Belfor

First of all, this is the second time I've used Belfor for flood cleanup.  First time was Dec 2008 (as Hawaii Restorative).  Total cost then for both the clean up AND the complete repair, including reinstalling damaged hard wood flooring was under $50,000.  They did pretty good job getting the place cleaned up, cleared out, even helping us pack boxes they provided and get everything in to the POD.  So I have no issues with that.  The first time we used them, they did a good job with everything and they had the house back in order in about 4 weeks or so.

The problem this time was they have an alleged job estimator, Craig Tom, who never set foot on site, to my knowledge, yet he estimated the costs to the moon!  He included items that never existed in my house and items that weren't damaged; I don't know if this was done to inflate the bill, but that is my suspicion!  Why, you ask?  Because the TOTAL cost of cleanup and repair for the first job, in 2008, was less than $50K.  This time, they got not only $22K for the clean up (which to be fair did include a 20 foot dumpster, help with packing boxes and loading them in the POD (had 2 of these the first time) and which is still in my drive as I write this), but they wanted....$91,000 to do the repairs!!!  I just got them all done with several different companies for a total of about $28,000.  This time, the entire scope of work was almost identical to the scope of work as in 2008, with exception of replacing kitchen cabinets (which were simply removed, cleaned, dried out and replaced last time).  Why so high?  Because the estimator Craig Tom, again added in many line items of work to the scope that wasn't needed, wouldn't be done, was too many linear feet (like molding amounts for example), and so on.  According to his measurements, my house was closer to  1300 SF instead of 1100! All my rooms grew by at least 6 " to a foot in width on every wall.  When I asked Drew Chamberlain, the project manager, about the excess costs and annotated the estimates to get rid of all that extra stuff, he told me it was standard.  I told him, it was not existing in my house or wouldn't be done so why would they charge me for it?  Bottom line, I did NOT hire them to come in and do the repair work in my house.

Would I use them again?  Only for clean up-they were very fast in their response and did a good job.  But now I know from National Flood Insurance Program folks that 3 days is all that is needed to dry out a house, NOT 10 days, and an extra $800 on my electric bill, which is normally less than 50 bucks since I have a big PV system on my roof.

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BELFOR used local subcontractor, Laughlin and Oshiro of Mililani, HI.   Work was extremely slow with only one or two workers onsite at any time.   Quality was acceptable, but BELFOR had promised quick turn around.  When asked about the delay, BELFOR refuse to honor the contract or finish the work. They walked away from the job (in excess of $20,000) and advised the subcontractor that if they continued to work directly with me that BELFOR would not use them in the future.

Started with a dishonestly low bid to win job from insurance company.  
Management rarely if ever left the rock they hid under.  
Quoted 14 days.   Took 38.
Erroneously thru out my hard to replace (in Hawaii) kitchen corner sink  with Moen faucet and brakets for garbage disposal.   Broke 2 plates in my never used 1945 22K gold plated dinner service for 6 and tried to hide it.
Didn't photo document before or after. 
Literally tore electrical wiring out with no schematic or diagram.
My unit is tiny and with 2 large inspection holes still didn't analysis damage correctly.  Very small unit and job.  God help them with a 2 bedroom unit.
Management of this company is terrible.  are not taking responsibility for poor performance.

The overall experience was devastating! The employees were unprofessional and uncooperative with the complaints of the service and workmanship. They duplicated billing and blamed it on the computer however did nothing to compensate for it.