Poor attention to detail & unprofessional

Things started off well with many promises and a referral from a work-at-home friend of mine for this company. Little did I realise, without constant knowledgeable male supervision (such as provided by my friend), I would get a cut-corners job.

I first met with Mr. Keating & his stepson, Mario, in October 2022 to discuss the work I wanted done. They seemed keen and grateful for the work, and had lofty ideas to ensure the work I had done with them would be of the highest standard. We discussed specifics and a quote was drafted.

I paid the 70% deposit to get the ball rolling... except it didn't. There were many delays to the start of the work due to rain as well as supply issues cited by Mr. Keating & Mario. As such, with a huge chunk of my money in their bank account, they only started the project 2-3weeks after the agreed upon start date.

From the start, Mario would often just not show up on site - saying that it would rain (even when it didn't) or that his workmen didn't arrive for work (which happened several times) - with no or last minute communication.

During the days that they did work on-site, they damaged a lot of existing structures at our home - spilling paint on tile floors without cleaning it, spattering paint on walls they didn't intend to paint again, grinding furrows into the paving while cutting ceiling boards, spilling silicone filler onto the tiles without cleaning it, leaving a hole in an outside wall where a roof beam was resting, breaking a capstone on a concrete wall while installing palisades, leaving concrete residue on pavers etc.

Besides the damages, there was little to no attention to detail. The skylights installed were roughly finished, with gaps where the corrugation met the plaster board and rough patches were skimming was app**** but not sanded down on the corners. The one side of the perimeter wall built by Mario & his crew was a full brick height shorter than the other half of the wall. The concrete landing for the pedestrian gate wasn't smoothed out and just left as poured. Wooden moulds/frames for paver stones were just left in situ (they are still there, even to this day).

The quote also was not representative of the work that was performed in the end. Many of the tasks I was invoiced for, were "worst-case-scenario" quotes, which turned out to not be necessary - eg. instead of having to replace the whole roof structure, only 1 or 2 beams ended up having to be replaced. We had discussed a wrought iron fencing panel at our first meeting, which Mario then subsequently decided "would take too long" and then suggested palisades as a faster alternative. Seeing that the boundary fence was constructed due to an increase in break-in attempts at our home, I reluctantly agreed for the sake of security. The welding done for the palisades was very sloppily done, with struts not evenly spaced or level with each other. When pointed out, Mario would laugh & blame his welder, without offering any recourse from their side to fix the poor job. Despite querying these, Mr. Keating did not amend his invoice.

Lastly, Mario (by his own admission in a follow up meeting) openly removed building material we had paid for as per our invoice from our premises without our permission or consent. By our estimate, several bags of cement, at least 500 face bricks and a good amount of cement aggregate mix were appropriated by Buffelo Construction. We found that many of the building materials were overcharged on our invoice when we queried Chamberlains, who Mr. Keating says is where he gets his materials from.

Throughout the build, we gave constant feedback on issues as they arose, but were either brushed off or patched unsatisfactorily. We did meet with Mr. Keating and Mario in December 2022 to try to arbitrate the situation. Again, many promises were made to salvage the job and to provide an amended invoice. Neither materialised. No active attempts were made from Mr. Keating nor Mario's side to stay in contact with us regarding the outstanding work & repairs to be done, instead we had to constantly follow up from our side.

A job that was estimated to take 2-3weeks only concluded last week - over 6 months and many phone calls and frustrations later. Several issues had still not been addressed and probably never will be.

A quick Google search uncovered similar experiences by others, which is what prompted me to draft this review. As I can only speak from personal experience with any degree of cer*****y, I would warn others to be wary of this duo, and that a knowledgeable male presence will evidently be needed to supervise work done to minimise damage to property & pocket.