First Choice Home Improvement

FCHI finished a walkout basement for us. During this process there were numerous issues where things had to be done over and over. There was no communication from Ramon the owner nor supervision (he was always "out of town") and there was constant disrespect from everyone. In the end we had numerous code violations. We had to go through the jackhammering of the cement where they took no safety precautions for the crew and us. Our ducts, vents and the whole upstairs of the house was filled for at least a week with cement dust. My grandson and myself ended up with respiratory problems. We had to have all vents and ducts cleaned and the motors eventually burned in the furnace because it was filled with cement dust and we had to repair that There is now holes, dips and jagged peaks in the cement which they carpeted over and can be felt through the carpet. The bathtub was not set right with support under it and pulled away from the seams and the tile and it's all cracked. Seams around the wall and ceiling are cracked and even had some big holes where we can see that there is no taping. The tile in the shower was covered in black mold after a short. Of time it was not set to drain properly. They did replace it and replaced it with something different than what I had picked out. They did not seal the tile so the grout is chipping and wearing away already. They used two or three different colors of grout in doing the tile work in the kitchen and bathroom because they couldn't tell the difference in the colors, or just didn't care and used what was most convenient. The tile is hollow underneath they did not put a sub flooring in or level it so it's not bonded in places. The tiles have significant lipping in the majority of the area. The most egregious thing that they did was...in the contract we paid for a second furnace to be put in, they did not install a second furnace instesd they put in a damper vent. The damper system was considerably cheaper but he did not refund what I paid for the second furnace. We were told during the contract signing that there was a one year warranty on all workmanship and product. During the one year time after completion they bailed and would not fix the mistakes. We sent a demand letter and no response again. So we took First Choice Home Improvement and Ramon Gallegos to court in Demand for Money suit. His insurance company settled with us. We recovered a third of the project cost. There were many other workmanship issues, unethical, rude and disrespectful things that happened. Only one of which is the crew were peeing inside the basement on the wall and in the corners. We had proper facilities for going to the bathroom in the upstairs area that was not necessary at all.

Unethical business practices. Built 2 decks not to code, not permitted and work not inspected. Both decks are sinking/pulling away from my home as they were not built properly to code. Ramon committed multiple times to fixing for months yet never did (wanted to fix his way and not follow building code requirements). Make sure to get license information and insurance proof before ever using any contractor!