JD

Last summer, my wife and I hired Mazen and his team to apply EIFS cladding to our house. EIFS installation involves several stages and the work took nearly three weeks. Mazen, for whom pretty much nothing is undoable or unsolvable, led a cheerful, energetic crew (they actually sing while they work!) who put in long hours during very hot days. The end result far exceeded our expectations. We were particularly impressed by some unplanned nice touches: covering an unsightly split concrete windowsill and a cracked concrete piece at the base of the door to the deck, for instance, and forming a couple of circumscribing groves in the chimney cladding for improved aesthetics. When I asked Mazen, a year later, if he could patch up a recessed wall area where a utility box used to be, he came that same day, and then returned a few days later for the finishing coat, graciously declining payment. All told, when it comes to EIFS/stucco projects, I recommend Mazen and his team without reservation.

In case you don't have the time or inclination to read the whole sorry saga, here is the gist of it: about an hour after starting the work, PR, owner of Russo Concrete, requested some payment so he can buy more materials for the following day. After receiving the cashfar, far more than an hours worth of workhe left the site to never return, abandoning his wheelbarrow and buckets and tools in my yard. He has ignored or declined every attempt Ive made to communicate with him since. Early in August 2024, I contacted PR to repair some cracks in the foundation wall around my house and to then completely reparge it. A few days later, PR came for an estimate. I took him around the house to show him the scope of the work and noticed that he seemed oddly impatient. I was also taken aback by his continuous smoking. He quoted me a price, I counter-offered, and he agreed to it instantly, shooting his hand at me to seal the deal. He informed me that he would do the job the following weekend. My wife and I cancelled plans we had made for that weekend, and during that week I spent a good amount of time dismantling two rain barrels and clearing the base of the foundation wall and the periphery of the house to ensure PR had easy access and could work effectively. The weekend came, and went, and nothing happened. Well, things happen, I thought. I was sure I would hear from him. I didn't. A week later, PR showed up at my door with a wide smile and that "noth'n I could do about it" hand gesture, proclaiming he had lost his phone and could not let me know he wasnt coming (but not explaining why he didnt come and certainly not apologizing). As absurd as that sounded, I decided to just let it go. I just wanted to get the thing done. PR then asked to leave his equipment in my yard and promised to start the job the following day. I took that as a promissing sign and approved. Again, we arranged to be home and were happy to finally be able to move on. And again, that didnt happen. As before, not a word. He just didn't show up. One afternoon, about a week later, PR arrived unexpectedly with a helper and started to actually do work. (That poor helper had a bad headache, apparently, and was left sitting on the porch to work his phone. But that didn't matter, PR said reassuringly; even his daughter was a better helper...) After an hour or so, he declared he was done for the day. To my surprise and dismay, he then asked where in the yard he could wash the concrete off his wheelbarrow. I reluctantly let him to do that over some mulch in a far cornerI shouldnt have. (Earlier, he asked to use my garden hose to wash the wall with. He left it unspooled and encrusted with concrete and the reel toppled over.) As he was about to leave, PR told me he would finish the job the next morning and then asked for some money so that he could buy more materials. I had no problem with a partial payment at that point, but I was astounded that he needed that money to buy materials with. It was getting late by then, and I was tired and hungry and really didnt feel like tearing open the envelope I had prepared for this job and count bills. What I now see clearly as red flags somehow did not register as such then, and so I proceeded to commit the most naive of all errors a buyer can make: I just gave him that envelope. PR took the cash, barely containing his glee$2,300, for one hour of work and a bag of parging mixand vanished, abandoning his grungy wheelbarrow and buckets and an assortment of rusty, broken tools in my yard. I have made several attempts to contact him since. He has ignored/declined them all. PR saw an opportunity to make easy money and took it without compunction. He returned a gesture of trust and good will from a kind, older person with shameless dishonour and dishonesty. What else might a man of such reprehensible integrity be capable of? Why risk finding out? There is no shortage of parging contractors in town! As to the quality of the work (i.e., damage) that PR did do, I have been informed by other contractors what the procedure is for repairing cracks in a concrete foundation. PR did none of that. He just shoved parging compound into those crackscarelessly, sloppily. Look at the attached photos. This looks like the work of a twelve-year-old!