Thomas Rings Construction

My wife and I hired Thomas Rings to repair a badly damaged deck on our Arrowbear Lake cabin. We had read the other review wherein the concern appeared to be with work of his employees — not Tom himself. Tom told us that he would be doing the extensive work on our deck. We signed the contract.
Work began ahead of schedule (wow — how often does that happen) and was finished when promised. He arrived early each morning and worked hard during the day. What really impressed us was that Tom identified some additional problems that required additional labor and materials — and he completed those repairs without additional cost. He told us that he wanted us to be very pleased with his work.
I have dealt with many contractors over my 60+ years. Tom is at the top of my short list of contractors I would recommend. He demonstrated outstanding craftsmanship, ethics and initiative.
When our deck was almost finished, I asked Tom about our roof that needed replacement. Tom gave us an outstanding price, and the roofing contractor he used did an outstanding job. We were very pleased with their quality of work and their choice of material.
We have one more repair project we are lining up to be done — and we will be using Tom for that job based upon our total satisfaction with his work on our deck.

I researched before I hired Thomas Rings construction; I checked his references and visited houses he had worked on. The house I saw he did a good job restoring a log cabin built in the late 1800’s. This is exactly who I was looking for to work on my log cabin built in the 1950’s. He said all the right things, he loved working on older houses, he knew exactly what was wrong with my house etc. Things started out well, his sons who were the carpenters showed up to work every day, and things were looking good. They left all of their equipment outside, which is an invitation to steal, and one day someone stole tools that were outside and also broke in my house and stole even more of their tools. After this, they lost their enthusiasm and did a poor installation on my windows, air leaks through them and worse, water into the house when it rains. Thomas Rings Construction did not properly finish the door installations, the door knobs haven’t even been installed. They have been back to finish these few items, but they have not been able to fix things right. They want to get in and out and forget it. My big mistake was paying them most of the money once the job was complete without first checking thoroughly enough. The workers, Forrest and Cameron didn’t follow through to the end with quality work. Let me reiterate, things started out well, but went south, I don’t feel they paid attention to detail; this is what makes a quality job. i will revise my review if they get around to fixing things right.
Update: they did come back, try to fix things but the work they did is very poor quality, almost embarrassing. Basically it is obvious I will not get a quality job out of them. Live and learn I guess.
Update: I hired another carpenter, who is doing a much better job. I now realize, even more, the poor quality done by Thomas Rings Construction. They used ¹¹⁄₂ nails on boards that are 1″ thick, mitered joints are very sloppy, just overall, poor attention to detail. They also did a very poor job on a expensive entry door installation, it isn’t even square. Oh and the person who gave him an excellent reference, I found out she had to hire someone else to correct lots of mistakes on the work he did for her. I would not recommend Thomas Rings Construction; He may have experience but he does not do the work himself, his sons do the work. I recently looked up Thomas Rings construction on the state contractors board site and his license has lapsed and is suspended.
Update: More poor quality work, i discovered when they installed the windows they used screws to secure them in the drip area (sash) near the weep holes; this will allow the water to leak into the frame surrounding the window. I really wonder if these guys know what their doing or just didn’t care, either way it is bad.
Update, 2÷10÷07 — unbelievable, we examined the windows closer by removing the trim, found they didn’t even insulate around the windows, they used blue painters tape to seal around the windows instead of foam. They also covered and siliconed shut the weep holes on the windows, pathetic. In the process of installing the new front door they nailed through an electrical wire, which was obvious because the porch light stopped working, they also didn’t put any other nails once they hit the wire, so it tells me they knew they hit it. This is so obviously a fire hazard it is unthinkable they let it go, almost criminal.
Update 6−10−07: In the end I really paid for all the labor over again. I called the contractor, complained and he paid some, but I ended up paying for ¾ of the cost to do things and fix them right. I found, out of all the things they did, the doors, windows, not one was installed completely correct with no problem. If you are considering using Tom Rings for your project, I hope you read this and reconsider.
Update 2009 — I still see this guy’s ad in the big bear shopper; I would highly discourage using him.