Raising the Level Construction

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• By Cameo M.

  April 14, 2024

  Repair roof over backporch, and create screened in porch

  $4,900

  Beware of 'Raising The Level LLC', I was new to the area, Mark Johnson was referred to me. I hired him to repair the roof on my back porch which had been damaged due to a falling tree limb prior to my buying the home. I then asked if he did Screened In Porches, he said yes. I wanted White Vinyl, but he talked me out of it saying "vinyl doesn't do well in Arkansas". I wanted to buy my own wood but he said he had his own place to get wood. Long story short, he broke the concrete slab of my porch in multiple places and never repaired it, he wound up using wood that was either deformed or cosmetically inferior (more than likely pieces he picked up from past job sites), he didn't consult me on things like styles of doors just showed up with a pair!? Didn't consult me with hardware choices. I tried getting him to come back many times but he was always busy or the weather was bad. Then my 89 yr old Mother died and I was busy. When I went to paint my back porch white, I saw just how horrible a job he had done. There are gaps everywhere, constantly had bugs coming in, swarms of hornets, and everytime the wind blew the doors would fly open because he used cheap hooks to secure them, and the screening on the doors themselves came completely off within the first week, I had to go out at least once a week and try to staple the screening back on. The damaged wood was hidous, painting it just made it look even worse. I found dozens of nails sticking out on the inside instead of them being in pieces of wood securing other pieces!?!? The excuses I got were "he was bored doing such tedious work all by himself" (that was by his own choice), the gaps "he didn't realize the porch had been poured at an angle, he had already measured one side, cut all the wood, then realized it wasn't the same for the other side, but since the wood was already cut, he did the best he could"!? It was bad enough that he tried building one side at an angle!?! I had to run out and stop him and he said he thought it would be easier to do it that way so as not to block the window, but I told him I wanted a clean side like the other, why couldn't he just do it up to the porch step and then angle it so that it didn't look like some geometrical nightmare. At first I thought it was just a lack of communication, but the way he built the porch was as if he was doing an interior framing job, didn't matter what it looked like because that would be covered with drywall....but this was supposed to be a screened in porch that I could be proud of and entertain in. I had to have most all the wood puttied and then sanded down and then paint over it. I had to have the areas with gaps filled in, sanded down and painted, I had to buy new doors and locks that actually held them shut, I had to get concrete repairs done so that I can get the floor expoxied. I have filed a grievance with The Better Business Bureau, and plan to with the Attorney Generals Office as well. He won't respond so it looks like I will be filing a small claims court case to get reimbursed for my costs to repair what he did wrong.

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