Rauser Professional Contracting

Horrible experience. Just want to post a quick review to get this out there. A full review (which I hope to post) will take a long time to write. We used Rauser about 7 years ago and were happy so rehired them to do repairs last year from a water leak that ran through much of the three floors of our home. Long story short, Bill Patteson (who is a personable guy and well spoken) now owns the company (not the original Rauser brothers much to my surprise) - he started the job, got part of it done with terrible quality (which was so bad no other contractors wanted to come in and fix his mess), his subs walked on him and didn't finish, he couldn't get others to do the job, he disappeared with my deposit money/payment without finishing the job. Wouldn't return phone calls, text messages or email. Contacted MHIP and found out that he recently did NOT renew his MD home improvement license. UGH!!

We had our ups and downs.

RPC - Rauser Professional Contracting (general contractor). It is imperative that you read this long review in its entirety. The contract: When general contractor came for an estimate, he promised us everything that we had requested. Then later, when it was too far into the project, he denied all the promises he had made. We had a verbal agreement about the foundation exterior done a certain way; he sneaked something entirely different into the contract, and denied everything he agreed to. Our advice: read the contract carefully before signing, and when you think you understood it, read it again! Our contract stated ?Approx. project completion date: 2 to 3 months after start.? We signed the contract on 9/16/2010 and the project started in mid October 2010. As of 7/22/2011 the project was finally considered complete (after completing the punch list), when we issued last payment of $1,500. It has been almost 10 months since it began, more than three times as long! At the end of the project (including punch list), we were ?pushed? into accepting the work we were not satisfied with by the fear of breaching the contract, contractor?s threat talking to his lawyer, and the overall project duration. We could not take it anymore and we felt helpless. Note, that once he gets his final payment, you will never see him again. The project and quality: The overall project process has been very sporadic since the beginning. The workers came and went whenever they wanted (or when instructed by RPC); the quality of work is subpar, very poor and sloppy. Every time we asked the workers and/or general contractor about work quality they said, "It?s by code". That quality is NOT acceptable by any means, code or no code. Passing the code does not constitute quality; RPC hides behind this code and performs the work utilizing cheapest, inexperienced workers and materials. Unprofessionalism: RPC used a sub-contractor with his teenage son, who has no real professional experience. We constantly heard him instruct his son about how to do things. Later, the father would be talking on the phone, while his inexperienced son was working on our $43,000 project, as it was his school project, destroying the materials, etc. The sub-contractor himself had ?two left hands? without any respect for quality job. Once again, when we questioned the quality standard, the answer was that it is by code and that is all that matters. Additionally, the sub-contractor has thrown several fits, yelling at us. We have seen unprofessionalism before, but never at such a low level. On top of that, it was practically impossible to get in touch with the RPC over the phone or get his adequate email reply. The deck: One of the items in the contract was to rebuild existing deck by adding a new landing and reworking the staircase. The above-mentioned sub-contractor performed the so-called work. Almost every new board and some posts split because he failed to pre-drill holes. When we brought up this issue, first, he said, ?it?s by code?, and then he used wood putty to hide the large cracks, instead of replacing split wood. Eventually, the wood putty dried and shrunk exposing the cracks. He refused to move one of the post/rail sections so it is symmetrical unless we pay extra, although, the contract says to rework existing deck. We ended up with one 12? section and approx. 4? section next to it. The deck landing and stairs are crooked, wood cracks are everywhere. Open issues: As of today, there are still open items. a) Sliding door needs adjustment; it is very loud and hard to open/close. b) The under-deck roof leaks in one place during heavy rainfall. c) There is a water leak between the new wall and under-deck roof. d) The window mantel paint peels off in the office. (newly discovered) As mentioned, RPC has been very unresponsive in general, ignoring emails/concerns and whenever he replied, it felt like he was purposely dragging it out or avoiding us altogether. His replies were often rude and arrogant. a) Slider: RPC said he will address the sliding door warranty issue ASAP - it has been over 2 months - no contractor. b) Water leak #1: RPC has refused to correct this issue, claiming that our under-deck system leaked before. Our 1-year-old under-deck system never leaked as it was built following proper guidelines to prevent future leakage. RPC reassembled the roof in a sloppy manner that lead to the leak. c) Water leak #2 RPC has refused to correct this issue, claiming that ?the area between the deck and the new addition is not required to be rain tight to the below area?. The area between the deck and the new wall must be rain tight, RPC is aware of the fact and he (and his sub-contactors) confirmed it many times during the process. However, as it went for many other areas of our project, RPC promised something only to deny that later. d) Window mantel: In our new office, the window mantel paint already peels off. The reason is when I asked to smooth out a crooked with cracks mantel, he applied a very thick layer of paint to cover it. Unfortunately, I only noticed it after I made my last payment. Summary: We are completely dissatisfied with RPC?s work and service in general. We wanted to file a complaint on several occasions during the process; however, we were putting it off in hopes that RPC will redeem himself. RPC?s last email was the straw that broke the camel?s back, which finally triggered this review. We even had to argue to receive their lifetime warranty at the end of the project (RPC had offered it in the beginning and clearly offers it on their website. Having their lifetime warranty defeats the purpose anyway - he does not show up. RPC lack quality standards, RPC is dishonest, and RPC is unprofessional. We deeply regret the day we had made a $43,000 mistake by signing the contract with this company.

If needed we would use them again, we recommend them to others.