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Review content:
I hired Ray Neiblas of R&M Builders to complete several projects on our home - TV mounting, electrical, framing a wall, patching & painting, bathroom remodel, etc.; I paid him a considerable deposit to begin the work. He began the job on a Friday, arriving at what I would learn was his usual start time of 10:00am. He spent the first day prepping my house, putting down plastic and tape -- all of which I was glad to see. He finished his day around 5, which I learned was his usual stop time. Also, during the time he was here that day he left my house several times -- he forgot a saw or he needed to go to Home Depot for supplies, etc. To summarize, a work day of 10:00 - 5, a lunch break, disappearing throughout the day - 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there, etc ... I thought this was an odd work schedule but assumed that it was due to it being the first day and he wasn't actually beginning any of the jobs. In any case, before he left for the day, I made it a point to ask what time he wanted to get started the next day, a Saturday. It was only then that he informed me he didn't work on the weekends, a fact I would have like to have been aware of prior to hiring him and had I been aware of it, I would have asked that he start the project on Monday so we weren't living in a house covered in plastic all weekend. Monday came and went with Ray again starting his workday after 10 and concluding it before 5. To his credit, the progress he made that first day was clear and unmistakable -- I was pleased. On Tuesday, he followed the same work schedule. For whatever reason though, Ray chose to leave the project he started on Monday, which was incomplete, and begin another one. This process continued -- very short work days with lots of breaks and disappearances, lots of half-finished projects resulting in my wife, our 4-year old son, and I packed into our bedroom because the rest of the house was covered in plastic that was itself covered in sawdust. After finally challenging Ray on his schedule and project management, he got enraged, yelling that I had no business telling him how to do his job. Ultimately, he told me he was too bothered by my asking him when things would get done and so he was ""packing up for the day."" I told him to pack up for good because ""his job"" involved work that I had already paid him a good amount of money to complete and his inability/refusal to put in a full day of work all the while leaving projects half completed throughout the house was unacceptable. Of course, I had to wait for Ray to stop yelling before I could make this point. As a former service member (US Navy), I can just imagine how my superior officers would have responded to my yelling them down for questioning me on work I was doing. I've since hired a new contractor to complete the work began by Ray, but only after interviewing 7(!) different ones. Each of them, upon entering my house and after reviewing the work left undone by Ray, was left shaking their head at the job he did -- the more than 20 holes in our ceiling and walls - many of which were uneven or worse, had been drilled into a stud; the uneven framing done for the wall in our son's bedroom; his apparent intent to hide a junction box behind the wall in our son's bedroom and on and on. In case I haven't been clear, do not hire Ray Neiblas of R&M Builders.
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