JDC Construction and Remodeling LLC

Service Provider Response

I would like to start by saying, that in this business, and any business for that matter, you cannot please everyone. Our number one goal is to provide professional remodeling services with end results that we can all be proud of. Fortunately for us, this is the first and last unhappy customer that we have had. We have spent years building a reputation that is one of professionalism, honesty, and work that is second to none. With every proposal we supply a full page list of previous homeowners that we have worked for in the past for our current potential customer to check references. We pride ourselves and our company on our work, our word, and the quality end results. As far as this project and review is concerned, I would just like to give our side of the situation. First, yes, there was a change in the plans per customer request that required the sink to be moved from the right of the vanity, to the left. The plumbing was roughed in for the middle of the vanity (48" vanity) so that it could service a left or right sink. It did not have to be redone, nor did any framing. When the customer was on vacation, there was never a time that we weren't there for 3 days. He had someone come by daily for 5 minutes to check on things. It just so happened that one of those days he came by when we were out to lunch. However, it was clear that we were working because all of our tools were out in the bathroom. As far as the cleanliness, there is going to be dust, noise, etc when having a home remodeling project done. However, we are diligent about our cleanliness, and that is one of the staples of our company. Of anyone we have worked for, that is one of the main compliments we receive is how clean we are and how much it is appreciated that we clean and remove tools at the end of each day. If it is a large project, we even hire a cleaning service to clean all of the affected floor and rooms at the conclusion of the project. As far as the disappearance of personal items, (plastic sawhorses) that we supposedly took over the weekend, I don't even know how to respond to that. The customer called us over one weekend to see if we knew where they were and we stated that they were in the basement, where they were when we started the job. On Monday, when we showed up to work, they were exactly where we thought. I personally think it is slanderous and ridiculous to accuse a company that shows up with an enclosed trailer full of tools to do the job, of stealing a set of sawhorses that never left the property. As far as the comment that the quality was "decent", the homeowner told me on more than one occasion that the quality of work was remarkable, the only issue was timeframe. And the shower tiles needing to be replaced were flaws on the tiles, not due to our craftsmanship. Now lets jump ahead to time-frame. Yes, the project did take longer than estimated for a number of reasons. The main reason being the customer decided after the project was underway for a week, that instead of the tile tub deck, they would like to use marble. We informed him that was fine, but there would be a lead time on the marble. I passed my stone companies information on to him, and he dealt with them directly. The lead time on the template, fabrication, and installation was 3 week minimum. That is done by a outside company and is not in our control whatsoever. The customer ok'd the stone companies proposal (which I got him my cost on the stone) and gave them the deposit check. Now, had this been marble for a vanity top or something of that nature, no big deal. But when you are waiting 3 weeks on a tub deck, that puts things on hold. We could not finish the tile, which in turn meant we could not finish the trimwork, tub panels, and a variety of other things that all ties together. So there are 3 of the 4 weeks we were over the estimated time frame right there. Also, when we opened up the walls, we found that the exterior wall of the home was out of level by 3" from floor to ceiling. We could not leave it that way. The structure was fine, but the finish of the tile would have looked horrible. You would have seen the corner tiles from bottom of the shower to the top getting larger and larger into the corner up to 3". We made him aware of the situation and fixed it for a perfect finish. Might I add we did not even charge him for the unforseen problems we fixed. There was also a "in home" vacuum system that we uncovered behind the wall of an old closet that was now to be the new shower. It had to be relocated before we could move forward with the shower. We asked him to contact the vacuum company to have it relocated, and 2 days later, he did it himself. There are always things that come up in a project of this nature, especially on a 100 year old home, that you cannot forsee i.e. bad wiring, framing issues, bad plumbing, settling etc., that is why the time-frame ALWAYS states estimated. Therefore, yes, we did go over the expected time allotted for this project, but it was for a 3 week delay per customers request for marble after the fact, and fixing issues for free that made the end result immaculate. I will take the heat for going over a timeline to give someone the end result they deserve. Now, onto the panels around the bathtub that were the incorrect size. Again, I passed one of my cabinet suppliers information along to the homeowner. He and his wife met with said supplier, picked out what they liked, ok'd his renderings and paid the money. we received the drawings only after they had their meeting and decided to move forward. I'm not sure how we would be to blame for this mistake. The panels themselves were the correct size, but the recessed part of the panel was in the wrong location. A mistake, yes, our companies fault, no. The permit comment is inaccurate as well. We were not waiting on permits, because we had them for the start of the project. As a matter of fact, we had the inspector on site before this incident to go over a proposed idea to fix some bad roof rafters (another fix we did at no charge). I will admit, the communication could have been better. I unfortunately was dealing with a death in the family and my father battling cancer at the time, which in turn left all of this on my business partner. It takes two to make the company run seamlessly and unfortunately that was not the case on this project. However, even with all this going on, I ALWAYS answered the customers calls and dealt with his concerns. As I said in the beginning, you cannot please everyone in this world no matter how hard you try. I take pride in the fact that 99.9% of our past customers are 100% happy and continue to refer us to their close family and friends. I feel that we did all we could in this situation to make it right, but the bottom line is in the homeowners eyes, there was no making it right. I stand behind my work 100% and would be proud to show off this bathroom as one of JDC's completed projects.