(copied over from a review I posted 8/14/13 on Angie's List)
Funkhouser Restoration remediated a mold problem that was caused by a sump overflow on the lower level of my home. Remediation consisted of removal of contaminated drywall, baseboards, and casing and cleaning of other materials under negative pressure containment. An antimicrobial was applied. Removed materials were replaced.
My son lives in the home, which I bought new a year ago, while I live in North Carolina. The sump is located in a utility room with an unfinished concrete floor. My son doesn't know when the sump first began to overflow; however, a plumber was called in immediately once the overflow was discovered a month and a half ago. At that time mold and water stains were visible on the wallboard, trim, and sill plate. No measures were taken by the plumber or my son to keep from tracking black water from the utility room into the rec room and up the stairs, both of which are carpeted areas. The utility room and carpeting dried rather quickly. I contacted a handful of remediators for quotes. Funkhouser Restoration was in the middle cost-wise, with the highest quote over three times higher and the lowest only one-third the cost - a significant range. Moreover, Funkhouser Restoration's quote also included replacement of removed materials and subsequent painting and before-and-after air testing, which none of the others included. To help me visualize the extent of the contamination Kevin (Funkhouser) e-mailed me photos prior to starting work. I drove up to Indiana the day before work began on 8/5. When I arrived at the house a few minutes early Kevin and his crew had already arrived. Kevin recapped overall what his game plan was, which I was familiar with from our previous phone discussions and his quote, and he broke it down as to what he planned to accomplish when. This is basically how the job progressed:
The first day he took an outdoor and an indoor air sample and set up a negative pressure containment zone within which the remediation work was to be performed. Inside the zone he ran an air scrubber and fans. He removed all the contaminated drywall, baseboards, and casing from parts of four rooms. Kevin pulled back the carpet and pad in the rec room and could not find any sign of water absorption. It appeared the other building materials had wicked up the overflow preventing it from migrating into the carpeting.
The next day all exposed surfaces were cleaned. Moldy surfaces were treated with a disinfectant and the entire containment zone was vacuumed. A second outdoor and indoor air sample were taken. Thursday, after the air test results came back showing the reduction in the mold count, the containment zone was dismantled and the scrubber and fans removed. Restoration work began. Drywall, baseboards, and casing were replaced and painting was started. At this time I added to Kevin's scope installation of quarter-round moulding to the baseboards and painting of the walls in one of the adjacent rooms where I had new flooring installed (when the flooring installers put back the baseboards they lowered them revealing a strip of unpainted wallboard behind, the quarter-round was needed to make the new flooring installation look better).
Painting was completed Friday.
I am extremely pleased with Funkhouser Restoration's work. I've worked with contractors for many years as a part of my job and privately on my home and Funkhouser Restoration is the touchstone against all others should be compared. This job couldn't have been done any better. What I especially liked about Kevin is he keeps you apprised of the job but doesn't blow smoke with extraneous information/dialogue. He's a straight shooter whose excellent work speaks volumes. The paint looks beautiful and is a perfect match (by the way, as far as the carpeting that was contaminated by being tracked on by the plumber and my son, I am having that cleaned separately since that is not a service Funkhouser Restoration provides). read more
