I've lots of work done on my home in the last 3 years and have yet to write a bad review. But here we are.
If you want a job done right, don't hire J Home Construction. In 2019, they replaced a section of my dining room celling, leveled my basement floor and installed luxury vinyl plank flooring.
At the time, I had to ask them to re-do the ceiling because they tried to patch instead of replace, and had to ask them to come back and clean the mess when they were done. But it looked like the basement flooring was ok. Looks are deceiving.
Fast forward my drain backing up in the huge northside storm in September.
I pulled back a few pieces of flooring closest to the drain, to check for residual moisture, and things didn't seem bad. I had a disaster specialist visit who determined all I needed to do was remove a few baseboards, and ensure a portion of the floor had more opportunity to dry. No need to tear out drywall or rip out all of the flooring. I was one of the lucky ones.
But, as I pulled a few more planks out to dry, I discovered I wasn't.
J Home had cut up the cardboard boxes from the vinyl, and used them to "level" the floor. These cardboard strips were black with mold and left stained black marks on the concrete subfloor. They had clearly been moldy for a very long time.
I would have to remove the entire floor.
Only it gets better. About every 5th or 6th plank was glued down (a no-no for this floating LPV floor, which meant those and the adjacent planks were ruined on removal).
Once I realized the magnitude of the problem, I reached out to John at J Home with photos and videos, asking him what he was willing to do. He told me he was out of town and to call him next week. I did. He said he wanted to come by and would let me know. He never did. I followed up again.
I told him I was going to pull out the whole floor and that if he wanted to come see it he needed to do it before that weekend.
He didn't come by. He didn't call.
I couldn't let the mold sit there, so I pulled it out, got rid of it, scrubbed the subfloor with fungicide and scraped the black spots.
To make things right, I asked John to buy me new LPV flooring, but I would pay for the cost of labor (with another company).
After more than three weeks, of minimal communication on his part, his final and only concession was to tell me that he'd try to get his insurance to cover the planks that were glued down- by his wildly incorrect count, one box of 29 boxes, but I'd have to hand the damaged planks over- weeks after I'd told him I was getting rid of them.
He passed the buck.
He blamed me. He blamed the flood (though the mold couldn't have formed that fast). He tried to tell me I just didn't like the flooring (despite me wanting to order the exact same product again). He told me to make a claim on my homeowners insurance- which does not cover contractor error.
He told me that cardboard was a fine "underlayment" and that it's totally fine to glue the flooring down. It's not.
Furthermore, I selected this particular product after much research because it's one of the best solutions for basements (which are inherently damp). It's a product that CAN handle having below-grade moisture because it has a built in anti-microbial vapor barrier. I would not have had mold under my flooring without cardboard for it to grow on (this was confirmed by a mold specialist). Furthermore this product needs no underlayment.
In fact, reviewing the product details, I found that putting any type of underlayment or gluing the planks down violates the manufacturer's warranty. The installation guide was explicit. J Home voided my warranty and would not right their wrong.
It's been more than three weeks of communication between me and John. I asked him to simply re-supply the new flooring. I offered to let him come see. He didn't. He never even responded to my final email. I'm moving on.
And, If you're considering hiring John, I encourage you to move on too. It's not worth it. read more