Spy Construction

This contractor was referred through a family friend. He was absolutely terrible, unprofessional, disorganized, non-communicative..all the stereotypes of a horrible contractor.

We wanted to build a legal basement apartment in our home in Mississauga and we hired Shabbir from Spy Construction. He visited the basement to take a look and quote the job. We gave him all the details we wanted, including letting him know that we wanted to soundproof the basement as much as possible, this was extremely important to us. We wanted to make sure all of the air ducts were insulated around to maximize noise reduction. He said he would take care of everything (mind you, I never saw him write down a single thing we ever discussed), and he quoted $65,000 for the job excluding electrical. We said ok.

Once the work started on the walkout entrance in the backyard, there was nothing but problems. The first person he brought to start the walkout entrance, made the footing too short and cut my foundation wall in the wrong place. He brought a 2nd crew to rip everything out and re-pour the foundation wall. The guys were amateurs at best; the foundation wall was poured extremely poorly and when they poured the retaining walls, they didn't make one of the walls...He then brings in a 3rd company to finish the 4th retaining wall and stairs. These guys were horrible and sloppy too. The stairs have been poured but the railings and main entrance door still need to be installed...Shabbir said he would do it, that was 2.5 weeks ago, he's since disappeared.

Other problems on the inside of the apartment: Framing was done decently, but many imperfections that would leave to average to sub-par finishing.

He cut holes in my foundation walls for the various vents, and he didn't bother to measure outside before cutting to ensure a minimum of 6 inches off the ground were reached. He cut the holes and they were 1-4 inches off the ground.

Since I had mentioned soundproofing was very important to me, and he said he would take care it, I imagined he would take that into account in the construction. He did not. None of the ducts have any real space to insulate around/sound proof. He never suggested using 1 5/8 metal u studs to make bulkheads to provide more space for insulation around the ducts (received this piece of info from another contractor). He never used any 2x6 in any part of the basement, especially for the master bedroom which would be key to sound proof. None of this was discussed in the beginning, partly my fault, but I took his word for it that he was experience in soundproofing, since he was referred through a family friend.

There were some other errors and other complaints (this project started on Apr 30 2018 and there's still garbage in my backyard that he hasn't removed!), but I'm just exhausted with this individual. BE WARNED, this is a HORRIBLE conctractor. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS.