Lasting Impressions

This contractor showed pictures of jobs he had done. They turned out to be pictured copied off the Internet. He would show up once or twice a week and his wife always drove. Warning 1. He had 6 different helpers over the few weeks he worked for us. warning 2. He had very few tools and the ones he had were very low quality. Warning 3. He started using my tool when I wasn't there and damaged or destroyed several of my tools. He used my chain saw to cut 100 year old floor joists that was full of old rusted nails. When he broke the recoil starter he rewound the cord and put the saw away without telling we he had broken the cord. It was one mistake after another and he kept asking for more and more of an advance draw of the total contract amount. It finally became apparent that this was a total waste of money. '

We lost 2 months it getting the building to the state of being ready to rent it to potential customers. There are three sections that are 74' by 22' and are at a intersection of two state highways that gets over a million cars passing by each year. A direct route to Deer Creek State Park. Upstairs is the same space, but is suited for apartments. We are losing a potential rental income of from between $6000 and $10,000 a month. We have all the removed floor joists that are in the basement and no easy access to the outside. We estimate that it is going to cost over $5000 to repair the work that this contractor has done. He has destroyed our relationship with the town officials and many of the local people because of how he has treated them. It got so bad that they removed the toilet paper from the town hall restrooms because his people were making them a mess. This could be a reality shows called Remodeling Gone Bad.
This is a building that housed the Neff Hardware in Mount Sterling. It was a building that was closed 20 years ago and we bough it sight unseen. It was supposed to be in "OK" shape, but the good floors were missing because of water coming in through the roof for 20 years. We removed 14 40 cubic yard dumpsters of trash from this building before contracting with lasting Impressions.It's been a very tough project, but the reality is: go to Angie's List first and select contractors that have been pre-evaluated by others. Remember, cheapest is rarely the best.
Important note ------  There are several business using the name, Lasting Impressions. This one lists and address in Delaware that is a 5/3rd Bank building. His actual address is a mobile home near Marengo and should be confused with any other business with a similar name. It would be very unfair for a good business to lose work because of someone using their good name to do lousy work.
Important note #2 ---- When a contractor tells you that he was once arrested in another state for taking a 15 year old runaway across state line, use that as a clue that he isn't someone you should be doing business with.
Important note #3 ----- When a contractor shows up on the job in a vehicle that is barely running and has tools that you would find  at a garage sale, use that as a sign that you had better hold on to your wallet. The quality of a contractor is usually equal to the quality of his tools. When he has no tools that indicates the quality of his work. So many of my tools and other equipment is MIA.