D.A. Builders

To put it simply, it was horrendous. This couldn't have gone any worse. Dana first came to my home in February of 2011 to assess the damage being caused by severe ice build-up. He explained that this ice build-up was the root cause of the leakage of water coming through my dormer and entering into my home and out through a ceiling fan. Dana said that he would send his employee Chris up to my home and will remove the ice to stop the leak until the warmer weather arrives and we can reconstruct the dormer to stop the leaks and ice build-up. Chris arrived a day or two later expecting to remove the gutters only and not remove the ice. He came equipped with only a hammer and a ladder. I should have known at this point things weren't going to be good. We explained that he was to remove the ice as Dana promised. Chris expressed is dissatisfaction as he complained that "he wasn't supposed to be doing this **** today" after getting off the phone with Dana. Chris climbed up on to the ladder and began hacking away at the ice with his hammer - end result: holes in my roof. Dana refused to come back and fix the damage to the roof until we committed to him that we would allow him to take the job on the dormer. In June is when the repair on the dormer began. This was a problem before it began. First of all, he had me make out the initial check to his wife Sara because he was working on a job in Rhode Island and wouldn't be there to get the check into the company's account for materials. His employees arrived to start the work. They stripped the dormer of the siding, covered the wood of the dormer in tar paper. They built out the top of the dormer so that now the water is running down the crown molding at the top of the dormer, and down behind the siding and back into my home. They then resided the dormer and said they were done. At that point, we had to have an argument with Dana because his employees refused to replace the shingles on the area of roof that Chris damaged in the ice removal back in February. Finally, Dana instructed them to repair the damaged shingles. His workers banged several nails into my roof, which is causing water to come back into the home. The flashing around the dormer was done incorrectly and nailed into wood that had been rotting - so that now they are coming out of the roof and the water is contniuing to come into the house from the initial source prior to hiring Dana. The flashing was not laid down and then covered over with shingles as is should have been - it is fully exposed. There wasn't any ice and water sheild laid down per roofing code. Throughout this entire process I had been requesting that he supply me with a detailed estimate which detailed the costs of each line item which he refused. I had to threaten him with the MA Home Improvement Laws as well as educate him on the appropriate way to write an estimate under the laws set forth by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In this invoice, he charged me for his worker's comp insurace, $500.00 and for Federal Income Tax of $600.00. I was appalled. I immediately told him that this was not going to fly and he had to correct it. He threated that he was going to stop the work entirely - I should have let him. I told him that I would consult an attorney if he failed to complete the job. This guy is a nightmare. A year later and my roof is still leaking and I have severe rot and my entire dormer has to be reconstructed yet again. I need to have the roof prepared where his workers ruined it by driving improper nails into the roof. They also were supposed to fix a decorative beam in my master bedroom that was coming away from the wall. Their repair solution was to drive two huge lag bolts into the beam when he had originally told me that he would remove the beam and the molding from the ceiling and insert a 2X4 inside and adhere the beam to the two by four and replace the molding on the side of the beam. I am now out 4075.00 to this hack job of a contractor. He sent alcoholics and drug addicts to my home to construct work improperly. I highly advise that NO ONE use this person for anything at all. He will take your money and make your problem worse. I now have much more damage which needs to be repaired and is going to cost me even more money now. Homeowner beware of D.A. Builders. Just the simple fact that he operates out of Skyline Apartments in Dracut should have said it all. He doesn't even own a home and he thinks he can repair them. Shame on him for scaming people out of their hard earned money.