V McCarthy Carpentry Inc

In a word: poorly. McCarthy never read the instructions and gave only cursory attention to the plans. He was uncommunicative and a bully. It seemed his main interest was in getting his draw payments. The mother of all his errors was his bringing the addition floor in about 1.25 inches higher than the existing floor. He had to pad the original floor to raise it to the level of the new floor. This resulted in thousands of extra pounds of dead weight being placed on the bearing structure. It also threw off the steps, both up and down, and the hearth, door thresholds, and kitchen cabinets and appliances. In short, nothing less than a nightmare. He tried to get us to help pay for the work to fix his mistake. The doors were installed by his employees, and - without exception - they are out of plumb, out of square, or out of rack. They drag on the thresholds or drift open or closed. And there is nothing to be done about it now. When we decided to use another contractor for the kitchen cabinet installations, things really went downhill - and fast. Although we had a right to make the change, and did so on the advice of our architect, McCarthy and his employees took it personally. They lost whatever little interest they originally had in doing things right, and just put forth the minimum effort. The exhaust fan from the new bath does not vent to the outside, but to somewhere in the (closed in) attic, adding moisture and condensation during the cold weather, and eventually causing rotting of the wood. McCarthy's roofers left gaps in the caulking which resulted in a leak from the melting snow last winter. They promised to return to fix it but so far (7 months) have not done so. His electricians left live circuits terminating in boxes here and there hidden from the inspectors. His plumbers reversed the hot and cold water connections, and used plastic pipe instead of copper. They grudgingly correct this problem, but then took their resentment out by clogging the main drain from the house with rags and debris. His floor mechanic left a big bulge in the wood floor he installed and refused repeated requests to make repairs. His mechanical contractor oversized and did not properly balance the air handling system, resulting in hot and cold spots. His insulators left gaps in the insulation which doubled our heating bills last winter. Both McCarthy and his subs were extremely messy, and never cleaned up after themselves. They were unnecessarily destructive in their demolition process, inflicting a great deal of collateral damage and throwing out items which had value. His employees threw greasy widow parts on the white carpet rather than putting down a cover. The carpet had to be replaced at our expense. His contract called for no smoking on the job, yet one of his employees brazenly smoked and threw his butts everywhere. This is the same one who was a maintenance drinker and showed up at 7 am smelling of alcohol. His carpenters did a shoddy job on the woodwork which developed gaps within weeks and had to be repainted and caulked at our expense. Requests from us to make repairs were routinely dismissed or ignored. He left the place a total mess and we had to spend thousands of dollars in cleaning and restoration expenses. Long story short: run - don't walk - away from this guy, even if he IS the low-bidder.