REAM CONSTRUCTION INC

First experience I ever had with a contractor, and even though everyone always jokes about hating contractors, there is no way that they are all this bad. Definitely should have checked them out on Angie's List first, but my insurance company recommended them and said if I used them, then the work would be guaranteed for 3 yrs. At the time, I liked my insurance company and decided to go with their recommendation. Now I hate my insurance company and am getting rid of them. To be clear, the labor these guys brought in was just fine, no complaints. This review is about the "management", if you can call it that (specifically Mark, Tom and Tony. Why are there 3, you ask? EXACTLY). These guys drug their feet for weeks, I repeatedly found things that they missed (we had water damage, these guys were there to put things back together). They wanted me to order my floors from the floor store around the corner (also owned by Ream), which I was happy to do until I realized I could get the same tile for my kitchen for 40% less from a store 1 mile away (that's not an exaggeration). That's when things started to go downhill. They didn't want to order the materials because I wasn't buying from them (insurance job, they were being paid to get materials I wanted from where I want to buy them; their response "We'll just cash you out for that"). They blamed all the lag time on having to line up subs and get all the materials, but when the subs finally arrived, they had to re-measure, match, figure out product, then leave the job to get the materials. Half a day wasted each time that happened (again, not holding that against the labor, they were set up to fail). Eventually they quit the job, evidently they got sick of me hovering and calling them out on their inefficiencies and mistakes, but how could I feel comfortable leaving my home in their hands when they displayed total incompetence at every opportunity? I had wanted to fire them, but was afraid starting over with another contractor would just set us back several more weeks. Their quitting was the best thing that ever happened. Since I would have had to wait 3 weeks to get started with another contractor, I took it upon myself. We were done a week earlier than Ream projected to be (which I doubt they would have accomplished anyway), and way under their budget. Only mistake I made after they quit was relying on the measurements they took when ordering my kitchen tile, which resulted in me having to re-order more after my installer noticed we were gonna be short. Wouldn't wish Ream on my worst enemy, and will think long and hard before ever using another contractor.

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