Sean Murphy Construction

Sean is a very rare breed of contractor who genuinely loves his work and approaches every project as an exciting voyage of discovery. His passion and enthusiasm are highly infectious, and he embraces his customers as friends and partners and creative collaborators.

We hired Sean to help us with a very unique project to design and build two three-story decks attached to our modern six-unit apartment building, which happens to be located in one of Pittsburgh’s most famous historic neighborhoods (Allegheny West). This was very challenging because the design had to be in harmony with the historic character of the neighborhood, but we also wanted to take advantage of modern materials and building codes. Sean was one of only two contractors willing to take on this high-wire act, and he delivered exceptional service from Day 1. His design satisfied the very stringent requirements of the two historic review commissions, which was both a huge win for us and a major milestone in the history of construction projects in the Allegheny West neighborhood. Our decks are the first project of this kind that has been allowed to use engineered composite materials.

Sean provided us with outstanding customer service in all of the following key areas:
- Honesty/Integrity – Sean prides himself on dealing honestly, openly, and fairly with his customers. If he encounters a problem, he alerts the customer immediately, explains the issue clearly, provides a range of options, and works collaboratively to find the best solution.
- Communication/Responsiveness – Sean was very easy to work with because he always followed through on his promises and kept us up to date on project status, including when his crew would be working, when services in the building would need to be interrupted, when materials would be delivered, and expected completion dates. He responded quickly whenever we had questions, and he always took the time to explain what he was doing. For example, he used a special type of bolt called a wedge expansion anchor bolt to connect the crossbeams securely to the building, and he showed us these bolts and explained how they work and how they enhance the safety of the structure.
- Efficiency – Sean is the construction industry’s answer to the DC Comics superhero known as The Flash. He and his crew are incredibly fast! We were absolutely amazed to see our old decks disappear in a few short days, and be replaced with new ones that almost seemed to spring up like mushrooms overnight.
- Pricing/Value for Money – Sean’s long experience in the construction industry allows him to price his work very fairly and reasonably. He knows the cost of materials and where to buy them at the best price, and he passes savings on to the customer (unlike many contractors who “price gouge” on materials). He also keeps his labor costs relatively low through speed and efficiency, so he’s able to set prices that are highly competitive. Because he takes such great pride in his workmanship, you can rest assured you’ll get great value for your money!
- Aesthetic Quality – Sean goes above and beyond to deliver a product that will not just satisfy but actually delight his customers. There were two great examples of this in our project:
+ We had originally planned to use railings made from an engineered composite material, but Sean recommended switching to metal railings, which would not only look much more elegant and less clunky than the composite railings, but would also be much sturdier and safer. The metal railings were a tremendous improvement to the design.
+ We had originally planned to cover the structural support columns with a vinyl cladding, but Sean felt that would detract from the appearance of the structure, so he proposed cladding the support columns in the same lovely brown oak fascia material we used to cover the rest of the structure. The fascia material was much more expensive than the vinyl cladding and required a lot more labor to install, but Sean didn’t charge us a single dime for this wonderful enhancement.
- Safety – Sean delivered a structural frame that is much stronger and safer than it needed to be. Though not required by the engineering drawings, he leveraged the existing lag bolts left behind after the original decks were removed to secure the structural crossbeams to the building frame, and used extra wedge anchor bolts to further strengthen the structure. He also decided to space the floor joists only 12 inches apart instead of the 16 inches specified in the drawings to provide better support for the floorboards.

To summarize, Sean Murphy Construction provided an outstanding product that exceeded our expectations in terms of aesthetic quality and structural safety at a highly competitive price. It was an absolute pleasure working with Sean, who is always very positive, upbeat, friendly, and funny. We have several other projects we’d like Sean to work on, and we’re looking forward to our future collaborations with him!

Sean Murphy construction (SMC) did a bathroom job for 11000$ in November/December 2021 -- he was recommeded by buildzoom.com for the Kitchen project in aug/sep 2021.

Since SMC completed the job on time, three contracts were drawn up: A Kitchen project for 17000$, a garage drainage project for 3500$, and a basement remodeling project for 11000$. I gave the firm 50% advance payment for these jobs. These are all just the labour costs. I paid for all the materials for the project out of pocket totalling to about 65000$ (labour+materials). The mistake I made was not to get the contracts done via buildzoom.com for these three projects, and I relied on the written agreement for the work items for this project provided by SMC. These agreements were signed in Dec 2021/Jan 2022.

After doing some of the work on the kitchen and the Garage projects, SMC (Sean Murphy Constructions) demanded all the money by the end of February, before they had completed any of these jobs. I will note that the contract only required me to pay the last 25% after he had completed the whole job, but the money was paid in good faith with the expectation of him completing the job. This was my second mistake in dealing with SMC, which operated in bad faith as I am detailing below.

After I had paid 100% of the money to the firm by February end, and SMC had done about 80% of the work by the end of february 2022, they just stopped showing up for work, and all my texting and emailing just resulted in promises that it would be completed shortly. SMC repeatedly lied to me about a dozen times about showing up to complete the job and never did, and I wasted my time waiting for them to show up each time.

By the end of march, they had not showed up for weeks and I wanted to talk to him about getting the job done (and to start working on the basement), but the job remained incomplete until early may, when he did a few days of work in the kitchen and claimed he was done. However, he had vented the kitchen exhaust into the shared condominium basement, which is a code violation. However, all attempts to reach him to explain the issue was futile, as Sean Murphy was avoiding meeting me in person for months, and when I insisted that he meet me the next day so I could explain it to him the code violation, and the same day he called around midnight, yelled at me for texting him and declared that he was "done with me".

Since the basement job was not even started (for 5 months) and given their behavior, I asked SMC to return the advance payment of 5500$, since the only work he had done by then was (a) demolished a perfectly functional wall (b) poured some liquid in part of the basement floor to level it -- totalling to a couple of hours of work.

I asked him to return the entire deposit money of 5500$ and to provide an itemized bill for the few hours of work he had done, if he was going to charge me. He claimed to have done 3 days of work in the basement, and was going to charge me. I was sent a check for 2450$ with no itemization of the charges or any details of why more than 50% of the advance was not returned. SMC demolished the walls in the passageway to the basement and poured levelling liquid in the basement, and has charged me 3000$ for that work which took him about half a day.

SMC's voicemail is always full and he rarely answers the phone, and does not respond to texts (and gets annoyed if you do text him). I seriously regret hiring this firm and paying them $40000 for labour costs, all of which are incomplete.

6 months after they were started. I have a ruined basement with a demolished wall, an unusable kitchen pantry with all the shelves falling off, a venting code violation, and a concrete trench with a hazardous pit at the end that needs to be filled in. I have photographs of these incomplete projects which remain in the state that SMC left them in May 2022.

I am now pursuing legal action against this firm, and I have photographic evidence that I can attach to this review if required. I also have the itemized list agreed up with SMC for each job that will demonstrate that SMC has not done all of the agreed upon work items, which I can add to this review.

I also have bills for other contractors to fix the problems/code violations done by SMC, which I can add to this review.

At the first time we were happy to process our project with Sean Murphy . but after half payment goes They keep canceled appointment and did not show up . before 3rd payment goes we asked about contract with confirmed expected finish date but they refused it and ask 100% payment finish for the project . We could not believe that they will show up after we pay all
so we stopped the project . I requested some other construction company and inspector to come over and see and check our half done project.
They all said this project done so much wrong
1. They painted even drywall is not completely sanding. They can see lots of bump and taping marks. They told me that they can not believe how this company process the paint even drywall is not ready to paint .
2. There are lots of paint brush hair stuck with wall
When other pros came and saw , they said we need to process from the dry wall part Again and sanding Again to take all hair out

3. we need to make 3 doors for this project .
They made doors with all wrong size .which we need to order Customize door .
All other pros said they would not make door size like that . because making regular door size is much easier to install the door for the future .
All doors height are different in our basement now .
Inspector said they wonder that even this company measured and made frame for the doors .

I also contact to Build zoom about it and they asked to Sean Murphy to fix and finish the project . but I am afraid of what if they did not show up even I paid 100% . So I asked Build zoom to hold my check until they finish the job . but they still not contact us and did not show up after all messed up our basement ..
So we hired other reliable company and waiting for fixing everything what they have done wrong .

I have some pics with this project .
If you somebody want to see what they done before hire. I am happy to send those pics .

If somebody want Unbalanced and Unmatched door with hair everywhere on the wall and ready to wait forever to finish the project , I highly recommend this construction company !?