I hired LCM Engineering to come back out to my home to re-inspect an exposed structural wooden gable wall that I was originally told needed to be rebuilt by their company. I chose to do this after being told by several contractors that the wall was structurally intact and had simply shifted due to not having any hurricane straps anchoring it to the roof. So the Engineer came out on 7/1/2019 to take pictures and once this was explained, he agreed and seemed certain that the wall would not need to be torn down & rebuilt and that he would have to show the structural engineer. It didn't make me happy that LCM had not even sent a structural engineer to look in person and after seeing the written contract they requested I sign, I had questions if I would now be responsible for paying an hourly rate for the structural engineer to come out to look if the pictures were not sufficient. All of my questions elicited a phone call from the president/owner of the company (Tree) to reassure me I wouldn't pay extra and she promised that I would have documents delivered by 7/15/2019. This would have been nice if the promise didn't fall thru... Around July 9th I received a phone call from the engineer that came out (Justin) and he advised me that LCM had concluded that the wall didn't need to be rebuilt and asked me "do you need that in writing or is it good enough over the phone because i'd hate to have to charge you several hundred more dollars to put it on paper".... (Im dealing with a hurricane claim so have my home owners insurance and mortgage company involved). I told him I'm assuming I would need paperwork and I had another question that he was unable to answer for me so he told me that he would arrange for a phone call between myself and the structural engineer (which never happened). Within a few days I receive an invoice to pay the $720.01 bill, so I give it a few days but didn't want LCM to think I was ignoring the email/invoice so I then emailed the secretary back and said I would pay the bill once I receive the documents (that the invoice details accounts for $160 of the price of the bill) and once I speak to the structural engineer as promised. My email went without response, I got no phone call from the engineer as promised and the promised date of delivery of paperwork came and went with no paperwork. On 7/24 I finally receive an email from Justin now saying that LCM can't go against their original structural engineer's report unless I would like to rip the siding off the outside of my home to have them come inspect it from the outside...
So if you would like to throw money down the drain in hiring a company that fails to keep promises, doesn't return emails or phone calls, expects you to pay bills for services not received, and tells you conflicting things, then LCM might be the company you want, otherwise I would save the hassle and hire another company.
The only semi positive thing I can say is that after they resent their invoice for the $720.01 and I detailed my dissatisfaction for the services received (none besides dragging out fixing my home for another month) and how I wasn't going to pay for documents that I still to this day didn't receive, they cut the bill in half... I personally think it takes a pretty audacious person/company to expect anyone to pay for this type of service. I was done fighting so I finally paid but I think it's only fair that the public be aware of what they are getting themselves into by hiring LCM. read more
