Koala-T Construction Inc

What a disaster. STAY AWAY! We hired this company on the recommendation of neighbors who had used him in the past. Chris also said that he would lose money rather than leave a job unfinished. We came to subsequently find out that for past jobs he used subs to complete the work whereas on our job, he tried to do all the work himself and proved to be incompetent. When he started in the first week of August, he told us it would be 4-6 week job. We knew he had a reputation for being slow but he was ridiculous. As you will read below, by the time we were done with him (but not the project), it was 14 weeks. This wasn't a case of him coming and working hard through adversity that made it delay, he wouldn't show up until 10:30, would leave for lunch at 1, would disappear during the day for a few hours and would call it quits at 4. When they did demo, they of course stained our light colored carpet but assured us they'd make it right, which they never did. Shortly after demo was complete Chris and his wife/business partner Lisa began to demand payment in advance of the contract milestones. We should have known then that something was amiss but we thought he would do the right thing based on his recommendations and guarantee. The countertops were damaged when installed and Chris made us wait weeks while he chased his supplier on getting those replaced. Then the real bombshell hit. When I pointed out to him that he laid some of the expensive tiles incorrectly (we're talking basic stuff here, a shower floor that wasn't sloped!!!!!, out of plumb knee walls, tiles that were bulging out off the wall, drastically uneven grout lines, shampoo boxes that were well off-square, etc), he ripped a bunch of it off the wall and then never returned to finish it. A few weeks later (on the 14th week of the "6 week" job!), after chasing him via phone and email, he and his wife Lisa Owens, sent me an email that they were closing the business and that to "help me" I could pay his suppliers and subs for the remainder of the job. i have since learned that he has not closed the business, which I consider to be a fraudulent representation. He had collected 40,951 (which I have cancelled checks to prove) of the $41,500 contract price and wanted me to pay off his remaining work. As an example, he still owed the plumbers $6,000 which he expected me to pay. Additionally, he never replaced the $3,000 marble countertops upstairs.I also had to spend $1,500 to fix the non-draning shower floor and the tile he ripped off the wall as a parting present. I've since had to spend over $9,000 fixing his incompetence. Throughout the process, we were lied to, defrauded, and stuck with two unusable bathrooms for 5 months. I could give you more details if you would like, but these are the high(low, really) points. Bottom line, Christopher and Lisa Owens proved to be untrustworthy individuals who ripped me off and the work that was done was always to the "good enough" standard at best and blatantly incompetent at other times.