Principle Builders

We started talking to Kevin, whose company is Principle Builders, in the summer of 2021. He had some delays in getting subs out to help him prepare a quote. We signed the contract around January 13, 2022 to do some major renovations and add a garage. It said estimated completion date would be in 220 days. We are still not finished at the time of writing this (March 25, 2024…. 802 days later and still counting).

We are a family of 7 and the disruption was significant as we unnecessarily lived in unfinished areas that just sat waiting for the work to be completed during the different phases.

He is a very nice guy when talking to him. But the planning, organizing and follow through have been horrible. I am not sure if he is intentionally misleading us or if he really believes what he tells us. Either way, the pattern of not getting the work done is clear.

After the project was well past due, we started refusing to pay any draws till the work for that draw was completed. This caused more issues since Kevin said he did not have funds to keep the project going at times. He also asked for the final draw on October 26,, 2023 and kept pushing us to pay before the project was finished. He acted like I was unreasonable for not paying him since we were so close… it is still not done.

There are some quality concerns and he has stated that he would redo some of them. Others he acknowledge but seems to be pushing back to see if they are forgotten. Since the project is not finished it is difficult to know if these will be addressed.

I shared this text with Kevin on month ago and he said he could guarantee 16-20 hours a week. Since then, he has not shown up on days that he scheduled... only come one day, or not at all.

We absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND. Our experience was that the owner of Principle Builders, LLC promised way more than he was able to deliver. We hired Principle Builders, LLC (Fort Wayne, IN) in June of 2021 for a home renovation and first and second floor addition. The contract outlined a 12 week timeline with a start date of June 28, 2021 that anticipated the project to close by September 15, 2021. The project required our family of 5 to move out of the home completely and store our personal belongings in a storage unit. Delays and excuses began in early July and carried on -- from excavation, to concrete pouring to framers. The owner of PB would promise framers were coming to our home almost every week. September 9, 2021, we sent the owner of PB two options for framers. We heard nothing back from Principle Builders. On Sept 17, 2021 we booked our own framers for September 27th. You can see how far off schedule we already were. Delays, excuses, poor workmanship and poor financial management of the project (adding cost / change orders without approval) continued. January of 2022 PB promised to be complete by the end of the month. Feb 2022 we had a meeting with PB where we showed him he only worked onsite at our home for a total of 40 hours the whole month. He promised again he would complete by Feb. March 9th we asked to negotiate for another contractor to finish and for PB to use the last check we paid him and the balance due to finish. We gave a second option for PB to "buy out" of the remaining duties and return some funds. PB walked off the site with our money and materials and did not return anything. We had paid PB everything owed except the last 15% that was due upon completion -- so we were left with no additional funds, no material and having to pay AGAIN for services and materials needed out of our pocket. PB did not come back on site when offered an opportunity to cure.