Christian Man Construction

In November we used the BuildZoom website to obtain quotes for an addition to our home and remodel of our kitchen/utility room. We obtained several quotes and selected Christian Man Construction. We signed a contract with Christian Man Construction on 10/31/16. During each phase of the project we began to note problems with the quality of work performed and a lack of supervision of the work crews by the contractor. Several things had to be redone because of poor workmanship and a lack of knowledge of the task at hand. Sheet rock in the new bedroom had to be retaped with the proper tape, floated and textured because many seams began to crack just after a few days; the plumbing for the washer in the new utility room had to be corrected twice because of major leaks streaming down the foundations, the roof had to be repaired/completed after discovering light coming through the still exposed inner roof. It was eventually discovered that no flashing had been installed in the seam joining our old roof and the new roof. As the project progressed, the contractor began asking for money in advance of completion targets as stated in the contract. We advanced him some money because he said he needed to buy more supplies. We started to note that new supplies were not being purchased as expected and with only approximately 15% of payment remained, many materials were still not purchased, nor work completed. The contractor claimed that the project was over budget. We responded to him and said that it was because of the numerous amount of things that had to be redone because of the untrained employees he hired for the contract and because he was never around to identify problems as they occurred. He didn’t seem to understand that we had a signed contract with an agreed total payment and that he was responsible for the work that had to be repeated, regardless of his loss. On January 30th, the contractor suddenly packed up his trailer and took off leaving his work crew behind without paying them. When we noticed he was gone, we texted him and he said he had to get the lights on his trailer repaired. He did not return or contact us for two days or return any of our calls. We suddenly received an e-mail from him on the evening of Jan 31 stating that he had to begin a medical treatment the following day and that he would be back in a few days to check on progress. We have attempted to contact the contractor since then and he will not respond to any our e-mails or texts or phone calls. We were informed through his employees that he had another job for them the next week and we heard he had moved on to another job. We are left with an uncompleted project, payment for work that has not been completed, we have no functioning kitchen in our home, live electrical wires in our attic, the air condition/heat system has yet to be connected to the addition, we have no functioning toilet or sink in the new bathroom, we have a hole in our utility room ceiling, we have half installed kitchen cabinets, no kitchen stove electrical outlet, our hot water heater is in a temporary location and the siding that was removed to repair the leak remained open so that anyone could enter our home by pushing the sheet rock in the utility room. We were expecting rain last week so we had to repair the siding ourselves to prevent water damage. His employees have not been paid and have contacted us several times to request payment.
In the last contact we had with him, he stated that since the addition was complete, we should pay his employees, yet he has not returned to determine progress or completion of the addition. We responded, sending him a list of over 40 tasks that remained uncompleted and asked him to contact us with a plan to complete the work. It has been almost three weeks and we have yet to hear from him.

We absolutely cannot recommend Christian Man Construction or Mario Henson for general contracting or for any plumbing or electrical work. We hired Mario to build an addition to our home and remodel our kitchen in late October 2016. It is now late February 2017 and Mario has disappeared and refused to respond to our e-mails to contact us. Mario Henson is a crook, we paid him for work that has yet to be completed. We have a half completed project, many safety hazards around our home and no functioning kitchen in our home since late December!! The only part of the project that has been acceptable is the foundation and stonework on our home. Almost all other work was subpar and much of it completed by the cheapest labor he could find. There were many things that had to be redone due to poor workmanship. Almost all of the electrical work and plumbing Mario performed has had to be redone. He disappeared two weeks ago and has not completed the work agreed to in our contract. We cannot warn others enough to not hire this person, he claims to be an expert in plumbing and electrical but does not have the basic skills required to do these. He’ll try to fix anything with sheetrock mud as we discovered after digging out two cups of soggy sheetrock mud used to fill in the gaps surrounding a plumbing outlet to the outside. His ability to read a level was also soon in question after we had to relevel the sewer pipes which were channeling the waste back into the structure. Mario even tried to convince us that most people connected their hot water line to their refrigerator water supply because “hot water froze faster than cold because it shocked the water molecules.” He is even worse as a contractor and does not know how to effectively manage projects. Our entire project was mismanaged from the start. Walls and ceilings were installed before the electric, water and ventilation were completed and tested. The crews complained about him not leaving them the supplies they needed to complete work, and not pointing out issues that needed attention. A frequent comment by an employee was that “Mario told us to not talk to the home owner.” He frequently had to leave to handle issues at home and the few days he did work, he wanted to work until late in the evening and mostly on weekends. He eventually tried to convince us to pay the employees for work that was already paid for - very unprofessional!!!

I have had several projects completed by Christian Man Construction. First they updated both of my bathrooms putting up new drywall, texture, removal and replacement of some of the cabinetry, painting, , new lavatories, new faucets, new hardware and reflooring. They did an outstanding job on both bathrooms and helped me find some of the new cabinetry. I cannot believe I waited so long! Of course, the first bids I got were so out of line that I froze for a while. Once I met Mario Henson and got his proposal, it could do so much more for a more reasonable price. Their dedication, trustworthiness, and explanations of what was happening and/or what were the options helped so much. Once I found them, they did the work, and a positive, professional relationship was established, I used them again for repairs from leaking roofs, damaged siding, miscellaneous repairs, further improvements and painting, as well as other things that were needed to prepare my house for sale. Thanks to their work, I got a contract on my house less that 48 hours from it being on the market and above my asking price!

Buying a new home with a sibling, we got them to do numerous repairs, improvements, and touch ups we wanted done before moving in. They performed task for whatever needed to be done from installing smoke detectors to safety bars to repairing attic access ladders to installing new ceiling fans to updating electrical fixtures, all swimmingly! We never have any qualms in leaving them alone in any property for we know the work will be done and everything secured.