CLIPPER CONSTRUCTION INC

the work was done in a timely fashion and at a resonable price if the job was actualy done correctly. after a very short period of time i was experiencing continuous power outages throughout my home and my handyman was replacing receptacles left and right. i noticed some bubbling of the paint on the walls of my bathroom within a year of completion, but assumed it was from me splashing them on occasion. how wrong that assumption was. when my driveway was continually wet i had a plumber come in to assess the situation and that was where it all went down hill fast. the plumber noted that my entire bathroomfloor (from underneath the house) was soaked and dripping. i contacted doug schrade from schrade custom homes to have a look at the problem and discovered the true character of his business. the letter i wrote to him is the following text:
I?m addressing you to convey my genuine concern in regard to
the work that you did in my home when I initially moved in. The issue is
somewhat complex and relatively straight forward at the same time. The complex
element includes the notion that, as I understood, we were at least
acquaintances and for that reason I chose you to oversee the remodeling of my
home for handicapped accessibility. You worked swiftly and were mindful of my
budget. I thought your ideas were great, and you and your team made my home
beautiful and functional. I truly appreciate your efforts and recognize the
fact that you allowed me to pay one installment up front, and the other upon
receipt of my insurance settlement. I am aware that the second payment took
over a year to come through, but as I understood you were aware that I was as
anxiously awaiting the court to settle my claim as much as you were interested
in collecting for your services. As soon as I received my settlement I cleared
my balance with you. I assumed that the legal delay in my settlement did not
interfere with our initial agreement of payment scheduling.
The straight forward element of this correspondence is quite
disheartening. Upon recognizing a serious water problem in my driveway, my
plumber discovered that the entire floor of my remodeled shower was the root of
the issue. I had you come out to professionally assess the situation, and you
confirmed that the floor, subfloor, and supporting joists needed to be
replaced. You gave me a quote of around $3,000. When I inquired as to why my
relatively new bathroom was failing to perform whilst my 30 year old bathroom
on the other end of the house that was not remodeled is in fine condition, you
informed me that I was not routinely caulking the grout lines. I was never
informed that I was to routinely caulk anything.  You told me that you would try to put me on
your schedule for March or April to begin repairs. I texted you to see if you
were going to work with me in regard to cost and my responsibility with respect
to the percentage of that cost I should incur, and I never heard from you
again.
In the two years that have transpired since my last inquiry
to you, I have had four different licensed contractors assess the situation,
and all four agree on two elements; all of the repairs that you mentioned are
indeed required, and more poignantly, the cause of the failure was ?poor
craftsmanship?.  When I had the shower
floor removed an electrical conduit was revealed to have been cut during the
original install and taped back together. This taped conduit was resting in a
pool of water that has been there for seven years. It is a wonder as to how
that didn?t cause catastrophic events including fire and or electrocution.
I must admit that I was generally upset initially upon the
discovery of the failing bathroom, but what bothers me most is the uncanny
similarities of the four independent diagnoses of ?poor craftsmanship?. It was
as though all four of the independent contractors had deliberated in a jury
room and came back with that phrase in unison. Not one of them was an
acquaintance of mine, and not one of them mentioned anything about me routinely
caulking grout lines. Each contractor quoted me roughly the same estimate as
you had, concluding in the range of $3,000 and one of them has started working
on it already. As my new contractor has been dismantling the bathroom he has run across more electrical failures that were installed without regard to code, as well as plumbing and structural damage. The working estimate, while still in progress, is just over $12,000 and counting
It is disconcerting to me that this situation has occurred,
and I simply want you to know that I am very disappointed in the manner that
you handled it.