Luft Construction Company

Kurt Luft of Luft Construction charges astronomical prices for lousy work. In October of 2017 I hired him to repair two stone foundation walls to make them structurally sound and to stop water infiltration into the basement, add a bilco door and repair my porch, (he had to dismantle the porch anyway to add the exterior door). Red flags arose from the get go, the first being that the price he quoted was twice as much as the most expensive of five other contractors who bid on the job. I thought it would be ok because on his web site he had some high profile jobs and I wanted the job done as well as possible. He commenced the project on November 2 and "finished" on January 8, 2018, so it took him a little over two months to "complete" the job. I would show up for three weekdays each week and I only saw him four times over the course of two months, and then just for a couple hours of already abbreviated winter days, as he would run off to get equipment and then not return and often say he was coming then text me that he could not come. If I emailed or texted him with concerns I had about the job, he ignored my emails. He changed the contract two days before renovations were to begin so that he only had to repair one wall, but he did not change the price. I was very preoccupied and he knew I had my first solo show opening in the beginning of November, and he made changes to the plan the day before I was leaving to prepare for the show. After all the work was done, as much water as ever was infiltrating the basement and the interior of the concrete block walls he built were completely saturated with water. The wall he rebuilt had loose bricks and stones in it, was still bulging, bowed and incomplete. Before paying him the last sixth of the money for the job, I hired a reputable structural engineer to write a report of the work and he said the wall Luft built was shoddily built, not up to code and would fail soon if additional measures not taken. The steps to the basement Luft built were all different heights and not the proper depth--i.e., not up to code and the engineer witnessed me falling down the steep stairs. Luft did not put in a hand rail or guard mechanism. Instead of putting gravel around the block alcove he built, as stated in the contract, he spilled the gravel that was delivered in the street and poured concrete without using a sealant or vapor barrier, so now there is three feet depth and 8 feet height of concrete around the alcove that is useless at keeping water out and will have to be torn out at a great expense. It may even damage the foundation walls if water gets in the concrete then freezes and expands. When the concrete was delivered, the truck broke six feet of the retaining wall to the street. I pointed it out to Luft and he got very angry and asked me if a couple hundred dollars would suffice as compensation, and I told him I had no idea. He then said he could move the unsightly concrete piece that had broken off and would put it by the front door as a barrier to keep cars from hitting the house. (Like he was doing me some huge favor). Then for the porch, the whole point of having him rebuild a portion of it is so it would look better. He charged me four times the amount other contractors said it should have cost and it still looks like crap. The pitch of the porch is dangerously sloped. He tore out wooden lattice work around the porch and screwed up ugly plastic lattice incorrectly. He did not use tongue and groove wood as stated in the contract. He did not put proper outdoor wood around the interior of the ceiling. He left unsightly seams above the columns, did a poor patch job on an incomplete column etc. In addition, I perpetually asked him about putting in a drain to deal with keeping the surface water out of the basement, but he said his grading and gutters would be all that was needed to deal with water infiltration. Anytime I raised a concern he either got angry or boasted he had 40 years experience and acted like my concerns were invalid. He failed to grade the land and so with the snow melting and the rain puddles of water pond around the house and seep into the basement. He told me he put down winter seed, but of course the earth is just complete mud with straw on top of it. A person who was checking on the house for me said when he came to the house during Luft's tenure, the door was always left wide open. The upshot of this is I used more than half my budget for the house and now I will have to pay someone to fix Luft's work, which will be even more expensive because they will have to tear out the concrete he poured, the wall he failed to build properly, fix the broken retaining wall, grade and seed the land, and tear out his porch etc. etc. Obviously, I would not advise you to hire this man.