Wheeler Enterprises - Jacksonville, Florida

Wheeler Enterprises - Jacksonville, Florida

From: Nadine C. Snyder

RE: J&Y Wheeler, Inc. D/B/A Wheeler Enterprises

8308 Blazing Star Road

Jacksonville, Florida 32210

Jack Wheeler , Owner

This is a warning to all homeowners in the Jacksonville, Florida area who are looking to hire a contractor to do home improvements..

In August of 2004 we contracted Jack Wheeler of Wheeler Enterprises to build us a simple 24 X 30 wood frame garage with a brick front and vinyl siding. The construction involved no plumbing nor electrical and required a simple unfinished interior. The cost of the job was $20,350.00. This job, which usually takes three months, took eight months to complete and there were nothing but headaches from day one.

We live in a construction area where new homes are being built everyday and three new homes were built and occupied during the period it took Mr. Wheeler to construct our garage. The gentleman hired to lay the concrete foundation had a court summons out on him for taking a customers money and not doing the work. This was reported on our local news station, TV12 on Ken Amarro's "12 on Your Side". Then the first set of framers that were hired were inexperienced and all of their work had to be torn down and redone.

Sections of the brick front had to be redone three times before it was even close to being straight. A second crew had to be hired to repair sections of the vinyl siding that was installed incorrectly and damaged during installation. Mr. Wheeler's crew asked to borrow equipment from us to do the work and then they returned the equipment damaged. We ended up with a broken ladder, a cracked wheel barrow and a bent rake.

His crew also cracked an underground pipe to our water softener because they kept driving into our backyard even though we had asked them repeatedly not to drive back there because of the septic tank. The exterior water spigot was also damaged from the brick layer pulling on the hose instead of entangling it. The building failed inspection five times and we were told by the city building inspection once the job was done that the building was sturdy but esthetically it was a mess. Several different crews walked off the job because Mr. Wheeler would not pay them what it would cost to correct the previous crews sloppy work. We even had a construction lien placed on our property because Mr. Wheeler did not pay for the lumber. We had to pay Builder's First Source ourself and now we have to go to City Hall to have the lien removed.

The job was finally completed Friday, April 22, 2005 almost eight months later and the only thing Mr. Wheeler took care of was the $10.00 rake.

This job took eight months because workers would show up for work around 11:00 am and leave before 4:00 PM after taking an hour lunch break. At one point one worker slept on a pile of wood for over four hours. Much of the construction material sat on the ground exposed to the elements. Lumber was water damaged and termites even got to some of the lumber. During the last five months, I documented everything that occurred in a journal and I also took pictures with my digital camera.

We even found out that Mr.Wheeler's construction license with the state of Florida (#CBC1250104) was placed on probation October 26, 2004 and will remain on probation for two years.

I hope this warning will help those who are looking to hire a contractor. In my experience I found out that the Building Inspection division is the best place to check on the reputation of a contractor not the Better Business Bureau.

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