Salah Services

Description of Work: The contractor started out brilliantly. He orchestrated subcontractors like a seasoned symphony conductor. Siding went on, but there was a flaw. He never fixed that flaw and there was no refund to compensate for the flaw, to my knowledge, despite contractor having acknowledged it was his responsibility and needed to come out of his pocket. However, aside from that one flaw, the job was well done, despite the fact that the original subcontractor attacked home owner. That subcontractor was not actually fired until the contractor himself was also attacked. The contractor also put in windows that were to be superior in quality. They are lovely and some were custom made for the house, however, they still let in a quite a bit of cold air. The windows were to have been painted and damage to the dry wall, incurred during their installation, repaired, but contractor refused to do either. He did at least refund the money for the lack of paint. No compensation was given for the damage to property and no cure was made, despite multiple opportunities to do so. A fire place was damaged in the process of installing the siding, irreplaceable plates were broken (priceless) and art that was sculpted by the homeowners son was broken. No effort was made to fix the fire place, no money was given to have it fixed and the only recompense for the broken plates was to have one glued back together (badly) by the contractor and the glue tube left with the home owner for her to fix the remaining damage. The contractor installed two wall heating units. This went well except that the dry wall was also damaged and the contractor refused to repair or compensate. A ceiling fan was installed in the homeowner's bedroom. Its a beautiful fan and the installation went well. A vent was installed in the main bathroom of the home. It took several attempts to get it right, but, in the end, it was made right. The contractor painted a wall a different color to let the homeowner see if she liked it. However, he only applied one coat to cover it up again, promised to paint a second coat, but later refused to do so or refund money already paid. Two doors were to be installed. He painted the installed doors and left paint on the carpet wherever he went. He neither fixed the carpeting nor reimbursed home owner for the damage. He was paid to paint the entire master bedroom and was paid in full for the project, which was to include painting the closet doors. He refused to paint the closet doors and he refused to refund the money he was paid to do so. He painted other aspects of the master bedroom. The job had blotches in multiple places. The contractor did come back to "fix" it, but some blotches remain and there is paint all along my carpet. He refused to compensate me or help me get the paint up. The contractor was paid to paint the main bathroom, calk the bath tub and fix tile work from a previous contractor. He did do a lovely job of painting the walls. He did clean up tiles that had been marred by the previous contractor, but, contrary to his promise, he did not do anything to finish the rough edges of the tile work. He did calk the bath tub, repeatedly, to the point that it got disgusting, only to tell me that the tub should never have been calked to begin with. I asked him to remove the calk that was quite unsightly. He did, but immediately after doing so, told me that my surrounds were improperly installed and now water would get where water should not go. That was terribly frustrating. He did, however, remove the calk without further charges and he did initially work hard to make the calk look as good as possible. However, he did not refund the money for doing a job that should not have been done in the first place, nor did he offer a solution for the problem that I paid to have solved but was not resolved. The contractor was paid to paint a hallway closet. The paint has since run. He refuses to fix it or refund the homeowner's money. Contractor was paid to build a wall and install a door in the basement. The wall has unfinished trim and the door trim does not reach the ground nor match the existing trim of the wall. Contractor left nail holes, he left trim unfinished, and he refuses to cure or compensate. At some point, the contractor took on a major contract with another company. The contractor told the homeowner that she would have to accept him showing up only one day per week, due to this new, big contract, but, not to worry, the home owner would be given a full day of service on that that day of each week. This never happened. Sometimes, it would be 10 days before the contractor showed up. The homeowner was never given a full day's work on any occasion when he decided to show up. The contractor always had family issues and other crisis that were more important than home owner. Some times, the contractor would tie up the home owner for hours stating he would arrive at one time, only to show up a different time and then only stay 10 minutes to state his "plan" for the next time he would come. The contractor was paid to have built an entertainment system. The home owner felt that it was terribly smaller and less useful than the original design, however, it was so beautifully built that the home owner accepted this high quality piece of furniture. However, despite it being contracted in early December, it took home owner being used as storage, being billed "unforeseen" additional costs and the end of February for the piece to be built and made functional. Contractor constantly arrived at the premise in tears, complaining about other clients and about employees and even about his own family. Contractor would do this in front of the home owner's mentally retarded child.Some of this is the homeowner's responsibility as she viewed the contractor as a friend and permitted a great deal of it to happen. The contractor had originally contracted to do all of homeowner's snow removal. This changed without consultation or permission. Out of the blue, home owner was presented with strangers and a huge plow (for less than a half an inch of snow). Homeowner resented a unilateral change in the contract and really resented strangers being sent to her home without any notice at all. Homeowner complained and was met, for the first time, with nasty, aggressive, insulting behavior from the contractor. Homeowner sent too many emails to contractor. In some, home owner was overly emotional as she had been called "family" just days before being told she was wretched and a pain in the neck and a slew of other nasty descriptions. Homeowner was caught off guard. The change was sudden, abrupt and was not preceded by any dialogue asking homeowner to change any of home owner's conduct. Homeowner then, correctly or incorrectly, alternated between threats and appeasements. Nothing moved contractor towards change. To the contrary, in the second to last face to face meeting, the contractor was nasty, unpleasant, aggressive, rude and all in front of a 3 year old, mentally retarded child. But, despite homeowner being alleged to be so horrible, the contractor stated he would make everything right and he would be honorable and fair. Just a week later, he quit, refused to refund money much of the money he was paid in good faith and trust for jobs that were missing, one aspect or another. Similarly, he refused to compensate for damage he or his subcontractors caused. The contractor is brilliant. He can orchestrate any number of subcontractors beautifully. He has at his finger tips a master carpenter who does breath taking work. The contractor is generally good at painting, but not brilliant at it as demonstrated by the blotches and runs in the paint jobs he did here. He has a good understanding of how things work and can assess issues quite well, but appears to lack the personal skill to carry them out. One would do just as well, in my opinion, to operate as their own general contractor rather than put up with the emotional ups and downs of this contractor, the two faces he seems capable of wearing, and the damage he is quite willing to leave in his wake. Photos available upon request. If you do business with him, be mindful that he throws tantrums, talks your ear off, assures you that the relationship is solid, when, apparently, he is secretly harboring animosity, and he has NO problem, whatsoever, walking off the job with damage left untouched and no money as compensation. He takes up time complaining about the work, about employees and even his own family. In my opinion, he plays victim as a means to gain sympathy, but then seems to have none for anyone else. I am not the first contract he walked off of, as he personally told me that he quit another contract before he quit mine.