Chattanooga contractors suck! They are the absolute worst, the most unreliable, using the most substandard materials, charging the most. They’re terrible. They’re ripoffs.

It all started when I moved up to Chattanooga a few years ago from St. Simons Island, GA. I hired a Chattanooga moving company, in part to save money. Well, they “lost” two big boxes of alcohol, broke numerous items, and did a pretty poor job in general. I sued them and we settled out of court. Since then it’s been one disaster after another. At my old townhouse, I had to have the HVAC replaced, although I didn’t think I did. $8,000 later, I had a new HVAC system, which took them until 10 PM to install. It took four techs. When my future and current wife, Gretchen, and I moved to a house a little ways away, we had to have work done on our roof. We were told it would take a couple of days. It took four, with them pounding on the roof until 10 PM at night while we were trying to sleep. I went out, finally, totally pissed off and told them to stop. They also found some “extra” things that needed addressing for an exorbitant extra sum of money, of course, and held us hostage until we paid up. Later we found out they didn’t do a very good job and brought in a handyman to work on the roof. He was pretty decent, but not very reliable. He’d show up whenever he wanted, didn’t answer his phone or texts, etc. At least he was cheap. Meanwhile, we had electricians and plumbers come out there, all ripoffs. Last year we moved. The house inspector said the garbage disposal needed work, so I hired a different handyman to work on it. He said he did a good job, but I didn’t go check it like I should of and the day before the closing, my realtor called and said there was a problem. There was a bad water leak in the kitchen. I was appalled. It wasn’t there before. The only thing that could have happened was this contractor and the garbage disposal. We called in another contractor from ServePro. He then estimated damage at virtually ALL the floors and said everything needed to be replaced. This cost us $14,000. The family bought the home, but it was a nightmare because they couldn’t move into it for two months and they had been planning on moving into it immediately. We were all told it would take about three days.

Meanwhile, we had moved into our new house. We needed new electrical outlets. I had to call FOUR electricians to come install them. The first three were incompetent. Of course, I had to pay for all four. I also had a garbage disposal installed. There was a leak. I had to have a plumber come out five times to fix the damn leak. Then the refrigerator’s ice maker wouldn’t work. We had to call yet another contractor. He installed a new one. It didn’t work. He had to come out twice more. Meanwhile, we also needed work on our deck. We hired the first handyman to work on it. He did a good job, but he wasn’t reachable, just like before, so I never knew when he was going to show up. Again. Argh! I hired a chimney sweep. Now he did a good job. About the only one who did. For a reasonable fee.

There’s more. A few months ago, we were concerned with a huge, monster tree in our back yard that was leaning over our house and that appeared to be dead. We get winds up here on the mountain and we could just envision it falling and demolishing our house. I called a tree service after getting several estimates. I wanted the whole thing taken out, but was talked out of it. Instead, I was talked into taking the top third off. For $600. Then on the designated day. They didn’t show up. I called and they said there was a mixup. Yep. They showed up on another day and they didn’t take the top third off. They took a third off the entire tree, although it sure didn’t look like it to me. And then I had to pay. Well, last week, the tree looked worse and we were even more worried, so I hired another company to bring their huge crane in and take the whole thing down for $2700. And I could be wrong, but I don’t think they showed up on the designated day either! Damn it! Are there any decent contractors in this town???

Back in January, we decided we wanted hardwood floors in part of our house. We asked for estimates for the living room, dining room, foyer, and hallway, as well as the whole upstairs, and the whole house. We thought the estimate for the whole house was insane, so we went with the first option. After we met with the saleswoman, she gave us a figure and told us that was the total price for everything and we thought that was a price we could live with, so we agreed to do it. Well, once again, the contractors didn’t show up on the designated day. WTF???!!! Dolts! When they did, they discovered the subflooring was inadequate and they’d need to do all sorts of extra stuff for additional costs, this after tearing our carpet up, so we were forced to agree to this. Bastards. It took about three days or so. They did a good job. We were initially happy. Then it was time to pay the saleswoman, so I gave her my credit card number and said that’s it, right? She said, oh no sir, you still owe the contractors! I said, WTF? I said she had told us the price she had quoted us was for everything. She said no, it was just for materials, not for labor. So we ended up having to pay three times as much as we expected to pay for this job. Bastards!!! I thought about filing a complaint with the BBB, but decided not to. It would accomplish nothing.

Now, we’ve had a leak in the garage, so I called a plumber. The plumber fixed the leak and then said we need copper pipes leading into our water heater. Said it’d be more expensive, but more durable, more “professional,” etc. So I agreed. Well, he did it. After that, we lost most of our hot water. I called back a day later and he returned. He couldn’t figure out what the problem was. He told me to call my home warranty company because my water heater was broken and needed to be replaced. I told him it was working just fine before he started messing with it and broke it. My wife got really ticked and called the company to cuss out the owner, who then called me and said he’d like to come out to look it over. He was supposed to show up yesterday at 9 AM. He didn’t show up. No call, no show. I called at 1:30 to complain. They said he was on his way. He said it was a “nipple.” he called another plumber who cut the copper pipes and discovered a blockage, which was causing the problem. Fixed. But I have a bitter taste in my mouth. I’m sick to death of Chattanooga contractors. Not a single one can be trusted to keep their word. They can’t show up on time, if they even bother showing up on the day they say they will. They overcharge. They put in inferior parts. They try and upsell. They’re freaking bastards. And I don’t know what to do about it. I can’t call Atlanta contractors to drive two hours up here to work on my stuff. Or Knoxville for that matter. I’m stuck. I’m screwed. This blows. Sometimes I really hate it here.