911 Home Improvement

Our home was built in 1992 with LP Siding. We chose to wait as long as we could before replacing the siding and this summer seemed to be the right time. The price we paid for replacement siding for the entire house, new vapor barrier, painting and clean up was very good. With tax, around $15,000. The crew came about a week later than we had been told they would start and I had to call the owner to get any information about why they hadn't shown when expected. They had a valid reason, but a 30 second phone call to me would have allowed me to avoid several days of anxiousness not knowing where they were after having been paid half of their fee. The crew was professional and courteous and had the job done within a reasonable period of time. The contractor did not do a walk around with me. An inspection on my own turned up a few minor things that needed follow up. I contacted the owner and two days later he returned my call. I explained what I was concerned about and he promised to fix these few items later that week. He never showed and never called to say he couldn't come. I contacted him again and asked what was wrong. He scheduled another appointment and missed this one as well. Again, there was no call. He finally did show up five days later and fixed just one of the items I needed addressed. At this point, I had had my fill of the non-responsiveness. I just dealt with the issues myself. These little issues consisted of: large gaps of missing paint on flashing in the front of the house; two siding planks that appear to have been cut too long and have slight bows; an extremely sloppy job of painting the trim on our living room window (first, it was painted the wrong color and then corrected but there was paint all over the vinyl window frame); a very sloppy job of reattaching phone lines and cable TV lines that had been added since the house was built and were on the exterior of the siding (where these had been taut and painted to match the old siding, they now droop and sag and were placed along the trim and thus are very visible). None of these items is what I would call a sign of lack of professionalism concerning the main task. I think each of these items- and the lack of courtesy in letting the customer know when workers don't show when they are expected- are those little extras that are the mark of just an average contractor and not a superior one. Keep that in mind if you want to use 911 Home Improvement.