LECK CONSTRUCTION INC

We were pleased with the stucco job, except the contractor did not pass on to the stucco crew that a certain area of the stucco needed to stay the same (or close to the same) color as the house. It was almost $4,000 for the small wall and accent areas to be done. That seemed excessive, but I have nothing to compare it to. The contractor's painter did a poor job with staining the gate. He used several different stains on it and none of them matched the front door. He did not remove the hardware from parts of the gate and he applied the staining products over the hardware. The hardware that he did take off, he put on backwards and left unsightly dents when the hardware was properly installed by us (he never repaired those unsightly dents). He lost one of the pins from the gate hinges. He did not sand the door properly on one side of the gate and it created a rough, unfinished appearance. Mr. Leck reviewed the work and said it was the best that could be done. After insisting that it needed to be done correctly, the painter was able to make the gate look somewhat presentable and match the front door. The painter replaced the hinge pin he lost with one that was too short and he acted like it was no big deal. We requested that he replace it with one that is the proper length and he agreed to do so. He has not replaced the pin as of this date. We asked that the outside of the front door be restored to the same condition as inside of the front door. He assured us that it could be done. He put on a lighter stain with a different sheen. The night before he painted the trim on the front door there was a significant rain storm. We told the painter that it had rained and the that the wood was probably wet. We asked him if it was ok to paint on the wet wood. He disregarded our concern and painted the trim. Within two days the paint started to bubble and peel off. We asked Mr. Leck to look at it. He made excuses for the painter saying that he may have not known that it was wet. We informed Mr. Leck that his painter was informed of it prior to him painting it. Mr. Leck informed us that he would "keep doing it until we were happy". That, by the way, was insulting because he seemed to imply that we were too picky or we were the problem. All we wanted was for the job to be done correctly and he did not seem to have the high standards and quality control of his previous reputation. The cost of the painter was almost $1000. I would have paid the same amount not put up with the grief involved with the whole process. We gave Mr. Leck the name and number of a person who puts on storm doors. He had worked with Mr. Leck before. Mr. Leck said he had some people that could do it, so we trusted him. The people who came to install the storm door were cabinet makers and they had never installed a storm door before. They said it couldn't be done. When we informed them how it could be done, they were able to hang the door. The storm door was not centered on the posts. There were significant gaps between the storm door and the front door frame. The cabinet makers made a few adjustments, filled most of the gaps with wood, but it was still off center. We asked Mr. Leck to look at the work. He said that it was the best that could be done. After much discussion, the cabinet makers said they could make it even on the post if they move it over a little. They did move it and it looked good, but the storm door was getting stuck on the threshold. They had to come out a third time to fix the door. In the process of fixing their mistakes, the storm door obtained some minor scratches and dents. Mr. Leck did "waive" the $275 installation charge, but we still had to deal with supervising the cabinet makers, insisting that it could be done correctly, and we were left with a dinged up door. The name and number of the storm door installer we gave Mr. Leck only charged $75 for an installation and it took less than an hour for him to install it. Mr. Leck's cabinet workers took over a week to finally get it right, damaged our storm door, and it was going to cost us almost triple the amount. Mr. Leck is a nice man with a good heart. His stucco crew was outstanding. I believe Mr. Leck should have been supervising the job closer and making his workers do the job right. We should not have had to do Mr. Leck's job. His painters and storm door "installers" needed to be held accountable for their poor work. I felt we paid too much for the painter, but we settled the bill because the whole project had dragged on for over a month and we did not want to deal with the frustration of it anymore. There were some communication issues that were bothersome as well.

Overall not a pleasant experience..... |