I S ENTERPRISES

I can say nothing but great things about the I.S. Enterprises did bringing my 19th century home into the 21st century?? Please view video: [*** Link removed ***]

I've had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Italo and his crew for 6 weeks in March and April of 2014. I would have dropped themwithout paying, but the previous owner of our home had contracted with them and was covering the work, so we were made to use his contractor.
To put it briefly, the work that I S Enterprises INC. did on my home was poorly done and they were completely unreliable in scheduling, repairing and standing by their work.
Getting into the details, our first and most immediate concern after getting into the house was that water was coming up in the crawl space when we showered or used the toilets. After a couple weeks of going back and forth with the seller, Italo's crew showed up. They repaired an apparent cracked pipe and left, saying that the work was done. We found out later that night while taking a shower that by sealing the pipe, the plumber actually blocked all sewer water from leaving the house. We were left with our living room flooded and no ability to shower or use the facilities in our house for what would be 3 weeks. They dug up our front yard for four days only to find out they were digging in the wrong place. On the morning they were filling in the hole, a city official came out and threatened a $10,000 fine because they were digging without a permit. When the official spoke to the plumber, she said that she didn't have a license. (Which later she rescinded and said that she did have a license, but only said that she didn't to stay out of trouble).
When the plumber (wrongly) determined that the problem was on DC water's side, Italo put up a big fight about contacting DC Water. DC Water was telling us that a licensed plumber needed to submit a report before they could work, but Italo was insistent that I (the owner) needed to request the work. After IS Enterprises finally submitted the report, DC water came out, checked the lateral pipes and said the lateral was clean and functional, but bone dry. IS went about digging again, and finally connected our house's sewer pipes to the lateral. All told it took them 3 weeks to fix the problem. We're still waiting for someone to cut down and cap the new cleanout that they installed 2 weeks ago.
Italo's crew had no problem sleeping in their cars in front of our house, leaving their muddy boots, gloves and tools strewn about our yard, starting work without letting us know. and capping off the cleanout  while work was going on without telling us (causing more flooding in our living room). Italo himself was insensitive to the fact that our house was in an emergency condition. He does not answer his phone, preferring to converse via text and hardly any of his employees speak English.
In addition to the faulty plumbing, we are coming across more and more problems with the house that are a result of lazy workmanship. The roof IS Enterprises installed less than 2 years ago leaked. We had their roofer out to take a look and the problem was not fixed on their first attempt, so we hired our own pro rather than going back and forth with Italo.
Our garbage disposal in the kitchen sink leaked. Again Italo's plumber didn't fix the problem on the first pass, so I got in there and repaired the problem myself. 
When inspecting another leaky sink on the first floor I came to find that the cleanout didn't have any sort of cap on it. Water was just spilling out when it didn't drain fast enough.
If at all possible, avoid IS Enterprises at all costs.

Although the company's price was one of the highest quoted, we decided to go with them because they were recommended to us. Eddie Miguez, the VP, was the main point of contact. From the very beginning, communication was sub-par. We did not hear from him for 2-3 days after the contract was signed, to let us know when the work would begin. When the work did begin, it was clear very early on, that we could never really count on the workers being there when they said they would. We rarely heard from, or saw Eddie once the job began, and it seemed we had to track him down to get updates on how the job was progressing. They did a decent job on the porch itself. We had to keep reminding the workers on site that the broken faucet needed to be addressed. The plumbing work was eventually completed, and someone was supposed to return to fix the drywall around it. Nothing happened for days. Eventually, we (again) had to call to track down Eddie to remind him it needed to be done. He responded like he had forgotten about it. Eventually it was done, but not until several no-shows and leaving messages that weren't returned till one or two days after no one showed up. The biggest disappointment was with how they handled our leaky window. Its a very long story, but basically, we had to call them back after 3 or 4 repeated leaks AFTER they ensured us that they issue was addressed. Eddie ensured us that all their work is guaranteed and that they would make sure it was fixed correctly. On their final try, someone was sent to open up the drywall on the interior to check for damage. It was okay, so he patched up the wall, but the worker never showed up at the promised time to finish the patch work. We still have a wall with compound patches unpainted. Eddie called and said they did EVERYTHING on the window, but that its actually a roof problem, and that it would be a very expensive job to repair it. He said he would send an estimate by email. This was a week ago, and I haven't heard from him since. I cannot believe how unprofessional and unreliable this company has been, and its put a great strain on our family. All in all, they make lofty promises about the quality of their work, but at best, they are adequate, and the communication and reliability is extremely poor.

The owner of another painting company we hired to remediate the lead paint in our 1917 home lied to us and broke Federal and DC law by releasing toxic levels of lead dust throughout the house instead. In the interest of the safety of our two small children, we were suddenly forced to move out, and at the same time find a reliable, licensed, trained contractor to fix the mess safely and as soon as possible. We learned about I.S. Enterprises, a certified lead paint abatement contractor, on the DC Government website. Eddie Migues of I.S. was prompt, responsive and professional from the time he first came to assess the extent of the problem at our house through the completion of the project. Eddie and the I.S. crew did a phenomenal job not only in fixing the hazard the previous company had created, but also in remediating the existing lead paint and repainting the exterior, the interior trim, and window sills and replacing all the top soil in the yard around the house to a depth of 5?. While they were at it, we asked I.S. to perform mold abatement in an area between two walls where there was a leak, and under some leaky tiles in a bathroom. They did a great job there too. Afterwards, I.S. performed the mandated cleanup to remove any remaining lead dust; they were so thorough that the house passed on the first inspection. The house was like new when we moved back in! The weather slowed down our project a little bit and Eddie even asked his crew to work on any dry weekend days so that we'd get back home as soon as possible. They really went above and beyond the terms of the contract. Eddie was always pleasant and easy to work with. He always made himself available and his team was professional, well trained and knowledgeable. We are very grateful for Eddie?s help in getting us back into our home as quickly as possible. We can?t recommend I.S. Enterprises highly enough. Although their work was not cheap it was only slightly more expensive than the estimate that the first company gave us (and it turned out they weren't even licenced to work in our area, let alone to remediate lead paint as we had asked). The quality of I.S.'s work was excellent; we got what we paid for. Even if we were considering a home improvement project that did not involve the safe and correct handling of hazardous materials we would call I.S. first in the future.

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