After going public with our story, we have been contacted by other families affected by Rothenberg. Below is Angela's experience with hiring Architect David Rothenberg for a home improvement project.
This general contractor was very inconsiderate to our views of remodeling our home. My husband and I are both legally blind and we expressed this to him. Every time we would try to make our home blind friendly, he would make us pay extra because it was considered a change order (ended up with 13 change orders by end of project). He would make decisions on materials without discussing with us first. The only true communications we had with him was by email or text. He only came to the job site mainly to get his draw, other wise he may have a total of twenty hours of job site time and that for a year worth of work. Yes, I said a year from the time of permit to completion, if you can call the job completed.
He did not even pay his material bill because we ended up having to pay the balance on one of the company before they placed a lien on our home. In order to finally complete our project we had to threaten legal action and we still did not get our electrical punch list done. This contractor will not guarantee or warranty his work. For example, we ordered backsplash for the back of our stove, which was suppose to be 6" instead he ordered the 4" backsplash and told the installers to install it even though it was incorrect and not to listen to what we wanted. If he did not agree to the changes, then he would argue and not complete the task. This contractor is also an architect who cannot measure correctly. He measured our new bedroom and ended up shorting us two feet, which made all the measurements incorrect and having to pay for the extra material that was his mistake. All our recess light and fan are off two feet because of this mistake.
He will not admit to any wrongdoing even if it is his mistake. For examples, the contractors shorted out the one ceiling fan and lost parts to two other ceiling fans, but he would not reimburse us for the new ceiling fans. His worker also broke a antique table that belong to his mother and all he said he would do would be to clue it and try to make it our fault because he said the top was already weak. Also, we had to pay for a bathroom mirror in the new master bathroom and have our oven mounted at our expense, which he has not reimbursed us for yet. At this time, we still have trash in our yard that we will have to haul away and would not put a dumpster on the job site. The city threatens to fine us several time because trash was blowing all over the neighborhood.
The remaining punch list items, which we will have to pay for out of our pockets. Please do not use this general contractor because he only cares about the bottom dollar and not what your dream home should look like. We paid good money for this project and if it was not for my husband stay on top of the work that was being done we would not have the house that we have.
If you do use this contractor, make sure you have someone who know about construction or he will try and cut corner with the cheapest material available. The city inspector told my husband they have heard nothing but complaints about this contractor. We hope this will kept other from living the nightmare that we live.