We contracted them to dry out the damage caused by a malfunctioning washing machine. Much of my experience may have to do with the small size of the job - we ended up self-paying. We also did not use them for the drywall repair work, since it was sufficiently compact that we could do it ourselves. Ultimately most of their work involved installing a large dehumidifier on the first floor and shooting air into the space beneath the laundry room above. It took a bit over 3 days from installation to removal.
Overall, the dryout was adequately done. However, there were some major issues with the estimation / billing processes:
1. The initial estimate was way, way high - in particular, it involved putting two sizeable pieces of equipment together inside a tiny laundry room. I was actually able to mostly dry out the room on my own with a small space heating fan between the time they provided the estimate and when they installed the equipment.
2. Their estimate included more than $200 to haul away one pickup truck's worth of debris. When they made the estimate, they marked maybe 5 sqft of drywall on the ceiling to remove. Even accounting for the plastic barriers etc. they could have been no more than one normal garbage bag worth of debris (and no hazmat insulation - this is a relatively new house). I brought this up to the estimator, and they said it was a standard charge but they would waive it if I would sign a hold harmless agreement, acknowledging it was our responsibility to deal with the mess. Fair enough, I agreed to sign.
However, when they sent the document to sign, it was a completely different hold harmless (saying I requested removal of the equipment before they said it was done). I pointed this out, and it took several tries before they got an agreement to me that actually matched what they originally said they wanted me to sign.
3. When they sent the final estimate after everything was done, the debris charge was still there (they did send a revised version removing it after I pointed it out). They had also, in my opinion, overstated the amount of time the machines were here. They used some aggressive rounding to get from 3 days to 4 - claiming in part they were onsite earlier than I believed them to be (but I can't prove it). Also, the removal time was somewhat padded because the crew was later than they indicated they would be - I remember they said they'd come early in the morning and I arranged to be there to meet them, but it ended up being much later in the day. In the end I caved on the extra time since I didn't have any proof of their actual arrival time or when they said they would remove the equipment.
This company was referred to us by our insurance provider, so they may be accustomed to the "someone else is paying" mentality. Overall I'm not unhappy with the actual work, but the amount of time / headaches dealing with their office are not something I want to repeat. Had I blindly accepted their estimates without reviewing carefully, I would have easily spent at least $1,000 more.
If you do go with them, I'd recommend:
(1) Get another estimate if you can.
(2) Understand what equipment they are proposing to bring in (I was able to find some good information with a Google search)
(3) Carefully record the times that the crews are on-site, and the timings of any planned visits as well (I'd probably document by sending notes to their estimators - helps establish that you're paying attention) read more