I hired Anray to remove a load bearing wall between the kitchen and dining room, replacing it with a flush mounted steel beam. The work was done with a permit and stamped structural engineer's drawings.
The work was done and inspected and I though all was fine, until I began to notice cracks between the ceiling and walls in the rooms directly above the kitchen. Fortunately, another contractor who was in doing framing noticed what had happened and pointed it out to me.
First, the joist hangers were not tight against the joists, as they should be to bear the load. They are supposed to be mounted tight against the joist and glued in place with contruction glue. That is what my framing guy noticed right off the bat. Then, as we were re-hanging the joists, we found that *many* of the joists were cut too short, so that only a small portion of the actual joist was in contact with the joist hanger. In many cases, the joists were literally being held up by nails!
What is particularly troubling about this is that, not only was this not raised to me, or corrected in any manner, they actually went to the trouble of putting pieces of scrap wood into the gap TO HIDE THE FACT JOIST HAD BEEN CUT TOO SHORT!!! Once the joist hanger was in place, it was very hard to tell anything was wrong.
To be honest, Ray and the guys were really nice and I wish I didn't have to raise this. But, nice guys or not, the fact of the matter is that they screwed up, didn't raise it, tried to hide it, and walked away. I'm frustrated at the inspector for not noticing this, but that is not the main issue here.
There is nothing more important than a house's structure and these guys compromised the structural integrity of my house. Sure they offer a warranty on their work, but based on what they did, I have not interest in letting them touch my house again.
I am very happy that Homestars is available so that I can share this with future renovators. Don't take my word for it, look at the pictures, and then never let these guys touch your house.
