We hired this company to build a double car garage. They were the lowest bidders, and perhaps that should have been a warning to us. Their estimator just looked at the drawings for a minute then gave me a firm verbal price-everyone else had to take a copy of the drawings to work out a detailed quote.
Work started out okay but as work progressed we noted that the quality of the masonry was poor. Mortar joints were very uneven and even complete brick walls were not plumb. There were at least 3 areas on the 8" concrete block walls where for some reason, the blocks had slipped sideways to each other, leaving steps of 1". This was near the floorline and they tried to hide it by piling dirt against the wall at those points. There were 3 curved brick arches in our design, and their first attempt was so bad we had to ask them to redo them.
They also messed up the lintels. They didn't even know that 6" bearing was required. The drawing specified 6"x4" lintel beams and they substituted 5"x3"-they said it's like framing lumber-the actual dimensions are less!!!
When the roof went on it was completely crooked. The owner had to come over the next day and have his crew put shims everywhere to straighten it.
At this point we had had enough and fired him. Three days later we received a registered letter saying our house was being liened because Da Corte Construction had not paid a supplier! The actual lien had gone through about 2 weeks before so it didn't have anything to do with us firing him. Da Corte Construction did not do anything to resolve the lien issue.
At this point the garage was not finished, and worried about potential problems we called in the building inspector for a review. He found so many defects we had to hire an engineer to come up with a remedial action plan!
In summary I can say that Da Corte Construction does not employ qualified people, has no expertise whatsoever in construction, and operates in an unethical manner.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $25,000.00