Gainesville Restoration & Remodeling Inc

Between the insurance company(ASI) and GRR, we had major he said-she said runaround with GRR pointing fingers at ASI and ASI pointing fingers at GRR. Both were at fault. Tree fell on house 9/2/16. As of 10/31, still very little movement on the house and was told the trusses would take two weeks to get built. Fine, since ASI was fighting us over what they would pay for and what they shouldn't have to pay for. HOWEVER, ASI was always forthright and said they would pay for just about anything with additional evidence from GRR for the work. This should have translated to description of additional work and pictures in a supplement to ASI for the entire roof to be covered. I asked for this from Rod/GRR and I never got it. I had to get nasty with both ASI and GRR to get any movement after 1 1/2 months of stalemate. I had to call ASI personally and request an additional adjuster come out and take pictures for proof to submit for the additional funds. GRR/Rod never did it. Rod suggested in an email that as of 10/31, they still were NOT SURE THEY WOULD HAVE THE FUNDS FROM ASI TO TAKE UP OUR CASE. At no point was it ever made clear they could just walk away prior to this. All parties had signed a contract for GRR to do the work. Update: 10/31 - get an email from GRR that the flooring is on backorder 4-6 weeks. And you just NOW figured that out????? That's after I supplied the information on the flooring TWICE! Additionally, I asked for an out of pocket estimate for the entire roof to be reshingled, in case ASI wouldn't pay - NEVER got it from GRR. It's almost like the math is such voodoo, that they can't disclose anything. Update: Trusses going up today 11/22, almost three months after tree removal and almost one month after trusses 'were ordered'. Another flooring hiccup: The provider who originally got me my floors when my husband and I remodeled in the Spring of 2016 couldn't get them in a timely manner and gave GRR the runaround. Wouldn't have been a problem had you ordered them in a timely manner back in September when I first supplied the information. I had to research options for getting that exact flooring, as Rod was incapable of doing so on our behalf. When I finally found one on the internet, Rod proceeded to order the flooring to find out that the shipping from PA was $609. He promptly emailed me and said this was a financial problem. I proceeded to calculate the differential between the flooring costs with the shipping and the amount allocated by the insurance company. There was over a $3000 difference and that says to me that GRR felt they could not have it installed for $3000 or below in a 1300 sq ft house. CAN YOU SAY RIP-OFF? When we finally settled this by ME asking ASI to reimburse GRR for the shipping costs on top of the what they were already allocated, Rod ordered the flooring and then proceeded to 'forget' transition strips in the order. MY GOD - HOW BAD CAN YOU BE?????? Update: 12/28/2016 - flooring still not done. Rod can't seem to get the transition strips for the flooring from Home Depot. Supposedly on back order. He called at 4:30 pm and I had them in my hand by 6:30 pm. Will make the two-hour trip up to the house to do his job for him. Anticipated move-in is 1/6, though originally, it was before Christmas. We have been out of the house since September. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Fence isn't fixed, patio roof isn't fixed, oh and I found a 2x4 laying on my new plants. I took pics and messaged him. Supposed to fix it, we shall see. Subcontractors are going in and out of the kitchen and garage, even though they aren't supposed to. They are even using our tools from the garage. The most unprofessional General Contractor ever???? Found out the painters used the extra paint sitting in our garage to stain our new doors and also paint the new eaves outside. They didn't even buy new paint to do the work. I have pictures as proof. They were supposed to paint most of the ceilings and walls, but did not do that either (pictures as proof) and the insurance claim gave them money to do so. If I hadn't noticed and taken pictures as proof, they would have gotten that money from ASI. Same thing regarding the 'new' doors - only two new ones were installed, the rest were the old ones with new lacquer, courtesy of my personal paint stash. Update 1/5/2017: Due to move back into the house tomorrow, and no professional cleaning was done. My daughters and I had to clean the entire house into the morning hours to have everything ready for the move-in. Update: 1/12/2017, found where my dishwasher face was heavily scratched. GRR/Rod suggested it wasn't their guys. Who else could it be since we haven't lived there in four months? After much haggling and getting my GC husband on them, they finally conceded and replaced it. Punchlist stuff was still going on 1/12/2017. They came to work on my master door frame and when they left, the door was totally not closing right. Asked them to come back. Basically, the striker plate had to be moved inward. They moved the striker plate, but failed to chisel out the appropriate hold for the door knob. 'Oh, did you want that?' Seriously????? Took almost four weeks to get the differential check between the insurance settlement and the bill for the repairs. They said it was lost in the mail. I got so much runaround with them, I told them I would pay for the stop check fee and have my daughter pick up the check in the office. She showed up twice - first time, the check wasn't signed, second time, no one was there. Hire at your own peril.

Fantastic.  It turned out so well we are going to have them replace the siding next

Our kitchen is open and it looks like a show room. We paid a little more but the results were worth it!

They were excellent. On time never left a mess and finished a day early!

It was a little hard to schedule the appointment, but because my son referred them I waited, and I am so glad I did! The home looks brand new, I can't believe how good the new roof looks.

They took their time and even made it so that in a few years when I have trouble getting around everything will be taken care of

Fantastic! I can't believe the new bathroom. We insist on showing it to everyone we see. And the price was fantastic

Aside from a couple of scheduling snafus due to the holidays the work was impressive. We have had all the neighbors over and they can't wait to talk to GRR!

Wonderful. From start to finish everyone at Gainesville Restoration & Remodeling treated us like family. Things went so well we are having them work up a bid to start on our kitchen next month

Once again, I was completely impressed by all they did. They have the highest manufactures rating possible in Florida which means NO ONE can give you a better warranty. Do your self a favor, give them a call!

I got what I have all ways wanted since I was a little girl. I have the most modern and beautiful country kitchen you could imagine!

Excellent, I will be using them for more work

Never heard from him with a quote after he came to our home and heard what we wanted done in our kitchen.

Prompt, courtious, and quality of work was outstanding.

We had rotten siding on the front and 2 sides of our home and used this company for a master bath remodel.







I was amazed how quick the work was completed and the way they were able to change out the rotten wood and tie in the lap siding on the home.







We even got an upgrade on the siding to the pigmented color so we don't need to paint!  This makes my husband Very happy :-)







Thanks Liz

GRR didn't end up doing either of these things.  They didn't supervise the work as it was being done.  They had Creative Cabinets do the cabinets (they were very good) and another guy do the tile.  GRR's only job was to make sure that they both got done correctly and on time.
When we were initially emailing, GRR explicitly said that installing the sink and faucet were included.  In the contract we signed, it said in the fine print that GRR doesn't do any plumbing.  We missed that before we signed and we had to hire someone else to do that.
When they tore out our bathroom sink they left it in the middle of our driveway.
We gave them 6 weeks of lead time to build the cabinets, and it still took 2 months after they started to finish the project because things weren't ready, scheduling errors, and mistakes that needed to be fixed.
GRR changed our plan for the kitchen, didn't follow up with my e-mails in response, so some things are just done not how we wanted it.  They were able to redo one of the cabinets and they did have to redo the laminate.  It wan't worth doing anything more as they would have had to tear it all out.
We wanted to keep our sink and garbage disposal.  Chris from GRR told us that the sink was damaged and was thrown away.  When I asked about the disposal Chris went silent and followed up with an "I don't know."  The undamaged sink showed up a couple of days later.  
The tile guy left a 2 inch gap by the door to the garage.  The threshold needs replaced, so the tile guy didn't tile to it.  GRR had the tile guy show up unannounced at 6 AM to just fill it in with grout.  GRR told us that they could only fix the gap by filling it in with grout or to replace the entire door.  We left the grout but it is already cracked.
We down scaled our project initially and Chris adjusted the prices of the items we kept up a little because there was profit "built into the prices."  For example, the cost of doing the cabinets went up from $5,680 to $7,780.  We made the cabinets stained, which added $475 for the stained grade cabinets.  $5680+$475 = $6155.  $7780-$6155 = $1625 in profit for them that they shifted from the other parts of the project we cut.  No problem.  We are paying them for a service.
When we got our bill, Chris added $2000 onto the estimate and said it was all costs that were passed onto him from the people that did the work.  He said that the only money they made was the additional $344 that he tacked onto the end of everything he added to the bill.  In other words, there was no profit that was, as he said before, "built into the prices."
GRR made it very clear that you pay or get a lien, so you sign your name and you just gotta pay.
Dave S

We were very satisfied with the quality, time frame, and dependability of GRR.
The project only took 2.5 weeks and we were told 3 weeks initially.
This company has highly skilled workers at a fair price. Thanks to GRR my parents have a new handicap accessible bathroom for my father and a great looking modernized bathroom. E. Lane

The estimates from the insurance company and those from this provider never matched. The work was already done when the insurance adjustor made her decision. His estimate and final costs were nearly twice what the insurance covered.

We had a toilet line break in the middle of the night and flood our bathroom and hallway. Not knowing who to call we came on angies list and found GRR. Was suprised that even though it was 1am they were at our front door within 30 minutes of our call. They were able to get all the water up quickly and start the drying process with there equipment. The guys they sent out were courtious and professional despite it being so late. All and all a very positive experience.

unknown

Fastest response to my Angies List enquiry. (They called within the hour whereas another company took more than 2 weeks to reply!)

Fitted-in with my request to visit for a quote after hours

Accurately quoted the work

Completed the whole job in one day & cleaned up after themselves.

Perfect color match to my existing metal roof & fabricated all the corners etc on site.

Prompt. Efficient. Courteous & well-priced.

Recommended!

I called on a Thursday, and the person who answered the phone (D) took down my information and said they'd get back to me to schedule an estimate within the next day or so.
The following Tuesday, I called back to make sure my request for an estimate wasn't lost. D put me on hold to check, since some folks had been out sick that week, and while I was on hold someone I hadn't spoken to before (C) picked up and just said "Hi." I wasn't sure what had just happened, so I started over from the beginning. C said he had my information right there, asked a lot of questions to try to figure out where my address was located, and then said, "Are you home now? I can come over right now since I'm on my way to the university right after this." I wasn't at home, but I gave him my partner's number so they could coordinate, letting C know that my partner needed to leave home in about 90 minutes.
C called my partner, said he was on his way, and hung up. My partner waited around for over an hour, then called GRR's main line back to find out if C was still coming (since he'd said he was heading out the door right then, and we're only about 2 miles away from the office). D had to take down all his information again and pass him on to C, who asked to reschedule for 8 AM the following Thursday, with no explanation of why he hadn't shown up. They both repeated the 8 AM time to each other and C said he was putting it on his calendar.
Thursday morning, 8 AM came and went with no sign of C. We called the main line at 8:30 to let them know not to bother coming (we'd decided at this point not to do business with them). D took down our information yet again, said he'd let C know, and hung up with no questions about whether we might want to reschedule (we didn't, luckily). C called my partner a few minutes later and said, "Okay, I have you down for 9:00?" My partner informed him that, no, the appointment was at 8. "Oh," said C, without apology. "Did you still want me to swing by?" No, we did not. He also did not ask about rescheduling and hung up right after that.
We were both very intentionally polite through the whole experience, but this lack of professionalism was really astonishing to me. I can't imagine how little they would care once they already had my money if this is how they were trying to convince me to use their services - I'm glad all I lost were a few hours of work (thankfully someone could cover for me).

In early April of 2014, my wife came home to find our house 95% flooded because of a broken water line from the refrigerator ice maker.  Panicked, I quickly did some internet research and settled on Gainesville Restoration & Remodeling.  After speaking to Russ Mills, I was initially impressed as he and his team arrived within 30 minutes of my phone call and immediately began the demolition and removal of the waterlogged baseboards, drywall, and flooring.  After removing the standing water and placing dozen of air blowers, dehumidifiers, and air filters, I felt we were in good hands.  Russ calmly told me after the initial drying process everything would be alright and "this will be a quick process" to restore and remodel the home.  Our entire house was packed into our garage and then a generic brand "Pod" that was left in our driveway.  I thought and was told this was standard procedure.  That's when things started to fall off the rails.  Russ and his team seemed overworked and stretched with too many other jobs.  Random subcontractors were frequent visitors to our abandoned home with little or no communication prior and hardly any supervision.  My calls and text messages were infrequently returned.  The drywall repair was completed in a reasonable time and the painters repainted what they could.  The electrician was top notch and the tile setter for our back splash was excellent.  However, everything else took way too long.  The wood flooring took several weeks to arrive and nearly a week to install.  As the weeks turned to months and spring turned to summer, we periodically checked the contents of our "Pod" only to find ants running through our belongings because GRR carelessly packed our entire pantry inside.  Sometimes I would drop by to check on the home after work to find the subcontractors had left doors unlocked or wide open for insects and roaches to traverse freely.  Our replacement kitchen cabinets were installed carelessly which then affected the granite reinstallation.  The fine details were a difficult, laborious task for GRR to complete.  The bottom line regarding this restoration; it took 2 months to move back into the home to where we could live in it again.  It took 5 months for the punch list to finally be completed and the final insurance check to be handed over to GRR.  While this process took way too long and Chris Pickering, the owner of GRR was shockingly unconcerned about receiving either of their payments from me and my insurance company, we did finally end up with a beautiful and improved home.  Or so we thought...
Fast forward to late February 2015.  I woke up to find yet another flood in my home, this time originating between a bathroom and closet wall.  I called a different restoration company and when the plumber arrived to find the source of the leak, I was flabbergasted by the cause.  When GRR replaced our baseboards after the first flood, they managed to shoot a finish nail through a copper pipe that supplies the cold water to the aforementioned bathroom sink (the nail was way too long for the location and I was later told that the baseboard should have been glued to the wall in that location).  It took about 9 months for the nail to rust through the pipe, but once it did, our home was ruined once again!  2 major floods in less than a year and yes, our insurance company is threatening to drop us!  In using a different restoration company this time around we have learned about all the shortcuts GRR took in rebuilding our home the first time around.  If we only knew.
This is only a fraction of the countless things I could complain about regarding our experience with GRR.  Missed deadlines, broken promises, careless workmanship, and non-existent supervision.  And after the negligence which has caused our 2nd flood, I wish I could give them a F- rating.  Do not touch this contractor with a 10 foot pole.  RUN, don't walk away from this one.

As timely as possible, working with a tenant schedule. Professional presentation of charges and details. Kept in good contact with me and answered all questions. i was working with them from out of state.

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