feel the water was running all night it is hard to pinpoint where the leak started. Mr. Ishoo was the only one who unplugged the appliances and reinstalled them after the hardwood floors were installed. At this point I had 7 days to move in. It took 3 days, fans running at the house 24/7 before the hardwood floors could be reinstalled. I might add the walls were also wet and the walls had to dry too. I had to go out and buy new hardwood floors, put in new baseboard and have them painted, and this time I hired a plumber to reinstall the appliances. In the meantime Mr. Ishoo assured me he would borrow the money and give it to me. He never did come through and I had to put this through my Insurance Company and The Insurance Company of my new residence. I had to pay $15,000.00-$20,000.00 to put my house together. I had people working at my house 24/7 so it will be ready to move in on Monday May 10, 2010. In the meantime Mr. Ishoo and his workers (Who I do not think carries Workers Comp Ins for any employees) drove by my house a couple times a day for 2-3 weeks while he was remodeling my neighbors home and collecting money. NOT ONCE did Mr. Ishoo make any attempt to come by and give me any money towards the damages he caused. I did call him a couple of weeks ago and asked him for the name of his insurance company and policy number. Mr. Ishoo never returned my call. I might add when I would come to my house to check on the job Mr. Ishoo was doing he was usually outside smoking or missing. His employees always had to call him to tell him I was there.