After a month of work and several thousands of dollars later, what did we get from Restoration Services? New drywall, baseboards and carpet.
Our basement had water damage back in September. Serve Pro came immediately to remove the carpet, drywall and baseboards. They also dried out the remaining walls, floors and foundation.
From there, Restoration Services was recommended by our insurance provider to serve as the contractor to put it all back together again. Apparently they have a short list of preferred contractors who they work with almost exclusively. Our insurance adjuster raved about RSI and since we were on the hook for a lot of money with our insurance- it seemed like a good idea to go with the top of the list.
Larry Harger did our estimate. He's well dressed and very professional IRL. Email isn't his strong suit, but once we accepted the bid, we were handed over to Steve to handle the actual construction, which took a little over a month from start to finish.
Steve was really nice and pretty much the saving grace. Communication with us was great some days and not so great others. Since I'm home most often, I had to be the main contact day-to-day. Setting some ground rules from the beginning, I explained to Larry and Steve that I work from home and shouldn't be disturbed between 8:30-4 pm Monday-Wednesday, as I'm on the phone or conference calls during those days/times. As a precautionary measure we also had the basement separated from the main level of the house by industrial plastic. There's a side entrance and a gate that I would leave open if Steve gave at least 30 minutes advance notice.
Even with those boundaries set, there would be workers knocking on the front door at random times of day. They'd want to ask questions or provide updates that the GC should relay. Sometimes there'd be days without someone doing work, then I'd get a phone call while out of town, asking if I'd be home in the next 15 minutes to let someone inside the house. I'm pretty sure they thought I was a self-important housewife who made things more difficult.
Might I also add that the drywall guy they brought in was on the verge of something? He played loud classic rock and would scream obscenities at the top of his lungs throughout the day. I love a good f-bomb and most tunes, but this made me uncomfortable in my own home.
The strangest thing was when the work was done. Steve stopped by on the last day to let us know that it was his final day of employment at RSI, so he was hoping to wrap things up at our house and a few others that day. The work was mostly completed, though some paint touch ups were left undone and we didn't even get a walk through at the end of the day.
The total cost was just shy of $5k, which included partial drywall in the hallway and three rooms. Baseboards in three rooms. Carpet in the main rec room, plus $400 for extra carpet on our stairs that wasn't included in our quote and insurance wouldn't cover.
$5k that also took a month and some interesting back and forth. And, sans the new carpet, out basement looks mostly the same. Guess that's how repair construction works? read more