A & H Improvements Inc.

I should have followed my instinct when I see poor review for this company. However, out of the 2 quotes I got for the remodel, Joe provided a very detailed quote that seems reasonable. I even call one of his previous customer and feedback seems ok. I also asked him about the poor review and he pointed fingers to false claim posted by contractors he fired. Anyway, I decided to move forward with Joe. It started off well, the contractors came every day to do the work. However, the works done always require a "revisit". The framing was not square and need to be redone. They also started with a licensed electrician but the person who ultimately did all the work is unlicensed. Make sure you ask to see license. Everything starts to fall apart when the project was halted due to gas line work issue. There was leak in the plumbing that they cannot find. Eventually they had to hire a licensed plumber to find the leak and get approval from gas company to continue. Then Joe sent me this large bill for the plumbing work which we did not discussed ahead of time. I decided to pay the bill to keep the project going. However, when they did the drywall and painting, it was very poorly done. It was patchy and uneven and they had to pay hire someone else to come fix the issue. Due to all the on-going issues, I was very concern on the flooring which we both agreed to take off the work order and I will find someone else to do the work. I told Joe to just come back to fix all the other issues such as incomplete stone work on the exterior, missing drip cap on exterior door/window, installing baseboard, patching holes from plumbing work, etc. There was a lot of messaging where Joe will tell me he will come next week but no show next week. This continue for a few more weeks but still no show. At this point, I already overpaid for the work because we removed the flooring. I guess he decided that he will not refund me the amount that was overpaid and also not come back to complete the work. I would caution anybody to hire this company. Joe is a nice guy but I think he doesn't do a good job in checking the work done by his contractors which led to poor workmanship. In the end due to so many issues, he decided to just not come back which is poor business ethic. I will have to take A&H to the civil court to get the overpayment back from them and also the extra cost I had to pay to fix all the issues caused by them.

We hired Joe Fenderson of A&H Improvements Inc / AH Custom Builder Inc in Sept 2020. He was hired to install/replace 13 windows, 2 sliding doors, 1 front door, patch plywood sheathing, rewrap house, install siding, replace exterior trim, and install 12 ft by 38 ft deck. We paid our first payment to Joe and the project was scheduled to start November 2nd 2020. His crew started November 11th 2020 and worked on the project variously until February 22nd 2021. A&H completed the windows (1 leaks), sliders (1 broken frame), and front door installation, 65% of the sheathing replacement, and partially finished the interior window trim. His crew was a revolving door of carpenters. Each time a new carpenter came to the house they always had to correct mistakes the previous ones made, our front door was reinstalled 3 times. The crew damaged one of the sliders frames during the install. Which at first they denied responsibility and blamed it on the supplier of the door, when that failed they tried to say we damaged it during storage. Luckily, one of us was home the entire time and heard them break it. Joe agreed to replace the broken frame and stated he would subtract the cost out of the final payment. The laborers also wrongfully demo'd and trashed 3 windows interior trim that was not in the scope of the project. At this point in the project, we paid our first and second payment. We also had two change orders that were paid for. We made three attempts to contact Joe starting on February 22nd to coordinate a time frame for when the siding and deck would be installed. We received no communication until March 19th 2021 stating that he could not complete our project due to employee issues and could offer us a refund for the uncompleted work. We agreed on taking the refund and sent Joe a spreadsheet breaking down what we feel would be a fair refund based on work completed on March 23rd. Joe replied back on March 24th stating “The numbers seem to be in the ball park of what I was thinking but I will need to take a look at your file to compare your list to mine...tomorrow afternoon”. Joe came to collect trash and his tools from the house on March 25th. He again verbally agreed that the number we gave him was in the ball park of what he was thinking and that we would receive our refund in 1-2 days. No communication was received from Joe for 5 days, on April 1st we emailed him asking for an update. April 5th we emailed him again stating that we needed to have our refund by April 12th or we will have to escalate the situation. April 12th we received an email from Joe stating that he had family issues and that we would hear from him on April 13th. We have not had any communication with him since. We now have filed a formal complaint through the attorney general's office and are hoping that Joe will refund the money that we are owed so we can finish protecting the exterior of our house before we start to get mold and water damage. We are first-time home buyers and we had been saving up for this project for many years. To say we are upset is an understatement. We thought Joe was a good person when we hired him, but we were just hurt, devastated, and disappointed. I still hope that he will realize scamming people out of their hard earned money is not the way to make his.

A&H walked off the job before completing. The work that was done was shoddy at best. Buyer beware.

He showed up on dates discussed and completed job in 2-3 days as quoted. Dependable and respectful.

For those considering hiring A & H / Joe, you should know how our project went. Originally the workmanship and personality were great for the first few projects, but after hiring him to install a new roof on our house, things started going wrong. They went wrong enough that we had to sue Joe in Biddeford District Court, and we won our full amount. The project was supposed to take a month according to his estimates, but after twice that long, he quit on us not even half-way through, saying we were harassing him. We had paid a 50% deposit for the materials for a new metal roof. After two occasions of it not being delivered, we called the manufacturer who said they never even received the order! He would brag about how he calls his customers back and stays in touch, and started out that way, but then ended up completely the opposite, coming very late with no notice then leaving for two hours or longer to go to the hardware store, yet still leaving by 4:00pm or sometimes earlier. Every day we wondered if he would be there, or even contact us. Days before he quit, he finally admitted that he was working on a few other projects, but he didn’t even have employees, so he took on these other projects knowing he wasn’t even close to finishing ours yet! After he quit, we were left with a big mess. Our unfinished roof had two leaks during a storm. He installed a bathtub that leaked. We later found out that he did electrical, plumbing, carpentry, drywall and portions of the roof incorrectly, and they had to be re-done. Our house and yard were a literal mess with debris. And, top of this, after saying that he would refund us the unused portion of our deposit, instead he sent us a bill, saying that we owed him! We had to take him to small claims court, in which he did not even show up, so the judge awarded us the full amount. In small claims, the maximum is $6000, although he owes us much more. He still not paid anything to date. We are going to continue to have to fight him in court, to get back our money that is rightfully ours. Not only are we out the deposit, but so much of our time was wasted because of him. We would hate for anyone else to have to go through any of this! We posted this same review on their Facebook page, and they removed the whole review section in order to delete it. They also removed any pictures from our project, hence gap between Dec-March with no posts.

We are very satisfied with the roof repair A and H did.

The project was completed to expectation. And some of those expectations were vague on the part of the customer

Everything went as planned. Couldn’t be happier.