TIM WRIGHT

Three situations, so I'll describe each in turn: 1. My house is built on a slope, with a mountain behind the house. Keeping water at bay can be a problem, and moisture had rotted out a treated timber at the back corner; every time we had a downpour, I was getting some water on the floor. I was unsure what to do, given that I haven't kept up with building materials technology. Tim knew immediately what needed to be done, and after watching a video on "This Old House" using the same technology, I concluded that he was right. Anyway, he made that corner of my house waterproof, and then, at his own initiative, he created a sort of gully so that water would be deflected away from the house and go underneath a wooden walkway. 2. Several men anointing themselves "carpenters" redid my bedroom bathroom some years ago. I had had part of their damage repaired right after their blight, then realized this last year that the floor under the sink was rotting away because of shoddy plumbing work. Tim fixed the plumbing and replaced that section of floor with tile. The tile extends only to the dropline under the sink, but it looks really good in combination with the heart-pine floor. He also reworked the interior plumbing with molding that matches the style of the sink, which is an antique that I went to some trouble to acquire. 3. Tim replaced a rotten timber framing the gable and then painted the gable. I live in extreme Southwest Virginia, between Dungannon and Castlewood. It's hard to find skilled labor here. Tim drove from his home in Kingsport to do this work. He apparently had a longtime job near Atlanta but moved here for family reasons, and I feel lucky to have found him. He is not the cheapest labor around, but I'm fed up with having repairs done twice, which is a total waste of money, and I feel confident that Tim knows what he is doing. He is knowledgable, hardworking and personable, and I don't worry about having him on my property. He is extremely punctual, and I'm a stickler about that. I detest waiting for workers who never show up or show up hours after they're scheduled to be on the job. The first day Tim worked here, he called to let me know he would be late--he had received an emergency call from another client. It turned out that he was not as late as he thought he would be, and he has turned up at the exact hour or a little before ever since. So my impression is that he is extremely conscientious and does good work. He does not do new construction; I asked, as I'm wanting to add a small structure. But he seems to be good at fixing problems (he's trained in plumbing and electricity, he said), and he's a wonderful painter. I can tell from dealing with him that if he thinks something is beyond his skills, he'll say so. Would that some of the other people who have worked on my house had done that!!