Rick McElroy Home Improvements LLC

I was, at fist, generally satisfied other than a tendency of theirs to make decisions for me without consulting me. A decision was made about the location of stairs from the porch without consulting me until after the posts were set in concrete. I would have made another choice but it was a done deal when I saw it. The porch has been a problem. One door was put on opening out only to hit an electric meter. I fixed that myself. Screens blew out of both doors. I fixed those myself and noticed they put screen over two places on each door where they could have secured it but didn't. Screens have been blown out of two wall panels by the wind. I emailed Mr McElroy about the problem and got no response. I fixed the two screens myself but I think I am going to have to re-screen as I can see three other places where the screen has come out. It appears to me they used the least expensive screen they could get and as little as possible. I am also disappointed at the number and size of the gaps between boards all over the porch. Wasps get in every day. One morning there were 9 wasps on the porch. I feel they hurried, cut corners and made arbitrary decisions to save themselves work and/or expense.

He and his wife showed up and worked about 6 hours a day. Asked for cash advances, which I gave. He painted the inside of my front door without wiping the dust and dirt off first. When his wife started painting, she actually spilled paint on the carpet prior to touching the wall with a brush. They attempted to clean that up, I wasn't too upset, the carpet in that room was the oldest in the house. I was more concerned for her as he was out of control screaming at her, so I hugged her to console her. I had shown him where to find the paint as we had three different, but similar browns upstairs and each room needed a little touchup. His wife grabbed the paint from the garage, instead of the basement and went through the house touching all of the walls, even in one room that I didn't have any touch up paint for. I was able to get the correct paint and cover her mistake in most areas, but one room needed to be totally repainted as I didn't have any and couldn't get a color match. The next time they spilled paint, they didn't mention it. actually covered it up by sawing trim boards on the carpet in the hall and tracking sawdust into the bed room. I didn't know about that paint until they left. When he did the tile entryway; including removing carpet, putting down cement board, tile and grout in less than two hours while I was at an appointment. When I returned he told me that there were holes in the subfloor under the tile he had just laid. When I said that wasn't acceptable, he said it was going to cost me if he had to redo it. He did end up tearing that up, cutting out the floor and using the extra materials I had purchased to redo the project. He hired someone to do the tile work the second time. The tile was not on a straight line. When I got down on it to take pictures to show it wasn't aligned with the doorway, I found it was also laid on top of some carpet as the lines slanted away from the door. And, one of the pieces I was standing on while taking photos actually broke in half and popped up. He added trim to a closet in which he used a different type of trim on each wall. Granted, the trim was all purchased by me, but he could have picked up and used the same kind. There was enough of two different trims to do the job. While someone else was working on the tile, he worked on the addition to the deck. He hooked one side to the inside of a board and the other side to the outside, so he didn't have a straight line. Instead of realizing his error, he actually hacked away at the board to make it match up since it wasn't square. He had completed putting the steps on the deck when I brought this to his attention. This was all in 2013, I don't remember the other details. The last day he worked, he asked me what exactly I wasn't happy with. I took him through the house and pointed out all of the problems, doing his "punch list" as he called it. When he came back the next day, I was on a call and couldn't talk at that moment. I heard him open and close the garage door and thought he was getting to work. Actually, he had picked up his tools and left. He would not answer my calls or text messages. I actually took him to small claims court, where he stood and lied to the judge to the point I couldn't believe it. It wasn't like he was just taking liberties, he actually made up stuff that I supposedly told him. I didn't win the suit. Didn't expect to. I sued for the maximum allowed, which was more than I had spent with him. I didn't have receipts for the materials that he had wasted, or that I had to repurchase, or that he picked up at the lumber yard because he had lost the receipt. The judge was quite clear, that few people win even attorneys, because you must have absolute proof, and that is hard to do. The point wasn't winning for me, the point is buyer beware. Do not give him a penny until the work is done, no matter what sad story he says. Don't let him be jumping around from one job to the other telling you, he will go through the punch list and fix it all up. Watch what he does, he may be able to do some things well. I just didn't see any examples of it. I did see a lot of stuff messed up in a short time. I saw a woman who was afraid of her husband. He played the PTSD card and said that I yelled at him and that was why he didn't return my calls and text.

He was very precise in his work. He used the best quality paint (pearl). He had it done very quickly and it looked very good. He was responsive and always answered calls.

I had no problems with the work. Very capable and is quick to get rid of crew that don't work well. He also works well with other subcontractors when needed. Flooring is a good example.