FUNKHOUSER FINISHES

As far as the actual mediation. They did a great job. Not the cheapest. Or the highest. Water was out and dried I. A timely fashion and they managed to do minimal damage to dry it. However, the quote for putting it back including cleaning and deodorizing carpet and drywall repair was outrageous in our opinion. Very, very high. We went with other contractors for hall the price.

Went very well. Odor was removed. They provided an estimate on other work.

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My son lives in the home, which I bought new a year ago, while I live in North Carolina.  The sump is located in a utility room with an unfinished concrete floor.  My son doesn't know when the sump first began to overflow; however, a plumber was called in immediately once the overflow was discovered a month and a half ago.  At that time mold and water stains were visible on the wallboard, trim, and sill plate.  No measures were taken by the plumber or my son to keep from tracking black water from the utility room into the rec room and up the stairs, both of which are carpeted areas.  The utility room and carpeting dried rather quickly.  I contacted a handful of remediators for quotes.  Funkhouser Restoration was in the middle cost-wise, with the highest quote over three times higher and the lowest only one-third the cost - a significant range.  Moreover, Funkhouser Restoration's quote also included replacement of removed materials and subsequent painting and before-and-after air testing, which none of the others included.  To help me visualize the extent of the contamination Kevin (Funkhouser) e-mailed me photos prior to starting work. I drove up to Indiana the day before work began on 8/5.  When I arrived at the house a few minutes early Kevin and his crew had already arrived.  Kevin recapped overall what his game plan was, which I was familiar with from our previous phone discussions and his quote, and he broke it down as to what he planned to accomplish when.  This is basically how the job progressed:

The first day he took an outdoor and an indoor air sample and set up a negative pressure containment zone within which the remediation work was to be performed.  Inside the zone he ran an air scrubber and fans.  He removed all the contaminated drywall, baseboards, and casing from parts of four rooms.  Kevin pulled back the carpet and pad in the rec room and could not find any sign of water absorption.  It appeared the other building materials had wicked up the overflow preventing it from migrating into the carpeting.

The next day all exposed surfaces were cleaned.  Moldy surfaces were treated with a disinfectant and the entire containment zone was vacuumed.  A second outdoor and indoor air sample were taken. Thursday, after the air test results came back showing the reduction in the mold count, the containment zone was dismantled and the scrubber and fans removed.  Restoration work began.  Drywall, baseboards, and casing were replaced and painting was started.  At this time I added to Kevin's scope installation of quarter-round moulding to the baseboards and painting of the walls in one of the adjacent rooms where I had new flooring installed  (when the flooring installers put back the baseboards they lowered them revealing a strip of unpainted wallboard behind, the quarter-round was needed to make the new flooring installation look better).

Painting was completed Friday.

I am extremely pleased with Funkhouser Restoration's work.  I've worked with contractors for many years as a part of my job and privately on my home and Funkhouser Restoration is the touchstone against all others should be compared.  This job couldn't have been done any better.  What I especially liked about Kevin is he keeps you apprised of the job but doesn't blow smoke with extraneous information/dialogue.  He's a straight shooter whose excellent work speaks volumes.  The paint looks beautiful and is a perfect match (by the way, as far as the carpeting that was contaminated by being tracked on by the plumber and my son, I am having that cleaned separately since that is not a service Funkhouser Restoration provides).

Speedy and efficient!

Funkhouser Finishes , LLC came highly recommended by Brad with SB Bales Co (who installed my new french doors).  Staining these doors became a problem for me when I read that pine wood can be a bit difficult to work with.  I also had expensive blinds within the glass that I was concerned about the stain bleeding through because the glass opens.
I called Brad who didn’t hesitate when he said to contact Kevin (the owner) of Funkhouser Finishes.  He knew their work and had used them personally for professional staining and painting on his own projects.  I contacted Kevin who looked over the project that afternoon and provided a quote the following day.    Kevin said he would be able to match the colors in each project and he could start the work the following week.  His quote was reasonable so I signed it conveniently online.  He was here just as he said the following week with his master stainer/painter “Robert”.
Robert has many years experience staining and painting.  I really needed someone like Robert who has worked with all types of wood (in particular pine).  He is meticulous and worked hard to alleviate any of my concerns regarding the type of pine wood that I had.  I found out that there are several different textures or kinds of pine wood and not all wood is perfect and that staining can draw out some of those imperfections.  This is the very reason why I opted not to do the job myself.   That was a good call on my part.
In any case his expertise came out in full guns and managed to work with the wood to cut down those imperfections.  What a great job he did.  In the end, it’s as Brad had said, he wouldn’t use anyone else but Funkhouser Finishes, and he was right.  Robert gave 110% of his time and put his expertise to work.  Kevin was great with his communication and he stayed on top of things.  He stopped by and looked the work over near the finishing stage and was as happy as I was with the end result.   Another great find on my list of people to use again!

Prompt service, very professional. They cleaned up after all the work was done. we were very satisfied.

They do great work. They had good ideas. They have been good about coming back for touch- ups.

It went very well, and Funkhouser did an excellent job.  Furthermore, they pay great attention to detail, and they were able to paint my light switches in such a way as to make them blend with the tile in my kitchen.

Everything went well.  Funkhouser was courteous, professional, and did an excellent job.  The island turned out just like we wanted.

Funkhouser was clean, efficient, and it did an outstanding job.

It was great.  Funkhouser does impeccable work, but it is expensive.

It was very good. He is very receptive to ideas. His wife does very elegant faux finishes. He has a crew that assists with minor carpentry.

They do a beautiful job, he was quick, efficient, clean and quiet.

This company has employees, particularly Rick, that works very hard to satisfy the customer. Rick takes special pains to provide a very professional job. He makes sure you are happy with the colors and type of paint chosen before he completes the job. He provides a bead of caulking around baseboards to insure you do not see a gap between the walls and the baseboards.

The gentleman named Rick who worked with me was so patient in making sure the color was perfect and whether I liked it in the dark. He then painted the walls after going through this for 2 or 3 days. I've never seen a company so service and customer-oriented as they were. He was just so patient.

THE FUNKHOUSER'S WERE VERY PROFESSIONAL. A QUOTE WAS DELIVERED IN A TIMELY MANNER. THE PRICE WAS FAIR AND COMPETITIVE FOR THE MARKET FOR SUCH HIGH END QUALITY WORK. THEY RESPECTED THE SPACE AND CLEANED UP AFTER THE PROJECT WAS COMPLETED. THEIR CONTRACT STATED EXACTLY WHAT WAS TO BE DONE AND THEY DELIVERED BEYOND OUR EXPECTATIONS. THE CEILING WAS A DIFFICULT 2 STORY HIGH AREA WITH A STAIRCASE. WE PLAN ON USING THEM AGAIN FOR OUR NEXT PROJECT AND INTERIOR & EXTERIOR PAINTING NEEDS AS WELL AS CABINET REFINISHING.

THE INTERIOR PAINTING WAS SLOPPY. DAVE ZAHM, THE CONTACT, PROVIDED US WITH THE INITIAL ESTIMATE. HE PROMISED A "CREW" OF PAINTERS AND A COMPLETION TIME OF APPROXIMATELY 2-3 WEEKS. FUNKHOUSER WAS HIRED IN NOV 2004 TO DATE, JAN 13 2005, THE WORK HAS NOT BEEN COMPLETED. WE WERE ONLY PROVIDED WITH 2 OR 3 GUYS TO DO THE PAINTING SPORADICALLY DURING THE FIRST FEW WEEKS OF BEING HIRED. DAVID ZAHM EXPLAINED THE LACK OF CREW DUE TO EMERGENCIES ON OTHER SITES (HE HAD OVER BOOKED HIS CREW). WE AGREED TO WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE HOLIDAYS FOR A CREW TO FINALLY FINISH THE JOB (CLEANUP PAINT, PATCHING, CAULKING, ETC.). ON JANUARY 13TH, 1 PAINTER AND 1 "CREW LEADER" (ANGIE) ARRIVED & STATED THAT THEY WERE ONLY TOLD WE NEEDED 1 PAINTER AND 2 HOURS TO DO THE WORK. ANGIE'S BEHAVIOR TOWARDS US WAS CONFRONTATIONAL, AGGRESSIVE & ARGUMENTATIVE. WE FIRED THE COMPANY AND ASKED THEM TO LEAVE OUR HOME IMMEDIATELY. THROUGH THIS ENTIRE DISTURBING PROCESS, WE HAVEN'T BEEN CONTACTED BY KEVIN, THE OWNER.

THEY DID A REALLY GOOD JOB. THEIR PRICING WAS NOT THE LOWEST, BUT THEY DID A GREAT JOB, ESPECIALLY ON THE TRIM. THE OWNERS ALSO DID FAUX PAINTING ON MY CHILDREN'S LOCKERS AND NOW THEY LOOK LIKE ANTIQUE ARMOIRES.

THEY DID A REALLY GOOD JOB. THEIR PRICING WAS NOT THE LOWEST, BUT THEY DID A GREAT JOB, ESPECIALLY ON THE TRIM. THE OWNERS ALSO DID FAUX PAINTING ON MY CHILDREN'S LOCKERS AND NOW THEY LOOK LIKE ANTIQUE ARMOIRES.

WE THOUGHT THAT WE WERE GOING TO BE DEALING WITH THIS COMPANY DIRECTLY, BUT AS IT TURNS OUT THEY SUBBED OUT THE WORK. THERE WERE PLACES WHERE THEY DID NOT PAINT (THAT WERE NOT VISIBLE UPON FIRST GLANCE) AND THEN STAINED THE DECK WITH A WATER CLEAN UP OIL TONER ON A DAY THAT IT RAINED ALL DAY. THEY ALSO POWER WASHED THE DECK SO MUCH THAT IT DAMAGED THE WOOD, WHICH WAS NOT IN THE BEST OF SHAPE TO BEGIN WITH, BUT ANYONE WHO WORKS WITH WOOD WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE A MORE ACCURATE ASSESSMENT. SO SINCE I DID NOT CATCH ALL OF THIS WHEN GOING OVER THE CHECK SHEET WHEN THE WORK WAS COMPLETE. I ALSO FOUND OUT THAT THERE WERE BILLING ISSUES

GOOD PRICE, BUT POOR RESPONSIVENESS AND POOR CLEAN UP.