JFK CONSTRUCTION, INC

Terrible to work with.Took much longer to build than was quoted. Concrete inspection failed twice. As a result the floor is not level and is out of square. Framing inspection failed. To save costs, we said we would stain the wood. We thought all of the wood was provided which we stained. Then more wood was brought in which they installed without first letting us stain it. We had to stain the main beam once it was installed because of their poor communication. Framers removed the attaching house roof & left it uncovered. It rained that night and we had rain in our kitchen and living room. Ceiling & walls had to be redone. Painter they hired was a poor communicator. Never came when he said he would. When he did come, he managed to paint our kitchen curtains and painted shut one of the ceiling kitchen vents. Left his equipment for days in our porch area, kept saying he would be by to pick it up. The only time Fred came by was to pick up payments, never checked the quality of work done by his employees. We could go on, but there was not much good to report about this contractor. Stay away from!

Fred’s contractor(s) did a great installation job but never stained the threshold and left a wide gap. June 3, 2016 promised to come back though (sic) to put the brown silicone along that gap. July 22, 2018 promised to check with Daniel who did the install. I'll get back with you. No follow-up in over 2 years. Rain continues to enter house at threshold, a problem Fred had promised to repair.

Carefully check JFK estimate for allowances. The allowances for labor are low to make the quote look low. Then we got stuck for overages. And we were not told of overages until a week or so after the alledged overages.. Katz did not provide any on site supervision. Did show up on time to pick up draw. Generally the subs were great but too frequently did not have the necessary detailed info from Katz. The subs and I were in left to figure out the how and where. Katz was a no show as long as he had received a draw for the next phase. I paid for and selected, bought all fixtures from floor tile to granite, tp holder, lights up front and most of that was in garage ahead of time. All he had to do is provide the trades. Never, ever use his painter, "Melvin" unless you are present to prevent paint applied randomly. Mistakes were made, some not correctable which are a result of Katz non attention to detail and lack of on site appearance

Not well! The porch floor was ruined because they didn't protect it from rain so it had to be replaced after a storm. They caused a leak in the roof. The stain on the deck looked horrible and was not fixable so they had to replace all the wood of the entire deck! The owner was extremely rude. Once telling me that I needed to calm down because I told him that something needed to be fixed. Everyone of the workers smoked the entire day! Whether they were hammering, sawing, digging, lifting heavy wood, they had a cigarette in their hand. Then they'd throw the butts in my yard.

A project that JFK said would take 4-6 weeks took 10 1/2 weeks! Basically, everything had to be done twice! When they put the porch floor down, they didn't cover it up til after we had an all day rain. When they did cover it up, the floor was soaked so the tarp just trapped all the moisture in which made it worse. The entire floor was warped but the owner kept saying "When it dries, it will be fine." After 2 weeks, it was still bad so I insisted that the entire floor had to be replaced, no choice about it! The same time the floor got wet, they caused a leak in my roof which they did repair without argument. When they were building the deck, they didn't do it according to plan. It was much bigger which we ended up liking better but we had to pay the difference. The married couple that he hired that stained the deck is probably the nicest 2 people in Charlotte but they can not stain! On the porch which had already been replaced once, there were streaks all over the place so they had to restain it. Looks ok now but still not great. Then they stained the deck (against my better judgement) and it was a splotchy mess! Looked like a horrible sunburn. I refused to pay him anymore money til the deck was fixed! The owner consulted with a deck restoration company and they said there was no way to fix it. So JFK had to rip up the entire floor!!! And then restain it. I told him the couple was not allowed to touch it. The stain job was still not satisfactory so we have already had it restained. Even though my husband and I are in our 50's, my husband and I had never done a project this big so we said we need to see examples of the products he was choosing. He'd say that wasn't possible. There are several items we would have picked differently. He often get frustrated with us. Once he told me "Lighten up!" when I said something needed to be repaired. His employees smoked the entire day! Not just on their breaks. They smoked while they worked all day. Whether they were using a hammer, saw, or drill, every person always had a cigarette in the other hand and then they'd throw their butts in my yard! Very unprofessional! Now that it's all done, I love my porch! I spend as much time out there as possible! But would I use them again? NO WAY! Would I recommend them? NO! Not even to my worst enemy!!!

unknown

Well, today is 8/16/2015 and we still never heard back from this contractor, nor did we ever receive an email from him with an estimate. The day he came to look over the potential job, I asked him if he was on Angie's list, and he said he was...WELL, that being the case, I looked up his information here, (unfortunately after the fact) and low and behold...his rating on Angie's list averaged just a "B".  IF I had looked at that information before I called him for an estimate, I would never have called!!  I would never hire anyone that has lower than an "A" rating, and also not having many positive reviews.  He was very unprofessional to not even call or email us back with an estimate, as he said he would!!....I can only imagine what we probably would have gone through if we did hire him, especially after reading the reviews!  I don't know what I was thinking to not check Angie's list first!!!  I always have in the past for any work I needed done!!

UPDATE: *****WOW!!!!!!!!  Isn't it a "coincidence" how we JUST received the email estimate from this contractor TODAY...ONE DAY AFTER I POSTED THIS REVIEW!!!!  Anyway, the quote is $17,100.00..WOW...Plus an additional $2,300.00 PLUS dollars for the windows!!??!!!  I think NOT!!!  Like I said, now it's just about 2 WEEKS since he came to look at the proposed job. No thank you! 

The project went extremely well and finished on time. The quality of the construction was excellent. Fred?s workface is well trained and had good supervision. My home is (72) years old and there were a few surprises to work around. Fred was able to find a plumber who was skilled at re-working old plumbing. The floor in my kitchen wasn?t level but Fred found a way to correct this. Every time he had a surprise we talked about it and found a way to work thru the challenge. Fred is good at listening and collaborating. My kitchen is everything I wanted it to be. The price was fair for the work I had done. If I ever build another thing Fred will be the first man I call.

unknown

Did a good job. Took longer then originallyquoted but we expected that. Polite and helpful. Only issue we had was after they left we found a ton of cigarette butts on the ground. We have chickens and dogs so this is dangerous.

Prompt and quality professional detailed service in all aspects.

Very professional, timely, quality and exceptional work.  Product called back for second job!!

JFK Construction started the work on time and did an excellent job.  The work was professionally done, looked great, and turned out to be exactly as promised.  The price agreed upon was the price paid, very reasonable.  The workers were polite, professional, and cleaned up afterwords.  Fred Katz, the owner, is very knowledgeable and of the three contractors interviewed, he is the only one who identified a potential problem and gave advice as to how to overcome it.  His plan for doing the work was also the best.  I would highly recommend Fred and his company to anyone wanting a professional job at a reasonable price.
Andy McPherson

Very professional.  Excellent workmanship.  Fixed the few small imperfections we noticed with no problem

Went great!  Fred employes competent people who seem very trustworthy.  They did a great job.  Put in new granite counter tops, back splash, hardware, etc.  Also had out dated wallpaper that needed to be removed.  Then they painted.  Timely in finishing and great job.

Received a professional estimate and initial plan drawing. Once the check was sent and cashed for the materials advance, it took over two weeks of frustrating emails and phone calls to get a date schedule to begin the work. We were notified that the work would begin two days later, after many requests. Work was completed in a timely manner, however the main posts for the railing at the bottom of the steps were not properly secured. We were surprised that this was overlooked, since it was fairly obvious when grasping the railing walking down the steps. After a few calls and emails this was corrected.

Fred Katz, the owner of JFK Construction responded promptly to my request for a proposal.  He took the time to listen to our plans for the project and added several suggestions to improve the design and facilitate the construction process. His price was slightly higher than the other two proposals we received but we selected JFK based on several factors.  These included 1) his estimated time for completion to be 2-3 weeks, 2) the fact that the project would be permitted and inspected, and also, 3) that JFK had previously performed reasonably well in the remodeling of our kitchen.
Once, we signed the contract Fred and his employees were on site within a few days to begin the work and he and his men repaired the exterior siding and removed and replaced the deck within a couple of weeks as planned.  This repair work and the new deck look great and we are very pleased with the outcome in this area. The problems began with the introduction of his sub contractors who were responsible for the electrical, plumbing, gas and masonry work.  It is understandable that contractors are simultaneously working on several projects and our project can not always be their top priority.  However, the repeated delays we have experienced indicate that either the subs have too many project in-process or our project is so small that it slips off their radar and goes unnoticed.
We signed the contract with JFK on October 5, 2013 and as of today November 9, 2013 the project is still not complete.  The subs responsible for the gas and masonry haven't completed their work.  In fact this past week of Nov. 4 through Nov. 8 no one from either JFK or any of his subs were onsite working on our project.  When asked about the project yesterday Fred expressed frustration that his subs were not able to complete our project but could not commit to a specific date when they would return to finish the job.
The project was completed on Dec. 20, 2013 and we are very pleased with the final outcome.  Weather was one factor in some of the delays.

We found JFK through Angies list.  They were prompt in getting us an estimate and willing to work with our electrician.  We got several bids and took some time in gettingthe architectual drawings and our money together(there was electrical and AV work in addition to JFK's portion).  They worked around our schedule and went to work on time finishing within their estimate construction time. Thier personnel were very courteous.

Summarized, these are the major issues that lead to this negative report:
Discovering JFK Construction?s workers? compensation insurance had lapsed following a serious injury accident by a subcontractor on our job site 

• ~Non-compliance with standard building codes that lead to the county inspection failing on
• 3 points  (rail height, baluster spacing, center post strength) (see photo)
• ~Number of days it took to complete the project (50 vs. 11 days) Much of this was
• due to the roofer?s accident, and delays with the painters when we insisted on insured workers.
• ~Finished look/materials used--Offset of columns and the finish used to close in the
• tops (see photo) Trying to resolve this during the project with Mr. Katz was not pleasant or productive.
• ~The overall manner our concerns were dealt with, and the long delays in responding to
• our calls and emails by the owner

Lessons learned:
~Request and VERIFY the certificate of insurance with the contractor?s insurance agent by calling. Don?t rely on statements of coverage in the contract, on the business card, or on Angie?s List. Our signed contract stated JFK had liability and Workers? Comp insurance. We later learned their Workers? Comp insurance had expired, and not recently.
~Don?t agree to a payment structure that strongly favors the contractor. In this case it left us little leverage to get them to complete the job. Eight (8) days into the project that took 50 days, JFK had $6426 of the total $6961.
We ended up with a mostly nice looking structure (see photo), but the journey to get there was very stressful, and unfortunately involved a serious accident with one of their sub-contractors. Because the workman?s accident was very serious, and involved a 911 call and transport by Fire/EMS, we notified our insurance agent. He in turn advised us to request JFK?s certificate of insurance. They did respond with the certificate of the roofing sub-contractor and then his sub-contractor, but it took a couple of requests to
get JFK?s. Once we got it, we discovered JFK had not had a workers? comp since 2009.  I also verified this with Mr. Katz verbally
when he came back to the job site after a 5 week absence.
Another major problem was with our County inspection, which failed on 3 issues 
1) Second story rail height was not to code and as specified
in our contract (must always be 36? for safety reasons) 
2) The distance between balusters was not to code?max. 4? (reuse of original rail) and potential problem was not caught or anticipated by JFK Construction.
3) Center post of railing not sturdy enough to meet code. I had alerted Mr. Katz to this potential problem in a phone conversation. We also learned the amount of the job was given incorrectly to the County resulting in
a lower permit fee. Just too many discrepancies were becoming apparent and made
us lose confidence in JFK. 
We had initially asked the project supervisor about the rail strength and didn?t feel it was taken seriously by being told ?don?t point it
out to the inspector?. We later asked Fred about the post strength prior to the inspection and 2 bolts were added. We have been told by other folks in the construction industry that that post should have been secured through the roof and decking material and the
roofing material wrapped up around it for a proper seal. It also resulted in additional perforations in our new rubber roof. (leaves the potential of water infiltration later, and resulting rot). This is important because the roof area can be accessed through a second story door and is not merely decorative.  Another call back resulted, and changes had to be made to satisfy the code inspector. 
Mr. Katz only returned to the job site to collect the last payment. They did honor their Angie?s List coupon for $100 gift card on jobs
over $5000, but did not honor the referral fee to the Harris?, who referred us to them. In fairness, the positives of the project were that our porch was restored to much the same look as prior to the demo (photo on the JFK website). Chuck, the project supervisor, and John, their carpenter were polite and pleasant to deal with. Their roofing sub, Jeff Freeman Roofing, was extremely professional and customer-focused.
We wouldn?t hire JFK Construction again, nor recommend them to anyone.
 
July 2012 Update
The bead board ceiling installed by JFK has begun separating and needs tacked in a couple places. You can now see the wood structure behind it in 5-6 places. After sending a couple of emails with photos, we were finally able to reach them by phone and are awaiting a response. Mr. Katz indicated a 1 year warranty on all his company?s workmanship.
October 2012 Update
Fred Katz came out and looked at the ceiling. He said it was
normal to have the separation but that he would paint it to make it less noticeable
since you could see the sub-material now. He also agreed to use an exterior
paint since interior was used the first time in error. Mr. Katz?s office called
one afternoon several weeks later to say they would be out the next morning to
paint and left a voice message. I called back to tell him that particular day
that neither my husband nor myself were available to be here. He said we didn?t
need to be. I said we preferred to be here and ANY other day would be fine. We
have never heard from him again.
Additionally, when we spoke, I asked if the painters he was sending were insured. He stated they were not. I asked if he had his workers? comp insurance reinstated yet, and he said ?no?.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

his people are first rate, he is prompt and stocks to his quotes. After sales service is very good but there hasn't been need for much. 
highly recommended 

I have been struggling to get them back out and fix the work that they did for me. They have not been very good about doing that. They did poor quality work. I guess they are not very concerned about the poor work that they did. It was a big remodeling project and they did an awful job. They cut corners to try to save costs. They were not very honest with me. There was a balcony railing on the second floor that overlooked the great room below. They have put some of the spindles on the railing that are not even attached to anything. A toddler, who was visiting me, leaned onto it and fell out. Fortunately, the child did not fall down. When I confirmed the guy about it, he told me that he had attached those because they looked good. He told me that I just had to get it patched up. I am actually thinking about calling the building inspectors to make sure that they do not allow this company to do any other work around in the area. The price was average, though. When they came out to do the work, they were punctual. However, when I tried to get them back to fix the work, they were not very responsive. I will never use them again in the future. 

the remodel of house in 2007 was excellent with a lot of imagination and creativity in adding space and functionality, as well as an appealing appearance. Only reservation was some details of finish painting and final clean up, but most satisfied with quality, timeliness and design of work. Added bath in 2010 was a challenge in design and construction but was well done with adjustments as needed during the project. It was done in a timely manner with all details well finished. We will use JFK again in future.

The quote was for a complete remodeling of our house; tearing down walls and putting up new ones. The house was going to be gutted to the point where we had to move out to have the renovation done. After they met us, it took a little while for them to get back to us to give a quote. Other than that, it was great. The gentleman who came to meet us and go over the plans was very polite and kind. However, their quote wound up being the highest among the ones we got. We did not use them. We will probably not call them in the future.

They did fine. I ended up using someone I knew. He called me back right away.

The owner, Fred, came out and his estimate was quite low compared to other estimates. I opted to go with a different company. He did say I would have the estimate at the end of the week and I did not get the estimate for 2 weeks.