All Around Home Maintenance

We employed this company to pressure wash and stain our home
after seeing a neighbor?s house being done. We stopped and asked the man
standing at a work vehicle at the front of the neighbors home if he could come
down to our home and give us a quote which he said he would do when he got
finished at their home. Jamie arrived walked around the house with my husband,
gave us his business card and a quote for $3800.00, which we agreed to due to
our home being 3 floors high. This was back in Oct 2011 but we were unable to
go ahead at that time due to one thing or another but Jamie kept on coming by
the house to see if we were ready to start however due to winter coming up we
decided to wait until the following year which we did. At the time I felt that
Jamie was sincere and keen and we decided to go ahead with him.  I called
Jamie during the second last week of September 2012 and told him that we were
ready to get started with the house so he came by on the 18th of September and
gave us a second quote for $4000.00 which was ok as this was now 12 months
later and asked for a deposit of $2000.00 for his supplies which I gave him a
check for, he was going to get me a contract to sign which he never did and I
forgot to get. He told me that he would be at our home on the 21st, Friday, to
get started and when he had not shown up by 12 pm I called him at which time he
told me that he said he might be by on Friday but he had another job he needed
to finish and would be by to start on Monday the 24th and that the  job
would take 3 to 4 days, it ended up taking 2 weeks and 3 days due to rain and
drying time for the house however this would not have been the case had Jamie
bought someone with him to help with the job knowing full well what the job was
going to involve, and also worked hours that would have see the job finished in
the time frame he gave us.
Firstly I would like to give credit where credit is due, the
pressure washing was a good job even though he had to do the back twice and application
of stain was  good but what follows is
why I have given the rating I have.
 The first day he started he worked a total of 5 1/2 hours and
asked me if we had a gas can he could borrow as he must have left his at the
gas station and needed it for the pressure washer so I gave him ours that was
full. Later that same day he came to me asking for another check of $1000.00
when I asked him why he said that he had underestimated the cost of the stain,
this surprised me as he only just gave us the new quote and as we had not
decided on a color as yet how did he know what the stain was going to cost, I
went ahead and gave him the extra money even though I knew I should not have. The
pressure washing finished and the stain was ready to be applied. He did not
work on the Tuesday, Wednesday he worked 5 hours, Thursday 4 1/2 hours. It
rained Thursday night so he did not work Friday, Monday he did not work as it
was going to rain that night, even though it was a bright and sunny day,
Tuesday rained, Wednesday he wouldn't start to restain as it rained the night
before however as I told him the front of the house which was half done was dry
as the sun had been on it all morning however he said it had rained the night
before so he wouldn't do it, Thursday he worked 4 1/2 hours. This is now the
4th of October I stopped writing down hours that he was working, sometimes he
bought someone with him other times he didn't.  I told him that the back of the house needed
to be re pressure washed as my husband had seen the photos I had sent him and
was not happy with the amount of mold and mildew still on the house. Jamie said
that because the back of the house took the most weather it wouldn't come off
but would do it again and asked me if he could get the balance of his money to
which I said no so he asked if he could get at least $500 to which I also said
no. After the second wash the back of the house came up 90% better that after
the first wash, something he said he didn't expect to happen. He said he would
come over and finish staining the other side of the house on Saturday then on
Monday come back and rewash the back and have it finished by Tuesday. All this delay
put me behind in staining the porch and painting the banister on the porch. I
decided to prep and prime the bannister on the Saturday as he was only going to
stain the other side of the house but instead he showed up with 2 guys and
decide to rewash the back of the house on the Saturday and as such washed off
the primer I had just painted on the bannister so I had to redo that which I
did on Sunday. It rained Sunday and Monday and as he had been telling me know
for over 2 weeks he cant stain for at least 2 days after it rains as the wood
had to dry, however he showed up that Tuesday. I was very angry and asked him
why he was there not 24 hours after it had rained when for over 2 weeks he told
me he could not stain, he said that the house was dry at the back and it was
ok. I told him that I had on a previous occasion told him that same thing about
the front of the house but he refused to come out to get it done at that time
however now it suits him to go against what he had been telling me. We ended up
getting into a heated argument over the length of time that the job was taking,
as well as the fact that he worked on our property at times that suited him. I
also explained to him that damage had been caused to 2 vents that had to be
fixed, a shingle that had lifted that needed to be fixed and the ground where
he dug holes in so as to level his ladder also needed to be filled and that he needed
to clean off the driveway where his truck had leaked oil in 16 different areas
all before I would give him the last check. I had already filled 2 holes in the
back of the house that the pressure washer blew out with filler as I did not
want anything to crawl into those holes. When he was leaving he came to me to
let me know that all was done so I went and inspected it all. He tried to give
me back the gas can, about 1/4 full, but due to the fact that it had sat
outside in the rain without the yellow cap on it I told him to keep it, I had
gone and had to purchase a new one and put gas in it so I could mow the lawns
so I deducted the amount for that as well as the filler for the holes in the
back of the house which totaled $24.00. He still needed to do the oil stains
which he did after he got his truck out of the way but 2 days later the oil
stains are still there and now that my husband has returned home from
deployment he will fix them. We also discovered, which I forgot to take up with
Jamie, that he was not the contractor who did our neighbors home, but was
employed by that  contractor and that he
had deceived us. When we contacted the actual contractor about this he was
lived that Jamie had gone behind his back and done this. He also said that this
was the first time that he had Jamie work for him and he did not know him very
well but apologized for what had taken place.