I am sorry to hear about the outcome of your project... Unfortunately, some so-called contractors only care about getting money and they don't care about their reputation, customers, or taking pride in their work.

I don't think there is anything that can be said that will make you feel better unfortunately you're not the only one who has to deal with this sort of issue, and not much you can do but move on and try to slowly recover and correct what they screwed up by improving current conditions, and at this point use individual local licensed trades with good reputation, they will get you the outcome where you want to be.

I don't know what they did in your house I haven't seen any images of finished work... But I have seen many cases with unhappy homeowners locally, where contractors bring unlicensed trades without experience, knowledge, etc and they just do jobs to get it done, i.e 3 more failed inspections for the same inspection, even if the inspector tells them what needs to be done to a minimum to meet the code, they still doing it their way and fail again, GC is never on the job they just do the drive-by, and have no clue what anyone is doing... and jobs that should be completed in 2-3 months takes a year or longer to finish, and things are being hidden or neglected and they come up a month later after the project is completed and the contractor is nowhere to be found to make it right.

Don't lose faith in contractors there are many good guys out there, just takes a bit of leg work to find them, and look forward to getting the outcome you want and enjoy your new home.

Good luck.

Here in Virginia, hiring of unlicensed contractors is illegal. Depending on the contractor laws in your state you may have a number of options. You'll be well served to consult an attorney . You can also file a complaint with your state's contractor board. Putting a contractor's license at risk is a low-cost, low-risk way to get their attention.

The contractor is licensed, but it turns out his subs were not. I appreciate the advice and I know this happens all too often and to many homeowners. We’re still slowly working on resolving the issues and hopefully things work out as best they can. I definitely know what to look for going forward.

I should clarify that "sub contractors" don't exist under Virginia Contractor's law. Both general and trade contractors are considered "contractors," although they may have different specialty designations (e.g., electrical, plumbing, etc.) They all need to be licensed. If I hire an unlicensed contractor, then both my company and theirs have broken the law. Check with a local attorney about how it works in your state.

Ahh that makes sense. Things here in CA are different. It is illegal though for our contractor as a licensed contractor to hire anyone unlicensed. He did though and we’re paying the price.

We love our home, neighborhood etc which is why we stayed. The toughest pill to swallow is all of the mistakes that are too late to fix. For example there is no venting under our addition and they didn’t seal the foundation before last winters rains so it poured under the house. Luckily my husband found it and we had it professionally cleaned up, but it’s still wet and we have hardwood floors. In addition our bathroom floor bounces badly when my kids hop off of their step stool, the attic wasn’t properly insulated and gets over heated, the stucco was done improperly and has to be redone, the walls and ceilings are wavy, the baseboards don’t sit flush. I can go on and on. I have a library of photos too. It’s sad because it’s not simple fixes. Some things we just have to deal with since we plan on staying.

Nichole Campos

"The contractor is licensed, but it turns out his subs were not."

I know exactly what you mean Nichole, they manipulate the system, and use their license to obtain construction permits, and as Electrical and Plumbing contractors go they must fill out their permit section and provide their stamp and the license #... Unlicensed trade uses some licensed contractors' names and numbers and from each job, they kick the licensed contractor so much $$ and they allow them to work under their name and license.

Many homeowners do the same thing, they pull permits under their name since around here homeowners can do their electrical work and plumbing and they bring in unlicensed trades to do the work, and nobody cares or can do anything even inspections fail 2-3-4 times because their can get it right, and eventually they pass.

I spoke to a few inspectors, and they're trying to work this issue out through state regulation, but who knows how long that will take... This was supposedly already started when state laws came out that any home improvement contractor must be licensed to work on anyone's house, but like anything else this just flew over everyone's head and things got even worse, the only difference is every legitimate business pays yearly license fees and loses work to the unlicensed trades.

Hopefully in the next life this will change :-)

Good luck to you!

Yes, that’s all accurate. I’m hoping things change because it’s a horrible, costly thing to go through and these guys have zero repercussions. I have so much insight now, but a year and a half ago I didn’t know any better.