Gawthrop Builders, LLC

Initially all was rosy. They got started right away in May of 2000 and were very helpful in sheparding me through the process to get approval from the Historic district commission for the renovation and construction, as the 200-year old home is in Ellicott City. After a few months, however, I began to get reports from my new neighbors that the crew frequently went multiple days with no one on-site and no work performed (I was not yet living in the house and thus was not on-site). I finally - come fall 2000 - had to get demanding and insist that work speed up, as I was paying rent AND mortgage as well as the construction costs. Clearly I paid the price for being a novice and not insisting on a finish date for the work to be placed in the contract. On one occasion I showed up unannounced to find the drywall subcontractor working unsupervised by anyone from Gawthrop, and his men were grinding out their cigarette butts on the original hardwood floors in the 200-year old attic. The drywall work was so poor that even my untrained eye was able to spot most of the seams and screws, and Gawthrop finally had to fire the subcontractor and rehang most of the drywall. Nevertheless there are still places on the second floor of my home where the screws and seams are clearly visible. One evening in fall 2000 I arrived at the site to discover no one at the property, yet a kerosene heater had been left on and blowing full blast in the upstairs of the addition, in an attempt (I assume) to speed the process of drying the spackle applied during the new drywall work. When I called my contact at Gawthrop he told me he was currently at the site. When I mentioned that I actually WAS there and he was clearly NOT, he stammered that he had JUST left and would be coming right back. The crew parked on my neighbor's land (as they had been specifically instructed on multiple occasions NOT to do) and one crew member went so far as to clean out his car, dumping the trash on my neighbor's lawn. On one occasion they also used another neighbor's picnic table for their lunch hour, without an invitation or permission. I moved into the house in November 2000, even though not all the work was finished. At one point the upstairs windows were left open and a ladder up against the house - and I arrived home to find my television had disappeared. At that point I began working from home since I clearly could not trust the crew with any care for my belongings. When I gave Gawthrop the paint colors I had selected for the addition (painting was in the contract), I was told that I could only use ONE color, even though the addition contained three separate rooms and a long hallway. Clearly I should have been a lot tougher with the contract, but to me at least this seemed a little ridiculous. After most of the work had been done and most of the bill paid, it was very difficult to get them back to finish up the minor work that had not yet been completed. As a result I ended up bringing in someone else to do the minor things that remained just to spare myself from dealing with Gawthrop again. Two years later, as I was having a washer and dryer installed on my second floor, my new (and wonderful) contractor called to tell me that the roof of the addition had never been finished. There was ice and water shield installed, but no shingles had been installed over the shield. As a result I had developed a significant leak that was discovered when some drywall was removed to install the washer/dryer. I had to bully Gil Gawthrop into refunding me the $3,000+ it cost me to have S and K Roofers (who are also wonderful) to come in and repair the problem. He insisted that I sign a release before he would cut a check, which says something about the confidence he clealy did not have in the work his company did. What makes this doubly galling is that Gawthrop had come out to the house within the first 6 months after finishing the addition to check out the problem my chimney sweep had reported - that the new chimney Gawthrop put in the addition had never been flashed. Gawthrop reported back to me after their visit that they had gone ahead and flashed the new chimney. It never occured to them to tell me the truth - that, in fact, not only had that chimney not been flashed, the area of the roof around the chimney had also never been shingled. I suppose I could try to believe that they were able to install the flashing without ever noticing that the same area had no shingles, but it does strain my powers of belief. Within the first year of construction I noticed that the second floor of the addition had begun to sag, to the point that most of the closet doors no longer fit properly. It took a while to find a structural engineer for the job, but in 2009 an engineer went through the blueprints, examined the structure in the crawlspace, and discovered that the second floor of the addition was not supported on two footers (as the plans indicated) - it was actually supported entirely on a double crossbeam. No footers. I have since gotten an estimate for that repair in excess of $3500, and plan to have that work done this summer. So, here's a list of the issues that STILL remain in the house/addition: 1) The new fireplace installed in the addition is not up to code. The hearth is too small for the firebox. As a result I have never used the fireplace. 2) Many visible drywall seams and screws still exist in the addition. 3) The master bathroom fan was never vented to the outside - it just blows hot moist air into the insulation just under the roof. 4) The foundation of a 200-year old ice house of granite block, intact when I bought the property, was so damaged by the excavation Gawthrop did next to it that it collapsed. To take DOWN the collapsing wall cost me $3,000, and I now have a pile of rubble where the ice house once stood. 5) The drain on the right side of the addition was not installed properly - rather than draining to the street it drained behind a set of steps, which are now collapsing from the resulting erosion. 6) The upper floor of the addition is sagging from inadequate support; footers will need to be poured in the existing crawlspace and the second floor will be supported on the new footers. In the past decade I have dealt with many tradesmen and a few contractors, with almost uniformly great results. I have written very few bad or even mediocre reports for Angie's List as a result. But the experience with Gawthrop was dreadful. I would be happy to provide pictures of the unfinished/rotting roof, dragging closet doors or the collapsed ice house, or provide the structural engineer's report to anyone who might be tempted to use this company in the future. Checking their Maryland court records (Google "Maryland judiciary case search") will provide additional information that could also prove helpful.