Ram Restoration - Eighth Enterprise

In early November, 2015, we encountered our first problem with Ram. Their workers removed storm windows on the second floor of our house and proceeded to butcher 2 window sills and casings around the windows in order to install THE WRONG SIZE TRUSSES for our addition. (NO phone call to ask the homeowners if they really wanted to have 4 inches of window blocked off by these incorrect trusses.) The blueprints showed the trusses coming up well below the second story windows! Ram was told to replace the trusses. There was a delay to get the correct size trusses made and installed, but the mutilated window trims still remain. (Nothing was wrong with them - the wood was solid before Ram came.) Their scheduler does not have an understanding of organization or construction sequences. Ram scheduled HVAC before the plumber. Drain lines need a specific slope to connect to the sewer, and now furnace ductwork is in the exact spot where the drain line should have gone. My engineer husband got so frustrated with the lack of efficiency, that he asked Ram president and CEO, Randy Mount, to show us his planning chart for our project...he didn't have one. So my husband created one and gave it to Randy to use! It is crucial that the homeowners have a knowledge of proper construction methods and watch over Ram's shoulders, to catch their shortcuts. (Primed only one (visible) side of the wooden soffit, wooden steps down to bare ground with no cement pad underneath, roofing prep ice guard, drip edge and underlayment was started improperly until pointed out by the homeowner - and told to start it over and do it correctly...as in "read the directions on the shingle package", etc. (Those 30-40-50 year roofing warranties are void if the roof isn't installed properly.) After the initial prep job was corrected, the rest of the addition roof looks nice. Ram only ordered supplies when needed. They ran short of roofing shingles, so there was a couple of days delay to get more. Then the workers ran out of roofing caps and he had to order more, so there was another delay. Why not order ALL the shingles and ALL the caps for ALL the project so that the shingle style, design, pattern and colors will match. (The original house and garage were in the contract to be re-roofed and they haven't been done, yet. I doubt the rest of the shingles, etc. haven't been ordered yet either.) Blueprints show three 3 foot wide pocket doors to be installed for the homeowners "later years". Ram installed one 3' pocket door frame, one 2'8" pocket door frame and one 2'4" pocket door frame. (I don't know if a wheelchair could fit through a 28-inch wide doorway. And that was the door into the bathroom!) The new addition sat all winter with just tarpaper on the roof. Rain and snow leaked inside, ran across the plywood sub floor and down inside 2 new furnace registers. This spring, we have standing water in those 2 ductwork/insulation for mold to grow and/or mosquitoes to breed in. We had so much INactivity (one day a week for a few hours) that we have a bird's nest in the rafters, field mice coming into the main house under the plastic covering on the back wall and wild critter poop on what is to become my new kitchen floor. At the beginning, we asked for the cost of any additions/changes that we ask for AT THAT TIME, don't wait until the end to give them to us. This spring, we told Ram to "stop" until we got an itemized listing of the adds. It took several weeks for him to get it to us...and then it wasn't totally correct. (We aren't going to pay for 500 square feet of soffit when our entire addition is 500 square feet - the soffit is just on the perimeter!) After 9 months of putting up with Ram Restoration's inefficiencies, our new addition has: foundation, framing, sheathing on the exterior walls and roof and roofing shingles. The SUB contractors have done a good job for us, so far. They have most of the heating, most of the plumbing and the electric has been started. The new windows are lying on the floor waiting to be installed. To our knowledge, neither the new siding or the window/door exterior framing has been ordered, yet. The old Tyvek needs to come off, the City inspector needs to check the nail pattern before the job can proceed. We ordered custom doors. Ram asked us to pay for them up front and we wrote a check to Ram Restoration in December, 2015. We heard from the supplier that these custom doors had arrived in March, 2016. Ram apparently didn't pay for our doors until they were delivered to our house in July. We hired a lawyer to handle the situation. We do not want any further contact from Ram Restoration. They can pick up their tools that were left on our property, but they are to call our lawyer before they come. Our bottom line: We would NOT recommend Ram Restoration to anyone, and we definitely would NOT want to use them again! Ram Restoration took my retirement "dream house" and turned it into a disastrous NIGHTMARE!

Overall, the results were adequate.  Ram's cost estimate was very low compared to others I received.  Ram sent a rather junior person to do the estimate.  Our job was small, so that was not surprising.  However, I felt like other companies sent more experienced people that better explained what work they would do and why.  I chose Ram based on price, and their team seemed professional.  After signing a contract, Ram took nearly three weeks to schedule a work date, and that was only after I called to ask what was taking so long.  I was not confident their office staff was very well organized after that.
Work proceeded okay, but I think they may have underestimated the difficulty of removing and re-pouring the concrete stoop.  They initially showed up with only hand tools (sledgehammer) and within a few hours realized they needed to bring a jack hammer.  This delayed the job until the next day when they had a suitable truck and jackhammer.  Repair to the damaged wall went well, and that portion of the job was perfectly fine.
Re-pouring the stoop did not go like I would have preferred.  First, possibly due to the delay in removal, they began pouring concrete late in the day.  Their concrete guy was at our house until about 9:00 pm to make sure it was setting correctly.  I had to bring him a work light.  The whole thing seemed poorly planned, but he was courteous and professional.  Also, they mixed concrete in a wheel barrow from about 20 bags of Quickcrete, which they stored in my garage.  I would have expected a professional service such as Ram would have brought a portable mixer given the amount of concrete required.
In the end, the stoop looks okay.  They turned a single step into a two-step, which I did not specifically ask for, but it looks nice.  They applied a stucco treatment to the concrete which I do not particularly like (and was unaware of), but it wasn't the end of the world.  The only remaining issue was, when they re-installed the siding to the damaged wall, they did not firmly re-attach the side channel.  This side channel had been pulled away from the brick corner when the old stoop sunk (it had dropped about 3 inches).  Without the attached side channel, the vinyl siding flopped around about halfway up the wall and a noticeable gap was visible.  I mentioned this in the final inspection, and Ram's representative stated they would come out to repair the problem.  They even took a sample of the colored adhesive used to attach the original channel. I withheld a portion of final payment until this repair was completed.  In the end, they never came to rectify the situation.  I called Ram several times and spoke to office reps, but my phone calls were never returned.  Eventually, they sent me a final statement and discounted me the withheld amount.  This was, in my mind, adequate compensation.  However, felt like communication throughout the project was kind of weak, and this last task solidified that view.

There was a crack in the concrete front porch floor that leaked water to the below storage area causing mold and water damage. After the crack was repaired Ram removed the mold and rebuilt the support structure that was damaged. They did a good good at a fair price.

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Randy's crew was on time, professional, friendly, and accommodating. We made a few changes to the plan along the way and the Ram guys were great about it. All in all, this was a great company to work with. So helpful. We had another issue come up inside our house and Randy went out of his way to help us resolve that issue, too. It's hard to find dependable, honest contractors who do good work. But we definitely found that with Ram.

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2 installers showed up at the agreed upon time and completed the work in one day as promised. Did some extra trim work at no charge.

They replaced my porch rails and posts with the most cheapest materials they could find. I paid high dollar for the materials And they used the most ugly and cheapest they could get, I made several complaints and e mails and On 05/23/2013 they finally came to see my complaint , the guy was rude and being a jerk saying its wood What do you want, I said I wanted what I paid for. Either replace it or give me my money back.. I told him I paid for quality not the junk they gave me, he was getting real nasty with me so I went inside Then he was outside running around taking pictures .i have filed a complaint with BBB