B Douglas Construction Solutions, LLC

Poor Workmanship, Bad Communication, All-Around Awful Experience One problem after the another from the day they started our home remodel to the day they were fired. I'm not just talking about the usual behind schedule and over budget type of issues (they were both) but major blunders and sloppy workmanship you wouldn't expect from an experienced, licensed general contractor. Pick a milestone and I can provide an example of how they did it wrong, partially completed it, hid it from me and/or the inspectors or just left it for me to deal with. I now have to pay someone else to fix, replace and finish work that was within their original scope. A few highlights Material left on my garage floor and yard rather than dumpster for weeks. Foundation not done to code. Had to be redone for $$$. Incorrect measurements and lumber orders. Leaks and water damage due to unfished work. Incorrect framing. Had to redone for $$$ Lost hardware and parts. Had to re-purchase for $$$ Hot wires exposed within easy reach of children for weeks. Shorting electrical circuits by putting hot wires in metal junction boxes with no wire nuts. Material and lumber not ordered on time or at all. Lumber prices increased so have to purchase new material for more $$$ Water leaks in new plumbing. Had to be redone for $$$ Project managers didn't know the scope of work. Laborers didn't have any tasks or know what to do when they arrived. Subcontractors hired for individual tasks rather than entire project. Multiple visits, redoing previous work all for extra $$$ Project managers and owner MIA for weeks. Dumped extra concrete in the yard. Sloppy drywall “finishing” (e.g. visible seams and gunk in corners) that has to be redone for extra $$$ Roof flashing that needs redone for more $$$ And to be honest that's just a short list of issues As the project dragged on we wouldn't see or hear from anyone for weeks while our house was torn apart and/or without power. Project managers and owner were nowhere to be found. When they did show up it was usually to have to give bad new, redo previous work or try and expand their scope of work. I'd ask for a competitive quote only to discover they were marking up subcontracted work 100%. When I declined to have them do any additional work I started getting invoices for work that either should have been include in the original bid and/or work they had to redo because it wasn't done right the first time. After the initial bid, the owner showed up twice over the course 7 months. Once to collect a check and once after I fired them. He stopped by to meet with the building inspector after it was discovered some critical framing was never inspected and not done to code. I should have taken the advice given to me and fired them sooner rather than giving them repeated opportunities to make things right. When I told them I no longer required their services, they didn't seem upset or surprised. They wanted to make sure the

Not too long ago, we decided to frame out the space below our cantilever to expand the lower level of our home. We decided to hire companies to do the foundation and framing. Since we were going to knock down the existing front of wall of the lower level and extend the existing wood floors, we wanted to make sure professionals were on the job for a seamless transition. We hired B DOUGLAS CONSTRUCTION SOLUTIONS, LLC (Bryan Boyce) to do the framing and subfloor. He is a Gretna contractor, so we felt good hiring local and knowing that he would do quality work in his own community. WE WERE WRONG. There were several mistakes made, some easy to fix, others a nightmare to fix. My husband and I caught a few problems ourselves - they framed a window sideways and failed to make the new subfloor elevations match the old floor (the old and new floors would be part of one big room with no wall separating them). All the framing had to be pulled off to fix the floor. That is not an acceptable oversight that the homeowner should be responsible for discovering and requesting a fix! Luckily, we hadn't paid them yet, so the repairs were made. B Douglas then failed city inspection. They didn't follow the blueprints with a double header, window headers were done incorrectly, the joists weren't properly attached, and the door would neither open/close without slamming nor would it lock, so our house was not secured for quite some time... B Douglas wouldn't take ownerships of those mistakes, they claimed the city inspector didn't know what he was doing. However, since payment wouldn't be made without a passing inspection... Fast forward a week or two. We had THREE flooring professionals come in and every single one of them told us the same thing. The floor cannot be laid as it is. The subflooring wasn't laid to match the pitch of the floor. We noticed and made them correct the elevation, but we didn't know to check the pitch. Bottom line, without fixing the subfloors, all our hardwoods would have to be ripped out because the only flooring that could be laid on a floor that sloped that drastically is carpet. We called Bryan from B Douglas to try and get him to come look at the subfloors so he could fix them. He informed us that since we (the homeowners, not professional builders) didn't notice it ourselves, they weren't going to fix it because we already paid them. Paying them releases them from all liability. He wouldn't even come look at it, and refused to return our calls afterwards. So we spent over $500 on materials to fix the subfloors ourselves. YES OURSELVES! It would've cost a fortune more to have someone else come fix them and we were already over budget. BUT THERE'S MORE... In order to get the floor pitch corrected AFTER THE FACT, we had to rip out all of our existing hardwoods so we could compensate after the fact on the subflooring. It was awful!!! We had to buy ALL NEW WOOD FLOORING when 2/3 of the room already had wood floors that were supposed to be tied in, not replaced!!! THOUSANDS of $$ walked out the door on that one! Bottom line: STAY AWAY FROM B DOUGLAS We've already saved a few friends who needed work done from calling or accepting a B Douglas bid. Save yourselves the nightmare headache and extra expense!! Could you imagine what could've gone wrong if we hadn't have caught some of the mistakes ourselves? The city will inspect for load bearing to make sure the home is safe, but they don't come in and sign off on every aspect of a job. You're supposed to be able to rely on the professional contractors to do it right. Do NOT rely on B Douglas.