Monday, October 01, 2012
HuffPost re: 24 Hours 'O Taja Construction Madness
The Huffington Post DC picked the story of Taja Construction's (and that of Taja's owner Michael Watson) jerky behavior in Trinidad this weekend (and pretty much all the time over the past several months). Here's some of the recent Twitter response. For my tweets you can check my timeline from September 29-30th. I'll try to flesh it out with a post if I get a spare moment. For now, just remember not to use Taja. They are a total nightmare.
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45 comments:
taja does poorly renovated homes with over the top, mismatched fittings. the owner was a bit of a douche when i asked him about his project that had collapsed on K.
the purple/orange combo on his 10th and K st house is quite bizarr.
As I mentioned on Twitter, this is the same group that has a banner on the old Sun & Moon building (1387 H). I haven't been inside, but the quality of workmanship on the exterior is atrocious.
Flipped out contractors are a total nightmare. Sorry you have to deal with this jerkface.
I know exactly which house 4:13 anonymous is talking about. I thought it looked promising until they painted it. The first thing a new owner will have to do is budget some money for the paint job.
Are these the same jerks whose vans have been in the way in the 1200 block of Florida Ave alley?
7:11,
Yep, that is Taja Construction.
And this explains why there is always a pile of construction material in the alley behind 13th st between I and Florida. I am constantly calling the city to pick up their trash.
I was a witness to what happened on Sunday. The neighbor that complained has a delapidated house. They should be happy Taja is fixing that house next to the
complainer. Be smart be nice to Mike and get your home fixed too.
8:33,
Oh, I see that Mr. Watson has learned how use blogs. The neighbor who complained was the ANC, who lives down the street. Her house is far from dilapidated. The same is true of my place.
8:33,
I would also point out that regardless of the state of anyone's house, Taja Construction was fined because they repeatedly violated the law. They dumped material on other people's property (more than once), and they repeatedly operated outside of permitted hours.
Anon 8:33 I am sure you went into this venture meaning well. You got a house and you were seeking to flip it. I don't know anyone who has an issue with a business guy making a profit. However, your team has spilled concrete, a port-a-potty, and dumped waste on the lot of FT. I've scene it because I am right behind it. I've watched you, I seen you. I was there when you made unfortunate remarks to my ANC. I think at times you believe Trinidad is the ghetto neighborhood of days past. Well it's not, we protect our neighborhood and our neighbors. Simply admit what you did was wrong and lets move on. You want to sale the investment property, and we don't want any more issues.
Thank you for investing in Ward 5, but your crew has crossed the line to the point it make almost all of us say; thank you but no thank you.
-Robby
@8:33
Wow. Just... wow. If this was Reddit you would be downvoted into oblivion. You should realize how deep a hole you've dug and stop shaking the hornet's nest.
On a completely unrelated note, someone dumped a tree on my lot less than 24 hours after Michel Watson of Taja Construction said he would get a DC agency to get me.
I saw someone hanging camera(s) near that spot last night. Chainsaw that tree for the FIRE pit ;)
As another neighbor along this alley, I can attest to the bad behavior of Taja. This isn't the first time he's dumped his stuff on other people's property. Cars are always blocking the alley -- Monday morning there were 5 cars plus the truck (presumably there to haul away their trash) parked either in the public alley or on FT property.
The neighbors have put up with him for long enough. He must realize this is a community and not just a bunch of disconnected individual residents. It won't just be one person calling DPW/DCRA or whatever agency applies, it will be 5 people.
Be smart. Be nice to the neighbors.
None of what I've read about Taja Construction surprises me in the least. Their reputation proceeds them, and that reputation is poor. They had a house on K Street the redid a while back (the oddly painted house). Their crews were horrible to the neighbors and they just let trash pile up. I would never use them for any project, and have advised neighbors to stay clear of them. They could have significantly increased their business, but their poor attitude and manners have prevented that.
How can we get the word out for people to stay clear of them? I guess if they stop reselling their houses then they'll go out of business, but I don't think that's going to happen because they tend to do a somewhat decent job of making it look good on the outside. I feel sorry for unsuspecting buyers of a Taja project - and there are many around H St.
the owners of the purple house have not painted it despite living there for several months. and they paid a fortune for the house.
curious. i would have redirected my grocery budget if i had to to get that sucker painted if i lived there. no offense guys, but ...really?
I've seen the ANC's house and that place is really nice looking especially on the inside.
Maybe what Anon 8:33 means by dilapidated is that the ANC hasn't painted the house in garish shiny colors that don't fit the age of the house.
There was a great comment on the Columbia Heights elist many years ago. Someone wrote an email, saying he was looking for a "fixer upper."
Someone responded, "just buy a house that says recently renovated" since it's likely to have been renovated like crap and much of the "improvements" will have to be (re)fixed.
how about getting some of this insanity on video?
How about bad reviews on Angie's List? Other avenues? Getting the word out? I don't know much about this, but with reading this post-I would never do business with Taja-neighbors should look out for neighbors and I am glad that is happening on this forum.
From someone new to the area-Thank
Know the people who live in the purple/orange house. Said stuff breaks all the time (for example, had a horrible roof flashing incident), and that Taja gave them a 7 year warranty to fix anything that happens within that time...
I used him for my renno for the basement. While the work was better than a previous contractor, it's like pulling teeth and nails to get him to complete everything he was supposed to complete. His price was in line with the market, but poor communication, and bad customer service (i.e not returning calls or e-mails) I will say his crew did a somewhat decent job of maintaing the trash, but I guess I didn't have much as a full house renno would.
My wife and I looked at the K Street house when it was on the market earlier this year. Upon first glance it looked nice, a little funky, but nice. Upon further inspection the house was a total disaster. Poorly constructed and not well thought out at all. They cut so many corners, literally and figuratively, I am suprised the house is still standing. Thankfully, we wised up and lost interest in that house. Feel bad for the ultimate owners.
Wait. What exactly are the "off hours" laws? We get construction noise by us on Sundays all the time.
Andrew,
construction is allowed Monday
through Saturday, 7 am to 7 pm. Here is the DCRA website about illegal construction: http://dcra.dc.gov/DC/DCRA/Inspections/Report+Illegal+Construction
Great discussion and great insight into these folks and their practices. Thanks!
Live in the neighborhood and am so glad people have finally spoken up about Taja. He started a project at my house and we had to fire him for shoddy workmanship. Honestly, my grandmother could probably round up a few guys from the Home Depot parking lot and do a better job than him.
I see countless orange DCRA Stop Work Orders around H St for his illegal behavior.
Definitely time to spread the word on this guy. Get on Angie's List and post some honest remarks about his work if you have used him!!
Anyone know if this is the same guy that illegally razed the home at 618 L Street NE? I met the guy and it turns out he lied to the city about rehabbing a perfectly sound home so he could raze it and build an apartment building. He continues to work without permits and the DCRA and Mayor's office don't seem to care. These shady contractors that don't care about the neighborhood or the law and need to be properly dealt with. Any ideas besides voting for a new mayor?
Taja did a kitchen renno for me and it was great. But here we go again, the author of this "community" blog using this forum to advance a personal agenda because of her delapidated looking home and unkempt yard......this is just like the Toyland thing.
7:21,
I don't know who the developer is there, but you should see the crazy thing someone built in the 1200 block of Morse. I think the most important thing is to work with your neighbors (and your ANC) when someone like this comes into your neighborhood. Document everything, and loop each other in. Call, email, and hit Twitter for everything the developer does wrong. It shouldn't just be one person calling/emailing. It should be a bunch of people.
What Watson fails to comprehend is that, on the day he was busted, I did call, but another neighbor had already called and emailed. One of us had been in direct contact with a DCRA inspector, and the other with MPD (Mr. Watson was also blocking the alley, and had some vehicles with expired tags). As a result, both agencies responded.
I reported him several times before he was actually cited. So did my neighbors. You just have to keep at it. As much as some of them might believe it, they are not above the law.
7:56/AKA Mr. Watson,
You are still spelling dilapidated wrong, and my yard looks fine, please make sure I don't see you lurking in it like a creep in the future.
I wish I didn't have a real job so I could sit around all day making citizens arrests for people who park illegally in an alley. It's funny to interfere with hard working people doing their job because you don't have anything else to do.
Up all night from a meth binge at the tat shop I see.
I'm receiving my wireless cameras on Friday! I'm going to get these idiots busted... with evidence of them in action!
I've been by your house. Trust, the yard and home could definitely use some work. Not the worst on the block, but far from the best. Trust.
Regardless of the condition of op's backyard or house, NO ONE deserves to have construction debris/port-a-potties dumped into their backyard or to block their passage. Play by the rules or don't play at all. To add, the house being renovated is vomit-inducing and I'm sure it's being slapped together with all the care that a set of drums gets from a drunken monkey.
8:11,
Plenty of neighbors work from home. Working from home is completely consistentwith having a real job. Further, sending a text to MPD takes about 30 seconds. It's pretty easy to do that while on your way out the door to work.
so the owner of Taja is so dumb that he doesn't realize the blogmistress can tell when it's him attempting to post anomymously?
Taja does bad work, breaks the law, and would be classified as "sociopathic" if it were a person.
Spread the word far-and-wide, stay away from Taja.
funny that the Taja website shows off the house on K St that was hideously covered with patio stone, seems to be one of their favorite designs, but damn it's ugly. The architectural decisions on the purple one on the other side of K St look very awkward, and it was a mess in front of it during the work. more power to you inked
That stone patio house is a pity. it could have been really nice. I also hate the purple that they used on the mansard roof.
Hmm, look at Taja's rating at Better Business Bureau!
http://www.bbb.org/washington-dc-eastern-pa/business-reviews/construction-and-remodeling-services/taja-construction-in-washington-dc-235983914/
The folks who flipped our house used Taja for the roof. Had to have them come out twice in the first 6 months to fix a large leak. The second leak ruined some of the dry wall in our hallway, which they promised to come back and fix.
Fast forward almost a year. Still not fixed. Still not returning phone calls. Called upwards of 15 times. Reported them to BBB and wrote about it on Angie's List. Sad that we still have 4-years left on our "warranty" with them. Not sure what that counts for since they never respond.
When they were flipping the purple k street house, Mr. Taja had one of his employees staying in the house. This guy had prostitutes showing up at all hours of the night. To the point where the police showed up as one of the women tried to break in screaming at the top of her lungs that the guy owed her money...
Stay classy, Taja
the whores that entered and left the purple house each night were frightening. i told the owner that people were in the house at night and he said it was to protect the property. but with no occupancy approval, isn't that illegal? when i told him they were prostitutes, he just shrugged and said he would look into it. it continued for weeks. the main guy that they had working there was realllly creepy. followed me home once as i was walking the dogs but i did not know it until i saw him standing in front of my house looking in. reaLLLLLY CREEPY!! he would harass women as they walked by. again, told taja. no action on his part. the guy is an ass.
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