Braddock Journey

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

A contractor in New York was arrested for scamming over $80,000 from an 88 year-old. It was the Attorney General who pressed charges, which led me to investigating information about contractors through the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

The press office put out a release with tips on choosing contractors at the start of summer. Although I can’t find a web page where I can check for legal action against contractors, the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection (1-800-441-2555) is listed as a source as well as the Better Business Bureau. If it’s too late for that, you can file a complaint online.

One thing that I learned from the Post-Gazette article about a lawsuit and the Attorney General’s tips is that by law consumers have three days to cancel the contract, and this should be in the contract. It would have been nice to know this when my plumbing contract doubled in price the first day he was on the job and he refused my request to cancel the contract.

Here are some interesting artilces and sources for more information:

• Consumers to receive more than $93,000 resolving complaints about contractors in Allegheny, Westmoreland & Lackawanna counties
  Contractors included:
  
  • Darrell Defalco - Premier Contracting - Allegheny County
  • Marcus Geiser - Four Star General Remodeling - Allegheny County
  • Ronald Day - Ameritech Home Services - Allegheny County
• Attorney General Corbett announces lawsuits against two Pittsburgh area home improvement businesses falsely implying to be government programs
  This September the suits were filed against:
  
  • William and Karen Livorio, 116 Gatehouse Drive, Corapolis, and their business, Revitalization & Funding, Inc., of Pittsburgh.
  • Wayne Scholar, 222 Stockton Ridge Drive, Cranberry Township, Butler County, doing business as Western Pennsylvania Housing Alliance, of Cranberry Township
• How do you take the “con” out of a home improvement contract?

Friday, September 19, 2008

It’s amazing what a difference framed in walls and some light bulbs make!

Nicholas Electric finished the rough in last week, a day ahead of schedule, and we have switches with working overhead lights for the first time in the house! We can see the basement.

Having outlets, switches, and light really makes the place look like it’s coming together. We can see the final steps ... heat, insulation, drywall. When we had the latest materials delivered from Lowe’s the delivery guy took a tour of the house and left us with some reassuring thoughts. He did the same thing to his place, but one room at a time while he lived in it. In the end, he said, it’s worth all of the hard work.

Around the same time that the electric was being isntalled, Dun-Rite came in and repaired and replaced the windows. The new subfloors are mostly done. Maybe some day we will actually have a livable house.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

This is an evolving list of contractors to hire and to avoid at all costs ... Every time someone new is added it will come back to the top of the list of stories.

The Good: Home Repair
Dun-Rite Windows & Doors
412.781.8200
getitdun-rite.com
We are very happy with the quality of windows and the services from Dun-Rite. They repaired broken windows, installed new windows and screens, and even put in a glass brick window for our shower.

Joe Bonifate Masonry
Joe is picky about who he will work with. He gave Joel a thorough interview before he would take him on as a client. It seems some people will hire him, fail to pay him, and then recommend him to others. (Hey, I know this great free mason… ) We were lucky enough to have Joel as our resource in finding Joe, and we received speedy and flexible service. He’s also a stickler for a perfect job, so when he examined the final product he sent back one of his workers to fix something before he would let me pay him.

Brian Whitney, general contractor
412.823.3880
Roofing was a sore point for us. Our roof is 12x12, which means scary in lay terms and expensive in pricing. (12x12 is the roof rise ratio ... it’s trig: the tangent of the roof-pitch angle, and 12/12 is steep.) Brian took a long time getting us an estimate, but once it was in they started working on our roof immediately thanks to Mayor John. It was finished within a week, they were able to add on ridge vents at the last minute when I realized I had discussed this with every other roofer but him, and they came back to repair a hole cut in the roof for the plumbing a week after they had finished. We are very happy with the service, the price, and the speed.

Nicholas Electric Co., Inc.
412.271.8001
Nick Glova, the president of Nicholas Electric and mayor of Rankin, has been extremely helpful and on the ball throughout the process. We have grand ideas for a media room, wanted a surge protector at the service entrance, and changed our minds numerous times about whether we needed temporary outlets, all in addition to needing a house completely rewired. He’s met our challenges with excellent input and prices. My parents were surprised that there is a waiting list for electrical in Braddock, but it’s because we are all in line to work with Nick. Even through delays because one of his employees had a family death, we have been willing to wait because of the superb service we have received so far.

The Good: Beginning Steps
ABF U-Pack
http://www.upack.com
When we moved from the west coast to Pittsburgh we were a little worried about getting our belongings across. It was March, there were still winter storms in Utah and Colorado, and we didn’t want to drive it ourselves. On the other hand, we have heard many horror stories about moving companies. Based on advice from Alaska Marine Lines, we were finally routed to ABF U-Pack. Our boxes were already packed, so we rented a truck to bring them to the ABF lot to load into a freight. Normally you can get the truck dropped off at your place to load over three days, but our things had been in storage and we couldn’t park a truck there. Not only was the final price lower than the estimate, everything arrived on time and in good shape.

Tim O’Leary
(412) 491-5488
www.homeinspectionbyoleary.com
This review came in from someone moving into Braddock, and I wanted to share the good news: He was great.  He met us late on a friday night.  Said since we were going to be doing so much work on the house he didn’t charge us for the regular home inspection even though that is what I asked him to do.  Saved us a couple hundred dollars, and had the report by the next afternoon!

The Closing Specialists
www.tcsclosing.com/tcs/
Diane Cipa at The Closing Specialists doesn’t live in the Braddock area now, but her family is from here. She is one of the few locals who had a positive response to what we are doing here (most people ask why, she was excited). The Closing Specialists processed two title searches for us, and we feel confident in recommending them to everyone else in town as reliable, efficient, and helpful.

The Bad
Panfil Plumbing
The job is complete, which we are thankful for. Other than that our experience was very poor with Panfil Plumbing, and we cannot recommend them. Unfortunately, we will be looking for another plumber to finish off small details that we missed in the initial estimate. The most troubling parts included asking us for the final payment up front to cover personal problems and stating that without this he would not even be able to start in the foreseeable future, yelling at both me and my husband (this is how I viewed it, it could have been simply a raised voice in anger...is there a difference?) on numerous occasions, taking over a month instead of the estimated week, and changing the entire job on the first day by adding an unexpected house trap that increased the total cost by 50%.

Northstar
We did not actually work with Northstar. They showed up to look at our roof and came back with an outrageous estimate. The kicker was that the salesman who walked us around the house to tell us what they would do for our roof only talked about shingle and gutter colors rather than the needed work. He also told us that his $25,000 estimate was lower than any other we would get—the next highest was $17,000. They were under the impression we were receiving federal funds to replace the roof, I’m not sure what that means much less where they got that idea.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Our house is finally progressing again!

Kevin met with the heating installation neighbor and they measured the whole place and made a list of what to buy.

We also got an estimate today on repairing and replacing all the windows in the house. Windows make it insurable, and having screens against the wretched Pittsburgh mosquitoes would be wonderful bliss. The only window that’s an issue is the rounded one broken out on the side that the window guy doesn’t know how to replace ... weird.

Also took a serious look at our floors and some are so badly damaged from the leaks that they can’t be sanded, they just crumble when you touch them. We’ve determined that about half needs to have a new subfloor laid and the other half is salvageable. Kevin’s all into covering it with OSB and using vinyl tiles everywhere ... we’ve made a compromise to cover the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways and try to restore the front two rooms on each level where the leaks weren’t as bad. The bedroom is still a problem, that has serious floor damage and will need to have the support installed but I don’t want vinyl tiles, no matter how cool the colors are, in my bedroom. And I hate the idea of installing wood over a subfloor that is over real wood ... argh. Any brilliant insight on that one?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The story of our plumbing is the worst story with a contractor I could imagine. Unfortunately, I didn’t imagine it.

I’ve been dreading writing this. It has been so stressful to work with Lamont Panfil that if I didn’t think others needed to be warned, I would just celebrate that he is out of my life now.

We started our journey with Lamont by signing a contract and putting money down on the job. I did this because I am a contractor, in communications design, and when we start a long-term project we also ask for a percentage up front. It seemed normal to me. Unfortunately I did not realize that no one else in Braddock pays up front. It’s a bad move here. He was the second contractor we worked with, and no other contractor has asked for any money up front.

After signing the contract—which to my delight included separating the gray water (for later of course, Allegheny County)—he told us he would be back on Saturday to start, May 31. On Saturday he called us to say he couldn’t come, for some reason or other. We were fine with that at the time, it was hot and we didn’t want to be at the house all day either. He showed up Monday to tell us that the county inspector had required him to run a sewer scope. We were cool with that. We had had two sewer scopes done on houses we considered buying in Portland. They cost $99 and were really fun to watch. The guy in Portland told us the weirdest thing he ever saw when sending that video camera down through the sewer pipes was a glass eyeball. Bad ass! But this sewer scope ... either because it’s Pittsburgh or this specific plumber’s contact ... was $299 and used VHS! What the hell. Now we have to pay to convert it.

The sewer scope portended struggle ahead. There was no house trap, a J-trap on the outside of the house to keep that rank sewer smell from filling your home. It also showed a rotting, nasty pipe. For sure, this was something that needed to be addressed. But Lamont told us it would cost more to fix this than the entire initial contracted price, and without it he could not complete the work we had agreed to. This was the first instance when he yelled. I told him that if he could not complete his contracted work, then we would need to cancel the agreement and we would find another plumber to do the work. He insisted that he had already purchased the supplies and had time invested, we could not cancel the contract now. He also yelled about a number of other things, we were on the phone for quite some time.

Nick, of Nicholas Electric, had recommended Lamont to us. Lamont must have called him, because Nick called me soon after my argument with Lamont to tell me he too would be shocked by this change in pricing. He gave me contact information for three more plumbers to find out their opinions. Lamont’s plan included digging up our backyard with a back ho and putting a house trap into the ground. No other plumber was willing to take this on. Sketchy. Then Lamont called back, after hearing from Nick that his actions were questionable, and said the inspector would allow him to put the trap in our basement to avoid the excessive work of excavating the yard. This made the cost more reasonable, though still a 50% increase from the initial agreement. We signed on. At the time it seemed the thing to do ...

The next day he and his brother showed up to start work on the house trap. While working a yelling match started with the neighbor that nearly turned into a fight, with everyone threatening to call in their boys. Kevin’s experience as a bouncer paid off here, he was able to settle the dispute and calm down most parties involved.

After getting back to work and jack hammering away at our cement floor in the back room, formerly a laundry room, the window broke. Then when they were about halfway through digging down to the pipe they left for lunch. They asked Kevin to stick around to watch their tools. Kevin heads to the house early to avoid the heat, working from some time before 6am to noon and taking a siesta. He agreed to wait while they went for lunch. Two hours later, they had still not returned. We tried calling and kept getting voicemail. Finally, Fred shows up and tells us that Lamont was arrested. He says the bail should only be $600 and they will be back tomorrow.

Tomorrow they don’t show. The next day, Thursday, Lamont comes to ask Kevin for the “upon completion” portion of the contracted payment so that they can start. They again state that the work will be done in one week once they start. When Kevin brings this news to me, my response is Fuck No! Later that night Lamont calls me and talks for a very long time, while I was working and Ryan was looking at me like “is he still talking?” At this point Lamont tried to convince me that he is honest and not going to run away with my money. My first thought is that if you are honest, you don’t have to say it. The second thought is that he already did run off with my money since he didn’t buy the supplies (that he told me he bought on Monday) and has none of my down payment left. I tell him I cannot give him the rest. He tells me he cannot begin the plumbing work in the foreseeable future if I do not. I tell him I’ll call him back the next day.

We went out on the porch to talk and Mayor John showed up in the parking lot. He asked how things were going, and I told him he really didn’t want to know. It turns out he did. His solution was that he would take Lamont to the plumbing supply store and pay for the materials so that he could start. This alleviated us from giving any more money to someone who already spent half of the fee without buying any supplies, while still allowing the job to begin. Mayor John called Lamont to make this offer, and while met with some resistance at first they finally agreed to go shopping the next day.

It’s Friday and Lamont called to postpone his trip with Mayor John, he had a meeting. Then he called to cancel, he found a place that would supply the plumbing materials. We were getting Pex in our house, the supplies can’t cost that much. It’s not copper. This change in plans left us the weekend to sit around thinking that we needed to find a new plumber.

On Monday, he surprisingly showed up with piping and started to work. All seemed well for a day or two, but then they disappeared for the rest of the week. All in all, they worked two to three half days a week, dragging on the job that was supposed to take one week to over four weeks.

Then it came to a week that we were out of town, planned long before all of this mess, so we left a check with Mayor John in case the plumbing was completed. The plan was that when the inspector came to review the job Mayor John would be present to hear the review and get his credentials. Instead, Lamont had the inspector come without notifying anyone. Then he called us on the Fourth of July to tell us he was finished and wanted to be paid. At this point it was a holiday weekend, he was weeks past his finish date, and we hadn’t seen the completed work. We told him we needed to wait until Monday after we had a chance to look at the work and meet with him. This started yet another argument. Finally we agreed to meet Monday.

Kevin and I were able to go into the house on Sunday and look at the work. All was well until we reached the attic. Somehow Lamont had managed to cut a hole in our brand new roof after the roofers had finished and leave it gaping for all the rain to fall through. He was there for over a month. The roofers were there for one week, the final week he was working. We had heard them discussing the vent and how it would be fitted. Yet he cut the hole in the two days after they had finished, before his inspection. This led to another argument. I found this unacceptable. He blamed it on the roofers. I called them to give him a chance, but they said they had worked with Lamont before and although he was a master plumber who knew what he was doing, he had not been prepared. He didn’t have it ready for them before they were done with their job. Brian Whitney looked at the hole in the roof and immediately sent someone out to fix it. Within an hour of talking to him, it was repaired. However, there was an additional fee because their work had been completed a week earlier. Lamont agreed to take this fee out of his final payment.

All in all it was a terrible experience, and we are glad to be done with it. The arguments, late completion, extra charges, and personal problems were too much. The hole in the brand new roof was just the cherry on top.

Jeb has been calling our roof the Miracle Roof. That’s the optimistic way of looking at shingles attached to rafters without a subroof in between. The miraculous part is that the house survived the many years between its last occupant and us. The roof part is what was missing ...

When we first started looking for roofers I used an online service that was recommended in a Pittsburgh forum. They sent out three companies to give us estimates. One did not show up at all. One called from just outside of Braddock to say he was almost here, then didn’t show and stopped answering or returning my calls. The third, Northstar, gave us a quote that made us want to run away from our house as fast as we could. Luckily we held out.

After this horrifying experience we called any and every roofer we could find. Our plumber recommended a couple roofers, but “oddly” they always came in just a couple hundred dollars lower than the most recent estimate we had received that the plumber knew about. After our experience with him there was no chance we would hire someone he sent to us. I must have spoken to more than 10 roofing companies before Mayor John sent over Brian Whitney. Brian met with Kevin and talked about the roof, and it was weeks before we heard his price. We had just about given up on the roof ... we can funnel all of the rain with tarps into buckets forever right? And then Mayor John called with the price ... and it was reasonable! And it was a reliable contractor who had worked on the convent! And they could start this week!

It turned out that we were not ready for them to start immediately because we had masons scheduled to work on the chimneys that week, and the chimneys needed to be complete before the roof. Whitney Construction was flexible and started the following week. The mason was agreeable and hurried. There were people all over our roof, the mason and the enthusiastic roofers overlapped. Our flapping shingles and bulging chimneys were being replaced by solid materials that would keep the rain out.

Simply getting the roof on was an amazing transformation. It brightened up the exterior and made the interior feel more solid. But looking at this photo makes me realize we really need to get the exterior bricks pressure washed. This house needs a bath!