Contractor, scammer, con artist. Does siding, eavestrough, general contracting. Owns a metal brake, so is able to bend sheet metal.
Description: 5'7", mid- to late-fifties, "squint" (eyes look off in different directions), grey beard, large potbelly. Friendly and extremely talkative.
Claims to be from New Brunswick, speaks with a heavy French accent. May have friends or relatives in the Grand Valley, ON area. Works around central Ontario (Toronto, Barrie, Angus, Alliston, Oro, Innisfil, Bradford, Woodbridge, Orangeville, Newmarket). No fixed address.
Does general contracting work -- he did my eavestrough while working for Joel Daniels (Toronto office). He then talked me into doing my siding, giving me a quote on a Joel Daniels form. He got half down in advance and dropped off a load of siding -- approximately 1/3 of what would be required. He mentioned that he had just been fired from Joel Daniels, but that he would be doing my job himself, along with a couple of other jobs he had lined up. He said that he could only work in cash, as the bank was holding all of his cheques.
He was the epitome of a hard-luck story. Fired, broke, living in a motel. He begged me to drive him to Alliston to reclaim his truck, which had been impounded due to driving too fast (+50 km over the limit). I lent him some money to recover his truck, and even talked the impound lot owner into lowering the fee for him.
He finished one wall (less the gable) and 1/3 of another, and wheedled the rest of the money out of me, followed by a loan so that he could pay his crew. That's the last time I saw him, of course. Now the excuses started. He electrocuted himself at another job site. His brother had a stroke, and he had to drive to N.B. to visit him in the hospital. He got rear-ended on the way back and was in the hospital himself, but he would be back "soon". He did come back while I was at work - to pick up the tools that he had left in my back yard. Now his phone is disconnected - his voice mail was full anyways, and he had stopped answering it.
He left me with 1 2/3 walls left unfinished, along with three gables -- and no more siding. He also disappeared with my old red 1996 GMC Sierra 4x4. I've been forced to purchase the remainder of the siding myself and install it. In the process, I discovered that Armand doesn't know how to install siding, or even how to properly bend fascia, since I've had to remove his completed work, re-bend the fascia metal and re-install it so that it wasn't catching water and funneling it into the attic. I also had to remove and reinstall the siding that he had done, since he used screws directly through the face of the plastic, rather than nails through the holes - if left up, the entire wall would have been warped by next summer.
I was far too trusting, of course, and I got scammed. I was always taught to help those in need -- sometimes it is hard to differentiate between the needy and the greedy.
He has no fixed address (that I know of) so I am posting this page for the search engines to find. Hopefully someone else can avoid the problems that I had, and he won't be able to work his con jobs any longer.
In summary - if you are thinking of hiring him as a contractor, DON'T give him any cash until the job is finished -- no matter what. He's probably worked in a crew before, but doesn't actually know how to do a complete job on his own -- he'll need supervision and instruction. If you want him as an employee -- he does a half-assed job, lies through his teeth and will use your name to line up his own cash jobs on the side. Contact Neil from Joel Daniels for a reference.
If this webpage is still active, it means that Armand still hasn't finished the job. If anyone spots this elusive creature, please drop me (Grant) a line via "webmaster" at this site.