Paul Szczepaniak Construction

The home I bought was in dire need of repair. My wife and I chose to go through the 203K rehabilitation process. The contractor I was referred to by my own real estate agent was the first mistake I made in the process. However, the ethics applied - not to mention lack of communication on his part - is why I am choosing to let people know of what you may be in for if you do business with Paul Szczepaniak.
After closing (March 15th 2013), it took four weeks to move into my home that was purchased. Every week we were told the work would be done and at the end of every week we were given an excuse as to why it wasn’t. The lender was requiring that the home be rewired, have a new well and septic pump installed, have a back garage door replaced, and have a set of steps placed at front and rear door. The contractor (Paul as I will refer to him by in the rest of this report) first made it clear that he would not begin work until the check cleared through his bank. So work did not begin until the end of the second week. Apparently a certified check from my lender’s bank was not proof of guaranteed funding for Paul. His excuses of past experiences with people lead him to believe I was like other people and I could not be trusted. It was his friend, my real estate agent, who vouched we were going to close and move into our first home.
After the check cleared both my wife and I were told work would begin right away the following Friday (March 29th, 2013). Wouldn’t you know none of the stuff listed above was started? There was the power box that was pulled apart only but no sign of new items in the house yet. I can recall that during this three week ordeal of work to be completed it was mentioned that there would be extra charges incurred for wiring the crawlspace and repair work for a leak found in the kitchen. As far as the leak in the kitchen goes, initially, Paul called and said we had a leak that needed to be fixed but he didn’t know where. How do you tell someone they have a leak that needs to be fixed but you don’t know where it is? He stated that he would have to cut numerous holes in the drywall along the steps going upstairs in order to locate the leak and he also suggested tarping ALL of the items in our 2000 square foot house so nothing would get wet. The plumber (who I would highly recommend to anyone) then came in and immediately in was able to locate the leak which was in the kitchen and not even remotely in the area that Paul would have been looking. After this conversation, Paul was very deliberate in not communicating via in person or thru the phone. His method of communication was email (more on this down below).
Paul suggested that if I wanted to save money in the event there were extra costs to repairing the house, I could buy my appliances out of pocket rather than using the funds from the rehab check (which were part of his job to secure) and insulate my own crawlspace. So with that, that work would be completed by Home Depot, Lowes, and me solely. Paul asked that the appliances should not be hooked up (as he quoted $1400 for him to install appliances). This part I did not comply with and I saved money on something he chose not to do himself in the first place. After nearly spending $4,000.00 of my own money that Paul was to cover, it was clear I made a horrible mistake in trusting my real estate agent.
When the house was ready to move in, Paul made it clear that certain things were not done or were done without informing us before work was done (Communication issue once again). Paul took it upon himself to drill a hole into the PVC pipe in the crawlspace to allow the dehumidifier to drain off into the septic tank. Now at first that seemed like a good idea to save the time and effort of pulling a bucket up twice a day from the crawlspace (Later I would come up with a better idea to discharge the water out via the kitchen sink without drilling a hole into the PVC pipe). One week later, the hole he drilled would begin to leak sewage water into the crawlspace. (Even our realtor said he had no idea what Paul was thinking when he did that) I made every effort to stop the leak from worsening as the glue he used to seal the tube from the dehumidifier and the PVC pipe was not bonding together. Attempted to call Paul and it went to his voicemail after the third call. He chose not to answer our calls for help. We called two plumbers about the situation and both informed us that it was a liability issue and that they could not touch what Paul had done. Paul would eventually call us midafternoon Sunday (April 28th, 2013) explaining that he saw us calling but that it couldn’t have been that bad and that he does not answer his phone when he has been drinking. Let’s not forget I had a leak in my crawlspace that was not going away anytime soon - and not just a small leak – two steady streams of water shooting out all over the floor. He would come by the house on Monday to hand me a new connector for the PVC pipe he damaged (Had no intention on fixing the pipe) and told me as long as the tape I put on was holding that I could just hold onto the part until I needed it. He was told to fix it as he was responsible for the issue that was going on down there. His body language spoke volumes as he wanted to roll his eyes and stomp off angrily with the part and tools in hand.
Additionally, when Paul was opening our crawlspace up he damaged the crawlspace door and put a HUGE hole in it. He said not to worry that he would fix it. To say the least, I was very shocked to receive the bill and see I was being charged $150 for this new door that HE damaged.
One thing that sticks out is how Paul was quoting us $1600 for insulating and dry walling our garage (which was not done) but charged us $450.00 for three 12”x12” holes in our ceiling in the kitchen that were plastered but not sanded. Yes, he fixed the holes he made when there was a leak, yes he plastered the holes, but he said I could do the sanding. After getting the bill, I was beyond dismayed and just wanted Paul out of my home and life all together. Even our realtor agreed it was a sloppy job and was embarrassed he referred Paul to me. Did not even hear from the real estate agent again I will add.
In closing, Paul has severe issues adding his numbers properly when putting a bill together. My wife had to go through all of his bills and was constantly fixing errors. When the final bill was given to me, it was off $328.17. So, rather than figuring out where this $328.17 was supposed to go (to us) he just added it onto his bill. When I addressed him at the bank about the issue, his smug response was, “Well ok, it’s not like we are talking about $3,000.00, only a few hundred bucks, no big deal”. The final check was to clear on Monday, 6/24/2013. I called Paul that morning to see whether the check had cleared and got no response. I called him again that afternoon and still received no response. I sent him an email before I left for work asking him to please let me know the status of what was going on and still got no response. He shows up at my house at 5:45 PM, no phone call, and no email, hands me a check, doesn’t say a word, turns and leaves. So if you are looking for someone that lacks communication, ethics, and is unable to count properly, by all means look no further and seek this man out. If you are looking for someone who wants to get to work promptly, keeps you abreast of every situation, and is trying to help you out from the beginning to the end don’t consider hiring Paul as your handyman/contractor.