ComplaintsforDW Brandenberger, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  ******************************* did a full gut and remodel on my home. During the process they would disappear for weeks at a time. We moved back in our home in mid September with a few things we were assured would be finished. It wasnt until mid April that my reverse osmosis system finally got installed. Check list of things that are still not done:-Ring doorbell -When the shower runs it causes the sink to gurgle due to improper ventilation -The furnace dehumidifier drain onto my garage door constantly keeping it wet underneath the fridge, freezers, and other stuff -The ice maker water line was never run -They broke the furnace cover and covered it with painters tape -no blinds on back door(I was told they would do magnetic blinds -And several other things I bought installed that they were paid for. -wood filler they used is cracking out already. They have told me since we moved back in that they would be here to finish and they never do. -this was an insurance paid job that was over $250,000

  

  Business response

  05/03/2024

  Our response and photos are attached as .pdf and .jpg files. 

  Thank you! 

   

   

  -*********************, CEO/PRESIDENT 

• Initial Complaint

  10/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I hired DW Brandenberger *** to build a room addition, they finish it but there are some repairs that need to be made, they started working with some of the repairs a few months ago, but for the last 6 weeks they have been using any possible excuse to not come back and finish. The items they need to fix are damaged roof (they damage the new shingles when they were working with the siding), new shower (they did the tile last year but it had some issues, not just esthetic but functional as well, they redo the tile in August this year but they didnt finish and there are still some issues similar of the issues we had before so now it is worst that it was before because its not even finished), they also damaged my driveway (stains from oil, grout and concrete mix), shower door (missing parts and some scratches made when they reinstall it) as well as some drywall and door damage (they hit the walls, ceiling and door while they were handling material and taking the old tile out) while they were doing the new tile. Part of the project was also to make some renovations around the house, for different reasons they didn't do some items for both parts the room addition and the existing home renovation, they told me they were going to credit these items but they havent told me how much will be for them, they contract only had the total cost and not a cost break down . I already made all the payments but the final (final payment was set to be made once the project was finished and its only $2,500.00, the total payments I already made to them is $136,157.80) I think the credits and the final payment could be close to the same amount so probably we will break even, but the repairs that are needed if I try to do it with a different contractor it will probably be close to $10K. I dont have a good number yet because for some of the items that are left Ive been struggling to get attention from other contractors because for them is a small job so probably will be more than $10K

  

  Business response

  11/03/2023

  Regarding *************************** BBB letter:

  We have been working on his project for quite some time. We had completed his job quite some time ago. The project manager and ****************** had some disagreements at the close of the job. These disagreements were regarding a final payment that was not made to D.W. Brandenberger and ****************** feeling as though he had credits that were owed to him. This dispute went on for some time. To resolve the situation another project manager was asked to take over the closure of this project. The new project manager made communication with H/O and scheduled a time to meet to go over all issues. The meeting took place with no problem. ****************** and the project manager went through the project step by step. We made a list of things that needed to be addressed and went over his concerns regarding credits and charges. We let him know at that time that it would take some time to go through all the receipts, charges, and change orders before we could have a full picture of what was done and how to go about finalizing this project.

  Some of the things on ****************** repair list were as follows:

  Wall in unfinished basement where dirt had been removed for sump pump and ductwork needed to be plumbed up straight and panels that cover this wall to be resecured. We did go out shortly after this meeting to take care of this issue. We at that time did inform H/O that the hole he had installed for the sump pump was not sealed up and that the rain would keep coming in and keep pushing the dirt up against the false wall in the basement if this wasnt repaired. He acknowledged this and said he would take care of it. Regarding this issue, we secured the wall to the concrete floor made the wall straight up and down. ****************** asked us not to install the old paneling back yet so that he could see if his repair was keeping the moisture from coming into the basement. We currently still havent installed the paneling; we are waiting for the go ahead from ******************. The time to install the paneling would be very short, just a couple of hours. We will be reaching out to ****************** shortly to confirm that we have his go ahead to install the paneling.

  The concern about the roof repairs is regarding there are some shingles that have left over stucco dust that had come off from the stucco work that was done. We acknowledge that those shingles need to be replaced. We have had to order these shingles and they are supposed to be in this week. We plan to have this work to be done this Friday. ***************** has been made aware of this work scheduled to take place later this week. He is also aware that we had to order these shingles.

  The concern about the tile shower in the master bathroom is as follows. The original tile shower was done by our company. When we did the final walk through of his project the H/O did not mention any concern about the tile shower. Once we met to go over the issues,he informed us that the tile shower was not up to his standard. The tile floor had some imperfections and some of the tiles looked different sizes from wall to wall. We agreed with his conclusions. We agreed to remove the tile floor in the shower and the tile off the walls. In doing so we removed the backer in the shower as well. We started fresh. The H/O stated that he would like to go back with all the same materials as before. We agreed on this. We started the process of putting his shower back together. We made sure all walls were plumb,and that the floor had the correct amount of fall to the drain without any humps. We started installing the tile floor. After we had set the shower pan tile to set up in place, we would leave for the night to allow tile to set up. We would go back 2 days later per ****************** schedule because he wanted to be at the house while we were there, and he was only available every other day. When we went back, we found that there were sections of the tile shower pan that had been moved or they had shifted. This imperfection would not meet our standards,nor the H/O. So, we removed those sections and installed new pieces. This situation happened multiple times. We did finally express our concerns to ***************** and informed him that if this problem keeps happening that we will not be replacing it again. We could only assume that someone or something had stepped into the shower during the set-up time and caused the tile to shift. We had taped off this area every time, but they do live in the home. We finally got all the tile laid and installed. The H/O changed the grout color from white to black. In doing so he has noticed that not all grout lines and tiles are the same. The old shower had white tile and white grout. We have brought the grout color change to his attention and made him aware that everything will pop now.We did go back over the grout lines to make sure that they were to his liking.We have now gone back to repair the soap dish ledge due to the ledge didnt have enough fall towards the shower. While we were there the H/O said that he now doesnt like the shower pan tile and would like to have us install new tile that is bigger. The gentleman that is doing our tile work has said that he would do this repair if it will make the H/O happy. We have already started this process. The tile floor replacement is to be done by the end of next week if not before. The missing parts of the shower have been ordered, in doing the demolition it is assumed that the stoppers for the shower doors had been disposed of accidentally because they had been mounted to the tile that was removed.

  The concern regarding the oil stains and grout on the concrete driveway. These problems have been resolved by cleaning off those stains with the proper chemical and grinding off the grout without damaging the brush finish of the new concrete driveway.

  The resolution we had found regarding any credits and charges was conveyed to ******************. In going through the change orders, and contracts there were many things that were not totally spelled out in the paperwork that warranted us to do some of the work and therefore didnt warrant payment of any type to H/O. We did want to be fair so we concluded that there would not be any credits to H/O and that the remaining balance to us the contractor would not be owed. That we would call it even. We have conveyed this to the H/O and he currently doesnt agree to this resolution. We hope he will have a change of mind once the shower is completed,and the roof repairs are made.

  We have been working diligently to make repairs as necessarily needed to meet the construction standards. Thank you for your patience. I send my apologies for some of the unacceptable work that was provided in your home from former employees. 

  If there are any more questions or concerns regarding this project, please contact one of the owners ********************* at *********************. 

  I will do my best to find resolution to your concerns. 

   

  Thank you,

  *********************

  Co-owner/CEO/President

  
  

  Customer response

  11/10/2023

   I am rejecting this response because:
  After I received their response, I talked with the current Project Manager to discuss the information they provided. He was not aware of some details, so part of his response was not accurate. I want to add that all the information that Im adding to this new response was accepted by the current ** with just one exception and that is the situation of the shower since I rejected how they did it the second time,he doesn't think that the *********** to be replaced again as he thinks that it will only need to clean the grout so I'm adding some picture showing some of the defects.
  Their response mention that the project was completed some time ago and that the issues that I'm trying to get fixed were not mentioned in the final walk. Also, they mentioned I had a disagreement with the previous owner who was also the project manager at the beginning of the project and that the disagreement was regarding a final payment that I didn't make. Related to the shower, they mentioned that when they were working with the shower the second time, the homeowner interfered with their process, only allowing them to work every other day and pretty much that in between these days I was stepping on top of the tile and causing them to move. All this information is incorrect, so I will explain the real situation. 
  The project is not completed, I still have building permits in my windows and there is still a final inspection pending. I asked several times about the status of this issue. After asking several times I still don't know if everything is under control. We never had a final walk, and the last payment was planned to be made after the final walk, this is just a $2,500 payment vs over $130K that I already paid. The disagreement was not about this payment but about work not done, not completed or work that needed repairs. The former ** was absent for the last few months, initially because he had surgery,so he assigned one of the workers, this person had no authority to assign the necessary resources to get this project done, he didnt even had authority over his own time, the result was very slow progress and for several weeks no progress made at all.
  The former owner/** was on some occasions rude to me when I was trying to get things completed. He then apologized a couple times saying he was under a lot of pressure; I had a lot of pressure too and I was never disrespectful, also I made sure all the payments were on time because I didnt want to be the cause of any more delays. I had a lot of pressure to finish it because I needed to move in, I was paying double mortgage and more important interest rates started to increase, I needed to finish the renovation because I had a renovation load that need to be refinanced, the bank offered me 4.5% rate if I could finish the project by the end of August 2022, since the project didnt reach enough progress to be appraised and refinanced I lost this rate,my rate is now *****%. This increased my monthly payment by more than $350.00.The contract indicated that the project should be finished by April ************************************************************************************************************************ until October 2022, since then the ** ignored me and refused to stop by the house to see all the issues I was trying to get fixed, from October 2022 until early 2023 his excuse was that the weather will not allow them to do the repairs that I needed outside and that it was just better to wait until the warm months to do everything.
  I then increased the pressure when temperatures stared to increase and thats when a new ** was assigned, this is because the former owner/** was planning to retire and didn't want to spend time to fix the problems I had, until April 2023 I started to review everything with the new **. 
  During the first meeting I had with the new **, he agreed on fixing the shower and doing other repairs. I will only focus on repairs that are still not done yet. 1/2bath, not completed, missing baseboards and paint.Basement retention wall, need to replace boards. Shower need to be repaired again. Stucco siding, repair and paint 3 or 4 section on south wall. 
  The shower is being replaced by the person that did it the second time, he offered to fix it on his own time and paid for the material. I accepted this plan since the ** didn't agree that the floor needed to be replaced, the person that is fixing it accepted that was his fault that the floor was irregular. He is planning to finish it on November 12th. When he removed the tile for the second time, he found cracks on the concrete and I was also able to take a better look at the surface, the concrete is very uneven, and this is what caused the tiles to not look good. The person that is fixing it suggested to use larger tile to help prevent this, I accepted because the reason why I choose small tile was because the person that did the shower the first time asked me to pick small pieces so he can manipulate the slope of the floor. Nobody stepped on top of the floor while they were working with the shower for the second time, also I didn't change my mind and picked large tile for the third time as they mentioned in the pervious response. So, I didn't cause any of the issues nor my family, the bathroom stayed closed while they were not here, I was the only person that entered as I was just checking the progress they made.I informed them about the gap between tile and how some pieces were higher than others.
  Also, I allowed them to work on the shower the second time, with no interruption that is from Monday to Friday for almost 6 weeks, after that I had to go back to my normal work schedule and I only allow them to be working on it Mondays ,Wednesdays and Fridays, in the end it worked fine because at this point they were only doing grout and final details that needed 24-48hrs to dry so they will not had anything to do while I had to be at the office. For the first 6 weeks they probably spent no more than 4hrs per day in the shower so thats why it took a lot of time to get it done the second time, I understand they had other jobs to do in between and I was really grateful they were taking care of the shower so I didnt want to put any pressure to finish it as my main objective was to get it done right this time, Im really disappointed they tried to made me responsible for not being able to get the floor done right the second time.  
  In the pictures I'm attaching is possible to see some pieces with no space between them and some others with grout 2-3 times larger, also some pieces with the edge exposed. 
  I'm hoping the issues with the shower to be fixed in the next few weeks, I hope the floor will be finished on 11/12/2023 but after that he will still need to fix the window and soap dish niche, paint ceiling, secure light switch, fix damaged baseboard and damaged drain.
  For the other repairs,temperature is very cold again so they can't fix the siding until next year,this was the same excuse the former ** used last year, and I don't want to go over the same issues next year, so I asked the new ** to suggest a plan and put a formal commitment in writing. This commitment will need to reflect dates that they can guarantee to meet and if they can't meet these dates, they will need to suggest a plan B, I suggested this plan B to be a refund. I understand a refund will be difficult for them, but I don't see other solution. 
  Regarding the final balance, we have several items that they did and were not part of the original contract, I also paid for material that was planned to be covered by the original contract and finally there were some items not made by them that I ended doing myself. They suggested to call it even, I accept this if they still finish the shower (including final detailing grout and caulk, replaced/fix damaged baseboard, fix/replaced damaged drain,paint ceiling and secure light switch), fix the siding, finish the 1/2 bath and replace the basement boards. After that the balance will be $0.00
  We are planning to meet on Monday 11/14/2023 to discuss and sign this new plan/commitment. 

  Improtant: I'm having some issues to submit my response so I'm trying to send it without attachments. 

  
  

  

  Business response

  11/21/2023

  A meeting has happened between *************************** and **** Brandenberger representatives. 

  We have all come to the conclusion that we needed to have a service agreement signed to complete this project. 

  We have signed a service agreement and we will be completing the work listed with no money owned to either party. 

  I do believe this will disregard his rejection of the previous statements and show that we are working well with ****** to relieve his worries and concerns for finishing his project by a certain date. 

  We have attached a copy of the Service Agreement. 

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