Century Construction

Century Construction bailed me out from a horrible situation with my rental house. I hired another contractor to reconstruct our aging front porch. We realized after a few month this prior contractor wasn’t licensed, didn’t pull permit or submit proper plans. I called Aaron at Century Construction and the fixed everything. He worked with the city of Lansing to submit the proper plans and obtain building permit. They did a wonderful job on finishing the reconstruct, even correcting prior contractors mistakes. Price was cheaper and work completed in a timely manner.

We contracted Century Construction for a restoration of our master bathroom, we had several other companies bidding over the project but one of the owner’s Dan seemed to make the better case and was in the middle price range. He then subcontracted the job to Scott Fedewa to complete the tile and installation of our shower. The project took much longer then quoted because Dan had too many projects for Scott at one time. Even when Scott informed Dan that our bathroom was complete he had to return to replace several damaged tiles and several other issues that he claimed could not be fixed. When questioned, he said we should have informed him of the issue before he was complete because it would be too difficult to repair now. Over months the grout was cracking and falling apart throughout the tub and shower and his only fix was to over grout. This was only a temporary fix so he went on to use silicone on the areas. This too was only temporary and soon gave way. Dan repeatedly said they would correct the problem only not to. He even tried to have Scott’s insurance company pay for the repair then his own but neither company would approve it claiming it was due to poor workmanship. Dan asked for us to get quotes from other companies and even sent out his own estimator but didn’t like what their solution was. The last contact from Dan was he would have another contractor repair it but after scheduling an appointment no one showed up. Dan has not returned any of my last messages, texts or emails. I wouldn’t recommend Century Construction or Scott Fedewa to do any repairs or restoration. They could care less that I am a Disabled Combat Marine Veteran. Please be very careful when dealing with either of these companies.

Do not use this company. They did everything to try and get my insurance money, do as little as possible, and without follow the proper procedures. For instance, I specified that they take pictures of everything before starting any work, and they promised to do it. However, no pictures were taken. They did a very poor job itemizing everything, and multiple employees advised me to make sure to get that done, because they had gone to court for other jobs because of it. Initially, they told me they would take the items from the basement and put into storage cubes, that were supposed to remain on the property, as a free service. However, one of the workers told me that they gave the cubes to someone else, and that the new plan was to put my items into storage at their warehouse. As they were removing everything, the assured me that they were inventorying everything, but that was not the case. The items were mixed in with four other families and we are still missing some very valuable of our stuff to this day. I continuously asked for lists of everything and was provided with nothing. After I explained that I no longer wanted to use their services, they tried to work around me with my insurance company. In fact, they still charged me for carpeting that they never installed along with equipment that was never removed.

After leaving a message for Dan Tobias of Century Construction to engage his services for the items above, Dan returned my call the next day. He was able to accommodate a site visit within 2 days with his plumber. They arrived on time and were very friendly and courteous during the site visit. Shortly after leaving, I provided Dan an email summarizing my expectations of what was being asked of him and what I expected to have included in the estimate. As the site visit was just prior to the Christmas holiday, there was some sense of urgency to try to receive the estimate prior to the holidays for review and provision to the insurance adjuster. Although I needed to follow up with Dan once regarding the status of the estimate, I did receive an estimate a couple days after he was at the job site. For this type of work, Century Construction apparently uses a commercially available software called Xactimate for the development of restoration services. The estimate received was a multiple page report that listed items (with short descriptions and industry abbreviations) as they appear in the software. From the perspective of a homeowner, and someone that doesn't use the software, this was not very readable or clear to understand the services or materials represented in the estimate amounts provided. As such, I had questions to the content and services represented in the received report. I was able to reach Dan later that same day via phone to walk through the estimate. Doing so raised questions regarding material, material costs, and identified items that were requested to be included, but weren't. Unfortunately, related to the items omitted from scope, Dan implied that my request to include them in his quote was compromising his integrity, even though the quote was for services I was asking for. Although we were able to continue a professional conversation beyond that, I learned later in the conversation that in conflict to direction from me to Dan to provide all estimates to me only, he provided the estimate we were reviewing to my insurance adjuster as is, which was missing items already established by my adjuster to be in scope for the claim. We ended the conversation with Dan setting the expectation he would follow up with the adjuster and get back with me. As this conversation took place near end of the business day, on the last day prior to the Christmas holiday that my insurance adjuster was in the office, they used this incomplete estimate to settle the claim and process a check. Although the intent was to provide me the settlement and not have the holidays delay receipt of payment, because it was based on an incomplete estimate, it further complicated follow up activities and my ability to move forward securing the services of a contractor to start the work. Despite follow up emails and voice mails to Dan, I did not receive any response from him regarding the incomplete quote, or committment to continue to make the appropriate modifications to the estimate. I continued to email him information in support of the additional items to be included in the estimate, including supporting documentation from my insurance adjuster. Only after contacting the main offices of Century Construction and requesting the confirmation of their intent to complete the estimate as requested did I learn Dan was out of town. I did, however, after contacting the main office, receive an email from Dan that committed to getting back with me on 1/3/11. When I didn't hear back from Dan on 1/3/11 as he indicated, I contacted the general email address published by Century Construction, and cc'd Dan to confirm whether or not he was back to work after his time out of the office. On 1/5/11 I received an email from Dan that indicated he would not continue to work with me, would not make the requested corrections to the estimate, and stated I lied to him regarding the position of my adjuster regarding inclusion of items in the scope of work covered by my policy. I was truly shocked by this position, as I had aniticipated the situation could yet be salvaged. Dealing with any home item is not without issue or stress - no matter how big or small. I'm thankful that our insurance work is minor compared to other disasters - but for what started out as such a positive interaction and first impression of this company saddens me to only become a victim of what I can only say is a lack of professionalism and integrity. I respect the choice of a contractor to not accept a job, but what I find saddening is the lack of integrity to not make what was done incorrectly right, and the lack of professionalism to make unfounded conclusions at the expense of someone else's character.