ROBERT POWELL CONSTRUCTION INC

The experience started out well enough.  Bob initially presents a very amiable, trustworthy demeanor.  However, beware the wolf in sheep's clothing.  Throughout the construction process my trust began to deteriorate, as I witnessed some of Bob's corner cutting methods.  The window installation became the tipping point.  I noticed that rather than take the time to chip out around the window openings, as should be done, Bob's men simply jammed my windows into the existing openings as they were, causing a tight fit that caused many of the windows to not align as they should.  They scratched and dented my bronze-finished windows in several areas and then tried to cover it up with black spray paint.  I looked at the screws that Bob was using to install the windows.  They appeared too small and had been sunk at an angle.  I asked Bob about this and he gave me a rather disdainful response, literally saying, "Give me a break."    I also asked him about the windows that didn't line up correctly.  He passed the buck and blamed it on the manufacturer.  It then took a period of about two weeks of back and forth between Bob, me, and the window manufacturer, before the issue was resolved with the manufacturer coming out to my home to reinstall a window properly and show Bob the error of his ways.  Upon which Bob turned to me and said he'd finally do it the right way.  The next day Bob replaced all the small screws with those of the right size but complained that they were too big to sink properly.  Realizing that this was going nowhere, I later brought in the manufacturer at an additional cost to correctly mount the windows, which they did easily, cheaply, and efficiently.  I realized that I should never have taken Bob up on his offer to install my windows in the first place.  

After this, I became suspect of Bob's work.  I brought in another contractor to check the back wall of my house to see if Bob had correctly framed up the windows and French doors.  The windows and doors had begun to leak soon after their installation.  Upon close inspection, I could see that they were all sloppily, hastily, and inadequately sealed.  The new contractor, while looking at the leaks found something even more shocking.  Bob had not bothered to properly reinforce the wood frame around any of the windows or the French doors.  The new contractor had to tear off all the drywall and rebuild the wood frame according to South Florida code.  I live in a zone visited by level 5 hurricanes.  Framing and reinforcement is everything.  Bob knows this.  By not taking the time to properly reinforce my windows and doors, he leaves my home vulnerable should a monster hurricane come our way.  Bob would probably say, "Give me a break."  Yet, his nonchalance doesn't adequately address his willful disregard for the welfare of my family.  His carelessness borders on criminal negligence.  And Bob, at this writing, is very fortunate that I don't press this issue further into the realm of legal action.

Bob, as it turned out, has absolutely no problem in taking his customers to the cleaners and back again.  He would regularly ignore my requests for itemized invoices.  I should have halted all construction at this point, but I was pressed to finish by Summer's end.  I wanted to know the cost of replacing my soffits.  Bob stalled on returning me an itemized estimate, yet he began the work anyway, taking full advantage of my ignorance in failing to halt construction.  After having ripped out all the old material, and having finished half the job, he presented me with an invoice.  My jaw hit the floor.  The invoice was many times higher than what I expected.  Alarmed, I asked Bob why so high.  He gave me the usual material cost overrun response.  I asked him to lower the amount.  He said that he'd see what he could do, and I, being ignorant, believed him.  I then set out to do my own estimating on all stages of the work done.  I soon found out, too late, that Bob was marking materials and labor up by 100%.  On top of that, he was then adding a hefty contractor's markup.  

Bottom line: Robert Powell Construction did a lousy job, charged me exorbitant fees for it, and then took the money and ran, leaving me with the only option to hire, and pay, someone new to fix all his mistakes.  In a nutshell, Bob does not take responsibility for his own work.  He'd rather pass the buck.  It's cheaper.  I pointed out a window that had been installed incorrectly.  The window was angled so that there was significantly more sill space on one side than the other.  Bob said that he would fix it.  He repositioned the window and drywalled around the window frame.  I inspected the window and found it satisfactory.  Only later, after the new contractor had come in and removed all the drywall did I truly discover just how little Bob Powell cares for his customers.  His method:  In order to straighten the window out Bob unscrewed the top bracket  attached to the window frame between the two casement windows.  He them proceeded to jam the window with such force that it bent down upper inner corners of both window frames.  His men quickly covered up this mess with drywall, never even bothering to reattached the top bracket.  All the brackets, it turns out, were never even properly attached with the right sized screws.  But that's Bob for you.  It's too costly to admit your mistakes.  It's too costly to actually do the job right to begin with.  It's cheaper to do a crappy job, endanger your client, and if something ever goes wrong, so what, just blame it on someone else.  He does a disservice to honest contractors everywhere, not to mention to guys named Bob, my father included.