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Triangle Downtowner Magazine

Overview > Reviews > Stay away from this builder/roofer

I hired Art Barnes with Apal Building to rehab a 100 year old house in Durham and add 500 sq ft in the attick. We signed an all inclusive contract for 155,000 and ran into problems from the start, where Art refused to remove the 100 year old subfloor to expose the foundation and floor joices. then he did not want to get an engineer out there to look at the foundation. I did both on my dime outside of the 'all inclusive contract' which included engineering and foundation work. Then I paid extra to have the foundation fixed and upgraded to support the new addition on top. Art told me all foundation work was complete and closed it all up and moved on to framing and adding the new roof. But after the new roof was installed there was water leak inside the house because they did not install flashing nor drip edge. But it does not stop here. The framing was subpar and was not up to code, not passing inspection. So I had to hire another GC, pay him again after I paid Art to fix all the work so it would pass inspection and the roof would not leak. Oh but it does not stop here. It turns out after I fired him for inadequate work Art refused to pay his subs pocketing the money I paid him for this work. Not only did he cut corners and hired cheap labor he was essentially stealing from both me and his workers by taking the money from me and not paying them. He eventually paid the siding guys after I threatened him to go after his license, but the headache and lost time I will never recoup. His incompetence set me back 3 months on this project at the very least. Stay away from this contractor if you value your time, money and competence in a GC!

Service on Jan 10