I hired Bellew Renovations, Inc to put a deck with a roof attached to my house. The total job was estimated out to cost about $25,500. I requested from all the contractors I got estimates from proof on insurance as well as references. He provided me with both. When I hired him the job was to take 3 weeks with 3 payments. The first check when we signed the contract. They started the job on a Wednesday and seemed to be progressing nicely by the end of the week. I gave him the second check when I met with him on Tuesday the previous week. At that time, I discussed with him a few items that I wanted corrected and he told me he would take care of it. On Thursday, they had begun to lay the decking and it was not looking very good. The cuts were off and the grain was going cross-wise on 2 pieces that were cut to cut. The posts he used were not of good quality at all, in fact the one corner was completely rounded. The stairs leading up to the deck were cut crooked as well as deep overcuts that were visible. Then I noticed he had not made the corrections that I had asked him to make. I called him and he did come over to look at the work. He admitted that he didn't know what his crew used to cut the wood, but he didn't think it was 'all that bad' I asked him about the posts, if he would put them on his deck and he said no, that he would not. I told him that I had concerns and wanted to get an inspector in to look at the work. I told him that I wanted him to stop any additional work until that time. He told me he should probably finish the roof and I told him to go ahead and do that Friday. Over the weekend, I had an independent contractor look at the work and he had some major concerns and suggested that I get an engineer to look at it. I talked to Mr. Bellew and told him I was not sure that I wanted him to continue at this point. He talked me into getting the engineer to come out with him and I and we would go from there. I called the building inspector and an engineer to set up appointments. When I called Mr. Bellew back he decided that he couldn't make me happy and we would just settle up and go our own ways. The building inspector came out first and gave me the list of items that needed to be repaired. Mr. Bellew said he would fix these, in fact he came out to the house and looked at the work. He said he could be out in 2 weeks to start work. I asked him to provide me an itemized bill of where we stood as of today before coming back to work and he agreed. After that time, he started ducking my phone calls and when I would call from a number he didn't recognize he would tell me he was busy and didn't get a chance to call and would tell me he needed a few more days. Finally, he stopped answering all together. We had a wind storm and the work he did came loose and damaged my existing house roof, so I called his insurance company to file a claim and that's when they told me he had not been insured with them since Dec of 06. He gave me his insurance information in May of 07. Attempts to contact him have not succeeded. I have since had a structural engineer inspect the work and have found that the roof needs to be completed replaced, there needs to be an additional beam added and all the posts need to be pulled out and re-dug to the proper depth. Both contractors that I've had come out to look at the deck, have said that the boarding he did put down was put down with the grain going to the wrong way. This causes the boards to curl upward making them a tripping hazard. Now it looks as though the deck is going to cost me almost double by the time it's repaired and put together right. Stay away from this contractor - and don't believe his references, who knows who I was actually talking to.
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