Ryken Building

If we could attach less than one star to this business, we would do that. We contracted with Ryken Building to do a remodel on our home. We hired Ryken because it was a new business and we wanted to give a new business an opportunity. Ryken’s website (https://www.rykenbuilding.com) says that he has a “team”. This is not the case. He is a sole proprietor with no employees. He has no long-standing relationships with competent sub-contractors, and we suffered because of this. The project suffered delays and issues from the outset. Even though Ryken says on his website that he has experience with the building permit process, this is not the case. He had no familiarity with the County building permit process and our permit was delayed several months because of mistakes made in the filing process. We finally had to get involved and made many trips to the County offices ourselves before permit was finally secured. Ryken hired several contractors who did sub-standard work. His electrician cut wires to our garage and caused the external lighting to stop functioning. We finally had to hire our own electrician to correct the work. He hired a flooring subcontractor to install engineered hardwood we purchased, and the subcontractor did not follow the install instructions that came with the materials. The flooring has unsightly nail holes in several locations. He hired a painting subcontractor who left blemish spots throughout the house which we have had to correct. Ryken himself made many mistakes which he had to correct. He mis-measured the shower surround and a $1000 glass shower door we purchased did not fit. He purchased a replacement door of inferior quality that does not fit properly. As a part of the remodel, we added a half bath. When Ryken’s plumber installed the new drains, he removed HVAC ducting without a plan to replace it. The only solution was for us to install a new HVAC system at a cost of $21,000. The remodel also included replacing all the windows and sliding glass doors in the house. Because Ryken has no team to help with glass window and doors that weighed 500 pounds, we had to hire our own window installer even though Ryken’s bid included the work. This added $12,000 to the project cost. The real nightmare occurred at the project conclusion where Ryken refused to finish items that were required to be completed in the project. Ryken refused to finish the work and abandoned the project. We finally had to find someone else to do this work at our own expense. Our contract had a retainage clause in which we were allowed to withhold payment to cover unfinished work that we had to do at our own expense. We withheld a small amount as we were allowed to do in the Agreement. In spite of this, Ryken has threatened to place a Mechanics Lien on our home. We had to hire an attorney to get him to back off. We have filed a complaint with the CSLB. If you want your project to run smoothly, hire someone else.