Lake West Remodeling

Terrible. Pete Konzal and lake West remodeling are completely crooked. I wouldn't use this degenerate to pour a glass of water. He stole over $6,000 from me and never paid the concrete company for the concrete used. After 3 months he was only half way done and wanted more money to finish. I cut ties and requested he leave my property. He is a crook!! He never finished the job!! The portion he did do is completely wrong. He placed the concrete incorrectly and pitched everything into my garage. Every time it rains I have over half inch of water in my garage. He is a low life scum bag. He had the concrete truck next to my house on 3 separate occasions and damaged my foundation. He knocked brick off my house with the bucket on his bobcat. He and Lake West remodeling are a bunch of hacks. He wouldn't show up when he said he would. Always a lie. Like I said, I wouldn't use Pete Konzal to pour a glass of water. He is a liar and a cheat. On top off his crappy work the entire contents of my garage sat under a tarp in my backyard for over 3 months!! I bet he is out of business now doing business under another name. He is an embarrassment to the industry. He should be black balled, run out of town!!

Beware, contractor is not ethical. Developed a very clear contract with scope of work and with Pete to lay a driveway, slab and 2 car garage. Originally contacted for driveway and slab. Pete request to quote construction of building gave a couple referances. Price was fair and the promise was to have complete by winter. Started OK, project soon fell behind with a number of excuses. By Nov/Dec Pete started extorting for more money. Finally came down to Pete walking off the job without completing the job. Do not pay him in advance. I was contacted directly by his employees asking to be paid. Drive left unsealed and dirty. Concrete left during winter without being cut leaving crack in the floor. Bare building left without siding No staircase or provision for them. Building was supposed to be 16" centers on the walls, done in 24". Landscaping left incomplete. Pete threatened to sue me because he wasn't getting paid enough because the job took him so long and then tried to put a lein on my house and the neighbors even though he was paid more than contracted. It ended up costing me an additional $5000 for other contractors to correct and finish the mess. It was worth it to have him off my Property. The low bid is not worth the agrivation

We were on a moving deadline, and he knew it, and promised the projects would be complete by August 12th. He didn't even start until the 20th of August, and that was the GOOD news of our experience! He always had some reason to not show up, and to need more and more money from us. We could hardly ever get hold of him. When we refused to make the final payment, which showed as NOT due on the contract until all projects were complete, he refused to finish! In other words, he wanted ALL the money up front! What idiot would agree to that, when he kept stalling on finishing as is? He left the attic unfinished,the dormer not done at all, our house a MESS, the stairs unfinished, and actually kept some of the supplies WE bought! He even was going to have us have OUR boys do some of his work for him, because the first drywaller he hired was a schlub who ruined the hanging of the drywall and walked off the job., He stiffed his next drywaller subcontractor, who we had to pay,and when the subcontractor ran out of drywall WE had to buy and deliver it, because Peter of Lake West Remodeling said he didn't have any money to do it. After all the dust has cleared, Peter (Lake West Remodeling) has ended up with more than 13,000.00 of the 15,640.00 quoted of our money, as well as us having to pay the electrical charges that were supposed to be included, and as I mentioned, the subcontractor, but still wants MORE to finish the project...in fact ALL of it! Also, when he tore out the old cement basement stairs, he discovered the sidewalls are dirt. He should have known they would be, since where the garage the stairs lead from is only a slab foundation. He wanted MORE money to fix the sidewalls! He also cut our phone line, never even told us til we asked, and then made US have it repaired! BEWARE! He seems nice and does good work WHEN he works, but clearly doesn't keep his word. We found out he's running a bunch of projects concurrent to ours, and it appears to us he's robbing peter to pay paul, so is hard-core pressuring us for money he's not even due yet! His story is he's afraid we won't pay him the rest (which after credits for what we had to pay subcontractors, etc. that we weren't supposed to, wouldn't be much anyhow, though of COURSE he claims more!) but has no foundation for that claim and it's just another dodge of his to get more money out of us without doing what he owes us. Clearly we've paid him all along, on schedule. He will tell you what he thinks you want to hear to get you off his back for awhile and then do whatever he wants anyhow, and will absolutely pressure you for money every time you turn around. Our project is SEVEN WEEKS past deadline, we've had to pay more rent to stay where we are, and now we will have to hire someone else to finish what he promised to, but clearly did not, finish. He told us that he regularly tells clients he is "ordering supplies" so they won't know he's just behind on everything. NO integrity. Most stressful, frustrating, disappointing experience I've ever had with any service person. We're going to court.

Do tell what you are looking to do, when you are going to do it, and how much you are willing to spend. Do maintain contact if your project is something you are waiting for either him to complete prior projects or if you are in the process of still saving for it, or weather related issues. Do keep kids away from the work area for various reasons. Don't stand over his shoulder and watch every little thing he does. Don't micromanage. You hired him to do a job and if it isn't being done to your liking, talk to him when he is on a break or at the end of the day. I am sure there are more things, but I am not typical. I do try to keep people working in my house happy. I keep drinks around for them so that they aren't constantly running to their truck or the store, I do keep sandwiches around for snacks for the same reasons as mentioned before. I also do those things because prior experience with other companies has shown me that not only are happy workers better, but sometimes prices start to come down after they have been in my home.

I've used this contractor for multiple projects because his price was low. However, his projects lasted weeks/months longer than it was promised. He often leaves the job site idle for days at once. End $$ amount was always a couple hundreds to over a thousand higher than what was promised (end up not being cheaper). The worse part is that he constantly lies about everything - from estimates, to what's covered by him, from how much his sub-contractors cost. He didn't pay for people who worked for him and got in a fight with one of his workers at my house and caused the police to show up at our property while my husband and I were at work. He has restraining orders against him from his co-workers. He would promise a day and time to show up for the work, but he will never show and never call. You can call him back but he won't pick up. We changed our plans to fit in his schedule but he would literally leave us hanging with no show and no words. He did this to us over and over and again. Didn't finish the last painting job after I paid him with cash. Let the outside paint job half done and when I called him and ask him to come back to finish. He promised will return the next day to complete job - charging me more - but again, never showed.