Dishonest, dirty, and disrespectful is the kindest way to describe PuroClean of West Austin. I hired them in November 2023 after my upstairs neighbor's washing machine malfunctioned and flooded my condo. Among the many horrors I experienced, PuroClean of West Austin left construction trash in my 500-square-foot condo for more than 9 months, forcing workers to step over trash every day they showed up to work, which wasn't very often. The trash was only removed after I fired them. Even then Oswaldo argued that he was allowed to leave my small home full of trash.
PuroClean employees used my washer and dryer instead of a sawhorse to cut sheetrock. Again, not a problem for Oswaldo Loor and PuroClean. However, that's all just disrespectful. The most egregious offense is the extent of insurance fraud they're committing which raises costs for us all. They replaced my damaged sheetrock with cheaper, thinner sheetrock leaving a gap between the flooring and the wall. Either they didn't know how to install the baseboards because of this gap or couldn't see them because of all the trash, I'm not sure. They only installed 3 baseboards in the bedroom. The second contractor replaced the rest. PuroClean only painted the walls in the bedroom; I painted the baseboards and all the other walls and ceilings. They were paid to paint everything.
PuroClean addresses their much higher prices by claiming their work is better. If anything, it's worse. Their prices were more than double the other 3 bids I received for the rebuild. I had to fire them and hire a new contractor at which time PuroClean of West Austin decided to hold hostage my personal property claiming they had done extra work beyond the agreed-upon scope. I had to pay them for this "extra" work plus additional storage fees before they returned my personal property a month after I asked for it. That's extortion. Again, not a problem for Oswaldo Loor and PuroClean.
They used at least 4 times as many boxes as needed for the packout. More boxes, more storage space, more profit for PuroClean! Nearly empty boxes, stacks and stacks of them. Boxes floor to ceiling, taking up the entire space, so many they had trouble bringing the last few inside. Yet they somehow managed to damage most of my furniture despite it being all wrapped and taped. It's almost as if it was damaged intentionally.
Waldo kept pressuring me to pay him directly instead of waiting for the insurance payment. I figured it was because the insurance reimbursement would be far less than PuroClean's pricing and it was. Far less. One of their tactics to get more money is to have the client, me, argue with the insurance company until they agree to pay more money. Regardless, I live in a condo and the HOA portion is not mine to repair. A professional wouldn't work on a home without the owner's permission. I'm not the owner of the HOA property. I had no reason or legal authority to pay to repair HOA property.
Waldo hired Ivy Buchanan a few months into my experience with them. Ivy initially refused to refund for work they were paid for yet didn't complete. She claimed I had "released" them therefore no refund was due. Even after admitting they hadn't finished some of the work they refused to refund anything until I provided line items on the invoice that I "thought" hadn't been done.
Waldo and his office manager Ivy refused to refund me for the painting they failed to complete. I painted everything myself except the bedroom, although PuroClean was paid by both the HOA insurance company and my insurance company for that painting. PuroClean left a single coat of primer with most of the nail holes exposed, not filled, sanded, or painted. It's shoddy work all around. I could fill this page, there's so much more.
A leak in the same area right now may or may not be related to their shoddy work. I'll find out when they open the very recently installed wall. I won't be hiring PuroClean again and you shouldn't either. Read other review sites, like Yelp. Waldo gets his BNI group to fluff his Google reviews. read more