Review of the work of Bee Classy Construction, LLC

I recently (work began on 12/10/2024) contracted with Brandon Michael Miller via a county Facebook group to do some mudding and drywall to get a basement of ~1k sq ft and ~2k painters sq feet up to paint ready. It was to have a flat texture, and a simple light knock down texture on the ceiling. My conclusion at the end of the job was he cut an impressive number of corners and confidently gave his stamp on a impressively low quality piece of work, so anyone who hires him will need to hire a different contractor to inspect his work before final payment. Per my hindsight with empirical data (number of cracks when the temperature decreased by 20 degrees), and consultations with other professionals in the field:

• he cut an impressive number of corners to "save on material", but as I was providing as much material as he needed to do it right the first time, this should have not been an issue at all (i asked for a shop list at the beginning and ending of each of the 5 work days), so the only remaining reasons could only be either 
• his ineptitude at mudding and taping despite advertising that that was his forte (borderline false advertising)
• note that when he worked, he would work in 2 rooms only and then do no additional work there until doing the final ceiling texture. Per additional research, this is not industry standard as there is normally 
• packing with joint mud with a cure/dry time of ~8 to 12 hours then 
• application of paper tape (can be applied right after most seams with packed gaps of less than 1/4"), but for larger gaps, it will need a separate application with a cure/dry time of ~8 to 12 hours.
• a topping final fill coat with a cure/dry time of ~8 to 12 hours then 
• a light sand
• for gaps of almost 1 inch between drywall pieces, he did not specifically add/pack any mesh before he started packing mud. These joints were not later taped with paper. These have a few lightning bolt shaped cracks that bounce back and forth across the top and bottom of the entire area packed with mud.
• he did not insist on mud that was specific for the application:
• I provided "heavy topping mud" on day 1, but per consultation with active industry professionals, the first packing of mud into joints should be with "joint" or "all purpose", and only the final coat should have "topping", so I would have expected him to leverage his expertise to request that the type of mud be changed so higher quality materials in the joints would ensure a higher quality end product.

 Therefore, he did not follow the industry standard and used a lower quality in at least 3 pervasive aspects of his work.

• his experience with recurring customers demanding bottom dollar quality work, so his discussion of quality was entirely based on comparing to absolute crap, or
• he kept imagining a holiday on Friday so he recommended poor quality to save on labor which we agreed would be a fixed fee rate before work began.
• Note that when I researched and asked him to redo his first day of work to actually include paper tape on all joints and metal edging on all edges, he asked for a contract change order to include the extra work that would cause him to work Friday. I wanted quality, so I agreed to it, and he did add to most of the seams in the two rooms he redid that day, but he still skipped all the corner seams as I found no tape and cracks there within 4 days of him declaring his work "done".
  
• while I could technically heavily sand then paint it, it had the following issues:
• The temperature of the basement was kept at ~80 degrees F to aid in drying the mud as he worked, after he left, I reduced the temperature 20 degrees to 60 degrees F as there was no additional work to be done for a week until paint, and there were immediately cracks on substantially all "heavy mud, but no paper tape seams". 
• This shows his "high quality mud only based on his experience" recommendation was actually really low quality. I questioned this multiple times as he worked, and he repeatedly, confidently, and charismatically "stood by" his recommendation and usage on most joints at 90 degrees and a few others. Note also that I do not have a background in mudding, so I was inclined to agree with him as an expert unless I had evidence otherwise. After the job was complete, I had it inspected by a contractor who currently works in mudding, and this inspecting contractor was appalled by what "paint ready after a light sand" ending work product was. I had an additional contractor and handyman inspect before I contracted out to one of them to fix the mudding and taping job.
• There were a number of places where the paper tape did not properly bond, (it cracked around the tape and pressing on the tape caused it to "breathe"), and this was not addressed or "filled" and ready for only a light sand after.
• The Ceiling was not properly filled and sanded before the application of the texture as there were several seams that had between 1/16'' and 1/8'' ridges immediately around the paper seam for all 4+ ft of the seam.
• He did not properly anchor the metal edging with screws before mudding/filling, this lack of fasteners caused a few of the "held by mud only" edging to sag as the initial packed mud dried/cracked, and now the worst sagging metal-edging-offenders must be rehung.
• the most egregious one was a bullnose 90 degree metal edging that was to be used on a 135 degree edge (slightly bent on install), and when the mud could not hold it in 135 degrees, he just mudded a 90 degree angle onto it.
• He recommended to have no metal edging on most edges which is
• low quality, 
• not industry standard, and 
• saves "labor and material" on a fixed fee labor job.
• The bathroom which is one of the rooms where I paid twice for him to do, had 
• a gap of greater than 1/8" around where the drywall meets the tub. Per my research, this gap will crack unless the seam is 
• taped to 1/16'' gap or less then 
• silicon caulk the 1/16" taped or paper drywall to the PVC edge.
• There was a 1/2" gap around a cutout for a 2 gang electrical box, and when I asked if he was going to mud it, he stated that the best practice is to get a really large face plate. I asked him to mud it, and it was not complete as of my final inspection.
• There was slight confusion in the scope of work at the beginning as he provided a quote that was verbal only, and the before-fieldwork-begin invoice provided was not itemized as to his understanding of the scope of the work. This may be simply him learning how to run a business, so this may be soon to be remedied via a "quote" form or something.

During the walkthrough and quote process before starting work, he focused on:

• how high his quality was vs the others that quoted 1/3 less than his price of 1.5$ per finished painters sqft.
• his experience with mudding across the last 5 years
• how excited he was to have such a high quality basement with the drywall hung to be complete (substantially all the cutouts were within 1/4" of the drywall), and most drywall to drywall seams were tight to less than 1/8".
• He is just starting out as a freelancer with his contractor license approved literally less than 1 week before he began work on this basement. See the screenshot of my lookup on Utah Department of Professional Licenses: https://dopl.utah.gov/licenses/

During the work on day 1, he was confidently incorrect about all things I mentioned above, and personally as someone without active industry experience hiring someone presumed to be a licensed expert, I trusted him. After consulting with other contractors currently in the field and the empirical data from the number of cracked seams after less than 1 week, I have been "conned" or "gaslighted" during the entire duration of his work, and I expected that I would have to do some fixing of his work at the final inspection, but I was unpleasantly surprised when the scope of what I would have to do to fix the areas that needed work was almost equal to the amount of work to do it from scratch.

He had a few personal issues that came up during the week including 

• him claiming that he had an injury to a finger when he lost balance and collided with a wall during his mudding and taping. 
• he claimed that his work truck had issues starting in the cold morning
• he decided to change the way that he would apply the ceiling texture from roll-on to spray, and we approved his change as we didn't care either way, and the specialty spray ran out of materials at the local hardware store, so a generic hopper spray needed to be used instead in two rooms. Note that I had no issue with how the ceiling spray was applied.
• I had worked almost 12 hrs a day for the 3 days prior to him arriving to get the last of the drywall hung. A few pieces were not hung and I had a number of tools left out when he arrived to begin work on Monday, but as he planned on only working in two rooms on day 1 (and both were clear and complete), he said that this did not affect his pace at all and would not affect the fee, labor, or quality of his work.

I would not hire him again, and I would not let him on my property to "fix" his work based on how much charismatic gaslighting that I got as he worked. I wish he watched the following as this is a decent training video on how to mud and tape a basement, and it uses the same tools that he had in his work: Beginner's Guide To Drywall Taping | A to Z