Banks Channel Building

Hopefully, this review will save you from the horrible mistake we made by hiring Jimmy Doster of Banks Channel Building (formerly Doster Building Co.). We are currently trying to repair the devastation. Rain permeated our house through windows and walls. Our wood floors are damaged. Some of our windows need to be reinstalled or replaced. Doster’s trim carpenters mangled window trim so badly that some of our windows leak water into our home rather than repel it. We are not alone. We are friendly with other former Doster clients that have brought legal action against him.

For the past 18 months, we have attempted to contact Mr. Doster to request construction information and photographs. We have asked him to repair the damage. For 18 months, he has ignored our voicemails, emails and text messages. Despite his charming assurances, Jimmy apparently does not guarantee his work or provide warranty coverage.

We have since hired reputable contractors to repair our windows, walls, and front entry (until recently, our front door never opened or closed properly, because the frame is crooked). Our experience has been entirely different. It’s wonderful to work with builders who are competent and knowledgeable about construction.

Several weeks ago, after posting my original review, Jimmy Doster apparently began soliciting old clients to write a five-star reviews. I have no doubt that he has several satisfied customers, because we toured a couple of his houses during our interview process. Maybe you'll get lucky, but our experience was very different from that of the client for which Jimmy built a house 14 years ago (when he had a business partner who was an experienced contractor). Jimmy was largely absent from our construction site. In his defense, he was going through a divorce and seemed to spend a lot of time meeting with attorneys and chasing after his kids. We lived out of town during our construction project but made many surprise visits to our job site. Unless we notified him ahead of time, Jimmy was not on site. We consulted with subcontractors, and they confirmed that Jimmy spent little time on our job site. I wish we had investigated more thoroughly before hiring him. We were recently told that his prior experience before becoming a “builder” was making dog collars. That information would have been helpful.

Throughout construction, I begged Jimmy to thoroughly check his subcontractors’ work to make sure it was finished properly. He largely ignored my request, so I had to inspect everything myself. When I complained about incomplete or unsatisfactory work, Jimmy accused me of being an unreasonable client.

Working with Jimmy Doster was a nightmare. Our house leaks. Our walls are cracked. Our front entry door frame is crooked. We have a long list of items that were never finished or done poorly enough that we need to have them redone. Our experience of Jimmy Doster is one of broken promises and an utter lack of responsibility to provide quality service and warranty work—despite the enormous fee we paid him. Jimmy Doster should never have been allowed to build our home. That was my great mistake. It’s no wonder that he changed his company’s name to Banks Channel Building. The wake of destruction he left behind is remarkable.