We hired Daniel Knoetke, aka One Man Construction, to do several jobs that should be simple for any carpenter — pulling up iron fence posts in the yard, replacing rotted windowsills, installing kitchen cabinets and laminate countertops, and refinishing the kitchen floor.
The results were laughable. He cut off several of the fence posts below the ground and buried the holes instead of pulling them out, and left one standing without having been touched. He installed new "windowsills" that were made of untreated wood and which angled back toward the house rather than away from the house, insuring that water would run back and rot the exterior walls.
Finally, he used boards for these sills that were simply too small, so the sills had one-inch holes all around them, inside and out, allowing water and air into the wall interiors. He cut inexpliable holes in the interior walls and removed interior trim, and then just left the plaster and trim molding sitting in piles in the dining room floor, then expected to be paid.
In the kitchen, he installed the cabinets so out of square that some of the doors would not open. He installed the laminate countertops out of level, with giant wood screws sticking out of the tops of them at odd angles. The floor he sanded, and then refinished without removing the sawdust from the sanding, so that the floors have huge piles of sawdust mixed in with the polyurethane.
Upon seeing the horrifying results, we documented the damage with photos, which we sent Daniel Knoetke with a letter detailing the problems and asking for a refund of our deposit. Daniel Knoetke at this point disappeared, and refused to respond to our letters of phone calls.
We next sued him in small claims court in a case that we easily won. Daniel Knoetke is currently in default of the $5000 the court has ordered him to pay us for the deposit and damages he did us.
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