ComplaintsforNord Alta Construction

• Initial Complaint

  18/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Without getting into a novel of specifics this is an overview of my experience with *******. I had a complete demolition and remodel of my master bathroom. The project started Aug 2 and ended November 17, 2022 after a phone call ended poorly with *******. ******* never removed his shoes while doing work in my home and has damaged my carpets. Daily I needed to clean my carpets, vacuum, and mop to prevent dirt from being tracked through my home and my children becoming sick. I have had to repair and touch up paint on baseboards, Walls, doors, and stairs. There was a tremendously limited amount of communication. Whenever any level of concern was brought up regarding this lack of communication I was met with deflection, dishonesty, and defensiveness. Myself, covid, and contractors were blamed. No level of accountability was ever taken on *******’s part. For months my hallways and master bedroom were used as storage facilities. At no point did he acknowledge how inconvenient and frustrating a bathroom remodel taking over 3 months might be or how having boxes and tile strewn across my master bedroom and hallways may be. He became overly familiar with myself, my children, and my home. Standing in my kitchen trying to chat, providing advice and feedback to my children about life. I was given very little, if any, communication regarding who was coming to my home, when, or why. At one point while home alone with my children a compete stranger showed up to do a repair that I was unaware of and almost walked into my home without my knowledge. At several points it was stated to ******* that all I needed was to know what was going on and who would be coming and when. When my husband attempted to address this with ******* it ended in them both swearing and yelling at one another. ******* stated that it was not his fault and insinuated that it is not his responsibility as a general Contractor to know who is coming in and out of my home. Following that every contractor that entered my home made comments on what an asshole my husband must be and what a victim ******* is. Throughout the experience organization of contractors, time management, and efficiency were significantly lacking. Anytime I asked questions I was not given a direct answer. Then, when my shower began to leak after one days use, I received one phone call from ******* informing me it would be fixed. After that ******* never called me again to follow up. I was pushed off onto the plumber and tiler. When my husband called to follow up about the shower. ******* stated he would be invoicing us. When concern about paying an invoice while a continued to have lose ends was expressed, ******* stated that we had a functioning bathroom and no sort of final date or timeline was set in the contract so essentially he did not care. When I called to ask how the leak was being addressed, when I can use my shower, and Who to tell if it is or isn’t leaking and when the holes in my roof would be fixed. ******* refused to answer me and instead told me my husband was to have called him at 1pm and he didn’t so it’s my fault I don’t have those answers. That he had been intentionally been avoiding me and my husband because of how unhappy and “rude” we were. That he was upset we did not accept his apology about delays in the project being finished and so he does not want to speak with us. I asked several times to answer my simple questions and stated I was not concerned about his hurt feelings. He Wouldn’t andwer me.

  

  Business response

  21/11/2022

  My response “without prejudice”
  
  
  I guess I will start by addressing these points one at a time, because there is a lot to unpack here.
  
  I did not remove my shoes in your home because drop sheets were laid down from the entrance to the home to the bathroom, where construction was being done. It’s true that I accidentally tracked something onto the carpet. I was notified by the homeowner (wife) and I apologized with a promise to do better. This happened early in the project and I was never told that the carpets were damaged. They didn’t appear any different from when we started and if they were damaged, it would have been addressed. If anything, the homeowners have a small dog that urinated and defecated on the floor while I was working there. I picked up feces more than once.

  
  Vacuuming your carpets every day can happen if a renovation is taking place in your home. Especially if the carpets are white.
  

  No concern about dust was ever brought up.
  

  Not once was I notified that the homeowner had to do paint touch ups nor was I asked to do any paint touch ups. I could perhaps see potential for touch ups needing to be done on the stairs as drop sheets were not placed on the stairs due to potentially being a tripping hazard. Let it be noted that we were careful. The wall along the stairs has a couple of dozen photographs hanging from it that were not removed ( after being told to remove anything potentially breakable) and they were not damaged. In addition, our painter was on hand for a period of time and, if these things would have been brought to my attention, he could've easily fixed them.
  

  Using your room as storage: I asked the homeowner where she would like the products for the renovation stored. She cleared a space outside of the bathroom for us to use. I indicated that the tile should NOT be all stored in the same place as the weight of the product could affect the integrity of the floor joists. I spaced out the tile on the upper floor, placed everything under drop sheets and made note of this to the homeowner. I asked her if this was okay. She said yes. At no time did she ask me to move the product. The product was placed to not be in the flow of traffic upstairs. If she would've asked, stuff would've been moved. She never asked.
  

  Accountability: The tub chosen by the homeowner was a special order tub and was ordered the week of July 18th. The tub arrived Sept 28th. I was told from my distributor that the tub would arrive in 4 weeks. It arrived in 10 weeks. When it arrived, the plumber and I opened the box to discover it was cracked. I apologized for this, and I did tell the client that it was not my fault. I called the distributor, the rep for the manufacturer and a tub repair company the same day to address the situation. A new tub was ordered that very day and it arrived to be picked up on Oct 28. Another 4 weeks. I did, in fact, blame this on Covid. The supply chain problems are real.
  

  Accountability 2: The client suggests that she did not know when people were coming and going from her house. This is untrue. She was notified when sub trades would be on site and every time a subtrade visited the house for the first time, I met them on site. One time, a subtrade was running late and I asked if it was okay to chat with the client while I waited. She said it was okay. Her eldest daughter (6 or 7 years old) was chatty and I engaged in conversation with her. I think I did offer her advice....my advice was that if you like school, you should do as much of it as you can so you don't end up doing a job like mine (the irony is real).
  

  Accountability 3: Two times, subtrades showed up or didn't show up when they should or shouldn't have. The first being the painter. He was supposed to show up on Wednesday, Sept 14 and he didn't make it. He is a painter who is not my employee. He is a subtrade with his own business and responsibilities. If he didn't show up that day, there is little I could do to either make him show up, or rewind time to let the homeowner know he wasn't showing. Not...my...fault. The second time, the tub repair guy showed up without announcing himself and proceeded to attempt to repair the faulty tub. He indicated to me that he would be there Oct 9 and he showed up on Oct 5. Again...not my employee. I understand that someone showing up during a construction project unannounced could be surprising...but it IS a construction project. People are supposed to be showing up to work during working hours. To top this off, I received a phone call later that day from the husband who started the conversation by yelling into the phone asking “**** *** **** was a stranger doing in their house?” and “**** *** **** was I going to do about it?” Not sure how I could fix this problem, I apologized (again for something beyond my control) and he did not want to let the matter drop. He yelled. I did raise my voice at some point but nowhere was I abusive to him.
  

  Shower leak: On October 27 I received a text message at 10:34 pm indicating that the shower was leaking. I notified the homeowner at 6am the following morning that the plumber would be contacted and the leak would be addressed. I spoke to the homeowner later day and it was noted that the shower only leaked in use. I told her that I would meet the plumber on site on Monday Oct 31 and we have a look at the issue. On that day, the plumber and I met the husband in the front yard, the plumber outlined to steps he would take to diagnose the problem, and once again, I apologized. He did not accept the apology and told me that if it was fixed, then he would be happy. I specifically asked him if I should relay that information to the wife and he told me it would be best if I didn't because she was angry. Since his name adorns the contract as well as hers, I thought this would be acceptable. I also informed him that the plumber would be the point man during this period as he could easily relay the information to them while he was on site and I had little to offer in terms of a diagnosis. He was provided with the contact information of the plumber and they were to speak to each other directly.
  

  Shower leak 2: The plumber spent some time doing different tests to see where the leak was coming from, making some adjustments to the plumbing without cutting into any tile work. The homeowner was asked to try the shower after each test. He determined we would have to cut into the ceiling below to have a look at the drain. The husband was made aware on Oct 31 that this may have to happen. On Tuesday November 15, he cut into the ceiling and found no obvious source for the leak. It was determined that the tiler may have to be brought in to see if he could find anything. I was able to get the tiler in the following day. The morning of November 16, the tiler came and caulked an area he thought might be where water was able to migrate. The husband called me that morning with questions regarding this fix. I told him I would reach out to the owner of the tile setting firm and see if I could get more information to report back to him. I also assured him that we would find the reason for the leak and fix it. I spoke with the tiler and immediately called him back. He informed me that he was busy at work and he would call me after 1pm. He didn't return my call. Around 4pm the wife called and demanded to know how some silicone would fix their shower and when she could use it. She was verbally aggressive and eventually I had to hang up the phone on her. I did follow up with a couple of text messages to try the shower the following day and to suggest a meeting with both her and her husband to clear the air and determine how we were to proceed. I was messaged back that they were unavailable and she would be seeking legal action.
  

  Substantial completion: As of the week of October 7, the homeowner had moved in her soap dispensers, towels, toiletries and other decorative items into the bathroom. At this point, it's my belief that I should be entitled to the remaining portion of the amount due on the contract (or portion thereof). I as of writing this novel, have not yet billed the rest of the contract amount. I discussed with the husband on our Nov 16 call that in reality, the bathroom was substantially complete. The only item that required to be addressed was the leak in the shower, which is a warranty/service item. I informed him that I understood the predicament, but we should have a discussion about this. I intend to send the final bill after writing this (Nov 21). The residual amount owing is $1500.00. IN OUR INVESTIGATION INTO THE LEAK THAT THE CLIENT DISCOVERED, WE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND ITS SOURCE. IN CONCURRENCE, I AND MY FAMILY WERE ILL WITH THE RSV FLU THAT IS GOING AROUND, FROM AROUND NOVEMBER 2 UNTIL NOVEMBER 20. I HAVE NOT HAD THE PROPER OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT THE SITE DURING THIS TIME IN ORDER TO DISCOVER WHAT THE ISSUE IS. I felt it best not to bring the flu accompanied with +40C fevers to the clients' home. After the tiler's visit on Nov 16, I have been barred from the home starting that evening and cannot investigate potential cause for the leak further. Our firm has been doing these types of renovations for many years (see our *** profile) and has never experienced any leaks, period. So having said that, it takes time to investigate each part of the shower assembly to determine if this is even a leak caused by our work.
  
  
  A few final notes for the ***:
  I've been barred from the site and cannot carry out any repairs to fix the leaking shower. This is in breach of the signed agreement I have with both of the homeowners.
  The client still owes $1500.00.
  Nowhere I have stated that I am not prepared to see this contract through. I am willing and able to try to come to a resolution with the client, despite be verbally abused and my integrity being called into question.
  Any of the complaints about the other minor items could have/would have been dealt with immediately. Since I do not possess the ability to read minds, I was unable to address them.

  The attachments are of the log that I kept for the project. The text message screenshots are 3 of many that corroborate the bulk of this message.

   

  Thank you for your time

  Customer response

  21/11/2022

  
  Complaint: 18435852
  
  I am rejecting this response because: this doe snot adequately resolve the issue. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* *********

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