Aldan Construction & Remodeling

Update: These people will destroy your house if you let them in.

See pic of Inspector's correction notice on the work done by Aldan Construction, dba Daya Construction, license# 1030243. Notes below:
1. UF plumbing - multiple code violations.
2. Multiple electrical violations.
3. Neither shower pan have the required pan liners.
4. New plumbing compromised the stud wall construction / integrity, need to repipe and install new studs.

More detail on above plus other items found:
1a. They had already poured concrete in the shower pans, but did not install a vapor barrier, meaning it would have started to rot out in a few years.
1b. Underneath the cement, they left the waste piping from the toilets uncapped - would have sent sewer stench into the house constantly.
1c. Illegal use of fittings - san-Ts installed on their sides.
1d. Neither showers were vented.
1e. Installed a short sweep 90 (used a vent fitting, not a waste fitting) under the vanity - this would have been a constant clog problem.
1f. All copper piping was strapped directly to galvanized strapping - would have disintegrated the copper piping via chemical reaction.
1g. Plumbing control rough installed at 20 degrees tilt, meaning the knob would have been crooked when finished.
1h. They installed new waste pipe such that it would have been visible below the floating, wall-mounted vanity, and they knew it was going to be a floating vanity. Also did not consider proper placement of valves behind vanity.

2a. When removing the door header, they clipped an electrical line resulting in live exposed wire, which they then stuck back in the stud to hide. We found this by accident: When we touched the wires, lights flickered. Basically, they would have burned the house down.
2b. All hot wires were left uncapped and just hanging out in the open.

3. They built the shower pans with 2x4, instead of 4x6 studs, left huge holes in the subfloor, covered it with plywood, and poured concrete with no vapor barrier (would have rot the floors).

4. They drilled substantial holes through 4 wall studs for the vanity venting compromising the integrity of the load-bearing wall. All plumbing and all new studs required with proper secondary support.

Serious and significant damage was done to our house. Everything they put in needed to be pulled out and redone, including rebuilding and repairing the damage they did to existing structures.

They (Aldan Construction) now claim that Gary no longer works for Daya and they told us they will be closing down the Daya division in San Jose. Given the multiple aliases he has, you will know if you have "Gary" due to his uncommonly low baritone voice.

They also tried to get us to remove the reviews if they didn't send us the bill for the $10k they said we owed them. They let us know their "legal department" was ready to bury us in documents and it would take a long time unless we agreed to what they wanted. Note, they were unwilling to supply us with a simple bill in writing that detailed the names & license numbers of the subcontractors they used. It was all part of their continued intimidation and fear tactics these bullies use. It also calls into question who these people were that were on site.

An update to my review from yesterday. Serious safety concerns and Gary Arviv (Arbib) is now threatening us.

When I communicated in writing to Gary that I did not agree with being charged an additional $3500 for the feature wall, he quit. I then wrote the first review. After seeing the review, he has threatened to sue and also threatened to put a lien on the house. Note he required us to sign an arbitration agreement to resolve any disputes, so he is now flat out trying to bully us. Both our bathrooms are gutted, haven't even made it to the first inspection of the roughs, and he quit when he couldn't get the extra money he wanted out of us.

Quote from Gary: "I will take you to court for any unpaid balance. I will put a lean on your house for any unpaid bill. Please let Julie know it's only starting now. I will take Julie to court separately, for all false statements made by her. I'll see you guys in court."

Looking back, I now realize Gary was pushing us hard in a direction that did not pass code and was a real safety issue. I wanted to remove a door and replace it with the largest window possible for the natural light. I asked multiple times what the largest window possible was, and he never gave me and answer. I wanted a large, double-hung window and was looking at about a 48" x 32". Note, this window was in my design in a tub shower. He kept pushing to get a stock window from Home Depot so he could put it in quickly and get to the first inspection and to keep the project on his schedule. I told him, I could not find one at Lowes or Home Depot. He said go to HD Supply.

We met him at HD Supply. I got there early and spoke to the rep there. He said what I wanted needed to be custom ordered. While getting a quote for a custom order, I happened to mention it was above a tub. The rep asked me if I realized it would need to be tempered glass. Gary never brought this up. Turns out no one carries large stock windows in tempered glass and any window in a bathroom needs to be tempered, not just above a tub.

We hired Gary partially because the websites claim he is the 3rd generation in this business with almost 20 years experience. Yet he either did not know that bathrooms require tempered glass windows, or he knowingly was pushing us to install a window above a tub that could shatter in order to get "his" job done - thereby putting us in harm's way. If it wasn't for the rep at HD Supply and my happening to mention it was above a tub, we would have custom ordered a window that was a safety hazard to us.

This launched many questions back to the code. He also did not know the window had to be 5' above the tub, meaning I now could have about a 1 foot square window to let in natural light. The large window above the tub was in the original drawing we gave him that he said he could do. Which begs the question whether this "experienced" contractor didn't know it couldn't be done, or sold it to me knowing it wasn't possible.

Jose from Daya (aka Aldan Construction) called and wanted to confirm we no longer wanted them to do the work. This was some sort of trick, in my opinion, like I was the one ending the contract. Gary up and quit with no attempt to discuss the issue. I posted a pic of him quitting in writing, with now attempt to discuss it.