Andre Proesch

He was recommended by friends of friends who showed me photos of bathrooms he'd retiled for them.  He claimed to have extensive training in all aspects of construction and remodeling in Germany.  Not only did he turn out to be unlicensed and insured, but he was inept and a scam artist as well.  Prior to his commencing work, I sent him a detailed email listing the projects I needed done for my new home, and he came back with estimates on a number of them.  His estimates were in line with what my home inspector had suggested to me were fair for the work involved.



Not only did Andre deviate from what we agreed upon, but he never asked my opinion or permission to pursue them.  He demolished a concrete wall in the basement that was partially supporting beams in the basement, that in turn support the entire house.  The wall he demolished was part of a structure containing sand (it was a root cellar), which he extracted from the structure and inexplicably spread in a 3-5" thick layer over parts of my lawn.  Just as inexplicably, he poured concrete for a footer and began building a cinder block wall after gouging out the packed earth under the foundation of my house. - All that he was supposed to do was put up a couple of new 2 x 8 beams with lally columns to support them in my basement. 



After 5 days of work, he left this site to work on "a big project in Connecticut," leaving my foundation and the concrete structure in a weakened state and with sand all over my nice lawn, the first floor with half the walls and ceilings undone, and my two-car garage stuffed with sheetrocking and concrete debris.  Debris removal was part of his duties as per our verbal contract.  Additionally, when I met him in person to pay him for this week's labor (which I did before I went to the house to see what he'd done), he told me my house was about to fall apart and needed $100k in foundation work, also that the entire electrical system was faulty and that no electrician would dare touch it except a friend of his, who would work on it for me as a favor to him; and that the house would burn to the ground if I turned on the lights. 



Earlier in the week, he scared away an exterminator I had asked to come to the house for an estimate by saying, "We should just take a bulldozer to this house."   He also repeated all these comments loudly and snickeringly in the neighborhood bar where I'd met the people who recommended him to me, in the presence of these people.



After viewing his work, getting a licensed electrician to review my wiring (which was fine), and interviewing half a dozen other construction workers and contractors over the next few days, I came to the conclusion that I would fire him.  Initially I texted, emailed, and phoned him asking him to finish what he'd started in the basement and first floor, since by that time I'd already paid him $4k, and to come get his tools and clear the debris as agreed, however he never responded.  After several days of this, I told him not to do any more work, but just to come get his personal things and clear the debris, and he never responded to these requests of mine either.  He finished his "work" at my place on Aug. 23, today is Sept. 6 and I still haven't heard from him.



In the interim before the new worker I hired was to start work on the basement, a torrential rainstorm ensued, and water found its way into the weakened side of the foundation and flooded my basement with one foot of water, destroying the motor of my oil-burning furnace.



SO, in addition to the $4k in cash I paid him, and the $1k in materials which I put on my credit card, I'm also out $750 to clear the debris and sand from my property (dumpster plus labor); another $2700 to finish the basement and first floor work he commenced, another $900 to finish demolishing the root cellar that should never have been demolished, and $500 for a new furnace motor.



I'm definitely taking him to court.  Do yourself a favor and make a wide berth around this charlatan. If it were possible to give a lower rating than F, I'd give it.