Community Builders Review A skilled handyman but lacks long term planning and communication skills required for complex contractor work. I hired Russ for a renovation of two bedrooms and to replace two damaged beams that span the width of the apartment. Time was of the essence to prepare the place for rental and alleviate the financial burden of a mortgage on the owner. Two points that were made in all contractor interviews were that we suspected that both beams were termite damaged and needed replacement and that we wanted a quote instead of paying hourly. Due to the limited nature of the job I also understood that certain contingency pricing could be included if damage was more extensive than our worst guesses. Following the walkthrough we felt very confident with him, he seemed to understand the scope and our conditions. He agreed to send a quote and we agreed to wait a month longer for him to be free. By text he estimated, the costs would be 10k labor and 4k in materials. We waited a month for his quote, when he finally sent it about a week before the start date, it was not a total cost bid contract but an explanation of his hourly billing. When I questioned him about this, he said that he didn't remember me saying differently. At this point we were stuck and had to proceed. Communication - This was the crux of most of our problems. He didn't routinely walk through and update me on the project when I stopped by in the afternoons for this purpose. When we did speak he never wrote any details down, routinely claimed he didn't know something, we hadn't spoken or he wasn't sure. If he wasn't sure he would use the excuse that he assumed something was a certain way or willfully misinterpret something instead of confirming it. Numerous times I pointed out this problem and he did nothing to correct it. This resulted in me having to repair or finish things for him. Disorganization - He had little to no forethought about efficiency. He would often shop for single items, resulting in multiple trips instead of buying things at once. I normally wouldn't care except that he would charge his contractor fee for his time shopping and would be limited by what he could complete because he lacked the supplies to move on to the next task. Russ charged us for the service of shopping for everything, added 10% and added GET on top of that. This was infuriating since we were line iteming all his costs and were paying tax on top of a tax. When I brought this up to him he said that I could give him a personal credit card upfront, I was fine with that but where was that forethought initially. Slow - I generally avoid hourly pay contractors because I don't enjoy managing someone. I don't like to worry about their hours or personal time. Russ made this maddeningly apparent. It took him about 45 minutes every morning and evening to get his tools out or reload his truck. At one point he brought his wife in as a day laborer, she worked the morning, then went to lunch and shopping for 2 hours with him, came back and spent the afternoon standing next to him handing him tools. Then he charged us $25 an hour, plus 10% for her time. When asked if he would be getting a dumpster for the trash, he instead said he would just haul it away himself. This not only resulted in us being charged his contractor rate for hauling, but for him to slowly cut up and bag the trash. On the final day, they finished the tasks on the punch-list, minus cleaning up the nail holes on the trim, they also had all the garbage to bag. Instead of finishing so I could paint the next day as I asked, Russ said he would come back in the morning. That morning he didn't show, which required me to finish all the nail holes for painting. When he did show after lunch to pack up the trash, I was using the covered porch for a painting booth, when he was told he couldn't cut there and was directed to the front yard, he packed up his things and left without a word. Abandoning all the trash on our porch and the scrap wood in our basement that I had numerous times told him that we did not want to keep. Russ holds all the returns and the deposit for the final bill. This means that if there are any questions about the final bill he is holding your money. This also means he doesn't have to respond to text messages or phone calls concerning inconsistencies with his billing. Which is what happened in our situation. In the end if you need Russ for a small concrete job I would cautiously recommend him, but for anything over an extended period of time or with multiple moving parts he will be very frustrating, very expensive, and very lax about details. Craig B.