Plum Creek Renovations & Electrical

This business is absolutely horrible they threaten people. They don't complete work on time. They are messy sloppy their men Break Stuff. They do not show up on time. They take more breaks and they work. They smoke and throw their cigarette Ash and butts all over the place. Then when you complain the owner John tries to bully you and threaten you. I have proof of this. I have already made contact with seven of the complaints against him. All he seems to do is threaten people try to increase and his price and Bully them into paying it. Like he did towards an elderly sick lady. Well finally there's a group of us that are no longer going to take it. Please do not consider this company. Projects that your promise that will only take a couple days to do turn into weeks and months. Then your property gets damaged the project gets done sloppy and you still have to hire somebody to correct what they do. They pull no permit after saying they did. They are shotty at best. They hire off of Craigslist just anybody and bring them to your home. Beware stay away from this company please file a complaint every single one of you again six of us have in the last four days with the attorney general's office.
I feel on a personal level this owner could be physically violent. He threatens when he runs up cost or intentionally keeps doing stuff so you will kick him out of your home so he can then threaten you and demand money and doesn't have to do the work he will threaten you over the phone he will try to intimidate you and messages and text. Please beware this is my personal opinion this man is not safe

I hired them Apr 4th for a patio screen enclosure. It is now Jun 27th and they are still not completed. So far, I am pleased with how the project looks. The problem that I have with the crew is the time constraints that is being placed on them and how sloppily they treat my property. They have been working on this project for over two months, and still, the project is not done. The space is not a big space to enclose with a roof, knee walls, gutters, screen frames, and screens. The pro of this project is I am enjoying what they have done so far. The cons of hiring this outfit is that they will not be able to complete the project in a reasonable amount of time and that they treat the property as a junkyard, leaving equipment, a ladder, for months at a time, leaving trash, cigarette butts, and scraps for me, the customer, to clean up. They damaged my deck box, leaving me to fix it. They will also leave materials and scraps on the property for as much time as they decide to finish the job. Reaching my ropes end, this is the email I sent John Soper: My patience has been exhausted. I am tired of cleaning up and fixing broken items because of your crew. I am taking $100 off of the $1600 balance owed for my time having to clean up, i.e., trash, cigarette butts, scraps and things strewn about in a haphazard way. Their ladder has been laying in my yard for over two months. Just now I had to fix my deck box because the shelf inside was laying at the bottom of the deck box. If this crew is not done by June 28th, the entire project and fixing the things that I mention in the prior email, and what my husband mentioned to them, I will start taking $100 off a week, off the balance owed, that this project is not finished and mistakes not fixed, after June 28th. I do like how this project is turning out, but I can't take putting up with this crew, the time constraints they seem to have and their sloppiness anymore. Keep in mind that I have already paid almost 2/3 of the balance owed. This is John Sopers response: I'm trying to be as patient as I can. You have no rite to deduct from the contract that's fantasy. I'll expect my full payment this week when the job is completed or I shall remove the porch for non payment. I too am out of patience."
I was going to wait until the project was done before I wrote a review but could wait no longer. I don't, along with others who have written their reviews to be suckered in by this outfit.

Plum Creek Review
John Soper, License: PA136620
1502 Greendale Drive Plum PA 15239
5 Ridgewood Court, New Kensington, PA 15068

PROJECT SCOPE: Finish basement: install dry wall and trim, install access doors for furnace, A/C, gas and for water line plumbing; reroute HV/AC pipes; install drop ceiling; install carpeting on stairs; coordinate work with 3 other contractors working on insulation, fireplace and flooring. The contractor subcontracted all work, excepting electrical, to Mr. Tim Siebert.

OVERALL: the project was started on 3/3/19; as of 5/13/19 the project is incomplete; multiple efforts to get them to finish the work have been unsuccessful. The contractor has been paid the full amount (roughly $15K) less $500 (his suggested "hold-back”). In retrospect this was a mistake on my part as the cost of the unfinished work exceeds $500, which could be perceived as a lack of incentive to finish the job. I am looking at spending approximately another $2K to finish the trim on the drywall, correct the electrical outlets, and install the carpeting on the stairs. Their work practices suggest cutting corners, and lack of familiarity with standard HV/AC and fireplace installation practices. The work has a cheap appearance. I learned the hard way that "builder's grade" in the contract means the cheapest available. Three other contractors associated with this project have all finished their parts with a minimum of hassle, usually within a few days of starting. This contractor has dragged it out over two months and counting. In summary, I don't recommend this service whatsoever. It isn't worth the pain and stress of dealing with the business owner.

SUGGESTED RESOLUTION: Plum Creek needs to refund $2K to me, representing my estimated cost to finish the work, upon which by mutual agreement we agree to void the contract.

PROS:
The price was reasonable (if the job was completed). While coordination problems arose with the fireplace contractor, they were accommodating and worked well with the other contractors (insulation and flooring).

CONS:
PROBLEM 1: HV/AC pipe rerouting: When the HV/AC pipes were re-routed, our furnace stopped functioning on a particularly cold day. The indoor temperature fell to 62 degrees. I placed an emergency call (it was a Saturday) to a HV/AC specialist. He pointed out that the way Plum Creek had rerouted the furnace exhaust HV/AC pipe left a dip in the middle, where condensation water was collecting. This was blocking the furnace exhaust pipe and the furnace pump, sensing the obstruction, was shutting off as a safety measure. The HV/AC specialist advised that the furnace exhaust pipe must be rerouted to slope continuously upwards as it exited the basement. After Plum Creek followed this instruction, the furnace resumed functioning.

PROBLEM 2: Dry wall installation: The drywall subcontractor (Tim Siebert) did not follow the contracted method and instead took a short cut, which would have saved him money. I noticed that he installed “pink roll” insulation between the studs using duct tape applied to one side (only) to hold the “pink roll” insulation. A part of the yet unfinished work revealed that the insulation had come loose and folded down (picture available on request), meaning there was no insulation in parts of the wall. I showed him the contract, which called for a different method and asked him how he expected the “pink roll” insulation that he had installed to hold up over the years, supported on one side only by a flimsy piece of duct tape. He agreed to redo it using the contracted method. While I appreciate his willingness to redo the work as contracted, this sort of problem should not have arisen in the first place. I am not supposed to know these things, and I was relying on their expertise.

PROBLEM 3: The 7” spacing: The contract called for making a bulk-head access panel around the water line plumbing. To simplify the construction, they avoided the bulk-head (and associated turns of the drywall) and instead spaced the drywall outer edge at 7” from the basement wall. This sacrificed basement space in favor of their cost-cutting short cut, and led indirectly to a fireplace related complication, see below.

PROBLEM 4: Fireplace related: The fireplace was originally on Plum Creek’s list of work. I am glad that I got an independent contractor to do this part. Plum Creek evidently did not like this; they did not miss an opportunity to point out that any damage to their work by the fireplace contractor would entail additional cost on my part. They got into an argument with the fireplace contractor by suggesting a method of installation that, had it been adopted, would have resulted in a fireplace that would not meet local code and would have to be redone (entailing expensive stone removal and reinstallation when I tried to sell the house). I am so glad I hired the independent fireplace contractor. Review hit word count limit

Project: Kitchen renovation--new cabinets, counter top, stove, sink, addition of garbage disposal. Leak was discovered partway through project.

Pros: Worked with us so we could customize cabinet choices and counter tops, was willing to have his crew work on another issue that they noticed partway through, gave a reasonably priced estimate.

Cons: A project that the business owner initially told us would take 6 business days instead took just shy of 4 weeks, and ended because he was fired by my partner's father, project unfinished. Several of his subcontractors were sub-par and said the kitchen was complete, even though were gaps behind the counter top, which needed to be sanded on one side at the bottom as the sharp edge was an issue, the dishwasher was not hooked up properly (not to mention it had to be moved after he initially installed it because he chose to initially install it in a spot where it could not open fully because the stove was too close and could not be moved farther away, and because the cabinet to the side overlapped the edge of the dishwasher door) and wastewater from the sink drained directly into it (and did not drain out). Communication was shoddy, as he answered his phone maybe 1 out of 5 times we tried calling, his emails were sparse and did not answer all questions, he lied that the dishwasher was fixed twice when it was obvious when we tried running it both times that water was not hooked up, he complained that he had to pay his workers out of his own pocket to fix issues that were caused by him and his team, and, after he was fired, he threatened to return to the house--unwelcome--and take the disposal he installed incorrectly (and was told in writing he would be paid for). He filled our front porch with trash and left it that way for over two weeks, blocking the upstairs neighbor's mailbox the entire time, and on one occasion entrance to our front door with a large counter top that was extra, unneeded. After we complained that he cannot block the door, it was left in our apartment for a week.

The work itself was good and one member of his team proved to be excellent at fixing some of the issues. However, the business owner made this project a nightmare. He should not have accepted if he did not truly believe that he could finish it within the time allotted. Rather, he gave and passed up deadlines multiple times a week after the initial one had passed.

I don't recommend this service whatsoever. It isn't worth the pain of dealing with the business owner.