CEC Construction Services

Erik/​CEC sued me and won $ 30k additional judgement after poorly bidding a $ 25k fixed price project on my own home.
I’ll keep my comments to the facts, and avoid hyperbole as I don’t want to cause additional legal concern for myself. One fact is that my opinion of Erik, the owner of CEC, is not high. I personally did not find him to be professional in communication, subcontractor or issue management.
In general, his subcontractors performed the scope of work. Erik himself did not provide important document deliverables that were part of the bid. The quality of work was never more than average. No warranty on the work was provided.
In one case, he had sub-​sub-​contractors working in the house their family members in attendance. To keep the project on schedule, I had to go to Home Depot and pick up materials for them. I was later contacted by these family members with threats to sue me because they were having a payment dispute with Erik and his sub.
In another case, Erik disagreed with me that a bathtub frame could be built at 90-​degree angles to the wall (it was cadywonk by 2 – 4 inches at the corner). He began yelling at me and took a hammer in anger, damaging the frame. This was later repaired by his crew.
Erik was not frequently on-​site, leaving his crew often wondering what to do. Fortunately I was working from a separate finished shed that I use as an office, so they would come ask me several times a day about the plans and what to do next. I would expect more professional crew management in future projects.
I can’t recommend CEC for residential home work. Interacting with Erik was largely stressful. Being sued felt like he was trying to make up for his own bad estimating, and added another 18 months of stress. His sub-​contractors were in some cases very questionable. The quality of work was only below average to average.

Nightmare from start to finish. Most of Erik’s work had to be redone which cost us well over 10,000. One year and a half later, thinking the nightmare was well behind us, we find that the stove he installed and wired was hooked up to a 120 volts, with a 30 amp breaker. Pulling out the stove, when it stopped working, the repair company found the 220 plug casing melted and the box, thought it was supposed to be a hard wire, had a melted through as well. We feel very fortunate that the heat which burned through that casing did not start a fire.
I threw out the old photos documenting the ridiculously shoddy work from his time in the house. Now I have a new file of photos even more frightening than the first because only by good fortune did we avoid a house fire.

Stay Away… Do not use CEC Construction Services in Austin Texas for a home you live in, the work was barely suitable to flip a house and you have to deal with way too many issues working with Erik. The entire process involved him trying to talk me out of construction decisions that required him to do more work. Lazy!
He left trash and demo debris behind my garage,
with-​in 6 months all the new drywall is cracked the entire way down two seams on the ceiling and wall, it looks really bad! He has not responded to my request to come repair the drywall. He damaged my dishwasher and broke a lamp
He argued that he did not price a major scope of work (demo in one room) as we discussed before we hired him. This demo would have to be done for him to do the drywall work he agreed was in the scope of work. This seemed very unprofessional and displayed a lack of detail causing a lot of frustration.
He did not have insurance to cover issues that arise during construction. He told me that insurance only covered theft and that if «I didn’t trust him I should not hire him». This is a red flag!
Remember in Texas you do not have to hold any type of license to be a General Contractor, they are not regulated! These issues can happen to anyone.