AWM Remodeling

I initially received three quotes on covering my back patio. Alex was the most expensive out of the three so for some odd reason I decided to go with him. I was going to be out of town during the time frame he wanted to start. I gave him permission to enter my backyard and start the project and left him the down payment in my grill outside. I returned a week later and NOTHING had been done and my check was still in the grill. When Alex finally decided to show up, his appearance lacked professionalism to say the least. He showed up to my house in shorts, a tank top and wearing socks and sandals. The 4x4 support post were put in. My first concern was when they attached the cross beam to my post. Instead of attaching the beam on top of the post, they attached it to the side with NAILS! I voiced my concern with this and he gave me a bunch of BS as to why the beam could not go on top of the post. My second concern was the way the rafters were attached to my existing roof. They could not be attached to the end of the roof due to height restrictions. Therefore the rafters were required to go 4 feet up my existing roof. A 2x8 was attached flat to my existing roof. The rafters were then cut at an angle and attached to the 2x8. My concern was only about 2 inches of the rafter was laying on the 2x8. Again I was assured this was "structurally sound". After the project was "compete", I noticed several flaws in craftsmanship. Nail that were too long were hammered down at the end. Rafters were cut differently, not one rafter was alike. All in all it looked horrible. At this point I just wanted them gone, so I paid them and sent them on their way. 2 years later one of the support post is cracking in half due to the way the weight is bearing down on the post. This problem is from the beam not being attached on top of the post. I called Alex to voice my concerns. After all...his work is "guaranteed". It took Alex 2 weeks to come out. Surprisingly he sees no problems and refused to fix anything. Going back to the beginning, I was told by Alex that I did not need a permit. I take full responsibility being naive and believing this. Come to find out, a permit was needed and will need to be obtained when the structure is repaired. By the way....the way the structure was built by Alex will not pass city code....

I hired Alexander W. Muth (AWM Remodeling) to remodel my mobile home, including work to two bathrooms, an office, and a bedroom. Tile is not recommended for mobile homes because the particleboard subfloor is not strong enough and because settling can cause grout to crack. Since I wanted tile in my office to accommodate my office chair, I paid him to replace the particleboard subfloor in my office with 3/4" plywood, level the floor, lay Hardi Backer cement board, tile and install bullnose backsplash. He failed to level the floor such that there is a dip between 1/4" - 1/2" within a two-foot area, even though I had Henry LevelPro self-leveler and primer and other materials available to him onsite. I purchased Flexbond Crack Prevention Mortar and specifically asked him to use it to accommodate settling in hopes that I would not have to deal with cracked grout and floating tiles. Instead, he used regular mortar and became hostile when I reminded him that he was supposed to use the Flexbond, stating that there was no difference. If there had been no difference, I would not have paid a big difference in price. He continued to use the mortar in spite of my objection. For the tile, I purchased grout to match the two colors of tile that would be used in the various rooms. He actually used three different colors of grout in my office, including some leftover grout that I had left over from a previous tile job in another room. He found this and the mortar on my property and simply used them without discussing the matter with me, even though I had instructed him what supplies to use. He never informed me that he had run out of the color that I had bought for my office. In my office, instead of setting whole pieces of tile at the room's entrance, as I requested, he actually began in the center of the room and worked his way outward. This wasted a lot of tile and took him a long time, but I respected his creativity and let it go. However, he failed to continue the pattern into the matching bullnose backsplash. He just set the backsplash randomly, and he actually installed some pieces that are less than one inch wide, which made no sense at all, and the floor looks ridiculous. I asked him to align the bullnose with the tile while he was installing the bullnose, but he refused, simply stating, this is how I do it. On the closet support wall, the piece that he installed does not even cover the face of the wall, and he just filled it in the big gaps with a bunch of grout. This one little piece of tile actually shows three different colors of grout. One of his workers used the same tile and bullnose backsplash to tile my second bathroom. However, he did continue the pattern into the backsplash, and it looks nice and professional. Mr. Muth broke the window in my office, such that the window will no longer stay open without a stick to support it. He and his workers beat my backdoor by slamming it shut without turning the knob repeatedly over a 7-day period, such that the door no longer closes properly. I paid him to patch some holes in a bedroom closet. They simply slopped some joint compound over the holes and did not even sand it. I had to pay someone else to finish the patch job. I paid Mr. Muth to trim a window in my second bathroom and purchased enough trim for each side to have a whole piece of trim. However, due to a "bad cut" the trim was installed with two pieces spliced together on one side. It looks tacky and was unnecessary. I also contracted Mr. Muth to completely demo my master bath and remodel it. While performing the demo in the shower, he cut the PVC vent pipe and some of the 2x4s in the wall with his saw. He failed to remove pictures from the wall on the other side of the bathroom wall while he beat the walls so severely that the whole mobile home shook. As a result, a professionally framed picture fell and broke. Mr. Muth drew up the contract between us and specified, "any major plumbing or electrical issues to be addressed by licensed plumber or electrician". He contracted to install light fixtures and fix an electrical outlet that was hanging out of the wall. He was incapable of doing either. The job did not require an electrician. A handyman was able to perform these jobs with no problem. While performing the demo in the master bath Mr. Muth was incapable of turning off the water to the tub and said that I would have to hire a plumber to do it. This was a very simple task that did not require a plumber. Mr. Muth's contract required that I pay him $1000 in advance, which I did, and required intermittent payments upon completion of other phases of the work. On a Thursday at noon, after having arrived after 10:00 a.m., Mr. Muth declared that he was leaving for the remainder of the week and demanded an additional $1000 in advance of the terms of the contract, stating that his employee needed to pay his bills, that they did not even have enough gas money to get home, and arguing that it was costing him a lot of money to commute to my home. (He was commuting 60 miles one way to my home, but he worked only 2-5 hours per day. I was not responsible for his travel expenses. He knew the location when he bid the job.) I told Mr. Muth that I would not advance money ahead of the terms of the contract. He became very hostile, stating that there was no reason to stick to the terms of the contract. I told Mr. Muth that they could demo my master bath that afternoon and the next day, and I would pay the $800 called for in the contract. Mr. Muth began the demo of the bathroom, but at the end of the day, he declared that he would not be back on Friday to complete the demo and again demanded money in advance of the terms of the contract. The partial demo had exposed mold, which they did not treat or remove. Therefore, I had to close off my bedroom and sleep on the sofa. They had performed less than one-half the demo, but I, nevertheless, paid him $600 in advance of the terms of the contract upon his insistence, so that they could get home and his employee could pay his rent. Mr. Muth took the money but did not complete the demo. On Monday morning, he neither showed up to work nor called to explain. At 11:00 a.m. I called him and he said that he would not be showing up and guessed that he probably should have called me. (This was not the first time this had happened. He had previously asked to work on a Saturday, and I cancelled plans to accommodate his request. He neither showed nor called to cancel.) I terminated our contract, effectively immediately. Therefore, I paid Mr. Muth in advance for work that he did not complete; the work that he did complete was defective; and he caused damages to my personal property. In addition, before I offered Mr. Muth the contract, I informed him that I would require a copy of his insurance and his driver's license to which he agreed. He subsequently claimed that he did not have a driver's license because it had been suspended due to a D.U.I. However, my bank assures me that they would not have cashed my check for him without a valid driver's license.