Carter Construction

Ryland Carter is very friendly and personable and appeared to be well organized at first. A head carpenter was assigned to the job and without his attention to detail the project likely would have deteriorated quickly. Initially much of the work occurred on schedule. However, as the job progressed it was obvious that subcontractors were not being managed, resulting in delays, extended periods without utility services, and subcontractor call-backs to meet the specifications. In one instance, one subcontractor took apart the work of another. It also became apparent that much of the work was being done twice or more times to get the work correct. Ryland Carter was remiss from the project for days at a time, and decisions were not being communicated to his crew and subs. In some cases this resulted in items that were truly not fixable. The foundation was 2? out of square, and this was discovered during framing. It was repaired by shimming all studs inside and out on the addition. However, the exterior sheeting was pulled off numerous times during the repair, and rather than replace the damaged sheeting the gaps, he insisted that holes and splintered areas were filled with epoxy was an acceptable option. Other examples of work being redone include insulation not being installed in exterior walls (they said they forgot) meaning drywall had to be pulled off and reinstalled; miscalculating attic insulation involving doing the blow-in twice, bringing drywall crew back to patch holes that were missed the first time; omitting light switches and not wiring installed fixtures necessitating bringing the electrician back on fishing expeditions; and pieces of interior trim being filled with epoxy to hide large gaps. The cedar fence (build by Carter, not a sub) was rebuilt four or five times to get the gates to open and close, has uneven appearance, is nailed to the house, and had a huge gap under part of the fence. With regrading we have been able to reduce the gap under the fence to about 8 inches. The contract was a fixed bid with allowances. At first Ryland Carter was communicative about scheduling and where we were on allowances. As the job progressed, communication became weaker and weaker. Towards the end of the job, which should have been done no later than Labor Day, but went into November, communication was almost non-existent. I was specifically told there would be no surprises regarding allowances on the final bill. The final bill included an additional $2500 worth of electrical, for parts that were purchased during the first 1/3 of the job. As far as we are concerned, ?the electrician didn?t get me the information? is not an adequate excuse to add an unexpected $2500 to the bill when by all other accounts we were within the budget and scope of the job. The parts billed for were, we believed, included in the initial scope and contract as a stated component and this lighting was laid out before the work began. With everything else in the project, if an allowance needed to be adjusted due to a change of materials or situation, we were indeed notified and had a discussion of the changes, and an OK of them. To not be informed at any point of the additional $2500 in electrical except on the final bill is inexcusable. Although the final product looks nice, we would not rehire or recommend Carter Construction for any future work. He did not oversee his crew or subs adequately, and communication and checking on details was remiss. Project management skills appear to be deficient, and just about any issue was someone else?s fault.