DUNN-RITE CONSTRUCTION

I had found this contractor in the paper, they were the only people who where advertising drywall. Originally my husband and I were going to try to hang the drywall our selves and do all the mud and taping. I was only looking for some one to apply a texture on the walls. I called to talk to Randy (owner) and he said just to do an orange peel texture would run us about $200. Then he told me that he charges 40 cents a square foot to do a drywall job (that would include to hang, tape and mud, and texture). So me being 8.5mo pregnant and needing a shower (soon!) we decided to just hire them (it was only about an extra $175 and it would all be done!). They did the job in our 9x13 room in 4 days. We were a little disappointed right away because when they got here they asked why we left all the lath and plaster intact...I had talked to him on the phone though and said that we were planning to lay the drywall over the top of the lath and plaster walls and he had said that would be fine. Then when he was actually here he said we should have took it down?? They told me that the walls would not be perfectly straight because the lath and plaster walls were not (its a 1918 house...trust me nothing is straight!) I said I was willing to deal with that, I just needed a functioning bathroom before the baby got here! Then the next thing that we noticed that bothered us was that they were kind of messy. our house has been a construction zone for the last 9 months since we bought the place, I really am trying to keep it clean and neat so it bothered me that they didn't take as much precaution in this area. I understand that drywall is a dusty dirty job and that there was bound to be some mess but...they tracked across my carpet with their shoes on to get all the drywall out of the sunroom (where it was stored) (also I had just had the carpets professionally cleaned 3 months prior). They cut all the drywall in the sun room and left chunks and crumbles of it in the carpet, then once they started mudding we found mud in the carpet, on some of our kitchen cabinets, and on our front door. They only put up a plastic curtain over the doorway once they started sanding but they really should have done that from the start. I had to have 4 family members come over to help me clean up all the dust that had gotten everywhere in the house! The other thing that bothered us is that they had to go buy more drywall and 10 more gallons of mud. They said that they needed to buy more drywall to finish the inside of a small closet that we had with less seams. But there was Soooo much drywall left over, chunks of stuff they could have pieced it together (it was just the inside of a closet anyways). We also witnessed them throw away over half of the mud that they (we) had bought! We didn't want to bring any of this up because the job was getting done, and we needed it to be done fast. We felt leary of the way the were wasting materials, so my husband and I went into the room after they had gone and measured every sq foot of drywall that they did. If they charged us 40 cents a square foot we came up with a total of $475. The next day they gave me the bill for $470. However they got their total a bit different than we did, they charged $60 for 2 buckets of mud (should have been more like $32) and they charged less for the hanging of the drywall (so they figured less sq ft than us.) but the price was right so I just paid them. Im not sure if I would hire them again or not to be honest. For the amount of work that they did over 4 days (they were working hard!) and only paying them just over $400, I felt kinda bad that each of them were probably only taking home $150 for the week. So as far as the price goes, I think they under charge, but as far as being neat about things they are not so good. If I hired them again next time I would be more prepared to quarantine the area off myself first and lay rugs or cardboard down where they walk. I would also have a designated sink for them to use to get water and stuff (so they wouldn't mix plaster over my kitchen sink).