Phung Construction

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• By John

  July 9, 2012

  My family's experience with Tu Phung was nothing less than a nightmare.

  1. Tu Phung promised to complete our extensive home renovation project in 3-6 months. It took more than 9 months due to Tu Phung's failure to obtain permits and schedule his subcontractors in a timely manner. There were weeks at a time when little or no work on the house was performed.

  2. Tu Phung was not honest with us about obtaining permits. At the beginning of the project, he claimed to have submitted all the necessary permit applications and had been informed by the county that the permits would issue the following week. We moved out of the house and allowed him to proceed with demolition. Later, we learned from the county that he had not even filed all of the required applications. Long after demolition was complete, Tu still lacked the proper permits and could not begin construction.

  3. Tu Phung was not honest with us about the renovations he did. For example, he was contracted to replace all electrical wiring in the house. We subsequently learned that much of the 1930s-era wiring was still in place. Another example is his insulation work. Under our contract, he was required to weatherize an old, uninsulated sunroom. We recently took down an outward-facing wall in that room and learned that it was entirely uninsulated. During construction, we confirmed that brand new insulation batts had been installed in that same wall, which means that Tu or his men removed the insulation batts that they had previously installed and concealed the lack of insulation with drywall.

  4. Although he describes himself as a "Class A" builder, much of Tu Phung's work is shoddy and does not comply with the building code. For example, his men used non-structural pin-nailers to attach the exterior roof-line trim to which our rain gutters were attached. The trim and gutters collapsed after the first heavy snowfall. Tu Phung also committed to install an energy efficient, high-end HVAC system. We subsequently learned that the upstairs HVAC unit he installed was a discontinued model known for lack of reliability that uses a coolant the EPA has banned from manufacture. After less than six years of use with regular maintance, the system developed a coolant leak that will take thousands of dollars to repair. Our HVAC service firm has recommended that we cut our losses and replace it. Tu Phung also did not install our HVAC system correctly. He gave the system less than half the return air it needed, used excessive amounts of flex duct twisted at irregular angles (which dramatically reduces air flow), and failed to attach the flex ducts properly to the outflow vents. This has left certain rooms with no air conditioning whatsoever. We have already replaced or re-configured much of the HVAC system that Tu Phung installed, and will be replacing the rest of the system shortly.

  5. Tu Phung did not pay his employees and subcontractors on time. On a number of occasions, his employees and subcontractors showed up on our doorstep demanding to be paid and threatening to file mechanics liens if they were not paid. During our project, he was repeatedly short on cash and unable to make payroll. He attributed this to other customers not paying him.

  6. Tu Phung is highly unorganized. When discussing projects during contruction, he will not take notes of your conversations with him about design specifications unless you make him. Even with notes, he often forgets or fails to follow instructions, which results in mistakes that need to be corrected.

  I could go on a long time about additional problems we had with Tu Phung, but this conveys the gist of our experience. Needless to say, we would never use him again and would advise others to stay away from him.

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