Headache-free Home Improvement

Sept. 29, 2007 — -- Everyone's heard the nightmare stories about dealing with home improvement contractors or, even worse, lived through that nightmare themselves. Roger and Angie Vega of Queens, N.Y., are in the middle of such a nightmare right now.

Earlier this year, they hired contractor Alex Jader to remodel their dream house, the very first home they'd purchased together. The Vegas wanted to update the kitchen, add a bathroom, build a new deck and fix the roof. They said they paid Jader thousands of dollars in cash because they thought he'd work faster and more efficiently as a result. At first, Roger said, he did.

Jader fixed the roof right away but then never finished it with gutters. Soon rainwater started to cascade off the roof and work its way into their basement. Then, Roger said Jader's work got worse.

"He was here every day. Then little by little, he started to come four days a week, then three days, two — and then finally he just didn't show up at all."

When Jader disappeared, the Vegas were left with a disaster. Their home had become an open construction site without kitchen cabinets or working appliances. Their bathroom was full of holes and cracks, exposed wires and leaky pipes. The couple said they felt devastated "because we treated him like family. He sat here with us, and he ate, and he said, 'I'm here to make friends, and not enemies.' We believed him."

With their house left in chaos, the stressful situation caused tension between Roger and Angie, and they started to fight with each other over their plight.

According to contractor Mike Holmes, the Vegas' problems are sadly typical. On his hit Canadian series "Holmes on Homes," his team routinely swoops in and fixes up botched work left behind by unreliable contractors. He's heard more than his share of homeowner tales of woe.

"Is there some sort of savior system that you can call? '1-800-helpme, I'm screwed by a contractor?' No there's not," Holmes said.

As a result, the burden is on the homeowner to pick the right company beforehand. That's not an easy task, however, because Holmes said even in the best-case scenario, just two out of every 10 contractors know what they're doing. He believes 70 percent of them are bad.