HOME CRAFTSMAN NETWORK

Basically, huge pretense about being professional, registered with BBB, license on file, good references, blah blah, but the guy's efforts never got off the ground, fizzled to nothing, leaving me stranded and needing to find a new company.

The details:

The Home Craftsman Network sent a man from First Choice Carpentry to do the work and assured me through email that the two companies share business and work together, sending more information to prove their separate legitimacy.

The guy sent to do the work appeared professional and sincere about working with me and also with my insurance company because he determined that the adjuster's report wasn't accurate and that I needed more money to fix the problem. Discussions between myself and him began September 9th, by Oct. 5, nothing had been done. After weeks of discussing this issue and going to the trouble of making copies of my policy and getting our ducks in a row for the big insurance meeting (I was told by a Farm Bureau rep that they would not discuss my claim with him without my presence), this guy shows up having forgotten to prepare, spends our appointment time making notes and misses the appointed time when we were supposed to talk 3-way with someone in the claims dept. Granted, we had the wrong number to begin with, but if we'd started on time, we had enough time left to work it out. I even said, "we need to make that call now." He was too focussed on his report, or so he told me. I took off work so that we could make that call.

Red flags go up and I insist on more references and explanations for some questionable details I found about the business. He provides all the info. that I ask for, defensively. My fears are laid to rest and I allow him to resume his efforts in fixing my home. He tells me he's spoken with the insurance company and had a very amicable conversation. All is going well. This is the middle of October. By October 31st, I have not heard a word from him. We never agreed on price because he insisted the adjuster's report wasn't thorough, which might've been true. I don't know because he never came through on his claim that he could get the extra money needed and perform the work. That's it.

The whole experience was terrible and I would never refer them to anyone!!

The decking project was a wonderful surprise. The crew from Tennessee Decking had to redo work done by another contractor. Everything went smoothly. The workmanship was excellent.

We were very excited to have found Home Craftsmen Network as they do a fantastic job with decks. They were prompt, very professional and cleaned up after themselves as if they were never here in the first place. We were also very satisfied with the estimate they had given us and will recommend them to our friends.

BEWARE! BEWARE! A real horror show: A bathroom exhaust fan vent that they installed leaked so much in the first rain that we had to replace and paint the ceiling. They did fix that, though. Next the porch roof leaked and continues to leak to this day. I have tried with no success to get them to repair this roof, but as you can see from the pictures, all they did was throw roofing tar around. This has gone on for about nine months now. I even reported them to the BBB. Not much help there, by the way. Just recently one of the dormers has started leaking and it has damaged the ceiling in my living room. All-in-all, this was a terrible experience. I might as well mention that their trucks leaked oil and stuff all over my driveway, and they threw hundreds of cigarette butts in my flowerbeds. They are slobs and very poor craftsmen. Also, their leader, Chris Seale, has no interest in anything other than getting a check. BEWARE OF THE HOME CRAFTSMAN NETWORK AT ALL COSTS!

The worker said it would take 7 days to do the job. He finished in 5. I now know why he finished so quickly. The new walls he built were crooked. The sheetrock was installed and finished badly. The pocket door had exposed internal workings. He didn't use trim to hide the rollers. The trim he used around the door was not paint grade, it was rough lumber. The new door he installed had pieced up trim on the outside. Two pieces were about four inches long. Also, the new baseboard he installed was also pieced in short sections. The overall job was sloppy at best. Finally, the last straw was when he sanded the sheetrock and didn't put up a plastic dust curtain. Everything I had was covered in dust. Everything the worker did has been redone or is in the process of being redone. The worst part of the experience was the fact that when I called the contractor to tell him what happened, he didn't believe me. He said his worker wouldn't do bad work.