I hate giving bad reviews, seriously! This company starts out great! Had a great experience on the phone with the owner after our toilet connector broke and flooded our downstairs townhome. He is very knowlegable and very courteous. The crew he sent out were nice and did what needed to be done to check for water in the walls (we had already stopped the leak and cleaned up the water) and set up fans and a dehumidifier after taking out baseboards and wet flooring.
Then the trouble started....we were told that one of the walls had a suspcious, possible 'growth.' They sealed it off, per the law, and gave us an estimate for 'mold remediation' of approximately $2,800.00. Our home insurance wouldn't pay for it because it looked like 'inactive' mold, we were told, and that would mean it had been there for who knows how long. Maybe 20 years. There's no way to tell. At first, we were willing to go ahead with it, until I asked the foreman if we could have the drywall tested because if it WASN'T mold or harmful mold, we were out $2,800, to which he replied, "It is mold." I wondered if he was psychic since he had not even seen it himself, and also knew that only an accurate test could determine this.
I called a company that tests for mold for approx $150 to $300 and thought that was the reasonable thing to do. I was told at that time, that even if it was mold, there is the possibility of it not even being harmful. Since mold remediation is a big business, one that involves scare tactics, I googled mold and learned so much. We took off the tape they had placed over the baseboards and looked at the 'growth,' and it looked like dirt. Certainly not the 'mold' I had seen pictures of online. So we had someone who deals with this all the time look at the drywall, two pieces of approximately 3 inches each, and realized that we could do this ourselves, remove the drywall, and have it checked, but when we did, the 'growth' came right off and looked like dirt. Irregardless, we took out the drywall.
When I called the company to tell them this, I also told them that I was so disappointed because no-one educated us on mold, we had to do our own research, and when I had asked for it to be tested, we were shut down. I also indicated that I wanted the owner, who had been so kind to me in the beginning, to know that I was disappointed and please call. I guess, naively, I expected or hoped for a phone call. That never happened.
THEN when the fans were picked up by a very nice employee, he was not sure what was going on, but I assured him we still wanted the company to finish our job by giving us an estimate to 'restore' everything! He took measurements and said the company would get back to us for the estimate. It is 3 days later and our home is a mess, no floor, no baseboards, and no word from them. This so sad because this is certainly not a way to run a business, nor do I like to warn people to stay away.
I realize that if active mold is growing in a home, you shouldn't take care of it yourself. Also, I know that someone who says they are following the law should educate the homeowner on what they are looking for and why. If they had done so, all of this craziness would never have happened. But still, how you treat your customers should be the number one priority. read more