Emerald Leaf Construction

I hired John to fully remodel my house in Ballard. John is (1) unexperienced, (2) unprofessional and (3) make promises he can't deliver. Starting with (1): mine is a 100-year old house, so you may imagine there's a lot of problems you learn about once you start to demolish and rebuild. He was aware of the age of the house and made his bid conscientious of that. However, as problems appeared, he always blamed the age of the house for adding extra-labor. Even though the price was for the project, he kept adding charges due to the problems, behaving as if he were hired at an hourly rate. On (2): he still behaves as a sub-contractor, not someone that manages a project. In several occasions My husband had to manage directly the tile sub, the painters, the electrician. It even got to the absurd situation of him taking a week vacation in the middle of the project and I had to do his job for one full week! But I guess the most problematic thing about that was the quality control: he has none. My husband and I had to supervise every single piece of the work from him and his subs and complain over and over again about the quality of the service: grout lines that were horrendous, uneven tiles, paint bubbles all over, cracks in the paint, damage in cabinets, doors with gaps, you name it. There was not a single aspect of the finishes that we did not have to complain and argue that the job was poorly done, and all his answers were that the house is old, or the house is better than before, or that it would require more labor that he had budgeted. Finally, on (3), he does ventures on stuff he cannot do: I replaced the floors of the house, and he hired a sub to put the hardwood everywhere, except on the stairs. That was the most complicated piece, even according to the sub. He did by himself to cut cost. It was a terrible job. I have gaps of 1/2'' on 5 of the 13 steps that would require re-do the stairs. I'm charged his last payment on this, but it won't cover the job. More importantly, he provided a 1 year warranty for the service, but this worthless, as I don't trust his job. As a last piece of the type of person John is: he left the job with my house keys and did not return them. I complained several times to have my keys back and he said that if I'm really concerned about that I should change the keys because he could make 100 copies. That's the type of professional you will have if you hire John Walker. Do yourself a favor: stay away from this individual. PS. If you want to see the evidence of the poor craftsmanship, feel free to send me an email at mcpioner@gmail.com and my husband at heleno.pioner@gmail.com we’ll be glad to send pictures or have you visited my house.

I hired John (Emerald Leaf Construction owner) to fully remodel my house in Ballard. In my experience John is (1) unexperienced, (2) unprofessional and (3) make promises he can't deliver. Starting with (1): mine is a 100-year old house, so you may imagine there's a lot of problems you learn about once you start to demolish and rebuild. He was aware of the age of the house and made his bid conscientious of that. However, as problems appeared, he always blamed the age of the house for adding extra-labor. Even though the price was for the project, he kept adding charges due to the problems, behaving as if he were hired at an hourly rate. On (2): he still behaves as a sub-contractor, not someone that manages a project. In several occasions I had to manage directly the tile sub, the painters, the electrician. It even got to the absurd situation of him taking a week vacation in the middle of the project and I had to do his job for one full week! But I guess the most problematic thing about that was the quality control: he has none. My wife and I had to supervise every single piece of the work from him and his subs and complain over and over again about the quality of the service: grout lines that were horrendous, uneven tiles, paint bubbles all over, cracks in the paint, damage in cabinets, doors with gaps, you name it. There was not a single aspect of the finishes that we did not have to complain and argue that the job was poorly done, and all his answers were that the house is old, or the house is better than before, or that it would require more labor that he had budgeted. Finally, on (3), he does ventures on stuff he cannot do: I replaced the floors of the house, and he hired a sub to put the hardwood everywhere, except on the stairs. That was the most complicated piece, even according to the sub. He did by himself to cut cost. It was a terrible job. I have gaps of 1/2'' on 5 of the 13 steps that would require re-do the stairs. I'm charged his last payment on this, but it won't cover the job. More importantly, he provided a 1 year warranty for the service, but this worthless, as I don't trust his job. As a last piece of the type of person John is: he left the job with my house keys and did not return them. I complained several times to have my keys back and he said that if I'm really concerned about that I should change the keys because he could make 100 copies. That's the type of professional you will have if you hire John Walker. Do yourself a favor: stay away from this contractor.