We are choosing one star only because there is not an option to choose zero stars. We should have written this a long time ago. We had hoped to just move past this awful experience but as things continue to fail around our home, we felt compelled to share this info as we wish somebody else could have done for us.
Hired Joel Harner and Let Us to do a major renovation to our newly purchased home in 2011. Totally gutted 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room and living spaces. Joel rarely wrote anything down so when things were not completed as discussed, he would simply say “That’s not what you said.” Too many issues to list them all. Here are our major complaints:
1. Kitchen electric was not done up to code but because Joel never bothered to pull a building permit, there were no final inspections done and this was not realized until later when we had to pay ourselves to bring it to code.
2. Daughter’s loft bed was built (while I was at work) way too close to the ceiling so that if she rolled over in her sleep, she bumped her head or scraped her shoulder or hands. We had previously arranged to have a small “reading area, big enough for a bean bag chair underneath” but Joel decided, without our input, that there should be standing room beneath the bed, rendering the bed itself useless. Our daughter slept on a mattress on the floor as a result. When we discussed this with Joel, he gave his typical answer - That’s not what you said - despite the fact that it was exactly what we’d said. Even if we HAD asked for a bed 2 feet from the ceiling, (which we most certainly did not) we have to wonder why the contractor hired to guide this process would have allowed this to happen and then denied responsibility as soon as concerns were expressed. The bed had to be fixed by a different contractor at our expense.
3. Joel’s sub contractors sanded and stained the wood floors twice as they were concerned it had not been done properly. Now, just a few years later, wood floor is peeling and will need to be sanded and stained yet again.
4. Let Us installed a large shower and moved the ventilation system but did not connect the vents properly resulting in moisture damage to the ceiling
5. Joel’s painters, after a major demo and rebuild, did not bother to wash or even wipe down the walls before painting resulting in dust, debris and chucks of drywall being incorporated into our wall paint. When Joel agreed in a legal mediation to correct and touch up some of the paint issues, he himself used the wrong color paint and it all had to be done again.
6. Joel was rarely on sight and his subs would stop coming with no notice, including a 3 week period of time with no contact or response to calls/emails.
7. This was a very expensive job. When asked for an accounting of where we were financially, Joel
was very elusive. When we asked one of his subcontractors for an estimate of his expense, he explained that he had been told by Joel to not discuss costs with us. That is when we stopped all work and contacted our attorney.
Now, after hiring several competent contractors (construction, electrical plumbing, painters) this house is beautiful but we can’t stress enough how frustrating our experience with Let Us was. We have extensively photographed and documented all of this and are happy to supply this info upon request.
