Business ProfileforCapital Improvement Contractors

CIC was recommended to us by some real estate agent, for a total rehab of our 800 square foot rowhome. Our overall experience with him was very painful, and resulted in many grey hairs and sleepless nights. We now have a roof that needs to be replaced just a few years after he installed it, several walls out of plumb, poor tile work, misaligned ceiling lights, spotty paint job, and several months of lost rental income, to name just a few things. But if you decide to hire him because you like his price quote or his personality, or are just a masochist or whatever, here are a few tips to dealing with him. Learn from our mistakes and maybe you will have a better experience than we did:

• He is a good designer. Recommend to only hire him to plan out your design, but not for any construction work.
• Make sure the contract has a rock-solid timetable and penalties for going over schedule. For our 800 square foot project, his original estimate was 3 months. He wound up taking an additional 8+ months of un-excusable delays (delays that were purely his fault).
• Make sure you enforce the payment schedule. He began demanding payment ahead of schedule at about the 1/3 point. We didn't make the mistake of paying him ahead of schedule, but unfortunately after that the work quality and speed started to suffer dramatically.
• Check every surface (steps, walls, ceilings, sills, etc), at every stage (studs, drywall, finish). For us, we unfortunately trusted in his basic workmanship skills and didn't check these things until the walls were finished. After that, it was very difficult to get him to fix them. Despite our constant nagging, we still have several walls and sills that are noticeably slanted. This remains one of my biggest beefs, and a constant reminder of our mistake.
• Monitor the quality of any tile work closely while it is being installed. The tile work he did for us is very rough and uneven.
• In general, be prepared for constant, close, daily monitoring of quality and work progress. Establish deadlines and stick to them. Check all work closely at every stage. Don't pay ahead of schedule. Don't be afraid to be an a*hole with him. He comes off as a "nice guy" and you want to be nice to him too, but that is a mistake. If at a certain point he has gone over schedule due to un-excusable delays, give him 30 more days and then fire him.