YDC Builders

The windows in our living room on the front of our house were leaking. A neighbor recommended Dan Young as he had just completed a job for him and knew the problems of our builder. Dan believed it was a window installation problem after peeling back some siding. He said the job would take about 4 days, which would include removing all of the siding in that section, removing & installing new Tyvec, replacing rotted sheathing & insulation, reinstalling old windows with proper sealing, rehanging original siding, and repairing inside damage (icluding painting). The estimate was $4700 and we were required to give a deposit of $2700 for materials. (I now know that large deposit was my 1st red flag.) We paid him on 9/20/2010 and he gave us a start date of 10/5/2010. That's when the excuses started. In the beginning, it was mostly inssues with the weather and not wanting to "open up the house" to rain or it was too windy to get up on a ladder. (We do live in a windy area.) In late November, Dan came and removed the siding to find that the rotting was not as bad as he had thought but the seals on the windows had been compromised by the way the builder installed them. Water was getting inside the windows. He said he would order 4 double hung windows and the cost would stay the same. The siding remained piled on the side of the house and the windows would take about 2 weeks. After excuses ranging from funerals to a sick daughter to snow to other jobs, Dan came in early March to do the rest of the work. We had spent the winter without siding on one section of our house but had made him bring the windows in January and place them in our garage. When he finally came in March, 2 of the 4 windows were the wrong size, none were double hung, and they were low quality windows (with the lip to open them being in the middle of the window versus the bottom). One of the windows he installed only opens about 10 inches, despite his assurance that it needed to be "broken in". He had to put in the original windows for the other 2 while he waited for 2 correct sized windows. Again we waited for new windows with more excuses. After we had offered numerous times to meet him to pick up the windows from him, he finally came to drop them off on May 17. As he unloaded them from his truck, I discovered there were no grids in the glass and I measured them (to double check) and AGAIN they were the wrong size. He looked shocked and said to give him one week. Through texts we confirmed the size, grids, and double-hung. After a few more weeks of excuses and we contacted him to confirm the product and date, Dan said he would have to order windows from Lowes to meet our requirements and we would have to pick them up. We could then contact him to install. He said all this in a tone as if we had inconvenienced him and he was irritated at our request. Do NOT use this contractor! He seemed like a very nice guy in the beginning but whenever I got annoyed that he was cancelling, he would get angry with me! I feel like we got totally ripped off. He has not finished the job (nor do we plan on him doing so) after we paid him 9 months ago. He constantly cancelled appointments and we caught him in lies with his excuses. We also found other neighbors who have had similar problems with Dan's inability to finish a job. In the last month my research found that his license had expired and he was indicted in 2008 for "theft by failure to make required disposition of property". This had been a brutal life lesson that I hope no one else has to learn.