OGILVIE CONTRACTING INC

We had problems early on in our project when our architect incorrectly drew how the beams ran over the bedroom portion of our house (too lazy to go fully into our stand up attic). Ogilvie Contracting demo-ed our roof and noticed the error at that point (early Dec 2010) rather than catching the mistake prior to ripping apart the house by also not going fully into our attic earlier. Things proceeded relatively after that point, with corrections needed along the way to the workmanship, including many roof leaks, and lighting, outlets and fixtures installed in locations other than where we wanted them. We had leaks from our kitchen sink and dishwasher after installation. Our specialty 5' eyebrow window was installed differently than on the plans, without any consultation. It took a lot of back and forth to get them to agree how to make it work despite it still not being how we wanted it or how it was drawn on the blueprints. Cosmetically, the finishing work on the front was awful and looked like a poor DIY attempt. As a main feature on the front of our house, it is important to get right. In the end, the put a keystone up that we had to order last minute to hide the poor seaming job. It was primered, but not painted when they installed it, crookedly, against my instructions. They had called me at work and were told it was not ready, but they went in regardless and put it up against our wishes. We encountered problems with several key items and many smaller ones as we neared completion. The further into the project we got, the less notice we would get that someone would show up at our house and many days, no one did or they'd come at times and days other than what we were told. We let them have full access so that we would not miss any opportunities to get the work done. They started to pressure us to pay our balance despite being away from completion. Once they secured the 2nd to last payment, that was when we got little response and a lot of attitude. I will post pictures to illustrate some cosmetic issues, some that affect function. The balance owed to them is $1,800+ and that is clearly not enough for them to have stuck to the contract. We suspect it will cost us much more than that to get their mistakes fixed. We needed to hire a propane company to hook up a line to our vintage stove. Ogilvie recommended one company to call. They came and advised us where to put the tanks. Ogilvie's plumber installed the line to the side of our house. When the plumbing inspector came a few months later, he asked where our paperwork was for the propane. We had none. The company had assumed Ogilvie was putting in for the permits and Ogilvie assumed the propane company was. We were told it would be a month's delay at that point. We got a new propane company who put the papers in for us. 2 months later we were rejected for our permits because it is never permissible to put tanks on the street side of a corner property in the Town of Oyster Bay. We now face another major delay and further expenses, possibly steep ones, in trying to satisfy the code. Not only is Ogilvie Contracting a contracting firm, but they have a drafting and permits dept yet had not noticed the line their plumber drew was done to a location that is against code. It is July and we have been without a stove since Dec 5. Both propane companies led us wrong, yet our gc did not pick up on their errors. I had counted on Ogilvie Contracting to "have our backs". Another issue is that Ogilvie Contracting installed our chimney vent hood in our kitchen before the island was where it was supposed to be. The island was not attached nor straight and was a few inches from where it needed to be (as markings on the floor had shown). They were upset they'd need to move the venthood. They then installed it well below guidelines and where I'd bump my eyebrows when cooking. At 5'5", that is pretty low. They came in and moved it up higher, without noticing that the feet on the stove were retracted and the stove was several inches below the counter (against code). Unfortunately, when they did that move, they also somehow disabled the suction, which had been strong in the prior position. Currently, our $2,000 venthood functions as a nightlight only and well below where it is supposed to be. Luckily, because our stove is not hooked up, it is less of a problem than it will be. We had another contractor install our kitchen cabs because Ogilvie was not familiar with Ikea cabinets and did not want to attempt the job. Ogilvie blamed the cabinet people when Oglvie improperly installed the venthood prematurely. We have a vent fan installed in our bathroom what works when it wants to and is not controlled at all by the 3 switches it was installed with. The lights do not work in it either. This is after it was supposedly fixed and after the lights had worked before. It comes on when it wants and goes off at will. There seems to be no pattern to it. It is an ongoing problem. Our icemaker was installed by Ogilvie's plumber and we have since had a leak under our freezer and water that sprays and then hardens in the interior. It is an ongoing problem. In our screened in porch, the door was installed crookedly and has gaps at the top. The cement work is uneven so we have gaps there too. Since this room was designed to keep bugs out, it is a problem. The cement has cracked in the middle and there are white polka dots all over the cement surface. We have assorted gaps throughout the finishing of the exterior that need some sort of caulk and/or securing to keep the elements at bay. We have messed up fascia and sagging soffits as well. Our roof has uneven spots and the flashing by our skylight was done poorly. In the interior, we have many prominent nail pops and taping errors. There are cracks where the venthood meets the ceiling and our skylight opening has a crack. We have other uneven areas and an indent in our ceilings. Don was given full access to our house and had blueprints prior to bidding our job. We had many change orders after signing the contract and meeting with the plumber and electrician (who had not come along for the bidding process). For example, we were charged extra for the extra outlet in having a separate refrig and freezer in our kitchen. Those were clearly spelled out in our plans and were already on the premises. While not a huge charge in itself, the first change order for electric were handed was for $5,000. The very visible plumbing in our laundry room turned out not to be up to code and functionality (from prior homeowner) and we were upcharged over $1,000k for that alone. We paid extra for many things that could have been discussed prior to arriving at the contracted price, such as electric work needed for code issues. Most items were noted on the plans. We felt like it was bait and switch. Since this is our first big renovation, we don't know if this is standard practice. We understand that when things get opened up, there can be surprises, and we had plenty of those too, but we object to the things that were easily known in advance. For example, we were billed for an upcharge for a light in our master bedroom closet (which we ended up skipping), approx $100 to make duplex outlets into quads, and for cable in our bedroom. We thought we were paying for the project in the contracted price and were disappointed at the quantity of a la carte charges. Currently, our sinks are not anchored into the counters nor is our toilet anchored to the floor. Several of our ceilings can't be painted until they are fixed (new sheetrock with many flaws). In addition to the work that we have disputes over, their subs destroyed our backyard with their trucks and messed up our sprinkler system. They re-smoothed the dirt and pebbles that now cover a good portion of our yard (previously a lawn) and left it at that, but only after we complained. We are stuck having to fix the sprinkler system that was beyond where the extensions go and should have been spared. In case it bears repeating, we are very unhappy with their work and their lack of responsibility. We have no c.o.s for our project and much work left for us to worry about. We will be instigating legal action for their abandonment of our project. Update: 8/8/2011 We have 2 serious leaks in our new roof after a normal type rain the other day. That is added to our very long punch list. We had the leak from our icemaker fixed by an appliance repair place and they confirmed that it was installed incorrectly with a too short hose and that is why water was spraying in the interior and the exterior. If we had not caught that problem, our freezer could have ended up in our bsmt! Update: 3/2012 - more leaks in our roof and the poor sheetrock work is more evident than ever. We have nail pops all over our house and the taping job is equally inferior. We have cracks and defects throughout. No contractor that comes in to fix the many problems can believe this was done by "professionals". They all shake their heads in disgust.