Doyenne Constructors, LLC

Things started well. The wall was torn out, and edges showed no termite damage. The ceiling was exposed less than one foot to check for termites and no evidence was found. The wall and ceiling were repaired. The wall looked great. The sidewalk was torn out, mostly by hand to spare the surrounding landscaping. Where heavy equipment was brought in, there was some damage to the lawn. They seeded and rolled this area to repair damage. The old sidewalk was to be prepped, cleaned and sealed, according to the written bill. It was only sealed, and the result is splotchy and discolored. A concrete specialist evaluated the problem and reported that the existence of old sealant caused this, and the sidewalk should have been stripped of old sealant and prepped before the new sealant was applied. The water leak and insulation repairs seem to have been handled well. Most of the problems stemmed from poor understanding of the details of what was to be done and what result was desired, plus failure to clearly write out all charges and get them authorized by home owner. There were errors in the bids, which were corrected and the original bid was accepted and signed. Because this was a situation of having to find the extent of damage, the work was more extensive than what was covered in the original bid. The bill for this work was clearly identified. In addition, the owners decided to add work during the course of the project. These changes created room for error and confusion. We were given bids that were duplicated but with different prices, or a price was reduced after the scope of the work was understood, or multiple different options were provided from which to select. When it came down to the final accounting, there was confusion and disagreement about what was owed. More on that later. One decision was what to paint in the garage - one wall, all walls, walls and ceiling? We decided to have all the walls painted, and NOT the ceiling. The ceiling was popcorn, and the original bid included reapplying popcorn to the section that was replaced. Because all the walls were being painted, it was not necessary to have an exact color match for the walls. We have written documentation of this decision, though no signed bid was completed. The project manager painted all the walls brilliant white instead of a 'beige' similar to the existing color. It was jarring and unpleasant. The project manager agreed to re-paint with the color of my choice, at no additional charge, if I obtained and provided the paint at my expense, though he did agree that he should have been more clear about the color. On to the ceiling. After applying the popcorn finish to the one foot new section of the ceiling, they went on to paint the new section brilliant white. (This occurred after our decision was communicated in writing that we only wanted to paint the walls, and not paint the ceiling.) This looked bad, as the rest of the ceiling is not white. Of necessity, the rest of the ceiling was also painted white. This caused the popcorn to separate, necessitating removing it. Subsequently nothing would adhere to the ceiling, and to their credit, they researched and found a company that was familiar with the problem and brought them in to apply an oil based paint and do stomp texture. We have written documentation that this was to be no expense to us. The project manager was very nice, and was willing to work with us, and negotiate an agreed upon price for work. He provided us with estimates, with an occasional error, which he recognized and agreed to correct. In exchange for giving him some items from the garage, he delivered an item of furniture to consignment and some old pavers to a local friend. When the work was completed, we were not satisfied with the clean up in the garage. The interior garage door opener was not aligned properly and would not activate. The service door was allowing light to shine through by the seal. The sidewalk looked bad. We no longer live on site, and were not notified of work completion. When we brought our concerns to their attention we got the following response: "I was at the house on Saturday and looked at the aggregate discolored sidewalk that you are concerned with. There is discoloration on the old sidewalk that was not installed by us. You asked S*** to seal the existing sidewalk while he was doing the new sidewalk. As your expert stated the sidewalk needed to be stripped before coating, but S*** did what you requested. If you want us to remedy the problem we can do it, but this will be a change order with a cost to you. The garage door opener was working fine when our guys left the job. The service door that we replaced was working fine and closing properly when we left the job. I feel like the job was cleaned up when we left and everything was taken care of. My concern is we have been done with this job for over a week and I am just hearing about these additional complaints. The guys did a lot of things at the job site that were not included in the original scope of work to be completed. Such as hauling off items and doing extra things that cost us time and labor that you were not charged for. If you want these items looked at we will be glad to, but there will be an additional cost involved." When we received the final invoice, there were items on there twice, two of which had been bid twice with different prices. When questioned, the items were initially explained to be exactly what they said, which made them duplicate charges. when this was pointed out, they claimed to have mislabeled the charges and the description was changed. The new description; however, was a charge for things that were included in the original bid, or for which we had documentation that we were not going to be asked to bear the expense. The billing office has not been willing to acknowledge any error in the billing. They continue to insist that everything on the invoice is a true and justified charge for which they expect full payment. We sent 20 pages of documentation of charges and communications supporting there not being a charge for items on the invoice, with a check for the balance we agree is actually owed to them, and a notation that the bill should then be marked as paid in full. We got the following response: "We are in receipt of check #1916 which you have designated as final payment. Our charges were all valid and not doubled as you stated. However, considering B**** & S*** have both spent excess time to try to pacify and explain construction charges to you and you still have no understanding of the bill, I have made a decision to mark the remaining balance as BAD DEBT, voiding any warranty on the project." To be clear, neither B**** or S*** have spoken to us at all about the billing dispute. Another claim that is not supported by fact. The threat to void any warranty is hollow, as you can see from the response we got when there was an issue with the work that was done. As of this writing, there is an ongoing billing dispute.