ROCKET CITY FLOORING & REMODELING

Cindy Wagner

Ronnie is a generally nice and affable guy, HOWEVER don’t be fooled by this into thinking that he has what it takes to do your project right and on time, in budget, etc. We hired Ronnie to close up an existing doorway and add a new door opening to a room in our house. This project went pretty well except he never came back to finish the trim work on the reinstalled cabinetry. The new door trim was off kilter as well. He also did a small kitchen remodel for us where he was supposed to move a built-in microwave oven, install a new hood over the existing cooktop, and modify some of the kitchen cabinets with new doors. He scratched the new tile while doing the install of the hood, never finished the details in the microwave move, and it took almost 12 months to finally get cabinet doors for the modified cabinets! Before we knew how bad he was at finishing projects he was already working on the rehab of our screened-in-porch. This project entailed removing the existing vinyl porch ceiling and installing a new pine tongue and groove ceiling and crown molding. He was also supposed to install 4 retractable screen enclosures and a custom screen door, new can lighting, and new supports for the roof faced in rock, etc. as well. The demolition of the old ceiling and porch screen enclosure went well except for the installation of the crown molding – which was never finished. Ronnie said he bought the 4 new screens he was planning to install but that the company he ordered them from went bankrupt and never sent them to him and kept the money ($4000). He eventually ordered screens from another company. When the new screens arrived none of them fit because all the measurements were off. He said it was the company’s fault. Once these were finally altered and installed they looked terrible and did not work properly. Ronnie knew full well there were issues with the screens but rather than addressing them he waited for us to determine there were problems and try to resolve them with the manufacturer. While the screens were in place he tried to have a subcontractor install rock on the columns that would have made the installation of the screens permanent. Fortunately, the subcontractor couldn’t work with the rock Ronnie had provided and never came back to work with the second load of rock that was delivered. After three months of looking at nonfunctioning screens and summer time construction debris on our porch he finally came back and took the screens down and attempted to send them back to the company that produced them. In the mean time we had several large piles of rock and sand on our driveway and back patio which all total was there for 9+ months, blocking one of the main entrances to the patio from the house. When it was obvious that the rock columns and retractable screen weren’t going to work, we met with Ronnie and agreed to simplify the project and just have stucco columns and fixed screens in frames with some architectural detailing. Ronnie asked for more money to purchase the wood for the altered plan. We never saw any wood or work for the additional funds provided. During this whole process we attempted to contact Ronnie multiple times via phone and text. He’s not good at returning calls or texts. Generally he doesn’t want to face difficult problems and avoids them rather then face them. So many days he promised to come and work but never did or stayed only a short time. He did promise in April to complete our project by June 1 so that we would have a nice space to enjoy a large family reunion at our home in mid June. He never kept this promise either choosing instead to work on other client’s projects. (We had a friend who had recommended him and had a project he was supposed to work on at their house – bathroom remodel – he was over there working on it and collecting their money instead of working on our 14 month old screen porch project. In fact the day he started their project he came to our house asked for a paint sample for the stucco columns, giving the impression he would be coming back, collected his tools and left. That’s the last we saw or heard of him. Ultimately, he did a terrible job on their bathroom remodel and they fired him, too.) Bottom line for us is that we endured a very messy project that was poorly executed and never finished. He did, however, manage to fit in several vacations while our project wasn’t being finished. We were lied to and Ronnie has money for a job he never completed. We learned that when you select someone to do a job for you in addition to checking references make sure the person doing the job is NOT doing this specific kind of job for the first time but has lots of experience with this type of work/project. Also, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give all or anything close to the final payment until the job is completely done to your satisfaction – don’t listen to any sob stories. Hire someone with years of experience! Don’t hire Ronnie or Rocket City Remodelers to do anything for you! I also question his licensing! Ask to see it with any contractor!