Mcada Electric

James McAda is a licensed contractor with over 30 years of experience. We hired him through Skymad Handyperson Services (Randy Duvall). The work was done competently and on time, for the most part. There were some delays when an assistant did not complete all of the finish work (strapping a pole, securing a cover for the back of the breaker box, etc.), which James missed and we discovered for ourselves when an electrician friend commented on it. We called James, and he came out several weeks later to finish that up. None of the loose ends affected our use of the service. The inspection was completed successfully, with only one minor change required, which James took care o f the following day. The learning-from-experience part: 1. I accepted James' bid based on an itemized list of the project criteria listed on a written estimate. Lesson: One should always request a signed contract with all of the company's contact and licensing information on it. I was lucky, when we ran into a couple of problems, that James was licensed and ethical enough to finish the job as promised. 2. When we first discussed the job, we had decided to increase the level of service to have enough power for all our appliances. I didn't notice that the estimate was for a smaller increase than we'd discussed. I know that wasn't intentional, and it was my own fault for not scrutinizing the paperwork closely enough to correct that at the time. The lesson: this is a good time to slow down and get it right up front. 3. I am pretty flexible re: scheduling, etc., but (lesson) I discovered that I do count on great communication. James does get around to answering my emails or calls, but it can be days or even weeks. That wouldn't bother everyone, but I was trying to be sure the electricity wasn't off when the power-tool guys were here. That wasn't going real smoothly. I know he tried and did his best for me. The longest work day on this project was back in the winter, damp and bitterly cold. I came home at the end of my day to find James still at work, cold and tired, with still had another stop to make before his work day was over. So maybe he doesn't think to let me know what's going to be happening in a timely way -- whatever -- when he's on the job, he works long and hard gets the job done right. Jun 13 '13 update: Or almost right. We felt that the glitches along the way (described above) were tolerable, and we still think James knows what he's doing. But it was wearing to have to watch so closely, to keep calling him back, and eventually to have to take on faith that everything was done to code. Fast-forward to June, and we had a 5-star Angie's List roofer out to deal with a leak near the chimney. While he was up there, he noticed a problem with the new flashing installed around a metal pipe conduit for the electrical work done above. Instead of the upper edge being tucked under the shingles, to prevent moisture and potential ice dams from forming, it was just laid over the shingles all around. To fix this problem created by James' work, we would have to pay another $300 or so. This tipped the scales in our ratings -- one problem too many, and this one costs us. We would not hire James again, unless he were working under the supervision of a competent and thorough contractor. That's what we thought we were getting when we arranged for the project with Randy Duvall, but turned out we were on our own when things went wrong.