Should I sue for bad job of installing insulation and baffles?

I hope someone has some knowledge of the law here. I had some work done last year. I paid $916 to have baffles installed and insulation blown in. In addition they ran my bath fan hose to a ridge vent and covered a gable vent. The guy who came to do the estimate owns the company. He had a crew do it. This was my first mistake.

Some of the baffles were installed in between rafters that had no soffit vents and didn't require any, which doesn't hurt, but it is meaningless extra work. The other problem is they weren't installed low enough so they were really meaningless cause the soffit vents were blocked and the baffles were not doing their job They actually blew insulation under the bottom of the baffles which is the biggest no-no. After the work was finished , I didn't go up there cause I didn't want to compress the blown in insulation. It is a ranch with a low roof. I assumed it was done correctly cause I did look through the hatch and saw the baffles and insulation.

One day I took out a soffit vent and noticed insulation there. I looked to see where the baffle was and noticed it wasn't close enought to the soffit vent to do it's job. This was the case with pretty much all of them. They need to be lowered probably another 6 inches at least.

I had another guy come to check the work and he told me the baffles that were used were garbage ( a very flimsy foam) and he would use the owens corning baffles. He would hook up the bath fan hose to a box vent cause it shouldn't be the way it is due to moisture. He would also cover the gable vent and other box vent (I have 2) and reblow the attic to an R38 for $1092.

So, I went up there and installed new baffles myself. The good ridgid ones that wouldn't rip when contacting nails from the roof. This was my second mistake. I saw that it was a TIGHT spot that I would have to work in throughout the whole attic area. This lead me to believe that these guys (which were probably on the heavy side, I can't remember but there were 3 of them I think ) could not get in there well. So I did it and did it correctly and was very sore for the next day due to being in those positions for hours. I am 5'10 and 180lbs.

I called the man back and told him what his crew did and he wants to come back and see the work. I have been calling him for a long time. I don't know if he was avoiding me , but he says he was injured. He is an old man.

I redid the work cause I wanted it done correctly. Now the attic has to be reblown cause all the insualtion is moved around and compressed. I have not had it reblown and was going to do this also. I figured I would give him the chance to come down and take a look and see what he says. I think that if he reblew the insulation, then I would be ok with it. I shouldn't have to spend another $300 to do all this myself. But I have lost all patience and will take legal action if he doesn't either reblow the attic or give me a partial refund. I will also contact the BBB. What do you think my chances are before i even contact my attorney?

If you want anything done right , you have to do it yourself. By the way, I learned 2 important lessons from this. Always thoroughly check the work before paying. Be hesitant to have the work done by a "crew" and not the owner.

Thanks for all replies.

Reply to
chrisc
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Foam baffles are fine and cheaper, its not worth court, as im sure you have no photos as proof. Another guy said it was bad? Yea he wants your money too. The BBB is a joke, keep gable vents open and insulate to R 50+, you gotta figure in settling of insulation like 15-20% and codes are minimums for for the 1950`S. Insulation Codes are not reflective of where we are going with 100$ barrel oil.

Reply to
ransley

I think your chances of any sort of legal recompense are slim. First, you didn't call the owner and give him a chance to correct the bad installation. you went ahead and did it yourself. How can you even prove that it even needed to be redone? Not saying it didn't, but how do you prove it when the contractor will go into court and claim that his installation was acceptable? Or he can claim that if given the chance, he would have gone in there and corrected the installation and no additional money would have needed to be spent.

Of course, for 900 bucks, this isn't exactly the OJ trial. That isn't even close to being worth a lawyer touching. Small claims court is your only option.

Reply to
marson

Like I said towards the end of the message, I have been trying to get a hold of the guy so he can get over for a long time. He always says I will try to get over this week or next week or the latest was he is injured. This has been going on for months and I can prove that I have called him several times with verizon phone records.

I did forget to add that the baffles weren't even stapled to the roof and the >> I hope someone has some knowledge of the law here. I had some work done >> last

Reply to
chrisc

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