SJB Construction Incorporated

A year ago I sought out a contractor to build a room addition. I found SJB Construction through Google searches and other research. 5 stars on Yelp, good BBB profile, I felt like I was making a good choice.

The day my project started was a foreshadowing of things to come. Steve had told me I wouldn't need to move out of my existing bedroom until " the last month ". The very first day, his crew began removing stucco from the side of my house and smashed my master bedroom window. They boarded that window up. Rains were in the forecast for the following couple of weeks and I had exposed insulation and walls, 30 feet worth. Steve said " that's just construction, it's fine ". My slab was poured, and the rains came. The rain pooled on the slab and made its way into two of my rooms, destroying my carpet. I spent 7 hours in the middle of the night cutting carpet back until it was dry and removing all of my belongings from my bedroom and family room. This is with my 3 small children living at the house. 3 months before we were supposed to have been out of these rooms. Every time a storm came I would beg and plead with Steve to help weatherproof the existing structure. I personally bought a a $250 50x50 tarp to cover the entire house. Steve put the tarp on - his freaking job - but he sure as heck wasn't going to provide any materials to protect my home. That was on me. From December 1 2018 until last night April 14th 2019 my wife and I have slept on air mattresses in my living room.

Things surely got better, right? No. Worse. Throughout every phase of the project I would notice poor workmanship. Industry standard practices not followed. Examples:

1. Windows. Steve's own crew - the same guys that framed the house - installed the windows. Usually a licensed window contractor would do this. If they see a problem, they tell the framing crew to fix it. Over half of my windows and doors do not operate smoothly. Over half are not level or plumb. My brand new master bedroom slider does not close properly, and its screen door cannot even enter the jam. I have picture of windows shoehorned into the rough opening where there is supposed to be a perimeter of space for settling. All in the installation manual. My daughters new window was installed so tightly it was bowed in the frame. Steve "fixed" this by sawing the sill down or something in a rush as the stucco guy came around the corner. Now the windowsill is uneven. My double hungs have to be forced down. No shims were used per instructions printed ON THE WINDOW. I can go on and on.

2. Drywall. Sloppy, horrible drywall returns around windows. Half an inch change in direction in various angles. Popped screws painted over throughout. Sloppy texture. In one instance, spray on orange peel texture was used over my existing knockdown textured wall. Attempts to match existing texture were awful. Good drywall guys can do this.

3. Floors. Why sub to a licensed flooring contractor when you can do it yourself? Steve's crew did the floors. I provided a highlighted, written set of manufacturers instructions. Multiple items were not adhered to and the floors came out horrible. LVP planks were slammed into drywall, pics attached. Why do the required 1/4" of spacing when you can just ram it into the drywall?? Why undercut jams when you can sloppily cut around them? Why put floor transitions under doors when you can just have 4" of carpet sticking out in the hallway? Steve angrily and disrespectfully called me a "layman" in my own home when I brought these concerns up. He told me "jobsite conditions" prevented him from doing the floors in the normal, standard trade way. I pulled up all the planks, hired a real contractor, and had the floors laid correctly with 0 issues. I paid $4,700 labor out of contract for this and had to buy an additional $1,600 worth of flooring since Steve's crew improperly cut and laid so many.

4. Paint. Absolutely awful throughout. I provided Steve with high end BM Regal Select. Missed areas throughout, bad transitions, caulking peeling off because it was not prepped/dried properly. Total disaster. Why sub to a painter, right? Do it yourself!

5. Tile. I bought $3500 of gorgeous porcelain tile. Steve's unlicensed tile sub made a royal mess of it. Bad joint alignment, horrible grout job, improper mortar used. Funny thing is the information with the tile TELLS YOU what mortar to use. I supplied 12x24 large format tile which REQUIRES LFT/LHT mortar per the manufacturer. For some reason everyone on my job hated reading directions. They are all too smart for that. Steve told me directions were just "theories".

Can go on and on, what's the point. Every time I would bring up a concern Steve would get angry, try to make me feel stupid, call me a layman, anything he could to get out of correcting poor work.

DO NOT HIRE