Nashville Contractor Nightmare

[Mitchell Klein]

Hi All,

A couple of friends and myself are just getting started in the Nashville REI community and are in the process of building a network of reliable contractors. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

While asking around for referrals, a friend of ours had a great example of what we are looking to avoid. I figured this is a great opportunity to alert others in the Nashville REI community, as well as get some feedback as to what one might do in this kind of situation. Here is her story below,

"Our realtor referred Jeff to us, he power washed and stained his fence and said he did a great job so we decided to use him as well to stain our deck and fence. He came to our house, quoted us $1200 and a few days later, they started the job. 

They ran out of time and needed to come back to finish, we paid them the $1200 upfront. They came back and a different day and did more stain however, the job was about 1/2 done. This was 2 months ago and they are still not finished. 

Jeff sent out a different guy 2 weeks ago to finish the deck/fence and the job looks horrible, paint running down in areas, some wood still showing, and there is stain from their sprayer all over my house, our neighbors house, our AC unit, etc. 

Jeff has told me on 2 different occasions that his paint guy, Brad Watson would be at our house to color match the paint and fix the stain on our homes, both days he never showed to paint our homes. Jeff's business name is Baja Construction and it appears he does not have a license, but he said that he uses his partner's license, which turns out to be another business that he subcontracts for. 

How do we go about making sure the job that we paid for gets completed, and what they ruined gets fixed to our standards? Is it worth taking them to small claims court?"

Has anyone else run into a similar problem? How did you resolve it?

From what I've gathered already is to always look for;

-3 years experience

-3 referrals minimum

-proper licensing 

-contractor carries good insurance

Any other things to look for in the future?

Thanks!!!

[Karen Margrave]

Yes, that's a mess for sure. 

• Get bids from a few contractors, and make sure they break out materials and labor (you want to always compare apples to apples)
• NEVER pay the full amount of the job upfront. A resonable deposit is ok. 
• If possible, agree to buy the materials yourself and have the contractor pick them up. 
• Check licenses
• Call references
• Get everything in writing, including the start and end date, and what happens if things don't go as planned.