Angie's List: Avoiding Home Renovation Nightmares
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Shannon Roberts dreamed about having a new master bath in place before her twins were born over the summer.
The project started great and finished on time and on budget, but her dream became a nightmare just months before her trip to the delivery room.
"I didn't realize how different it was until it started leaking through my ceiling into my kitchen and that's when you find out that the underneath part was not as pretty as the finished product," she said.
"It was quite a challenge trying to shift everything to using a small, little basement bathroom while your shower's leaking, and then you've got damage to your kitchen," said Jake Roberts.
The shower leaked, the tub's cold water stopped working, fixtures fell off and other problems developed, too. Not what the Roberts expected after investing thousands of dollars.
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"In the construction world, the assumption is that everybody in it is going to operate at the same level of quality and integrity, and that's not always the case," said home builder Jon Guy.
The original contractor told the Roberts the job was out of warranty.
Instead of fighting, they hired someone else to fix the problems, and that's when they discovered how little information they received from their first hire.
"One of the key issues that pop up in remodeling projects that go wrong is lack of communication, and sometimes that can be an oversight on the front end. You don't think about making sure you have someone you can communicate with easily, regularly and you can speak your mind, because solving problems early make them a lot smaller problems," said Angie's List founder Angie Hicks.
The Roberts now know that. They consulted three companies, but didn't do a thorough reference check, and the choice to go with the lowest bidder became a very expensive lesson.
"You've got to take time to do a little research. It cost us a lot of money," Jake Roberts said.
