Emstar Contractors

Don’t work with Emstar. Run the other way. Any other contractor would be better. I would avoid working with Emstar Contractors for any potential project. We were paired with Emstar by our homeowner’s insurance company, following a dishwasher leak that damaged our wood floors and the ceiling beneath the kitchen. Having to refinish the main floor was stressful enough in itself. Working with Emstar ended up being a nightmare. Three days before the project was to begin, we were informed that our project manager, Brian, had been fired and we now had a new project manager, who needed to visit our house that day to learn about what the job entailed. The new project manager, Lucia, was pleasant, but clearly inexperienced. Her boss, Bob, accompanied her and seemed to be teaching her as they walked through the house and learned the scope of the damage and the project. We found out that day that the original project manager had failed to include the basement ceiling repairs in the scope of the project. That would need to be added to the list and approved by USAA. Within the submitted scope of project, there were a number of items that my husband and I said were unnecessary, like painting the walls of multiple rooms when the floors were what sustained the damage. The items we struck were not done, but Emstar did not revise the scope of project with USAA and I am fairly certain they were paid for the work not performed, as the check I signed was cut before these items were taken off the list. At three days before the project starts, my family learned we would be out of our house for almost a month, rather than the 10 days we were told by the original manager. We had to scramble to find a place to live that would allow us to be near work, school, and have our dog. The original project manager, Brian, told me and my husband that as the damage flanked the island and the wood floor runs under the island, the island would need to be removed for the floors beneath to be repaired. Bob, the senior contractor, confirmed that to be the case, but indicated that removing the island had not been approved by my insurance company. He stated that I would need to reach out to my insurance company for the allowance. I did this. The insurance company approved removing the island, pending verification from Emstar. When USAA called Emstar, a different employee who was not the project manager, but was just reading our paperwork, said that there was no damage under the island and no need to remove the island. USAA retracted their approval. I had to coordinate calls between both Emstar and USAA with an informed member of the contractor team to get the island removal reapproved. The work itself is below the standard of the floor we had prior to the leak. In the two weeks that we have been back in the house, the floors have scratched more than in the ten years we have been living in the house. There are significant scratches in the floor, primarily in the kitchen when the movers moved the appliances back into the house. A portion of the molding used to replace the original wood molding is rubber and doesn’t match the rest of the wood molding. Broken registers for which I had purchased replacements were sealed into place, as the project manager failed to communicate with the floor crew about the replacements, and now the registers can’t be removed at risk of damaging the newly finished floors. And there is an upholstered chair with leg broken off by the movers, still wrapped in moving plastic and sitting in our garage. I signed the insurance checks because the job, though poor, was done and I was ready to be finished working with Emstar. At this point, I only want the chair in the garage repaired, as it was my grandfather’s chair. I can’t get Lucia, the project manager, to answer my phone calls or texts. And when I contact Emstar directly, I am told repeatedly that the carpenter will be in touch with me, but I have yet to hear one word from him. I am hoping in writing this review that Emstar will be motivated, not to reach out to me with false promises, but to actually do the work and fix the chair.

Worst experience in my life! They pad their estimates for work not done or items not purchased. I.e. Their estimated showed each ceiling fan priced in excess of $300 but only allowed us $125 per fans we chose plus there was separate installation fee per fan. Estimates are riddled with stuff like this. We were also advised we had a $1000 deductible which we paid when work began. Then a month or two later they notify us we owe them another $1000 deductible we were not aware of at the time. This whole issue ruined us financially to the point we are having to file chapter 7 bankruptcy now plus Emstar is threatening to sue us for the second $1000 which we will include in the bankruptcy. Their incompetence caused us to live away from our home for almost 3 months incurring a great deal of expense which ran up all of our credit cards and hence we are now in bankruptcy. Also, they left a huge hole in our carport ceiling allowing wildlife to get in our attic an then subsequently die. They would not accept responsibility nor USAA the insurance co. That uses them as a contractor. We had to have dead animals removed from our attic at our expense that they allowed to get in. My advice, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN when you hear their name and do not believe a thing the owner Robin tells you because it's all lies.

unknown

They provide insurance service. What I like about them is that they hire all the services and I don't have to worry about that. I saw an estimate and their price seemed high though.

I'm following up regarding Emstar's response.  This contractor chooses to go on the offensive and to denigrate me with false motives.
Very simply, I bought a house and closed this past Nov 2014.  The seller provided me with a Roof Warranty that was "issued" by Emstar.  I did reno work which exposed some of Emstar's repairs. (or non repairs as the case may be)
I contacted Emstar simply to notify them of repairs that I WANTED TO MAKE, and get their ok so as to not void the warranty.  Emstar guy projects the worst motives on me like I'm trying to get something out of him....
Read his response and you see the type of individual and company this is.  He denies that a warranty exists because language in his warranty says that warranty was "issued".  He interprets language as that it was issued only to the guy I bought house from.
There is no language in his warranty saying that warranty is not transferable to buyer....
.So all I was asking is for Emstar's permission to repair rotten joists that THEY IGNORED in their original repair.  It was just as easy for me to take care of it, than have them come out.  I just wanted to Not Void the Warranty....  That communication turned into an absurd denial that a warranty exists.  I've never heard of a non-transferable roof warranty.  What does "who the owner is" even matter.  You do the work...You stand by the work.
I hope that this is helpful to anyone considering using this company.

unknown

The project manager and workers were late almost every day.  One day they didn't show and the project manager didn't call until an hour after they were supposed to be there. Project took much longer than estimated and we ended up cancelling some of the work because it dragged on so long. Stairway handrail (not installed at all) and shelving were not reinstalled correctly so I did that myself. Project manager communicated very poorly throughout. Only time he was on time was when he wanted me to countersign the insurance check.

They knew what insurance would cover, and knew all the correct steps to take.  We called insurance around 4pm, and an Emstar sub primarily for demo and drying out of affected area called within a hour or so.  They would have come out that night, but since we had turned off water, we told them to come the next morning.  After that was done, Emstar sent out an estimator who went over all of the damage, what specifically would be done.  They then presented the estimate to the insurance company. 

After the estimate was approved, we were given a  project manager who scheduled all of the work. He kept us involved as to what was happening, and worked with the insurance company to cover the hotel schedule when we had to move out.  I was extremely pleased with the quality of the work done.
The one area Emstar may want to focus on is the cleaning schedule.  The original plan was for one cleaning after the floors were done, but before furniture, etc. was moved back in.  However, the ceiling repairs created probably as much dust as the floors.  They covered items, but the dust was so pervasive, that some items ended up dusty before they were moved out.  Emstar agreed to do 2 cleanings.  One after the floors, but before items were moved back in, then another after everything was moved back in.  Even though Emstar changed to two cleanings, this was the one area that I would not give them a top rating.  Emstar also has a rating system, and I plan to suggest they look at this area for improvement. 

The process of getting in touch with Emstar and scheduling a time for the estimate went smoothly.  Scott was professional and polite.
Around a week later I asked for an update on when the work would be performed and was in touch with someone from their operations department either that day or the next day.
About 2 weeks later the work was completed.  The patch looks good and doesn't stand out, even though my roof is around 15 years old.  I will need time to determine it was done correctly (I am assuming it was). 
I was able to pay for the down payment and the final payment over the phone, which was ideal as it cut down on the amount of time I had to take off work.
My main complaint was how long it took for the work to actually get done, this is why I ranked professionalism as a C (not sure of a better category for my complaint).  It took almost 3 weeks from the time I signed the document accepting their service and sent it to them for the work to actually be performed.  Now, it did rain a handful of times during that time period (maybe twice each week) so I understand the work being delayed.  But 3 weeks seems excessive to me for what was referred to as a small job by the operations person I spoke with.  I was starting to get concerned that the occasional rain would lead to water damage, even though there wasn't any initially.

Update:

I recently had more shingles come off my roof and had a different company come out for a repair quote.  In the process they noted that there were shingles that had been nailed in, on top of the shingles with the nails clearly visible.  This, according to him (and others I've spoken to) is very amateur/poor quality work (water can seep in to cause damage, and its just lazy, the shingle above should be lifted to nail in the shingle below).  When he showed me where it was I realized it was where Emstar did my most recent patch job.

They do have a lifetime warranty but I will likely not have them out again to do anything because a) they said it would take a couple weeks before anything could get done because people were on vacation and b) I am going to replace the entire roof anyways because it is old and continually having issues.  However, I highly suggest users avoid this company for their roofing needs.

Also, I originally thought the price was very good (lack of knowledge) but a recent quote for much more widespread damage in multiple locations of the roof was barely more expensive.  Leading me to believe their price was not very competitive.

Final Update:

I think it should be known that Harold of Emstar did contact me in response to this review.  He offered a very sincere apology and a refund, which was unexpected and very fair of them.

Terrible experience. The company was sent by my insurance company for the estimate and emergency repair (until the acutal work is done). Emstar has a tricky work order for emergency repair, that also gives them permission to do the final job. Later I found out from my insurance company that I could have picked my own contractor. Foolishly, I stayed with Emstar because the insurance company guaranteed their work for three years, big mistake.
These are just some of the issues I had with them:
They correspond information via e-mail, but they didn't know how to properly attach files.They sent me other clients documents, I can only assume they sent other people my info. also.The estimator failed to see four foot long cracks in the foundation, in the damage area. I had to point it out to them, when they claimed the work was done. Their solution was to just patch, and paint it.They used several contractors, one set of contractors could not speak english so I could not communicate with them.One of their contractors claimed he did work, and later a manager had to appoligize for the guy lying about work he claimed he did.They call and email everyday to get the insurance checks signed and released, but no communication once that is done.
Do not use them, especially not as an estimator for insurance claims.

Emstar was prompt in meeting us, showed up on time to do the work and finished in a day. But the work was so bad, I still get angry when I look at my roof. The contractors did not consult with us before proceeding, and as a result, our roof has waves across the front and back, and shingles that do not lay flat. We took issue with this and did a great deal of homework after the fact. We learned that Emstar should have replaced the wood panels underneath the shingles (which other roofing companies did for all other houses in our neighborhood). Based on Emstar's rate card, there would have been $350 in additional expenses to cover the cost of wood and labor, but we were never given that option or told what would happen if we chose to decline. No question ? we would have paid the $350. We are now stuck with a roof that's an embarrassment to our neighborhood. Emstar's position is that they did exactly what the insurance company paid for and nothing more. They were not required to discuss our options. The owner told me, "when we show up and discover there is a problem, we already have a crew on site. We have to proceed."

They were wonderful, they were truly super. They were very supportive and the supervisor was here everyday checking on the work. They really went out of their way to do their best work possible. I will most definitely be recommending them to others! Everybody that was involved was professional.

I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH THEIR WORK. THEY DID A GREAT JOB, AND I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM.