VAN MAAREN CONSTRUCTION

THE BASICS: Poor quality, unfulfilled promises, unprofessional THE STORY: The owner himself showed up to do an (unscheduled) appraisal. I was given limited, if any, options in the design of the steps. When I requested a brochure to see what options I had for new railings, he said instead of buying a new one, I should have the old one removed and "sandblasted", and that it would "look brand new". Realistically I never expected it to look brand new, I did however expect it to be smooth and finished nicely. What happened instead is that he (or his workers) painted over the rusty railing seemingly without even hand sanding it let alone sandblasting it. By the time I got to see it the railing was already set in the new concrete. When I complained about it he said he could saw off the top half and slide a plastic railing overtop of it. After expressing my intentions of not spending anymore money on his (poor quality) work, he said he would have one of his guys come and sand the railing and repaint it (without offing even a partial refund for the sandblasting I was originally promised). I'm not even sure anyone came to repaint it because it was chipped and rusty just a couple months later. However, someone did come back to "level" the steps (a patchwork job on top of already shoddy craftsmanship). They came over yet again unannounced to do that work, but failed to address the issue of pooling and discoloration. In fact there was a very distinct color difference between the steps and the patches. I called him on at least two separate occasions and left a message with his wife both times. After several weeks of unanswered phone calls, I saw him working on another contract downtown, so I pulled over to see if he had gotten my messages. He implied that he had but he was "busy working on a government contract" and could send someone up after those other jobs were done. So I waited even longer. I was informed by another townsperson that Mr. Van Maaren was having "serious family problems", having just lost my mother to cancer, I stopped calling him and didn't pry (turns out it wasn't even health related). The patchwork started chipping before Winter, revealing that the steps didn't even touch the sidewalk. There is 3/4" gap that water streams down underneath. Currently, 3 years later, there is a 6" wide hole developing in the center landing, the steps have turned green, and I let the bushes grow out I order to cover up that hideous railing. I already need to have the steps REPLACED AGAIN because they aren't safe for the elderly member of the household. Words can not describe how awful my experience was with this company. I got the distinct impression that perhaps someone of a different age and gender would have been taken more seriously instead of being dismissed as I obviously was. The sad thing is that I don't even know how much this ordeal cost me because he wasn't even professional enough to itemize the bill.