Ron Collins

It did not go well. Happily, my insurance paid for every thing - they were very good, but this contractor was unreliable and unethical. He would state that he was going to work on my house "tomorrow" and stay all week but not show up for 2 weeks. (I was living in a hotel at the time 25 miles from home and work). I finally threatened him with termination on ground that he was not showing up for work. The new wood for the floor had already been delivered and was in the house, awaiting installation. The house was in complete shambles; no flooring, anywhere, water stained walls, warped base board, dirt, smell. Because he had gotten me a great price on the flooring and paint, I decided to let him finish, unfortunately; but he had to show up 5-6 days per week, work for at least 8 hours and had 2 weeks to finish. If he did not finish by that time and do a good job subject to my scrutiny and approval, he would forfeit payment. Although his work on the floor was very good, his replacement and repair of drywall and floor boards was poor. He had to redo and repair several times. His painting was very sloppy - did not clean up paint from windows, painted over wallpaper even though the wall paper was coming off the wall (yes, he actually painted over it and thought that was fine), and he got paint on clothing that should have been moved. I would have been very happy to move them, but did not know of any problem. I was not living there at the time. He was not honest about his communication with the insurance company. On several occasions, he stated he was in touch with my insurance company, in particular about what they would cover. The agreement was that the insurance company would work through him. He told me that they would cover new carpet in all the bedrooms, repainting all the walls. When I spoke to my insurance rep after that conversation, I was told the conversation never took place, and that this contractor had not been communicating with them by phone or by email as had been agreed upon. The insurance did eventually cover all this, but had this contractor actually communicated with them, there would have been no concerns. I ended up having to keep close tabs on the contractor, the work, call my insurance company to double check anything this contractor told me, inspect everything he did very closely, give him directions on how to even repair damage HE did to the walls, the paint, floorboard, ceramic tile that were NOT damaged during the flood. This person was recommended by a close friend's husband. My advise to all is BEWARE. Check someone out no matter how much you trust your friends!