Allan Homes Unlimited

I have undertaken 9 major building or remodeling projects in my lifetime and I have never found a contractor more difficult to work with than Allan Homes Unlimited in Columbia, Maryland. Although they are a custom builder; working with them required constant vigilance to detail on my part. I found that I had to show up daily to inspect what had been done that day. Way too many aspects of this latest project, a condominium renovation, had to be redone due to shoddy work. For example, in my custom kitchen, most of the cabinet doors had to be replaced by them due to the improper & inconsistent placement of cabinet handles. Worst of all was their failure to level the floor in the master bath. As a result, the new shower pan was not pitched properly and the shower did not drain. While I had specified and provided a design for an accessible shower with a two and a half inch curb; what I wound up with was a not-at-all accessible shower with a 6 inch curb. The former shower was converted to an open shelf closet and it is out of square and the walls are not straight and the four shelves are not parallel. I have a new contractor coming in to redo the closet properly. Among the many issues that came up during the renovation was the failure of Allan Homes to comply with the condominium rules about floor coverings in the common hallway, noise mitigation, and no work rules on weekends. The project manager, Jim, was particularly argumentative and created a lot of friction. He opted for cheap choices and charged for correcting them. An example of this was when he had the electrician put junction boxes in the ceiling of my expensive renovated kitchen. When I balked at having holes with plastic plates on my ceiling, he charged me to fix the wiring issue and holes. They also charged extra to replace the 30 year old electric outlets and switches in the totally renovated kitchen. Although this renovation was done during the pandemic, most of the delays were caused by poor allocation of resources and having to correct workmanship errors and then wait for replacement materials. The project went three and a half months past the agreed upon completion date. No one needs this kind of grief, especially when you are spending $$$$.