Zook Construction

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• By Stephanie A.

  August 24, 2023

  Siding

  Zook Construction was hired to do the siding on my house this spring. At the start of the project, Micah Zook told us that he had hired subcontractors to do the job because he had been hired as a construction professor. When the subcontractors were one day away from finishing the job, Zook Construction sent me a bill for almost $5,000, or 40%, higher than the estimate we were given. Micah claimed that the difference in price was because he had to order more materials than expected, the cost of the siding went up since making the estimate, and that the subcontractors were charging significantly more for labor. Micah’s explanation made it seem like it was the subcontractor’s fault for the difference in price. Later, Micah stated that he chose not to have the old siding removed or to do new window trim (as originally included in the estimate) because he knew that he was coming in over budget when he ordered the materials. However, we were never given any kind of warning that materials would be significantly more ($2000 more, for materials alone) than estimated. After this conversation, the subcontractors informed me that they were never given the estimated price, and that Micah simply told them that if they did the job, he would get them paid. When I questioned the bill, I was told that the subcontractors would not finish the job until they were paid. A little over a week later, I reached out to Micah again to see what else could be done to make this right. The conversation started out as me asking for help and he became very defensive, annoyed, and told me that he didn’t know why he was still involved anymore since it was the subcontractors who needed to be paid. I explained that I did not hire the subcontractors, I hired Zook Construction and it is not my responsibility as the customer to sort out the miscommunication between Zook Construction and the subcontractors that he hired. Micah was very argumentative and condescending, telling me that he “didn’t know how many times he could explain this” to me. By the end of the conversation, I told him that I knew he would make this right if he had any principles of ethical business practice. He responded by threatening to come to my house and rip off the new siding that the subcontractors had done so far. There were also extreme discrepancies in the amount of labor hours that Micah billed for himself. The project remained unfinished and unpaid until Micah finally sent me an email stating that we were to pay the subcontractors an amount that was $2,000 higher than the estimate. In these final conversations when this “compromise” was made, Micah was still defensive, continued to take no responsibility for his mistake, admitted to making the compromise only to avoid going to court, and even wrongly accused my family and I of harassing his wife. We paid the subcontractors the $2000 over estimate just to get the situation over with. Despite Micah’s claims that he had to order more materials than expected, the project is now completed (by the subcontractors who were so helpful and understanding) and we were left with 5 unopened boxes of siding, almost enough to side our detached garage. I would not recommend Zook Construction or any of its affiliates to anyone, and I would not recommend taking any construction classes taught by Micah Zook.

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