Dunrite Construction Ii Corp.

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• By Chris P.

  February 9, 2018

  $40,000

  Hired Dunrite - AKA Ashley Kitchen and Bath / Robert Ashley to remodel our kitchen. During the course of construction, they disconnected a portion of one heating zone and connected it in a loop separated from the furnace. Multiple electrical code violations. Vague contract terms and exorbitant change orders. Avoid at all costs

• By Chris D.

  August 15, 2015

  $96,000

  Scam artist

  We hired Mr. Ashley to build out a closet in a guest room. While doing this work my wife discussed that we were interested in renovating the kitchen sometime in the future and wanted to discuss his ideas. He told us that it would be a simple job and he could do it all for $60K, because he had a connection with a cabinet company and it would only take 4-5 weeks. We expressed to him that we weren’t sure, but wanted to remove a wall he said wasn’t structural so we could open up the area before planning the cabinets. He came July 6th to remove the wall and when I came home from work everything was gone. The wall, cabinets and flooring. This could not have been a misunderstanding because we expressed to him several times “just the wall”. I believe he did this so we would have no choice but to move forward. He said he thought since my wife had met with his kitchen design person we were moving forward. He then informed me that we had a problem that the wall he just removed was structural and that it would need beams to support the roof and it would be another $10K. At this point we had few options and felt we had to continue. On July 11th, he gave us a contract with a cost of $88K and told us it would not be done until October. The increase, he said, was because the cabinets we were looking at were the most expensive cabinets that Kraftmaid makes and would be $43K. The cabinets were being done with a lady named Debbi Washburn at Pro Builder in Mahopac, NY. We received a letter from our town building department telling us to stop any work. Mr Ashley said to just call and tell them is was a kitchen remodel and assured us that we didn’t need a permit. He went so far as to get annoyed that we requested that he straighten out. On July 17th, feeling concerned but backed into a corner with the lack of a kitchen for almost 3 weeks we gave him his starting fee of $20K and $20K for cabinets. He placed 2 beams to support the roof. For the next 3 weeks, Mr Ashley would have a single worker at our house for about 3-5 hours. He was never on site and only met with us 3x during the entire time. He never completed the demolition, but had a worker snake wires for lights and outlets behind the sheetrock. When we discussed this with Mr. Ashley he said that the insulation that was installed 30+ years ago would be fine. There is a skylight that his plan was to just place sheetrock over rather than remove. Even though we told him that it had been leaking for years. August 3, we still didn’t have final cabinet plans, so we went to a different cabinet designer and had plans by August 5th. We also went to Home Depot and built the same kitchen with Kraftmaid cabinets and their estimate was $23K. So this is when we started to fully understand the scam we had gotten ourselves into. We told Mr. Ashley that we had to order cabinets and that we wanted the 20K we gave him for cabinets to order them from the other company. He told us that we had already spent all the money that we had given him including the money for the cabinets and if we wanted him to continue work we owed him another $8K. We refused and he left.
  We had the kitchen evaluated by a structural engineer and the beams are not connected as one unit and are buckling, but worse he placed the beams on horizontal 2x4s that are bending and cracking. There is supposed to be a post at each end from the beam to the foundation which he didn’t do. The joists are simply nailed into the beams with no other supports. The basic evaluation was that with strong winds or a good snow storm the roof would have collapsed if we had gone forward. We contacted Mr Ashley and he offered to give us 5K back, but we told him that was ridiculous and that 20K was designated for cabinets and none of the work was done properly. We received no documentation that the electrician or plumber he had at our house was licensed. He said he discussed the plans with an architect, but after speaking with his architect, he stated that Mr Ashley never discussed the structural beams. We have a disaster and will be filling a lawsuit this coming week. I will keep this post updated as things progress.

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