Kirk Trentalange

Kirk's work is superb. Really beautiful detail, a smart guy, that makes intelligent decisions when it comes to how to put a building together.Unfortunately, he can't build a large building alone, and that's where his skills stop.His sub-contractors are lousy, picked out of loyalty or cheaper price, not sure, but all of them except one are lousy. All of that made worse by the fact that Kirk's communications skills when it comes to making these guys accountable are deplorable. When everything came to a head, Kirk disappeared; wouldn't return phone calls, did not follow up, simply vanished. At one point there were disputes about costs -- not just his time, but what his subs were contracted for, and what those numbers included or didn't. Things we thought were included were not, supposedly, but neither the subs nor Kirk could produce the estimate by which they came to those quotes. We were getting charged for "extras", but no one could answer how they came to the line item numbers on the original estimates (from number of outlets to installation of fixtures, etc.). We are still getting contacted by one of the subs because he says we owe him for "extras", and we keep telling him to go find out from Kirk what it is that we paid for? Then, towards the end of the project, an inspector brought up something unexpected. Fine, I guess it happens. A year later, Kirk has yet to solve the issue.. The last straw -- We built an addition onto an old stone house. It was a complicated project in terms of HVAC needs. We were assured it would be no problem. The HVAC guy, Brent Kinkaid, was having some personal issues and kept leaving the site, delaying drywallers and stone masons to the point where it was then winter and everything had to stop until the weather warmed up again, delaying the project over 4 months. He eventually finished and the Air Conditioning is working well, but there were two rooms where the heating was connected last, not by him -- because he just didn't show up, I guess, but by Kirk and his plumber (who also never came back to finish some of the contracted stuff). By then it was summer... and drywall went up, floors were finished, the rooms were furnished. Then winter came and the rooms had no heat. One of them is a bathroom (where a radiator was taken out to put radiant heat in, like the rest of the addition). Since neither Kirk nor the HVAC guy would return calls and actually changed their phone numbers, we set to find someone else who would take a look at what is admittedly a complicated system they have no background on how it was set up. After a few months of waiting, he finally came today. It turns out those two rooms have a separate circuit, and it was installed incorrectly; it is, of course, now closed behind drywall and tile. To fix it we have to tear out new construction... If I had the time, I would sue all of them, but just the time it will take to get this sorted out is more than I can handle, so we'll probably just get that fixed. Beware, unless he is working by himself, don't hire him! Summer 2012 update: We found out while building a patio and doing some landscaping that utility lines, including the water main coming into the house, were only 6 inches below grade. Everything came to a halt while we dealt with all of that, costing us thousands of dollars in repairs, and a whole summer wasted watching ditches being dug out and refilled, all the while losing out spot with the stone masons which then caused that patio project to drag all the way into winter. The plumber Kirk hired was a guy named Derek Schaffer, of Second Shift Plumbing (or something like that), and the electrician was Steve Skoutelas. Needles to say, they should not be hired for anything! Winter 2012 update: Our washer and dryer have been acting oddly. I finally called a repairman, who confirmed that the venting for the dryer was not installed properly (I gave the plumber the manuals for both machines before anything was started). Our options: to tear out flooring and drywall to hook up to the old vent, or to get a $1200 condensation dryer. It should be said that I asked at the time why Kirk was starting to install the floor when that would cut access to the old vent, and I was told that he could not wait any longer for the plumber, who had disappeared (we later found out he had some health issues, which is fine, but then Kirk should have hired a new competent plumber!) so he would just have him re-route the dryer vent to the roof, which was yet to be installed. The vent for a high efficiency dryer has three 90 degree bends, which is against installation instructions.