Sit on that balance, please. Sounds like he under-bid.

Thanks. I am worried if that if I give him an ultimatum, he will send someone to finish with sloppy work?! How do you guess that he underbid? other than he swapped for fake wood?

" I am worried if that if I give him an ultimatum, he will send someone to finish with sloppy work? "

He already is by sending MDF in lieu of wood and making excuses. My gut says he will send the "C" team regardless.

" How do you guess that he underbid? "

Cutting corners with the trim, taking his time finishing, like he needs to schedule the work for a day he has time already allotted to a different project rather than paying his guys to be exclusively on your project, not attentive to finishing up, going dark on getting men to your house.

If you afraid , you at there mercy. You got the money, make em dance if they want it.

Thanks everyone. He seemed professional but you’ve confirmed my suspicions that he‘s just a bad contractor. We would never give him the rest of the $ unless he finished to our satisfaction. We are no longer going to allow them to drop in on us announced. He is running out of time because soon we wont be available until early March. My father in law was a builder and always believed in being the squeaky wheel to get the job done, but they will lie anyway...we have some serious events in our life and this mess is adding to it! It is tempting to tell him goodbye, hopefully part ways with the contract because my husband has the ability to finish the work!

@Lori B, is this an established company and do you have a written contract? If so, I'd consult the terms of that document with regard to how you shoud proceed.

Is this guy a deadbeat? Maybe. Or maybe there are some other valid reasons for the delays. I agree with the other guys that it sounds more like the former, but I also know that in these types of situations its much more productive to proceed respectfully, and only resort to ultimatums and such when its clear that its absolutely necessary.

My level of confidence in this getting completed properly is entirely dependant on the answer to my first question. If its a real company that has been around, has a physical office, etc, your odds are much, much better.

@HomeSealed Exteriors, LLC it is an established company and we do have a written contract. He has a physical office and showroom within his warehouse. At this point, the amount of our deposit was less than the cost of the windows, which are installed. He finally contacted us today and stated that he will finish the entire job on Wednesday. We told him the job needs finishing this week as we will be unavailable until March. We also told him that work time needs to be scheduled and not just drop in….so will see if they show…Its obvious his installer has a different schedule and/or the owner lies to us. I can tell you he seemed very professional. My inlaws are builders, we have built our own homes in another city, and so we have lots of experience with subcontractors. This one fooled us and you’d never guess he would be so flaky. If he had valid reasons, he is sharp enough to know to communicate better.

Fair enough. I suspect that he may have some issues with installers, there's a shortage of good ones in most areas.

Whatever his reasons may be, hopefully he's able to get this taken care of for you on your preferred timeline. Its encouraging that its an established company, I'd expect that he'll see things through one way or another. If he does not, you have more options for recourse than you would if it were some fly-by-night contractor.

Update: The installer showed up Wed. to finish the interior. He still has a couple of pieces of cedar trim to install outside which are laying in the garage, unpainted. They asked for our exterior trim color to repaint what they reinstalled but never mentioned anything ever again about actually painting( in the middle of winter)! He also hasn’t asked for the remaining payment…….

i have another window company coming to bid on the remaining windows that i need replacing. Any suggestions about how to avoid this problem next time? I will get a signed contract, try to get a deadline written in which isn't easy, check references but worried about getting a decent install on schedule with a concientuous crew. Ps: i hired one of the supposed best flooring companies in town and they sent a terrible installer…how do I get their best?

Start with a great product , than narrow down the field.

@toddinmn we are finishing the rest with the Marvins, unfortunately that leaves maybe 3 other suppliers/installer options.

Update: The business called in April and asked why we didnt finish payment for the job in Dec. We explained that when they FINISHED the job, they would get paid in full. No partial payments since the job dragged for months. They finished the following week and were paid. Subsequently we hired a different company to purchase/install the rest of the windows since we only had half done the first time. Install went ok, until it came time for jamb extensions and trim casing. They were clearly struggling, sent 2 more helpers over and completed a few windows and took some jambs back to the shop to work on them. My husband knew what he was looking at, so noticed bad reveals because they left packing strips attached to the windows, jambs were bouncing because they didnt support them and large gaps were in the casing. Sales manager and owner of the install co. came over and were speechless but agreed to send over a project manager to remove the jambs/trims and start over. I had seen this company highly recommended by neighborhood social media sites and we did call their references! I am convinced no one knew how to check the work. How does anyone avoid these substandard contractors? I asked for the A team and said we’d wait for their best, but maybe that was it? I am dreading the ”redo” next week from another team!!

"How does anyone avoid these substandard contractors?"

Everybody believes their little girl deserves to marry a doctor or a lawyer, she does too, and everybody wants low prices. Combine those two factors and you have created the lack of competent people entering the building trades. Oh, then throw in the unfair competition from our porous southern border for good measure. The marketplace is getting exactly what it has demanded.

ok