Siegrist Construction

Customer Beware. I had about the worst possible experience one could have with Siegrist construction. Things started off promisingly enough. The owner, George Siegrist, is charming, and he submitted a bid signficantly below the other bids we received. I've learned not always to take the lowest bid. Siegrist did two big jobs for us: he put on a new roof (first), and then replaced our septic system. For the septic, he quoted us a price of $6000 - $10,000 dollars (with the variation depending on whether hidden obstacles were found when they dug up the yard.). Others quoted $12,000. His sub-contractor came in, in October, with a backhoe, and dug up our entire back yard, in order to dig out the old system. Then, an inspector from the Town of Poughkeepsie came and stopped the work, because he did not have the necessary permits. According to Siegrist, the Town had recently changed permitting requirements, and it was not his fault that he did not know. Our yard sat, totally dug up, from October through March, while he got the necessary permits. During this time, we had no septic system, so a septic truck had to be called every few weeks to empty the tank, before it overflowed. Each time that it came added to the cost. Finally, in March, George assembled all of the necessary permits, finished the work, and gave us a bill -- for $18,000 (including the cost of the septic truck). We protested the price, given what he had initially quoted us, but Siegrist said that it was not his fault the town had changed its permitting requirements, and he threatened to take us court (hinting that he's very well-connected locally), and then, as a magnanimous gesture, said that he would put a new load of gravel on our driveway for free (something we'd been asking for), since it had been totally torn up by his heavy equipment. We shouldn't have given in, but we were intimidated, and so we gave in and paid the full $18,000. We did not hear from him again. He did not gravel our driveway, and he simply stopped answering or returning my phone calls. We felt like we'd been had -- but that was not the end of it! A couple of months later, a lien was served to me at work. Apparently, one of George's sub-contractors (a family member of his) had not paid the supplier of the gravel that they used in the septic system, and New York law allows a lien to be placed on the home to which the gravel was delivered -- even though, as we could prove, we'd paid George ($18,000!) in full two months before, and he was responsible for the gravel. Again, Siegrist Construction refused to pick up the phone or return my calls, even when I left detailed messages about the lien. I ended up paying a lawyer $2,500 to get the lien removed from my house. And that was not the end of it. The other work George did for us was to replace our roof. When he did, we found that much of the plywood under the shingles was rotten, and had to be replaced. Underneath it, the 1950s era insulation was old and thin, so we asked George to replace it. He said he would, and he charged us for doing so. We weren't on site when he did the work, so didn't get to see him do it. But a year later, to fix a leak, we had to open up the ceiling from the inside. And we saw: the same, old tattered insulation, and nothing else. He had not done the work, but he had charged us for it. We discovered, afterward, several other small ways in which Siegrist had cut corners, which we've been slowly fixing to remove the significant drafts that his work left our house with. We've worked with several contractors on projects small and larger since then, and almost all of our experiences have been good. Siegrist was really the worst experience imaginable. It wasn't just the thousands of extra dollars it cost us, or the work shoddily done which we're still slowly fixing, it was the fact that he was absolutely charming at first, and then, once our yard was torn up, when he knew he had us over a barrel, he simply milked us for every dollar he could. Not just unprofessional, but flat-out dishonest. Beware.

We got three bids for our project, George Siegrist's was the lowest, and our neighbor had used him, so we went with him. Our last contact with him was over a year ago. After he received 95% of his fee he never came back, including to obtain the certificate of occupancy. There was a list of a dozen items that needed to be completed, apparently not worth his time, so we completed them ourselves to get the C.O.. Since he "finished" the job, we have spent thousands of dollars correcting his mistakes. 1.The first and most expensive problem was the basement part of the addition. When the foundation was being poured my husband asked him several times about putting drains in, and he said we didn't need them. Needless to say, after the first heavy rain the two basement rooms were under water. The rugs and furniture were ruined, and he blamed it on a sump pump failure. He replaced the sump pump. The second time it happened, there was again four inches of standing water, and the sump pump was working just fine. He blamed it on the landscapers who put a patio in, saying they disrupted the grade of our property. At that time he admitted that drains would be necessary, and that we "could pay him or pay someone else" to do them. At that point we decided we didn't want him doing any more work for us. We paid someone else, and we haven't had any water in the basement since. Unfortunately, the hardwood flooring needed to be completely replaced, as did much of the drywall, which was wet and growing mold. We estimate costs and damages to be over $20,000. 2. He planted our lawn with seed and hay after Thanksgiving. We told him it was too late, and he went ahead anyway. He charged us $6000 for about half an acre of property. By the spring, 90% of the topsoil and grass seed had washed away with the melting snow and spring rain. We had clumps of grass here and there, and needed to pay someone else $6000 to rake all the rocks out of the soil, put down new topsoil, and plant a new lawn. 3. The permit application for the new propane boiler he installed was dated 2009 and had long expired without any inspection, so we had to hire another plumbing & heating company to get the permit. When they looked at the work they were in disbelief at the poor quality of the work. It had to be completely re-piped. The condensate tank and expansion tank weren't installed properly and needed to be replaced. There was air in the lines which explained why our heating bill was so high but our house was never warm. This cost us over $2000. 4. We have had leakage of water in two places through the 2 faulty chimneys/flashing that he installed. There is mold within the walls, the hardwood floor is warped, the subfloor is rotting, the ceiling is stained and buckling, and all this needs to be replaced; that is, after we replace the chimney and flashing. The roofing company said they had never seen such shoddy work. Estimated cost to repair it all: $9000. 5. We have no heat in the foyer, where the front door is constantly opened and closed. He installed a baseboard heater there but never attached it to anything! It is useless. 6. He cut away huge areas of ceiling drywall in the garage and removed the insulation, apparently for the electrical inspection, and never repaired it, just left it like that! We have to pay someone to repair it. We could go on and on... Now we hear that this is typical of him, he has a reputation for leaving things undone and doing poor quality work. Bottom line: you get what you pay for. Our friends and family keep encouraging us to sue him, but we aren't that kind of people. Do yourself a huge favor, pay a little more and get quality work by someone who stands by their work. We wish that we had...

This company had "a great reputation" from businesses in the area.. or so we thought. As soon as he was hired it was a different story. It took way too long to work on their house (basically rebuilding it). We bought the supplies...he claimed he did. He didnt listen to half the requests...so things were done incorrectly. The job was never finished.Then we find out his real reputation in the area.... there were many of the same stories and how there was major lack of professionalism.