BJ Construction Group

DO NOT HIRE BJ CONSTRUCTION OR JUSTIN FARA. This is a long post, but if you don’t have time to read it, here are the bullet points regarding our gut-rehab of a single family home that we hired BJC to complete: - Our project was supposed to take 6 months. We figured some delays would inevitably happen and it would take maybe a year. BJC missed every single solitary deadline, whether imposed by us or Justin/his project managers. It took almost 2 years before we could move in and the house is still not finished. Nor is our final inspection scheduled. - Once Justin has enough money from you, he will cease communicating with you. It was almost impossible to get on the phone with him or his project managers during our project. - Justin told us on October 13, 2020, that BJ Construction “suspended all operations” on September 1, 2020. This is false. He avoided communicating with us for the last 3 months without a call, email, or text message. And then he said his business was basically closed. This is a lie. He continues to operate as BJ Construction and is actively working on getting more projects. He just chooses to pretend like we don’t exist. I have the email from him stating he suspended operations and will share it with whoever asks me. Also, Justin and his last project manager both lied to me about the project manager not working for him any longer. I have first-hand accounts as of mid-October 2020 that BJ Construction is operating and that the particular project manager still works for him. - Justin will charm you with his stated experience and the Buildertrend app/website. He will tell you it’s how everything will be tracked. This was promised to us and it wasn’t used, despite numerous requests to use the app and better track the project. - We had three project managers during our construction. And each of them was never onsite every day. This led to countless errors and increased costs and delays to fix errors. They did not authorize a foreman who was on site every day to handle decisions or communicate with us to make decisions, and we, as the owners, were managing the project day-to-day for over a year. - Justin failed to work closely with the architect we hired (who is great) to review the plans that were going to be submitted to the city for permits. He failed to recognize or budget for a required water line upgrade (~$17,000, that we did do) and a gas-line relocation charge (~$25,000, that we didn’t do). - Justin completely mismanaged the funds for our project. He rarely paid his subcontractors on time, which caused a number of them to repeatedly walk off our job. He had checks bounce. We had to front some payments to the subcontractors directly just to keep them working. Meanwhile, Justin never communicated directly to us that he had financial trouble. If you don’t believe me about the subcontractors, message me, and I’ll give you their names and numbers and you can ask them directly. - All but one subcontractor was replaced during our project at least once. We had three different electricians working on our house, which led to things being missed (like no A/C in May when it got hot). - He lied repeatedly to us about ordering materials (when he didn’t have enough money to do so) and lied about when subcontractors would be on site. These financial issues caused massive delays to the project. - Ultimately, Justin Fara and anyone that works for him is not to be trusted. Do not believe the positive reviews you read. Take stock in the negative one about a couple’s kitchen remodel where BJ screwed the couple and they lost tens of thousands of dollars to fix his mess. That is closest to the truth. Here is the long version: In January 2018, we hired BJ Construction ("BJC") to remodel our home from a soft-converted two-flat to a single family home. We interviewed three other general contractors and based on reviews, recommendations, due to their use of the Buidlertrend app (which was to track all aspects of the project), and the ballpark project estimate, we hired BJC. The saving grace for us, despite what you’re about to read is that we financed the project with a construction loan. I can’t overstate how important this was, as you’ll see below. That was our only check on BJC to try and get the house finished without getting fleeced worse than we were ultimately fleeced. BCJ promised to complete the project in 6 months' time from the start of demolition, in July 2018. The first problem arose in October 2018 when our rear porch was torn down to rebuild it and expand the footprint of the house. Prior to signing the contract with BJC, we asked Justin to inspect the foundation of the rear porch to ensure it was sound and we wouldn’t have to adjust our budget to repour it (for a cost of close to $20,000). He had a “foundation guy” come and tell him the foundation was sound. As soon as the porch came down, it was readily apparent that the foundation guy failed to check one entire side of the porch, that had he done so, would have found that we did in fact need a new foundation for what was the porch. Justin deflected blame to the foundation guy (that he brought, no less) and because it wasn’t budgeted appropriately, we had to pay a significant amount of money out-of-pocket for the new foundation. We would have budgeted the project must differently had we known of this issue in advance, as we had requested. It took BJC over a month to just get a quote to repour the foundation and it was ultimately poured in December 2018, which was when the project was supposed to have been completed. It went downhill from there. In January 2019, when the project was to be in full swing with the exterior framing of the addition up, there was another two months of unexplained delays in getting the new windows in the house, installing plumbing, rough electrical, interior demolition and framing. Nobody was in the house working for at least two months. And all we were told by the first project manager (“PM1”) was that he couldn’t get the subs to come to the job site. Justin, meanwhile, was not responsive to our requests for information, was out of town, working on other projects, or God-knows what excuse we were told. Ultimately, no noticeable progress was made and we were told PM1 was fired. This was in early Spring 2019. This, after asking repeatedly where we were and what were the updates, proposed schedule adjustments, and anticipated completion. The second project manager came aboard (“PM2”) and we were promised things would move much faster now. The next big issue came with the water line to the house. In the plans submitted by the architect to the city, they called for an upgraded water line from what was existing in the house. Justin failed to review the plans before they were submitted to the city and failed to identify during the proposal phase of the bid that the water line needed to be upgraded. This cost us another almost $20,000 out-of-pocket that we did not anticipate. Again, had Justin done his job and told us that up front, or at a minimum, reviewed the plans prior to submission to the city, he should have told us the cost and we could have adjusted our budget accordingly. He did not and now we were stuck having a house completely demolished, no heat, exposed to the elements, no new windows or rear patio and mudroom doors installed, and now being six months behind schedule. Once the water line was finally installed, it was now late Spring. And still, we had very little electrical work, plumbing work and no interior framing completed. The next problem had to do with the flooring. When we scoped the project out, we wished to keep the original hardwood floors from 1920 in the front half of the first and second floors and run new hardwood to match as best as possible and keep the originality and charm in tact. Justin’s demolition subs mis-measured and cut the hardwood where the new walls were supposed to go at least 6 inches away from the studs. Now, the floor could not be kept in tact at the new wall locations due to this error. Furthermore, due to the fact that the house was open to the elements through

BJ's was timely and professional. Very easy to deal with and reasonably priced. I am in the real estate industry and often have a hard time finding the best resources for my clients, but would not hesitate to recommend them with 2 thumbs up!