MKA Construction

Joel Woods and I worked together for about 9 months. He was the third contractor I worked with for a complete remodel that was down to the studs when he and I met. Initially we did small projects and eventually worked our way up to 5, 10 and up 15 thousand dollars money exchanges. Towards the end of my project I think he got overwhelmed. I also made the mistake after establishing trust to pay him for projects in advance. Big mistake! Once I paid him, and then the work wasn't up to par and I would tell him its like he would take it personal. For example. I live in a 3000 sq. Ft house. He did the sheet rock and paint. The sheet rock wasn't sanded prior to painting in multiple areas. I decided to paint three of the bedrooms myself bc he only agreed on one color. I did not ask for an adjustment for me painting the bedrooms. He had over 5 people painting my interior. Not a big deal but everybody paints different. One of them painted an N on my wall which he showed no remorse for. The three bedrooms I painted actually look better than the ones I paid to have painted. His painter was not using one and got an edge painter at my recommendation. One day his crew are at my house painting and I discovered a necklace was stolen and called him on the phone. He was so belligerent as If I had accused him of stealing. He said him nor his crew could come back to finish the paint job(that I'd already paid for in advance) because I might accuse them of stealing. Her never came back to finish the paint. One of his workers kept peeing outside my patio door. He even went out to the yard and got some dirt and put it on the concrete for his daily piss episode. He pooped inside in a bag and left it in some trash and peed in a few water bottles. All of which I discovered and had to dispose off. I photographed and sent to him with no response. I was supposed to understand because the worker was older and had COPD or Emphysema. After voicing my concerns Joel was again pissed that I would bring it up. He was supposed to install my gutters (that I paid for in advance) but after he refused to complete the paint (and baseboards) I asked him to refund my money. He said he had the gutter guy coming the next week. I told him he better cancel and to give me my money back. How are you not going to finish the paint but then want me to trust you with another job. He tried to make me sign something saying he had completed the job. I would not!! It took 3 months to get my overpayment back because he can't take criticism and takes everything personally!! I met with him twice at Arvest to get my money back Arvest bc I wouldn't sign his form br would throw a tantrum and leave. Finally, my bathroom that I paid so much money for in vanity cabinets and tile looks a hot mess. It's actually sad. Some of the baseboards are installed correct and others he didn't bother with the corner piece. This shows me that he new how to but decided not to. Who is she to expect them to be installed properly. As you can see under my vanity cabinet there is no baseboard allowing for bugs and everything else. I've been here three months and so much stuff had to be re- done. The tile is cracking in the grout lines and looks nasty. I got my house finished and I learned a lot. I expect issues to arise especially when you are working with someone for long periods of time. He had temper tantrums and didn't complete the job. If you have a small project... by all means give him a shot. But if you have a big project, and have standards... heck no!!!

Our experience with this company made us realize we made a terrible mistake in choosing them to do the work on our new construction home. The owner Joel Wood required we pay him half down on the job which was bit over $4800. This was paid to him on July 11th and the crew didn't even start the job until July 22nd. The crew that was sent out to stain our cabinets did a job that was so awful it looked like our cabinets had been through a forest fire. The application process mimicked one of a crew that had never stained cabinets before as the stain had been sprayed on (carelessly!) and either not wiped down or they waited way too long to do any wiping. Before any of this took place we had Joel tell the crew to stain the upstairs bathroom cabinets first to be sure that we liked the color - we loved it. But then the foreman of that crew got sick and the owner switched crews on us. The new crew never even checked the upstairs cabinets to see how they looked before they started staining. How we wish we would have been there to stop them! When we sent Joel some pics of the horrendous stain job he said the paint store had tinted the stain incorrectly. The crew never bothered to make sure it matched the upstairs nor did they apply the stain correctly - wish I could attach pictures! The owner was apologetic and agreed it looked bad and said they would sand it down and get the stain right. The same crew came in to sand the cabinets and they sanded our cabinets down to where in some places they were ruined - our $13,000 knotty alder cabinets ruined. This crew seemed to have zero experience in staining OR sanding. We told Joel we did not want this crew near our house again and to find a crew that knew what they were doing! During all of the sanding time there was a couple of guys outside painting the exterior of the house. When the outside was completed the owner asked us for the 2nd payment which made the total paid out to them at 75% of the job bid. We were very reluctant to say the least to give him the 2nd payment but we wanted to trust him and have faith that he would make it right like he had said to us a 100 times. He then told us that he was sending out his "best" guys that were paid by the hour and he was 100% confident that everything would be great. Well, why didn't we get the best guys to begin with? When they arrived they expressed their disbelief in how our cabinets looked. They finished up the sanding as best they could but most of the bulkheads and some of the cabinet fronts had already been ruined. They then stained the cabinets by using rage and the cabinets turned out passable - from a distance - but there are swirl marks, scratches all over them, and the bulkheads have to be replaced. Joel had also promised us that he would have the ruined bulkheads replaced and stained all at his cost. We asked him if he was insured and he said he was but he wanted to take care of it without involving the insurance. After the staining was complete, Joel told us that he would have his guys out there the next afternoon, August 12th, to start masking off the trim and that the entire job would be finished by Friday, August 16th. When the crew never showed up I texted Joel and asked him when the crew was going to be out to our house and he didn't respond. So, my husband called him and Joel proceeded to tell him that the job had cost him more than what he had bid since he was out all of the labor for the sanding and that he was walking away from the job! My husband told him that it wasn't our fault that he had to re-do our cabinets due to the incompetent crew or that he was out extra money to do so. Joel doesn't seem to care whatsoever that he has cost us interest on our loan and delayed our time moving into our home. We wasted over a month dealing with them and now we have to find someone that will come in and finish the mess they left us with. We told him that in life sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but he chose to not follow through on our contract with him and risk his reputation. So, he has well over $7000 of our money and we got the exterior painted and cabinets ruined. Plus he has cost us interest on our loan and almost 2 months time lost so far on completion of our home Never ever again would I use or recommend anyone to use MKA Construction for anything.