Ron Hickman Left low and wet Johnson City Tennessee

I decided to add a second story to my home after finding out that I was going to have replace my roof along with the sheeting. I hired Ron Hickman, as he has done work for a few people that I know and they all told me that he does good work AND is very trust worthy. In fact, my business partner allowed him to take his credit card and a key to his house while he was gone on vacation to do a job.

WE started by meeting and talking about how the whole thing would work. He definitely knew how to talk carpentry talk and had a slew of pictures of where he had done the same thing to at least three other houses in the past.

We negotiated a price and decided to make a go of it.
The first problem that I had is that he only had a few people that labored for him and he kept wanting to put off starting because he wanted a long period of good weather before he ripped my roof off. I was cool with this, as I did not want to risk damage to my home.

I found out that the main person that helped him was not going to be able to help him, and he needed someone, so I hooked him up with a guy who was looking for some work that I knew (Lee). They got together and Lee protested the way that Ron was going to go about the whole project, and eventually got a engineer to draw up the most structurally sound way to go about it (which was NOT the way that RON had planned). Time was still passing with no work, so I had him work on moving my laundry room to my back porch, which he got partially done and kept making excuses about not finishing.

Eventually, Lee wanting to bring in a crew of people that he knew to get the whole thing under roof. These people were amazing! in three days they tore of my old roof, framed and had me under a new roof with a second floor! Keep in mind that this is nothing to do with Ron.

Now the trouble starts....Ron started showing up sporadically, not calling or returning my calls for sometimes days at a time. 2 weeks went by with no work at my house, while Ron worked on another job pouring concrete, after he swore to me that he would not do anything other than my job.

I had given him a couple of checks for materials and labor when he told me that he was having trouble cashing the checks and requested for me to pay in cash instead. Meanwhile, he was not producing the receipts that I was requesting over and over again. He continued to ask for money. I felt uncomfortable giving him anything at this point, as there were no receipts to prove how he was spending the money and not guarantee that anyone would show up to work. I called and called, with no answer or returned messages.

Ironically, I could get in touch with Lee, who would tell me that they kept planning on coming over to work, but things kept coming up. I eventually gave up on my phone and called from my wife's phone. Miraculously, he picked up and seemed surprised to hear my voice. He told me that he had to make some money because I wouldn't give him any. I explained my perspective and told him that I just needed to be notified of what was going on and needed to get my receipts. He blew off what I was saying and told me that he needed money for materials. He kept telling me that he could not work anymore because he did not have the materials that he needed.

To keep it short....I told him that I would buy the materials. Asked him to come and work and bring the receipts. I went and got everything that he told me, which totally a whopping $46! He didn't show or call. I left him a message and told him to come and get his tools. This left me with a half done job, two other small projects that he started and never finished, and three holes in my ceilings downstairs from a couple of "oops" situations.

The kicker is that he has a key to my house and some of my tools that he "borrowed." I am filing a theft report on Monday.

Charlesb
Gray, Tennessee
U.S.A.