Skys The Limit

Our rental property's door was busted open by the fire department at 3 AM due to fire alarm malfunctioning and the tenant was not at home.  I was notified of the damaged at 7:30 AM by the tenant that the front door lock was broken, the door was damaged, and the door frame was trashed.  The tenant cannot close the door and the outside temperature was below 15 F.  I scrambled to call up the contractors on Angie list starting around 8:30 AM.  I left everyone a message and Rick called me back at around 9:30 AM and agreed to go see the property right away.  He was at the property around 10:15 AM and called me and gave me a price quote.  Due to the emergency, he did not mark up the door and even give me some discounts.  I gave him the go ahead and he immediately went to pick up the door and other supplies and back to the property to work at around 12 PM.  I arrived at property at around 1 PM.  He had the door fixed by 3 PM with brand new lock, door, and door frame.  It was professionally and efficiently done.  He even offer to check the fire alarms for me and will make referral to a certified electrician, if fix is needed.  I can't thank him enough for saving my day!

He was helpful and easy to work with. He was very casual and laid back.

Rick kept in touch via email and always showed up when he said he would. He did the work as described, for the stated price, And finished when he said he would. I am very happy with the work, and will be having him do more work in the future.

They had good ideas and showed up on time. The work was done quickly and flawlessly.

A homeowner's nightmare! We are first time homeowners who wanted to remodel a 50 year old kitchen. Rick Johnson from Sky's the limit was recommended to us by my boss at work. She had gotten some small stuff done around the house and felt he did ok. He charged us $75 to come down to the house. In the beginning, we were so impressed with his sweet talk that we did not even get quotes from other contractors.
We were hesitant to go ahead with the project regarding dust issues as my wife was pregnant but we were assured by him that he would seal off construction area. This is where the problems started. He showed up on a Saturday and said he would like to demo few cabinets. We said OK and the next thing we know he was taking down a wall and there was dust everywhere. We were not even prepared for this demo and he had not sealed off the place. The next time before he came we asked him to make sure he seals off the place. This is where everything went downhill. He threatened that he would not come to work if you care some much about dust!
and quot;He went on to say that I can't help it if your wife is pregnant. It is not my problemand quot;The sweet talker had just turned sour. He freaked us out. We had to beg him to come back to work. He had already taken the entire amount for the cabinets $10K and also another $4k(out of $6k) for the first phase. The minute he got the money from us he started treating us like his slaves. He started working 2 or 3 times a week for 3 or 4 hours. We told him that we don't mind his schedule as long as he finishes the job and does good quality work.
The cabinets he installed were of the poorest quality. He has a heavy hand and does know when to take his finger off the trigger of a drill. He would constantly overdrill into the cabinets and put holes into brand new cabinets. He then covered those big holes with putty trying to patch them and it ended up looking as ugly as possible. We were supposed to get custom black cabinets from the manufacturer for the island. He cheated us by buying regular cabinets and spray painting them with cheap black paint from lowe's. Today the paint is peeling off little by little. He even put cracks and dents into a couple of cabinets during installation.
For little things like removing subfloors and installing lights he started demanding huge amounts of money. He started demanding remaining amount of money for the project without completing various aspects of the project. He wanted me to pay up the entire amount for the granite even before the installation had taken place. When I refused he threatened to stall the installation of the granite.This started getting us suspicious of his intentions. I was forced to give him the money. That day we realized that he took the entire amount from us and vacated the premises with his tools. Apparently, he reacted this way because we refused his quotes for plumbing and electrical as he was charging too much. He also encouraged me not to get permits for plumbing. I put a stop payment on a check for $400 as that was the only money I could save. He has robbed me of thousands without giving me a finished product. He threatened me with a lien for the $400 that he feels I owe him. Can you believe it!
We had asked him to install bamboo floors in the kitchen which he had agreed to. This was to be done before the granite install as the island was oversized granite at 10X4 feet. One end of it was supposed to be on posts, the other half was supposed to rest on cabinets. He dragged his feet till the end with the flooring and had th installers install the 800lb granite on temporary studs. The next day he sent me an email that he won't do the floors. He had planned it all along to screw us up with that. He expected us bow to his every demand. Once i started pushing back he started jeopardizing the project.
The quality of his work was horrible as we realized in the days following his abandoning of the project.
1) Simple things like electric outlets were not properly installed. They were not flush with the wall and were crooked.
2) The french door was not insulated. There was a draft of cold air coming through.
3) His trigger happy finger nailed straight through the subfloor that he installed due to which i had to renail most of it.
4) Even little things like applying drywall was uneven.
These are only some of the things that are horribly wrong. He has stopped responding to phone calls, emails and mails. He has also not provided us with warranty for any of the items he installed.
I also did get my electrical panel replaced through him. He subcontracted it to an electrician who did a wonderful job. As long as he does not do the work you will be fine.
Bottomline he can do little things around the house but he is not experienced for projects like this. He will brag about things he has done for others but as far as I am concerned, that is total bs. This guy has taken us for the ride of our lives in the first few months of homeownership. I missed out on a few months of some beautiful pregnancy time because of the stress he put me through. Save yourselves time and money. Avoid like the plague. Look elsewhere. Don't make the mistakes I made as a new homeowner. Never pay more than 1/3rd of the project amount as first payment and alsways talk to multiple contractors before deciding.

Update 3/20/2013: Since http://aswinsaliar.com seems to be in the works and claims are being made I thought I will update with a copy of a letter that was sent to sky's the limit in December outlining in detail all my grievances. No response was given to this letter. I will also upload delivery proof.

Rick Johnson pulled all the proper permits and then got everything signed off on by the inspector. The price was the same as he quoted us. No surprises. All messes were cleaned up when he was done. We love our new windows.