RDF Hardwood Carpentry

1. I was billed for work that was not done. I only asked after noticing that the area hadn’t been touched but the adjacent sections were painted. The owner confirmed that this was not done and took the charges off. 2. It was very difficult to get the breakdown of the amounts of each large section of the project from the owner. I had to request this and personally felt that I was given a hard time to get the numbers other than the overall total cost (i.e. demo of flooring, repair of staircase, moving kitchen island). I was told at one point “I threw this together” so that he could give me something on paper. 3. The dumpster placed on my property that I paid for for demo materials was used and filled up with demo materials from OTHER HOMES, driven over to my property and put in the dumpster (RDF's owner said he instructed his workers to do this). I only know about this because my neighbors called and told me about the dumping things that weren’t coming from my home (I was not living there while the work was being done). Likely the owner's of the other demo materials were billed for the disposal. After the full dumpster was removed, I found a roll of bedroom carpet and granite in my garage that should have been in the dumpster. 4. For moving a kitchen island subcontractors for electrical, mechanical, and gas were required. RDF failed to hire an electrician for the work (but the owner brought one of his “buddies” to my house “to take a look” but not do the work). I had to find an electrician, luckily had one was able to do the work on short notice. The reason I was given for not having an electrician ready was that the RDF just didn’t set it up. Was offered the buddy could possibly do the work “on the side.” 5. After taking down the kitchen island to be moved to a location we previously had identified in the marble flooring grout line (approximately 2 feet) with only a pony wall remaining and the flooring removed, I was asked by the owner “where do you want the island?” I said to that grout line that was in the marble floor that is now gone.” He responded, “I didn’t mark it.” And then proceeded to measure and mark from the pony wall “that’s about 2 feet.” 6. In one room we discussed three times where the hardwood would stop and the carpet would begin. This did not bode confidence in the business 7. After the kitchen island was put back together I was billed for this portion but the baseboards hadn’t been painted. Only when I requested them to be completed and held pay was this done. 8. Hardwood- carpet junctions to two guest rooms that weren’t having any changes to the carpet were left with the carpet sticking up and not tacked down. Response from the owner: “I don’t do carpet.” 9. Decorative columns were left with smudges, dirt and scratches. Response from the business: “it’s from handling.” I cleaned and painted after RDF was done. 10. Initially there was a lot of attention to detail by the owner, which was one of the reasons I went with this business for the work. This quickly fizzled and efforts to make short cuts and do the least work possible became apparent. I was asked if the decorative columns could be removed for no reason. The edging that goes along the flooring/bottom of kitchen cabinets was told, “we usually leave the wood just going to the edge so the planks can expand and contract (not so, there is edging that should go there and he put it on at my request). One of the staircase steps that was worked on (new wood and stained) had a patch where there was likely something with the wood having moisture or some other issue where the stain cracked. First effort was to only sand that part and stain and coat again and the result was glaringly obvious something had happened. Only upon my request was the entire step sanded down and redone. Repeated effort to do the least possible amount of work without care for how it turns out, especially after RDF’s owner had said on several occasions that he doesn’t put his name on anything that is not quality. 11. At the end of the project, the owner did not do a walk through. I was texted that the project was “complete” one day before the deadline and then found gaps in the walls next to the hardwood, the refrigerator had not been hooked up to the water outlet which is not a big deal but then RDF found that the baseboard behind it had not been replaced and finished this. Numerous areas of the walls had smudges and needed to be cleaned/covered. When I asked about various things I was told and still have the text messages “I didn’t check” and “I didn’t confirm.” One of the last things he said to me was “make sure you do a walk through and look for anything else.” 12. Several times and in various areas I brought up issues such as the hardwood not meeting up with the wall, there was a very obvious uneven baseboard, a gap between the drywall and vertical portion of a step about a half an inch for starters where these things were only addressed or redone when I brought it up. 13. Damage to one floor in a bedroom (2-3 inch hole) was replaced with plywood which now I understand to not be the correct thing to do (check this for yourself if you have this issue, I only have this from word of mouth) 14. Difficult to get times for when and which portions of work would be done (I understand this to be part of working with contractors) but would go from being told things would be a few days away to within 24 hours (for the same thing) was asked to go get paint now for the project. Hard to do in the middle of a busy workday. 15. Highly unprofessional behavior from the owner throughout the months of work. Very early on the owner addressed me, his customer, as “Kiddo.” In an apparent miscommunication, the owner took something I said as a green light to repeatedly use forms of the word “f@ck and **** in text messages to me (this latter one is really the only thing for which I received an apology of all of the listed items here). The owner’s phone doesn’t work well and hence it is very difficult to discuss anything over the phone (you can't understand what he is saying and he can't hear you). His Bluetooth device tends to not work well either (same issues). Most contact was by text. This was peppered with emojis from a business owner to his customer (I eventually requested both the language and emojis stop and it did). The owner or the business will communicate by email but not readily or in a timely manner; this is only checked afterhours and did not appear to be even on a daily basis. For me this was frustrating as email is a convenient and efficient way to communicate. On the other hand, the subcontractors and his workers were always polite and friendly and professional. 16. In trying “to be helpful” RDF took a paint chip to be matched for the trim that runs throughout the house. The chip that they took to the store was a dull gray from the darkest area of the home (had discussed wanting the bright white from a different area) and thankfully I happened to take the paint chip I wanted matched in and found out what the RDF owner had done independently without request or permission and was able to keep more than a sample being made of the wrong hue. 19. RDF would call his “buddy” to repair things in my home before notifying me of issues or problems (i.e. garage door not closing). I personally was not ok with this, wanted to see what was going on (in this case, nothing was wrong when I went over and tried it), and call whom I would want to work on my house. 20. A Hole was made in the drywall by the door knob from workers going in and out. They never said anything about it but left a wall protector on the counter next to it. I found it bizarre that a contractor wouldn't ask or offer to repair the hole in lieu of leaving it in the wall and not even saying anything about it. 21. During the project, there was a flood in the basement. I am very grateful to RDF for going over immediately and for fixing the pipe quickly. Wanted to leave the wet flooring and water until they could get to it the next day. After I said I would r

They started the job about a month after original date given and the job took twice as long as originally estimated, but one reason being they are very detailed and do perfect work.  The floor was laid in one piece with no seams and the work was excellent.  Did a poor job of installing the dishwasher in that they didn't push it in far enough so that the drawer next to it could not be opened so had to return to fix that, which I thought was a no-brainer to check the drawer when installing the dishwasher, which they did not do.

Helped us prioritize tasks, pick hardware, decide what specifically we wanted done. There are always a couple mismeasurements, glitches to be corrected. They did that skillfully and quickly so the job didn't drag on too much. Very pleased.