Hobgood Contractors Inc

This was the worst contractor experience we have ever had. Our garage was damaged by a tree which fell during a storm. Hobgood Contractors was the original builder of the garage so we chose them to do the repair work despite a sizable price premium versus other contractors and an approved insurance estimate. We had clearly communicated to them that they would need to do the work as laid out on the insurance estimate as the insurance company required inspection because of the price being so far above their estimate. After coming out to look at the job again, they agreed and we were told that they would be out within two weeks to do the repair and would call us in a couple days to confirm the day. Well, two weeks past without them contacting us. So we called and they apologized and said it would be another two weeks and they would call to confirm day. Well those two weeks past, again no calls. So we called again and same story. Well, this continue for two and a half months. Finally we called to tell them we were switching to another contractor at which time they told us they asked us to give them another chance and that the would be out within a week. We reluctantly agreed but told them that we would be out of town for three days so that it couldn't be those days. Well, you guessed it, on one of those days we get a call on our cell phone from a work crew saying they are on-site ready to do the work but no one is there! After explaining to him that we were out of town and we told them not to come on one of those days his response was something like 'Well, our front office never tells us anything. This work just popped on the schedule yesterday.' I asked him not to do the work as we wanted to be their to confirm all was done correctly. He acknowledged this but felt that he could at least do initial work then and then complete it later. When we arrived home we found that they had gone much further than the just initial tear down. However the work which they had done was nowhere near the specifications. Instead of replacing the three sheets of decking they just cut out the most damaged section from one of the sheets and patched in another. Unfortunately, it was two small and left a half inch space which was only covered by the roofing felt and the shingles. None of the sheets were touched. And instead of marrying five rafters, only two were married. The trim was not fully replaced, again only pieces were cut and spliced. And the siding was not touched at all. In short, it was simply a patch rather than a true repair. I asked they neighbor about how long they were out and the response was about two hours. After another week of calls, Hobgood sent out their sales representative. He agreed that the quality of work was "less than perfect" but his story was that it was that they bid on the job (which they defined as patching a hole), not the details on how the job is done. So it was their opinion that the work as laid out on the insurance estimate and other documentation was not needed. Except he did say that it was unacceptable for damaged vinyl siding not to be replaced. When I brought up again that the work would need to be justified to get reimbursement from the insurance company, he said that they controlled the numbers on the paperwork and that they could manipulate them so that the work done would fit the initial amount even though the scale was much smaller. I refused to agree to that. I also asked him if he felt this quality of work was what they wanted for a reputation. His response was that their reputation didn't matter as they could always find enough work 'to make their numbers'. After some spirited back and forth he agreed that the work done was somewhere more in the $1500 range. I agreed to pay them that and an additional $500 more if they would complete the siding portion and marry the remaining rafters. He agreed and said they would have a person out within a week. So I gave him a check for the $2000. Again, we played the telephone game as no crew ever returned. Finally after numerous calls we managed to reach the company owner. He said that they were not sending anyone else out unless we paid them the original amount they estimated for the work. My wife explained to him that they didn't do the work that was originally specified and that we had agreed on $2000 which would cover the patch job done as well as the remaining work needed. His tone and manners became very disagreeable so she just gave up trying to reason with him. We are having the remainder of work done by others.

Initial estimates, discussions, etc all timely and professional. Start was going to be delayed a bit by weather, but to be expected by wet spring we had, and ordering of materials. During the delay, though, I was talking to an excavator they recommended about potential groundwork behind the garage area, and he recommended that it would be easier/better to hold off on the garage building to allow his big equipment in. Builders would have none of that, though, declining to put anyone else in front of me in line for building, and they showed up a day or two ahead of schedule to start the site prep and setting forms for concrete floor.Construction proceeded well from there though, and the guys seemed to keep things clean/etc around the work area. Framing/etc went up quickly, and they were able to get to the siding within a few days. Got to a prickly point with the roof: I had redone my house roof about 7 months prior, and had about 3 squares of shingles left from that. I asked for them to match and use them up on the garage to save on the cost and not have to store them any more. Nope: they matched the style/color name, but not the brand, and didn't use them up; left me with another square+ of the new stuff too. I did appreciate that they chose a garage door opener with battery backup, since I did not have enough room in the plans for a service door. But that was the extent of the forward thinking. We hand contracted to have two sliding windows placed on the side of the garage facing the house and pool. I got a call at work saying "we are finishing up the siding, and by the way we didn't put in the windows because of a building code that says you can't have glass (windows) that close to a pool." There is no such building code: I called and talked to two different people in county building commison, including the head Inspector. Okay, probably a good idea on not having the glass that close to the pool in case of accidents, but at least give me a chance to come up with options, or figure the danger out when drawing up the plans or pulling permits. They did give me a credit for the windows when we settled the bill. After the building was "completed", I started noticing water seeping in through the cinderblock (below grade) walls; when I asked them about it, the response included "you need gutters" (a large seepage site was not on a side that would get gutters) and "we didn't water seal. Did you? I know it needs to be done but that was not included in our price." A week later, we had a big storm come through town and it put a tree through the wall and roof of the garage. I tried to get a different company to look at it, but they were busy with other clients, so I got back with Hobgood. They reviewed the insuranace adjustor's report, and indicated they could get it back the way it was for under the adjustor's estimate. While most of the repairs seem structurally sound, there are a couple cosmetic items, where they reused damaged materials, etc. I didn't notice until after they were paid, of course, but based on the position of the defects, they're not obvious enough to be a big deal (just a sore spot whenever I do happen to see them). We contracted to have "sealer" done: they charged about $1000 to do about 12 sq ft. I also now have surface cracks in the concrete floor; not sure I want to go through the hassle of dealing with them again, including moving all my stuff out to have it repaired.