KM Shield Construction Services

I hired KM Shield to replace my two kitchen windows with pre-built historic wooden windows that were the same width but slightly shorter than originals so I could add counter space under them. I made clear to owner Mel Turcotte that I wanted the top height to remain the same and that original style and details should be duplicated. It was important to me to honor the craftsmanship and style of my 120 year old four-square home. Mel asked if I wanted him to replace the exterior sills and showed me where there was wood rot. I agreed. He also asked if I wanted him to replace top exterior trim and I told him no on that. They were OK and I didn't want to have to deal with recreating the original crown molding that was part of it. During the course of installation, they damaged interior trim pieces and needed to replace them. The original wood trim comes in different thicknesses than current lumber. So at first he asked if it was OK to replace with a 1x that is really 3/4" thick. At first I agreed, but after seeing it, told him it just didn't match and I wanted to match the original. So I contacted the same historic window builder that had built my windows and they provided true 1x for the interior trim. All by way of showing that I had repeatedly made clear how important it was to me to stay true to the original. When they were done with the work, I paid them and they left. But later I noticed that Mel had installed the exterior sill so that it was falling in towards the house instead of away from it. I let him know and he came back to fix it. At that time I asked him why the interior and exterior windows sills were butting up against each other instead of overlapping as the originals had been. He insisted he had replaced them exactly the same way as they were before and became angry and defensive. However that was not true. And the proof was multi-fold. #1 - I had requested that he save the original sills and I pointed to the paint line and where it stopped and bare wood started because that was where the top sill overlapped and covered over the bottom. #2 - The widths were significantly different. What he installed butting up to the window was about two inches wide. What he had removed was about 4 inches. #3 I am a landlord of multiple older homes and do a lot of my own work, including on my home. I had replaced windows in my home before. I knew what I was talking about. Finally when he had no answer to explain the difference in the two sills, he angrily said that he did it that way all the time and that was the way to do it. But there is a big difference between a bead of caulking protecting against water infiltration vs. overlapping wood. The latter is going to hold up a lot longer and better than the former. In his defense, he had mentioned that he had been installing vinyl windows for 20 years. But vinyl windows are a much simpler install than older windows which have more parts to them. So I'm sure he was not as familiar with those things. However he had the originals to guide him, and he didn't take the time to make sure he was doing it right. But the bigger sin for me was the pretense that it was done 'exactly' like the original, and the bullying to cover up instead of just owning it. That bs probably works on most people who are not familiar with construction. He's very good at it. But honesty and character matter. All of that was not great, but not worth a confrontation, so I was going to let it go. But later I noticed that he had cut the top exterior trim by half to fit it in and cover over another mistake he had made. For some unnecessary reason, instead of keeping the top framing as it was as had been agreed to, he raised it about 3 inches. I had noticed that earlier on the inside because the plaster repair made clear that the windows had been raised. I am 5' tall. I didn't want and didn't ask for a higher window. When I asked him about it, he said that there was a gap in the framing that was unnecessary so he just raised the window. But he never asked me before doing that, and I would not have agreed to it. Again not worth a battle, but not OK. But the final straw was discovering that he had turned the top exterior trim into a stub of what it was, so that it was actually narrower than the crown molding above it. That was the only way he could fit the window trim in because when he raised the height, he bumped up against an overhang above the window so he had a finite space to work in. Once again, he did not ask me before butchering the trim. I would never have agreed to that. I told him that was not OK. I wanted the original width of the trim. He couldn't do that without lowering the window. He refused. So I told him then that I would hire someone else to do it and I wanted my money back. He refused. So I said then I would take it to Small Claims Court and let others know what my experience had been. The next day I get a text that he is interested in working out a deal to pay me back minus accommodation for some of the work that was done and he would have his business partner send over an agreement for me to sign. I agreed to that. It took weeks. When I get the agreement I discover his idea of paying me back is for less than one-third of what I paid him. I paid him $2150. They were offering $600. So I counter-offered to request $1650 which would have credited him $500 for work on the siding that I could still use. (I paid for the materials so that was not an issue. It was just for the labor. There was not a lot of work involved in replacing the amount of siding necessary to make up the difference between the old windows and the new. There was less than a foot's difference in height between the two. So that seemed like a fair offer. But I would have been open to another counter-offer. It never arrived. I waited two weeks and never heard back. Long and short of it. If you are hiring Mel to install vinyl windows, he'll do a good job, as long as everything goes according to plan. But if there are complications, he will not be honest with you, act angry and intimidating and bluff his way out the door. One final little detail that was telling about his character. I tried to stay out of their way while they were working but came into the kitchen one time and noticed they were getting ready to seal the interior back up with drywall and reinstall the trim. At that moment they were putting in fiberglass insulation. I noticed that they weren't hitting a gap directly underneath the window and asked him about that. He acted like he didn't understand the question and instead said he couldn't put in insulation on the sides because that's where the window weights go. I said I knew that I was asking about directly underneath the window where I could see daylight. He sidestepped saying he'd been installing vinyl windows for 20 years and knew what he was doing. When I still repeated the question, he said he was going to use spray foam all around the window. But that wasn't true. When trim was removed in process of redoing his work, the gap was still a gap. Such an unnecessary fib. All he had to do was stuff in some fiberglass there. But he didn't bother. That kind of bluster probably works for him most of the time but it doesn't make it right and it's not the type of person I want to work with. FYI, it ended up costing me an additional $500 just to replace the original exterior trim - not only for the tops that he butchered but also for the sills and the sides that were now too short after adding correct fall for the sills. The trim was all unusual thicknesses that I had to go to a specialty woodworking supply store to find. UPDATE it's been settled, contractor reimbursed me in full.