Underpinning, basement finishing and fence posts
We engaged Micon to renovate our basement: lowering to create an 8' ceiling height (which would involve underpinning), the final finishing, and some odds and ends such as replacing the front porch and installing fence posts.
The underpinning was completed properly, as was the basement finishing. Our issue with this is the time it took - originally estimated around 2 months, it ended up taking 6 months. Not entirely their fault, however.
Where things get dicey is once we paid for the project in full (which was just prior to completion). There are still some outstanding deficiencies, but all of a sudden the contractor has been extremely difficult to reach - doesn't answer the phone, doesn't reply to emails, etc. We've tried scheduling days for their workers to come, and all but once the workers didn't show up without notice.
On one of the days they actually did show up, the workers installed the long awaited fence posts. Micon agreed to install these posts for us for free as part of other renovations they were completing for us. In the end, they balked and said it would actually cost $500 to meet the specifications we needed. They claimed the material and time costs would be higher than anticipated. We reluctantly accepted.
We were very direct on where the first post should be placed, the distance between posts, etc. The builder ended up ignoring all of our specifications and in fact misrepresented certain aspects (ie the type of cement they'd use, and the time it took - half of what he originally quoted us - because they didn't do the job as required). In the end, the fence line isn't a straight line, the distance between posts is completely off and some posts aren't even perfectly vertical (they are at an angle!) Therefore we refused to pay this extra $500.
At this point we are very worried if they will make good on their warranty promises. Time will tell.
** update: As of January 20, 2014, Micon's workers have yet to resolve the outstanding deficiencies.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $80,000.00