Restless Restoration

Review of Restless Restorations
Summary
Sheldon Pearce, owner of Restless Renovations (General Contractor, “GC”), is a pleasant person, and was always available to discuss issues and move the project along. The result turned out very nice. However, the path to this result traveled through two failed inspections, lack of attention to the clear contractual specifications and obligations, disputes with the plumbing contractor over who was responsible for what, thereby resulting in flared tempers, months of delay, and additional costs.
When selecting a General Contractor, one expects such to be completely familiar with contractual obligations and specifications of the project, in complete harmony with all other contractors on the job, and masterful in handling all aspects of City of Miami permitting processes. The owner having designed the entire project, should be able to hand over the project to the GC, sit back and watch the project unfold to completion. Not the case with Restless as the GC, where we had to accelerate the permit process by keeping tabs on the bureaucratic permit review status, research the code issues for preparing and annotating the drawings, digitally sign the permit drawings, hire the subcontracting plumber, file the condo documents, purchase all the major materials, schedule the service elevator access, remind the GC of the contract specifications and responsibilities, and mediate disputes between the GC and plumber.
For a city of Miami project where you provide project drawings signed and sealed by an architect or engineer, your path will be smoother. However, if you are contemplating a small project that does not require architectural “signed and sealed” drawings, and you chose Restless as the GC, you must be willing to be a proactive supervising project manager. In any case, make sure your contract specifically assigns to Restless all GC responsibilities expected of a GC, in the absence of which you may find yourself performing these responsibilities yourself, and assuming the associated additional costs (for example, specify that Restless be responsible for hiring a qualified plumber immediately upon filing the permit application, and digitally signing your project drawings. NB: Restless did reimburse our digital signing subscription fee). Further, be sure to clarify the project specifications by going over the specs with the GC immediately before the specific work is started and inspect yourself afterward. And lastly, make sure all contractors on the job have come to assignment responsibility agreement with the GC before work commences. In this case, Restless’s view of the plumber’s job responsibilities differed significantly from the plumber’s understanding, which caused issues before, during and after the project was completed.
Full Review: Our project consisted of the renovation of baths in our high-rise Miami condo, limited to the master shower stall and a bathtub, both requiring demolition, replacing sheetrock and tile wall surrounds, and installation of new shower valves and fixtures. The shower stall was enlarged with the installation of a linear drain and frameless shower doors from a kit. In the guest bath, we installed a high end Kohler soaking tub and double shower rod. The shower fixtures in both baths were basic without additional sprays or shower heads.
From signing the contract until final inspection, the project took about seven months. The protracted project duration resulted from the byzantine city of Miami permit requirements, the condo management requirements, the scheduling of contractors, plumbers and inspectors, and two failed inspections attributable to Restless. Every bit of paperwork and scheduling was a challenge requiring our constant attention for months to get it “right”. ...
To start, it should be understood that finding a general contractor willing to work in a city of Miami hi-rise on a relatively small ($$$) project is DIFFICULT! Most contractors will only take total renovations making their time spent dealing with inspectors, condo management and high insurance requirements worthwhile. Time is money and when condo management rules permit only M-F 9-5 worksite access, a significant portion of a long workday is lost. Further downtime results from the multitude of required onsite inspections. There are plenty of contractors only willing to do work without a permit; however, this is not possible or advisable in a highly regulated Miami condo.
Miami requires all permit applications to be filed using the iBuild online permit system. Many contractors we contacted were not aware of this requirement, which is a good threshold question to disqualify any contractor candidate. The Miami system requires specifications (size, titles margins, blank areas, naming, etc...) for each document and drawing filed in support of a building permit; one particular requirement, discussed further below, is that all drawings be digitally signed. The system appears also to be keyed to very large projects and requires even the smallest projects be reviewed by all departments including zoning, fire and electrical, despite the irrelevance of these issues to our project. This ate up significant time.
Our search for a contractor was exhausting. Miami permitted work requires a general contractor “qualifier” to allow the permit application to proceed. A qualified and licensed plumber or tiler will not do. Prior to retaining Restless, we had unsatisfactory experiences with two prior contractors, which wasted 5 months of our time and money. We then contracted with Restless Renovations.
Restless Renovations is properly licensed and qualified as a GC to work in the city of Miami, advertises excellent reviews online and photos of good looking finished projects. Restless also was the highest bidder. Restless promptly signed the contract and used our non-professional but exacting drawings to file a permit application the next day. Restless required only a small down payment and then issued accurate progress payments.
We quickly discovered, despite the simplicity of the renovation project, why an architect signed and sealed drawing would be helpful. First, the Miami plumbing inspector required the drawings include statements that the work shown would be performed according to code, and actually recite certain plumbing code language and section numbers. Why this has to be stated when all work had to be performed according to code and pass inspection boggles my mind. Second, while the drawings didn’t require a “seal” due to the simplicity of the project, the drawings did have to be digitally “signed”. My signature facsimile would not do.
Restless was unable and/or unwilling to provide the aforementioned statements or apply digital signatures on the otherwise acceptable drawings. Consequently, I researched the code references, edited the drawings to comply, and purchased a year’s digital signature license for almost $300 and a Windows computer (required to work properly with the Miami iBuild system) to affix the signatures and file them in the permit application. Shortly thereafter, the permit application was approved.
According to our contract, Restless was responsible for securing subcontractors, such as the plumber. The subcontracted plumber would also have to be “qualified” to work in the City of Miami, which among other things required licensure and insurance paperwork to be filed. Securing a City of Miami qualified plumber appeared to be rather difficult for Restless. This was surprising as Restless had other projects requiring plumbers in Miami, yet his “regular” plumber did not provide the required paperwork for him to be added to the permit application. As so much time had elapsed since we had started the project, we offered to put Restless in contact with a plumber that we had used for small jobs in our condo. For a number of reasons, Restless was not able to engage promptly with my plumber, and with Restless consent, we went forward and contracted the plumber to do the plumbing work on my project. The cost of the plumber would be subtracted for the Restless price. Having contracted with the plumber, we filed the plumber’s qualifying information in the permit application and after another few bureaucratic/techie hiccups, the project was good to go, with the issuance of a Notice of Commencement.
Now we arrive at the performance of the work. The final product turned out quite nice; however, along the way, there were significant hiccups. Most of these involved the shower. The project drawings specified that the shower stall be widened as well as lengthened. Restless missed the widening specification, and after this was pointed out, Restless reworked the shower pan and curb to correct this oversight losing about an inch from the original spec. Other issues revolved around the lack of communication between Restless and the plumber, where each assumed the other would be responsible for certain aspects of the work.
In addition to the above-noted issues concerning the shower pan, it failed inspection twice due to issues that could be attributed to Restless not properly preparing the shower pan base. This was finally resolved requiring the plumber to repeat the shower pan work on a corrected shower base, and wasted weeks of time. (It should be noted that the inspector required some things be done that were actually not required, as noted by a different inspector- but Restless complied promptly nonetheless).
Another issue concerned the removal of the bathtub. Restless was contractually obligated to remove the tub, but balked at “disconnecting the drain”, which would have involved the use of a $20 tool available at Home Depot. The plumber was requested to disconnect the tub, but, on his own initiative, also removed and disposed of the tub (not his responsibility), creating additional charges taken against a reluctant GC. Better communication would have avoided these disagreements and saved time and money.
As the project itself has been completed, the matter of how much extra work the plumber and GC should charge each other became an issue. Most of the back charges were due to GC actions or omissions. To end this project with petty arguments between contractors over who caused who extra work is not the way a project should end. Again, something an experienced and responsible GC should have avoided.
If you are willing to be a proactive supervising project manager, and have a legal background, you will be able to work with Restless Renovation. In any case, for any City of Miami renovation project, take heed of the above issues and make sure your contract provides that all project management responsibilities be assumed specifically by the GC.