Complaint Review: Edelman Enterprises - Caleb Edelman

This is to be three different reports on three different parties. Our lender Mike Seguin, recommended Caleb Edelman because he was cost conscious and reliable. As we found out he was none of these. This report is about Caleb's actions.

We should of been tipped off when his foreman Josh Johnson started on the jobsite and did not know how much re-bar to put in the concrete. I had to lay out the pads and call the building inspector to find out the right size and spacing for the re-bar.

We had Superior Walls put the basement walls in (they did a excellent job). Josh thought they were off by 1 1/2 inches from level and off square and framed accordingly. He was wrong and after the house was sided with Cedar we had to correct his mistakes or Superior Walls would not give us a warranty and we could not pass the framing inspection. This took two and one half months more.

It was a Lindal Kit Home with post and beams. At the time of framing inspection we found out that the house was not; tied to the foundation with enough bolts and straps. Many of the posts were not supported from the foundation between the joists. On top of that he had omitted to atach 176 connectors, straps, and fasteners between post and beams. Remember this was a kit home so all of the connectors,strapping, and fasterners were on site!!

Many times I was on the site doing excavation work and he could not find things like 9 foot long roll of Tyvek and 12 foot long stringers for the stairs. We had to pay for many things twice. The wrong colored nails were used on the pre stained Cedar siding trim. They had a paint company fix up a stain when they had 2 gallons that came with the kit, everyone was walking past to put on the siding. They could not find a case of colored caulk for the siding. Lindal sends a list of everything and numbers every piece.

Lindal had sent a newer kind of windows that you do not fasten at the top except to hold them against the wall so they can flex up and down. They fastened them in solidly then put the siding on, all of the big windows bowed on the top. Every window had the directions on a pink piece of paper glued on to the window. Also the Lindal rep told them they had to change it or the warranty would be void. They would not or could not figure out how to do it so our warranty was voided. We had to take off the siding and remove the windows to regain the warranty. When we did this we saw that many straps holding the house up and down and from side to side were missing. The straps were all over in the house, they came with the kit.

Superior Walls, Lindal Homes, and the building plans were all written in English and not difficult to understand they had copies of everything, sometimes twice.

Caleb was almost impossible to reach by phone or e-mail. We saw him on the job site so little we wished we had a photo to remember what he looked like. He disappeared for August and September 2004 completely. In October of 2004 the house finally had workers but then they started building walls in the wrong places. Plumbing in the wrong places and the wrong way (I will fie a separate report on Nelson's Plumbing recommended by Caleb). Caleb tried to bill us twice as much as what he had told us or for things he had not done. He wanted to get paid for the framing before the framing inspection. We could never get invoices. Then he disappeared in October 2004.

In October 2004 our "Predatory lender" Mike Seguin took over the building of our house. In one meeting he said that he had the right to pay the contractors directly and he called the house his spec house. He wrongfully foreclosed on us October 2005. I will file a separate report on his criminal actions.

Mark
Basalt, Colorado
U.S.A.