Plumber Electrician
Negative Recommendation – Recently my contractor hired an electrician and plumber for the work at my house. The agreement stated that they would pull permits and cover all materials. After talking to us in terms of what we wanted to get done, they changed our requirements without telling us, started to nickel and dime us…
Negative Recommendation – Recently my contractor hired an electrician and plumber for the work at my house. The agreement stated that they would pull permits and cover all materials. After talking to us in terms of what we wanted to get done, they changed our requirements without telling us, started to nickel and dime us for everything they didnt want to do. After telling us that the permits are on the way, I kept checking DOB site, they finally gave us permits a month later. These turned out to be fake documents. When we told them they are not getting paid and didnt want to work with them, they didnt really say much, took the permits and said there was some sort of error. Their names are LESLIE KING AND THEODORE (TEDDY) BATTLES and work under 703 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT. Please refrain from doing business from them as they are dishonest. They are licensed by the city as home improvement contractors and not as master plumber and electrician
It’s a shame that you had to go through such a bad experience. Thankfully I have a great electrician, that I’ve known for years now, and I can count on him to get the job done at an honest price. If you are in the Houston area, check out Mister Sparky at http://www.mistersparky-houston.com/.
“Beautiful, amazing homes are undergoing full and partial renovations by laborers with minimal experienc”
Hey MP… I hear ya loud and clear. People think they can just hire anyone these days and get a good job. Proper work costs real money. My fave was a post a few weeks ago from a guy who needed a small dumpster and got like seven bids.
You get what you pay for folx, and by all means take advantage of the bad economy to get a bit of a discount from legitimate contractors. But if a guy who’s been around for twenty years quotes 20k and someone else quotes 10k, accept the 10k bid at your peril.
Accept the race to the bottom at your own risk.
There is so much of this going on now, it’s disturbing.
I don’t know the people the poster mentions and have never heard of them, but my company frequently gets calls and emails from architects, general contractors, homeowners that are self-contracting and designers inviting us on pre-bid walkthroughs and jobsite meetings.
Since the economic collapse, we find ourselves on jobs with the most unqualified “contractors†we’ve seen in years.
Beautiful, amazing homes are undergoing full and partial renovations by laborers with minimal experience led by foreign foremen who themselves are barely familiar with our Codes, materials and expected conduct. Suddenly there are bottom lines being offered at new lows by an influx of silver-tongued, make-believe tradesmen.
Stories about invented credentials and years-in-business have become common in community and homeowner’s web forums. Search this very blog for an afternoon of reading material on the subject.
For the first time in recent memory, I’m witnessing so-called tradesmen leaving food and garbage around jobsites, creating havens for rats and roaches and then putting up walls giving them a permanent home for the homeowner to deal with. Last week, a builder actually had to circulate an email and put up signs in different languages asking the sub-contractors to please stop pissing in the garbage bins. A job site toilet and sink were installed specifically to prevent such a thing. This is not a bonus, it is a requirement.
On estimates, I find myself walking around jobsites I’m not contracted to yet warning people about what I’m seeing, only to have people take my words as a ploy to create work and then not hiring me. So what do I do? Keep my mouth shut? It seems to be the better business decision.
Every fall I get tens of calls from people who had plumbing and heating alterations made to their homes over the summer that failed miserably once the weather turned cold. I’m charged with the task of showing them which walls need to be reopened and which floors need to be excavated. It’s like telling people they need cardiac surgery.
Brooklyn and Manhattan are full of fantastic brownstones and townhouses, but the economy has created a market for the cheapest labor and materials around. Legitimate mechanical contractors like me have done very well in the past ten years ripping out and replacing the old, neglected plumbing and heating systems in the now-desirable buildings of Park Slope and West Village. The pipes we pulled out were taped together, holes plugged with tapered wooden shims, not vented right, not pitched properly, leaking, creating mold, passageways for rats and mice… you name it. It was people doing the absolute minimum to keep their buildings habitable. Many had become illegal multi-families.
We’re going back to that level of building quality, quickly. Please give careful consideration to who is going to work in your home. Architects/engineers: you’ve taken the time to create a plan. Have some say in who installs your design. It is a decision that will make or break your reputation.
Master Plvmber
(aka John Cataneo)
http://www.GatewayPlumbing.com
Horrors. Glad you were on top of it and didn’t pay them.