ComplaintsforBack to Normal Construction Inc

• Initial Complaint

  01/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  4/2022 I received estimates from Back 2 Normal and contract was for rafter repair and roof. The work started in July. It was never finished. The roof leaks. B2N refuses to finish the work and only wants their contractors who don’t even work to code to fix the roof. I have attempting to work with B2N and I am told they refuse until I get an attorney. I can’t live in my house and it still leaks. B2N states they will fix my roof but never show up. The company stated they would allow my GC to finish the work but will only pay 1/3 of the estimated cost. I have had to pay an additional $20k to repair my living room alone. It’s still not finished.

  Business response

  01/10/2023

  We have been working with Ms. ***** for some time now. We contracted to replace her roof and do some bracing to her rafters. We hired a subcontractor that we have worked with several times to brace the rafters and our roofing crew would do the roof replacement. Before the roof was put on, we were told by the subcontractor that the bracing was sufficient so we moved forward with replacing the roof. 
  In the meantime Ms ***** hired the same subcontractor to do other work (that B2N was unaware of). The other work involved jacking up a porch roof temporarily to allow for some foundation work to be done. The subcontractor left the roof to be supported by the jacks for many days and unfortunately the jacks failed and this portion of the roof fell and caused many issues. The roof and bracing were already complete when this accident occurred. B2N played no part in this accident. That is what caused the roof to begin leaking and also cracked some rafters or other supporting framing.
  After this happened Ms ***** began to blame us for multiple things that had nothing to do with us. She now wants all of her rafters completely replaced and she brought us a bid from another contractor for $18k. We only charged $4,595.89 for the bracing. Upon reviewing her claims we decided that the bracing that was completed could have been better so in an effort to resolve the matter we offered to give her the $4,595.89 back. Even though we did complete the job, she isn’t satisfied with the work so that was our offer. We offered to go back and add more bracing but that offer was denied as well. 
  She then sent us a letter stating that we were in default on our contract and threatened legal action if we didn’t return her entire contracted amount of over $36k so we sent her file to our attorney who examined the contract and our side of the story and our attorney agrees that we did not have a breach of contract. 
  We never stated that we would “allow” her new contractor to finish the work. She is at liberty to hire anyone she chooses. We did tell her that we would entertain the idea of a partial refund so she could hire someone else to finish it the way she wants it but clearly his estimate is for work that B2N was never contracted to do. 
  At this time we are withdrawing any offer until we are presented with something reasonable. We are voiding the warranty on the roof because of the damage the subcontractor caused while he was working on things not pertaining to the work contracted with B2N. We deny any claim that the roof wasn’t installed up to code.
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  05/25/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 5-22-2022 I paid them $6,000 to do roof removal, repair and replace shingles. And replace the gutters. due to their negligence the attached porch collapsed with a worker on it. I insisted they take him to seek medical help and they refused. When I ask them to repair the damage to the porch they said that they wanted me to pay $4500 to replace the overhang over the porch that they had caused to collapse. They had finished the work that I had paid them to do but refuse to fix the porch. I got an estimate from another company to fix the porch and I would like for them to pay for the repairs to the porch.

  Business response

  05/26/2022

  Dear BBB. We would love to get this resolved ASAP but we are disputing our responsibility in this matter.

  Here is the account of what occurred according to the people on site:

  From our subcontractor: “Here is what happened over at Mr. ******** on May 10th, 2022 around 2 pm...... ***** ***** was on site as the crew was working hard to get Mr. ********* roof torn off so we could install a new shingle roof. As we were ready to do the front porch one of the guys from the crew stepped on the porch roof and began to tear off. As he was de-nailing the step flashing and roof to wall flashing the porch just fell. (no one was hurt) "***** said the only thing holding the porch up was the flashings that were nailed to the main roof structure. There was not a single nail in any other place attaching the porch to the main roof deck." "Mr. ******* said that he doesn't understand why someone would build a porch and not attach it to the house." He said several times that it was not our fault for the porch collapsing as it did. Mr. ******* asked ***** if he would be able to give him an estimate to replace or repair the front porch correctly, ***** told him that we would let our boss know and get back to him. Mr. ******* said he would pay for the damages to the porch because it was not our crew's fault this happened. Mr. ******* just told ***** to get him the numbers and a day and time to come back to fix it.
  We completed the rest of the roof install per manufacturer warranty codes and went on to our next job.”
  
  Statement from our project manager, ****:
  
   “5/10/22 - ***** called me & informed me of the incident, the porch falling off of the house. One of our workers fell off also. The customer was upset & worried about the worker. I did call him & spoke with Mr. ********, he was concerned about the guy on the roof. He said I need this roof repaired, so I informed him that I would send a guy (Jaco) to provide an estimate. 
  
  5/17/22 - I went to Mr. ******** house, he was still worried about the employee. I informed him that he was fine. I helped Mr. ******** remove the porch that was in (3) pieces. Then I tarped the area that needed to be covered. I informed Mr. ******** that I would have a Quote By Thursday.
  
  5/19/22 - I called Mr. ******** about the repair price & he said "I am not paying for that! I will pay for half", I said we are not responsible. I said that was not our responsibility, he said then I will contact the Attorney General. I said let me contact *****. I did contact ***** & he offered $500.00. I called ***** but he did not answer.
  5/23/22 - The crew went over there to install the gutters, he told our crew to leave & he was done using Back To Normal. I spoke with ***** & ***** wanted me to set up a meeting with Mr. ******** to work this out.  I called Mr. ******** & he said we would have to speak with his attorney. I said ***** wants to meet with you on this, he said you will have to talk to my lawyer, I said ***** it doesn't have to be this way, then he said his attorney informed him that we need to contact our insurance company to handle this. I said ***** please speak with *****, he said you need to contact my attorney **** ****. The conversation ended.”
  
  As you can see in ****’s statement, I wanted to speak with Mr. ******** to find out why he was now putting the blame on us when he originally accepted that this was caused by the faulty workmanship of another contractor. But instead of setting up a time, he told **** that we will have to discuss this with his attorney. So I called my attorney and sent her all of the information we have on file and she will be contacting the attorney he named, which I think is ***** **** of Benton, IL. 
  
  I have reviewed the pictures of the porch and it was clearly not built properly. How can we be held responsible when we were only doing what we were hired to do and the porch fell due to the weight of a worker on top? We did not build the porch otherwise it would definitely be our fault. It would have been impossible for us to do the job we were hired to do without standing on the porch roof and if the customer knew the porch roof was barely held together then he should have made that clear to us. 
  
  Please see the PDF I will upload. It shows how the structure was built. Please compare that to what the customer wants us to pay for (the PDF he attached. I have several notes about this on the PDF. He wants us to pay for it to be rebuilt CORRECTLY with posts in concrete and a double beam and long rafters. What he had before (which caused this whole thing) was a nearly free-floating overhang with tiny wooden brackets and SHORT rafters. The contractor that wrote his estimate is quoting it correctly. Our quote to the customer for 4500 was for almost the exact same thing. It is what is needed but it is not our responsibility.
  
  On line 15 of our contract, it states that we cannot be held liable for a structure that is not built properly and I believe this is common sense. Our job in this case was to remove the roofing system and replace it. That is all we were doing. We did not attempt to disassemble the framing, it simply fell apart under our feet, literally. There was no way this could have been caught during our inspection, (it not being nailed together properly) because the issue was hidden under the roof decking. 
  
  I would love to get this one resolved but I am unsure how to. Here is my stance summarized:
  
  This was never our fault. Poor craftsmanship on the part of the previous builder is to blame.
  1. Mr ******** accepted responsibility on the first day stating it wasn’t built right.
  2. He asked for an estimate and we got one for him. 
  3. He then decided we should pay for half and I offered to pay $500 of it. 
  4. He then told us that he refuses to talk and we will have to talk to his attorney.
  5. He now wants it built correctly and for us to pay for it all which is unfair.
  6. In my opinion, we do owe him for the unfinished gutters, which we didn’t know he wasn’t going to allow us to install until 3 days ago. I am in talks with my own attorney about what we should do next. We will gladly refund him the gutter money once my lawyer says we should. 
  
  I hope this helps. I regret the situation but it could not be helped. I also understand that the customer probably was unaware that the porch was not built properly. In no way do I think the customer intended to put us in harm's way but that this was truly the fault of the negligent carpenter who built this porch sometime in the past. 
  
  As for the worker not being taken to the hospital, this was the choice of the worker. Nobody refused to take him to the hospital. What was reported to me was that he was shaken up and has a few scratches and bruises but went right back to work. 
  
  Thank you!
  
  ***** ******
  President
  Back to Normal Construction, Inc. 
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  04/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We had new siding put on our house. Ever since, we have had multiple pieces of siding come off. It takes multiple phone calls to the company to get anyone to come look at the problem. At one point when one of the employees came to look at it his recommendation was to take all of the siding off and redo the whole job. That never took place. They came this week to “fix” pieces that were coming off. The employee refused to give me his supervisors contact information. I am tired of constantly calling them multiple times to get siding “fixed” when it never completely fixes the issue. I want my siding replaced and put on the way it is supposed to be. Not just tacking pieces here and there.

  Business response

  04/15/2022

  Hello. This is *****, the owner of B2N.

  I am so sorry you are having this bad experience. According to my records we originally did this job in 2017. I do see several notes in the file where you called and we came out. One employee did tell you that it needs to be completely redone but then I sent someone out to do that and they said that this other employee was grossly over exaggerating the issue and so they did what they felt was the appropriate solution.

  I would like to resolve this for you. I hope you see that when we continue to send people there it means we do care. The complaints I hear the most about our competitors are that they never answer the phone or ever go back for any reason. We have continued to come back and intend to 100% satisfy you.

  If I had known that you were not going to be satisfied until we completely reworked the siding then I would have demanded that my crew do that a few years ago. When they reported to me that it wasn't necessary and that you were satisfied then I marked it resolved.

  I do understand that it has come loose since then and that it is super frustrating. I would be frustrated also! So please understand that I want you to be happy.

  Would you prefer that we send someone to take it all off and start over or do you have another company in mind to do the work? I will personally call you today to see which you prefer.

  Again, I am sorry it took us so long to resolve this. We just thought it was resolved and obviously that is not true. I promise we will do what is right. Thank you!!

  -*****
  

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