I am a homeowner in Virginia that in 2016 was looking to get my driveways redone and excavation for a detached garage/workshop. I got the estimate to do the driveways, and was told that they could draw something up and give me an estimate for the garage/workshop. I agreed to the driveways and the excavation estimate that was provided but was told that I would have to wait to get started on the driveways until the plans were produced for the building. I had researched the ability to have a metal building built for a little less than $50,000, and was wanting to see what a building that was the similar in construction to my home. I was strung along for two years with being told I had to get a variance, to waiting for the plans to be drawn, to waiting for their suppliers to provide costs of trusses and windows. When I started getting impatient, they said that they knew the location of the building and now could go ahead and do the driveways and excavation work. I was constantly asking for the price of the building. The price to excavate for the building and the gravel for the pad were included with the driveways estimate. I again started getting impatient as the third year came and went, and to make a Long story short, they put in a short 4' concrete block crawl space and a concrete pad after I complained that I would have to wait again until the next spring, and into the fourth year, to do anything with concrete due to the cold. Then they sent a bill when I again asked for an estimate to figure out how much this building would cost in the end. They said it was for time and materials, saying they had $43,000.00 in materials and labor. They said, "We have spent much in materials and a fair amount of time in the construction which has been completed at your site. Since receiving a check from you for 8,200.00 we show a balance or 38,968.63 owed for the RV shed/shop. We have invoices showing actual cost of materials to us 24,909.63. We add to that 306 hrs labor plus equipment cost we used or dozer, backhoe, mini excavator etc. For all this is total of 14,059.00. That means we have 24,909.63 out of pocket costs into your site with “0” markup where as we would normally charge 15% markup for our handling charges and overhead. Then we have all the manhour labor which has been paid and equipment rates for a total of 14,059.00." The $8200.00 was the estimate to finish the driveway and excavate for the building. The only other things that were done were the digging of a crawl space under the actual workshop and the footers. They concrete work and the block work that was included in the materials was done by contractors. I feel kind of stupid for not saying no when they hadn't given me an estimate, but after waiting four years for this building, I just wanted something done. I felt I had only paid 35,000 for the walls and floor of the basement of my house, which is well over twice the size of this garage/workshop and has poured 9' walls, and they knew I had planned to pay only $50K for a metal building . I said that this is not how construction goes, first you get an estimate, you agree to an estimate, and a contract is drawn up, or at least I have the ability to say that’s too expensive, let’s go another route, or just say “no thank you”. We had none of those options. They recently sent me a copy of an affidavit to obtain a mechanics lien.