RM Day Construction Inc

Rick made an excellent initial impression. He represented he worked personally on all projects, and would fix everything until we were satisfied. He promised his crew was respectful and clean and that all employees of his company were covered by his license and insurance. All of these promises appeared to be substantiated by his ratings at BidaBuilder.com, which were all10s, the highest available. Some of his prices were right around what others had proposed (hardiplank installation, bookcases, replace soffits and facia), some were lower (interior and exterior painting, stucco banding, reroof house) and some were MUCH higher (pool gutter, bay window construction, sliding door curbing, wood floor installation). The pool gutter was done first. It involved detatching the pool enclosure frame, installing a new gutter, and reattaching the frame. The gutter worked fine at first, but now it does not. Why Rick installed the gutter before the roof was done I will never know. As of today, it leaks horribly and we still have a waterfall when the rain is heavy. When we had the enclosure rescreened (by someone else), the contractors submitting proposals all told us Rick had incorrectly installed the gutter. The next project Rick did was the interior painting, which took 12 weeks or more (our house is not that big) and was a disaster in many respects. His crew did not know what they were doing. They failed to prime the walls, and were painting the ceiling, wood trim and walls all at the same time, so the colors would run. One bathroom took 3 weeks to finish ans still needed a lot of touch up at the end. One of his crew members, Rocky (who Rick has since fired) caused over $1200 damage to our personal property, by standing on our brand new washer and dryer and denting them, and knocking over a crystal lamp which broke and caused other damage. Rick repaid us, but still. When we made it clear that the house would be painted properly even if it took 12 coats to do it, things smoothed out. Rick painted the kitchen (including the cabinets) and the master bedroom (after the bay window was done), both of which came out great. Although Rick had promised he would be on site working on our projects, for the most part, he was not here at all, not even to supervise, which caused numerous issues during the 6 months it took to complete everything. We also discovered at some point that none of his crew members were actual employees covered by his license and insurance (as had been represented), so he was dishonest about that. We had to chase him for releases from each of them (and still did not get all of them). FYI - if you pay a general constractor, but he does not pay a subcontractor, the sub can still look to you for payment, even though you DID pay it to the GC, unless there is a release. It also became clear that few of his crew members were used to working in a house where people were living. They would walk around outside in the dirt and mud to have a cigarette, then walk around inside tracking the dirt and mud throughout the house. We now have patches on our wood floor in the living room where the finish is worn off. Also, when I negotiated the contract I requested port-a-potties because I didn't want his crew using the bathrooms. Rick said they smell too bad, and his crew would go to a gas station if necessary. They did not get that memo, and continued to use our bathrooms (Rick included) until my husband threatened to fire Rick if it happened again. One morning, Rick shows, walks in without knocking (he never did knock or ring the bell, by the way -- just would walk into my house) walks right by me (does say "hey") as I sit in the kitchen with my coffee and goes straight into my bathroom! The hardiplank took 4 months to install, even though it should only have taken 1 month. Rick only had 1 guy here installing it, because he had his other crew members working on other projects which Rick had accepted after he contracted with us. Time was an issue because we had a deadline from our Association, and we would have been fined if not completed timely, which Rick knew. He ended up going 2 weeks past the deadline, and we had to talk our way out of a fine. The bookcases and window seat, both built by Greg, came out great. The bay window came out great. The roof came out great and only took 10 days, but there were issues there. too. The contract price was $28,000, which specifically included replacement of all rotten wood. Rick also told us that he had tacked an additional $1500 onto the price quoted by his sub for the roof, for his supervision, and because Rick was including the roof in the permit Rick was applying for. Rick was not here to supervise the roof at all, and the sub ended up pulling his own permit for the roof because Rick had not done it properly. So, in addition to paying $1500 for supervision that never occurred, we also had to pay an additional $750 roof permit fee. To add insult to injury, Rick asked for more money because there was more rotten wood than he had orignally estimated. We refused to pay it because our roof contract price included all rotten wood. The curbing for the siding glass doors ended up coming out fine, but there were issues. Rick was not here to supervise either the sliding door installation or window installation as promised. He saw the doors the day after they were installed. A few days later, my husband and I saw that the track extended 3 inches over the curb Rick had constructed. Rick claims that the window guy gave him the wrong dimensions, which is entirely possible, but he should have seen that (1) when the doors were installed (but, he was not here) or (2) the day after. He did fix the defect when we insisted. I don't where Rick found the stucco guys he used to put the banding around the windows but they got cement all over the new windows and left piles of hardened stucco around the perimeter of the house. Rick cleaned it all up 2 weeks later, after we continued to complain. He was not here to supervise them when they were working, which was the cause of the problem. Toward the end, we had lost all of our confidence in Rick. We hired someone else to install the wood floors in the master bedroom and that's how we found out that Rick's price for that was way out there. Rick was going to charge us $9.50 p/sq. ft. to install Bruce hardwood floors he was getting through Lowe's @ $2.50 p/sq. ft. Our floor guy supplied antique reclaimed pine wood floors for $10 p/sq. ft., installed. So, Rick's price was at least $4 p/sq. ft. too high. Rick also tried to bail on painting the exterior and the master bedroom. Two weeks before our Association deadline was up, he demanded that we find our own person to finish those projects. We agreed to do it, but told him we would be taking whatever fines were assessed against us out of his final check, as well as any additional cost charged by others which was over and above the price we had agreed to pay Rick. Rick found a sub to do the exterior, which came out great, and Rick painted the master. When everything was pretty much done, Rick removed a whole bunch of wood trim I had stored in the garage. The wood trim was left over by someone we had hired before Rick was here. When I asked about it, Rick said he was just trying to clean up for me (too bad he missed all the garbage which remained on the patio and around the outside of the house). It took 3 weeks to get it back (Rick said he had put it in his son's storage unit and he did not have the key), and when he did, it looked a little light. Rick claims he has returned all of the trim removed without our consent, but I am not certain that is so. We also caught Rick in a number of little lies. For example, at the beginning of the project, he demanded a $1000 deposit to give to the roofing subcontractor, which we paid, and received a written for it. When I met the roofer 1 month later, HE demanded a deposit. I asked about the deposit I had already paid and he knew nothing about it. Rick said that I was wrong, the deposit was for something else, but -- I have the receipt and a very good memory. The thing is, if he had needed the deposit for materials or stuff for my job, I would have paid it anyway, so I suspect he was just short of money. Another example: toward the end, we began insisting that Rick actually show up to supervise/work as originally promised and advised him that no payments would be made on Fridays -- we would hand over any check due on the following Monday. One week I was chatting with one of his crew members, Todd, about the stucco guys coming the following Monday, and Todd told me that Rick was going out of town that weekend and was not going to be back until Wednesday. We waited for Rick to tell us that he would be gone those 2 days but he never did. That Friday, he asked for a check, and I told him No, he would get it on Monday when he showed up for work. Monday, Rick calls and claims his son had a horrible accident and was in the hospital, he had to rush up there to be with him, he would not be released until Tuesday, and oh, could I give the check to Todd? I don't know if his son did have an accident, but I tend to doubt it. The sad thing is, if Rick had been up front with us from the beginning, about everything, we probably still would have hired him, provided there was some provision made for supervision of his crew and subs. When he was actually here working, he did a terrific job. For the most part, he made sure his crew cleaned up every day, and if anything was not up to our standard, he really did keep correcting it until it was done to our satisfaction. The end result of what we received is probably, at worst, a "B+" (except for the gutter which is an "F"). In terms of value for the money we paid, his grade would probably be a "B" overall. But, because of the issues we had, we can not in good faith give him anything higher than a "C".