Greg Frey Construction

We hired Greg to build a new construction house for us. It has been a complete nightmare. He had given us four different close dates starting back in June and it is now October and he is still not completed. He has no financial backing and cannot complete jobs on time. We had to back out of the deal because he can?t complete the house. Now we have to take him to court to get our appliance and EMD money back because he refuses to pay us. His realtor is just as bad. They are the clown show of Scottville. Stay away from Greg and Jamie. They are a nightmare.

We hired Greg Frey Construction (Ludington, MI) to replace and extend the second-floor deck on our house in Oceana County, MI. This included replacement of the current rubber roof over the entire project with the addition of a metal roof (~50%), and new Trek deck (~50%). During the proposal process Greg stressed that as a general contractor for over 25 years, this would be an easy project and he has installed numerous decks (rubber, metal and wood/composite). The entire experience was extremely disappointing due to numerous errors, rework and very hostile communications from Greg and his 23-year-old son who conducted most of the work. Unfortunately, his son was unsupervised by Greg during the entire project, which led to most of the problems and rework. On numerous occasions, Greg informed us that he had just purchased several lots and was quickly building numerous million-dollar homes that took his time off our $90K project. I’m posting this review due to their poor performance as contractors and willingness to take care of the remaining numerous issues. Plus, due to their lack of or hostile communication style the entire project has been extremely frustrating. The project has deteriorated to a level that is no longer acceptable nor tolerable. For over a year. We have sent multiple emails, txts (documented) and phone messages regarding these issues with minimal to mainly no responses. We have tried on numerous occasions to try and work through these issues but it’s impossible when there are no responses or willingness to repair their work. We have given Greg multiple opportunities to repair the issues but now are forced to use another company to fix the issues due to the lack of willingness to honor his stated warranties. This will cost us an additional $25K for needed repairs. We are forced to take Greg to court for the damages incurred. We had a process agent try to serve Greg the affidavit for court but he had his young son answer the door to tell the agent his dad was in the shower. The Server waited for over 25 minutes and another individual in the house came to the door to let the agent know that Greg was not coming to the door. Ongoing issues at hand concerning the workmanship of this project: 1) Leaking of deck/roof through the tongue & groove ceiling into our sunroom: The rubber roof under the deck and roof was not properly installed and will need to be replaced. 2) Rear Gate between metal roof and deck: required numerous repairs as the inside is falling apart, paint continually peels and is not level. 3) Holes on post: There are several posts where the contractor did not measure correctly and left holes on the post. They tried to repair it with putty, but the repair has changed color and can be clearly seen.

Extremely well.

Went great, workers were very nice and worked long hours to get the job done.

• Quick response, and very good follow through. High quality workmanship. Provided good ideas and options. Prices were reasonable and crew was very professional.

unknown

He completed the job very well and overall did a good job, however, we had several problems after the job was completed and he would not come back for repairs in a timely manner. We had siding falling off the house several times and the biggest problem was the front door wall leaked very badly. I took pictures of the problem and his response was that it was just an and quot;unusualand quot; storm. My husband had to try and find the leak. This was a summer home and the leak just kept getting worse, over the last summer the door wall leaked so badly that it ruined our hardwood floors. When I called him about it (which was now the third time) his response was and quot;your off warrantyand quot;. I had to hire another contractor to fix the problem. There is now another water leak in another part of the house, which I also had to hire another contractor to repair it.

Greg Frey of Greg Frey Construction recently completed his fourth job for us and we are very satisfied customers. A year ago, we bought a cottage in need of renovation. Greg was recommended by the realtor we worked with and we first began a month-long project that involved removing old carpets, adding new wood laminate flooring, wainscotting and new paint. Greg did a great job, so when we decided we needed to replace roofing and add a fence to our yard for our dog, we again turned to Greg. Finally, we just completed (May 2013) an eight-week addition, adding a new bedroom/bath and small office space and extending our porch. With each job sucessfully completed, Greg earned our respect, trust and kudos for great work, leading to bigger, more costly projects. He has never disappointed us and in fact, has exceeded our expectations, extra important because we were overseeing from out of town and this was not an inexpensive undertaking. We already have Greg again working on another job overseeing a big landscaping project. Greg, and the contractors he employed, were hard working, dependable, polite, and great to work with. Greg further impressed us with his strong focus on great customer service and making sure each time that the finished project was the best it could be before completion and final payment. He also has a great design eye, which we didn't expect and it was a bonus. We will not hesitate to hire Greg for future projects, and we have at least two more to go. Greg/Greg Frey Construction delivered everything asked of him and more. We spent a lot of money on the past year's projects and we are very satisfied customers.

UPDATED 05/28/14 ROOF IS LEAKING EXACTLY WHERE IT WAS BEFORE- BAD JOB!
Also after being ordered to clean up the mess, one Monday, he drove up and emptied his truck out into my Mothers yard waste container, i HAVE NO WORDS FOR THIS KIND A PERSON. We are still cleaning roof debris from around the house a year later+ I also must state that I can prove that all of the very nice response by Frey in this review is pure fabrication-- none of that happened. I can prove 100% what I say with text messages I saved, phone records and court documents. I never appologised, he came during weather that was unsafe and we had to argue with him constantly to not expose the house and his workers to it, it was unsafe. The house has a double driveway AND a full turnout cut which can fit a truck and boat trailor -so there was plenty of room other than her lawn. He stated in court he does not offer a senior discount, even though I had copied it from here earlier. This guy was a nightmere and I don't know what we'll do now that the ceiling in the bedroom is completrely ruined from the ROOF LEAKING! I plan to bring this fiction to court.
original post:
The 2 workers doing the job were very nice and seemed professional. Greg was difficult, whiny, argumentative and a bully. Let me explain- The night before we were to meet with Greg after receiving his bid, I get a call at 11pm from some girl wanting to know who I was. Not having time for childish games, I looked up the culprit on Facebook- it was Greg's fiance apparently. I called Greg immediately to tell him not to bother showing up, we didn't need this bologna, she answered and continued her and quot;fun.and quot; I waited until morning to call him again, this time he answered. I explained we no longer wanted to do business with him (no contract was ever signed at this point). He became aggressive and then apologetic afterwards (I should have just hung up). After a lengthy conversation about how broke he was and how badly he needed the job and how he bought all the materials already (not sure how that was true as we never picked out a shingle at that stage) and how he has 6 kids to feed- he agreed to keep his personal life in check and promised she wouldn't be calling me in the future. I then agreed to go forward with this work and recommended my Mother, 87 years old, sign his bid. His bid was a better price (at 5500.00) then the other one we had gotten and he agreed to patch any leaks immediately so we could get through the holidays without damage inside the home. The job didn't start as planned (early January), it was put off until the worst possible weather week at the end of January- below zero and blizzard conditions- I called him to say we didn't want people on the roof, let alone exposing it during such harsh conditions, and to please wait until the following week when it was going to be sunny and almost 40. He became so irate at the time I finally hung up on him after telling him we'd call the police if he showed up during the storm. His argument was he was too busy to come the next week, so I suggested the week after, or after that or after that but not when it was dangerous. I believe the work started 8 days later, he cancelled the first day because it was sprinkling in the morning and he left a message saying they cannot work in the rain (note: an hour later, at 9am it was sunny and 40). They began that Tuesday, during a thunderstorm downpour- I could not believe it!! They torn off half the garage roof and did not shingle it or cover it, it leaked water all over our belongings. He said they'd never tear off any section of roof that they could not re-shingle that same day. This was not the case at all. Occasionally I did see a tarp sorta covering up an area after they left. I should tell you I am a photographer, so it's documented and date stamped in the RAW files. Jumping ahead.... Greg calls and says the roof needs new boards (not in the estimate and it was not like he had not done prior work on the roof recently). He added 1400.00 to the bill... of course on here he swears there are NEVER add on's. He said 900.00 for wood and 450.00 labor, the bill reads 1400.00 - I guess we like to round up?? He also added 100.00 for removing the trailer debris -not our responsibility or anyplace on the contract signed. Also he added 50.00 for a gutter I was told would be free. (After the gutter was actually installed fairly OK, I agreed we would pay 50.00 for it) At this time of boosting the bid, I brought up that he advertises a 10% senior discount and my Mother did not get it- at 87 years old, I am pretty sure she qualifies! He became irate again, saying things like and quot;have some compassionand quot; and and quot;I have 6 kids to feedand quot; -Later on he swore he doesn't offer a discount (after he went on line and changed it- TY Angies List for dating your pages!!). OK..... we are close to done with the roof, he never came over with a new contract to be signed until they were and quot;doneand quot; -he then handed my Mom the contract with all these extras on it and she called me. Greg didn't wait for me to drive 5 minutes over before he left, we waited an hour or two for him to come back, but he never did. My Mom knew we were not going to finish paying until the damages to the house were repaired and we ironed out the issues on the total bill due. He agreed to repair the screens they had ripped and remove the plastic garbage that had been blowing in the trees for weeks and a few other things. I got stuck with the job of filing the 8 massive holes and tire tracks (from pulling trailers out) left in the front lawn because he didn't park his debris trailer or parts truck on the extra driveway. And then I get to reseed the mess because it could not be done in winter- he left me 6 bags of dirt and a small container of open grass seed. Personally I don't feel I should have to do this, I have enough on my plate as it is, and I certainly will not have my Mother doing it. One last huge issue- the MESS left on the lawn- totally covered in shingle debris everywhere (except the first area they did on garage side). We were told we'd never even know he had been there- we can tell. There is in many places 3-8 inch pieces every 2 -3 feet...and piles of tar debris. It looks hideous and it looked that way on top of the snow when they left too. I am going to have to clean some of it this weekend (April 5th) because we don't want our dog to eat anything. .... After Greg fixed some of the issues, I told him I was going to let someone check out the job before mailing the check and also we needed to correct the contract. He blew his stack completely then. He was calling over and over and over, 5- 6 times in a row after I had already talked to him. He yelled his name in my phone messages. That was a week after he had done the repairs. The following week he tried calling me over and over at work, I wasn't going to have some hothead yelling on the phone when I was at work (I own a retail store) so I didn't answer phone Saturday. Monday morning Greg Frey had the nerve to go to my Mother and say if she didn't give him money right then, Square Deal Lumber was putting a lien on her home. My Mother called me crying and very upset at this confrontation, she didn't know what to do. I call this elder abuse. I immediately stopped what I was doing, went to square deal lumber and talked to them. They knew nothing about anything at all, only Greg had been calling them (I guess to have them lie for him? dunno). There was no lien, they had no issue with us at all- it had only been 2 weeks since the job was and quot;finished.and quot; Might I add they are a great bunch of guys at Square Deal with a good reputation.
After the lumber yard I went directly to the police. I let them see my phone log of how many times he called over and over even after talking to him. I told them what he had done to my Mother and the issues with the job. The officer called Greg and told him he could no longer contact my Mom, that he needed to talk to me to iron out these issues, but no longer was allowed to call multiple time

Greg Frey provided us with a free estimate on re-roofing and re-siding our house. He arrived at the time specified and was friendly and cooperative. His estimate was half of what another contractor provided us with. He incorporated changes into our initial estimate and work order quickly via email. He worked to our required completion date in spite of bad weather. The site was cleaned up very nicely (we did a unscheduled check.) He did make a suggestion about the color of the roof which we found to be very helpful and which we took. He used the materials specified by us on the siding and roofing. We have a process in place to see how the roof weathers but can't comment on that at this time. He made some minor changes after we looked at the project when we came to inspect it and completed those within a few hours. In addition to the roofing and siding, he changed the skirting around the bottom of the house to cement board and painted that and some areas that did not get sided but which needed new paint. He also spotted some weak places in the roof and added support where needed as well as removing and replacing some rotten wood on the sides of the house and the porch. He covered exposed wood with siding which should increase the life of the wood. Greg and his crew were on hand when we inspected the house. He didn't know we had been out there a couple of times before the official inspection and that we had a couple of neighbors report back to us with pictures of his progress. He also sent us pictures which was very helpful. He was always ready to respond to our questions and concerns - very important! Only two negatives: some windows on the upper story were unlocked and a photo fell off the wall in the tv room due to the amount of pounding on the outside wall. We locked the windows (could have been left unlocked by the cleaning lady) and got new glass for the photo. No big deal. On the whole, a very good experience but won't know about the quality of the roofing until we see signs of leaks as the winter progresses.

We received three estimates and decided to go with the company we felt was the best. That was Greg Frey and he was the middle estimate. Roofing was started and completed within two days. After seeing the job done on the roof we decided to replace the old gutters with seamless gutters. That work was completed in one day. He also did some repair work to the chimney.

The workers were awesome. His estimate was very reasonable. They did not need a lot of supervision, we had one minor issue, brought that to Greg's attention, he took care of immediately, and we never had any more. There were two other workers here, they knew what they were doing, Greg wasn't here, and the job went rather well. I give them high ratings and would use them again in the future.