Z Remodeling and Home Improvement of Louisville

I echo everything the other negative reviews say, and more! I was taken in by their positive ratings on BBB and houzz.com. These are a fraud. BBB and other review sites are easily manipulated. Please people, leave negative feedback where due to protect the public! I needed a General Contractor to complete a whole-house renovation that I had started but couldn’t complete because of a job relocation. I wrote a “Scope of Work and Terms for Bid” (SOWTFB) outlining the scope and the bid requirements. I had two bids and several no-bids, and awarded a $72K contract to Z-Remodeling (Jack Sullivan). Apparently, Mr. Sullivan had no intention of complying with the Terms for Bid. 1. His contract states “per Scope of Work and Specifications”, which can only refer to my document. Yet, he ignored the $27K of material allowances. At the 20 week mark, with the house at the drywall stage and ready to purchase materials that were governed by material allowances, I find out that he didn’t figure in my allowances. Worse, he was apparently “playing it by ear” because he could tell me what allowances he had planned. At this point, I had paid Mr. Sullivan nearly $60K, and, minus the material allowances, he owed ME money. Yet, he wanted another $4500 payment for the recent drywall. After a couple of weeks, he presented his material allowances which were $12K less than what I had stipulated and could not have given me what I asked for in the detailed Scope. He refused to negotiate a middle ground. 2. Mr. Sullivan then refused to pay the drywall sub, who threatened to put a lien on my house. (Yes, they can do that! Our laws are f####d up when it comes to consumer protection.) I had to pay the sub $4800 for an incomplete job and a big mess left behind. 3. The SOWTFB requested a binding completion schedule. Mr. Sullivan’s contract specified “about” 12-14 weeks. As I stated above, we were only at the drywall stage (~50% complete) after 20 weeks! There was a 2-month period where only 1 day of work was done. Mr. Sullivan likes to take vacations with your money (4 times in 4 months), and then wait for another sucker to pay his ridiculously high up-front contract fee so he can do a little more on your project. 4. The SOWTFB specifies that, logically, all codes and regulations are to be followed. After I declared Breach of Contract in August, I learned that the rough-in plumbing was done without a permit! According to Z Remodeling’s plumber, Mr. Sullivan told him not to bother with a permit! The electrical rough-in had a permit, but many circuits did not work! These issues caused a lot of delay in getting other contractors to bid on finishing the work. It was December before I had three bids to finish, and the cheapest was more than the original $72K contract with Z Remodeling that I had already paid $62K towards! No contractors want to come in and clean up someone else’s mess. 5. My relationship with Mr. Sullivan started off well. But he quickly turned passive-aggressive. I can identify the turning point. Mr. Sullivan needs a lot of hand-holding, but gets nasty when you try to hold him accountable. 6. Mr. Sullivan has a fondness for saying that a proposed change is “about the same money” then sticking you with a bid change order fee after doing the work without anything in writing. This happened twice to the tune of about $3500. In retrospect, I should not have paid because this is an illegal practice. Even after I said no more changes without a written change order, he tried to pull this stunt one more time. 7. The Z Remodeling web site is even a fraud. It features family pictures of the son of the proprietor that are meant to manipulate your emotions. (“Oh, what a nice young family. They must be good and honest.”) In truth, that son only seems to be in charge of damage control and the propaganda machine. You will likely never see him. Also, be sure to ask if the pictures on their website are stock photos or their actual work. If the latter, ask Mr. Sullivan to prove it. Ha! I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Stay away from Z Remodeling.

Do not hire this person. They are in no way contractors they are scam contractors that have changed names many times over the past 20 years. Jack Sullivan has been sued and had many liens placed against his property over the years. They do not care if you sue them, they will just desolve the company and create a new one. My story. My wife hired this person to do a small cottage renovation project. She paid Jack Sullivan 50% ($6,000) of the amount up front. They did not show up to start the project now they do not return any communication. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. I will deal with these POS’s to eradicate them from a my profession.