Jenkins Restorations

One of the most incompetent people I've ever had to deal with and still months after "finishing" we have to deal with their crap. Had a fire that destroyed our house last year and these people were taken up to restore our house. In the beginning they said they would take but a few months when it took them half a year despite having the building permit within the first month. The amount of times we were told by the bank and insurance company that they're behind schedule should have been enough to switch out to a new contracting company. My mother gave strict details on what exactly she wanted done and they just completely ignored her wishes and time and time again she has told them they need to go back and fix their many mistakes, the man in charge of our house just seemed flat out unintelligent with how many times we've told him how we want things, just for him to do something entirely different. The colors were wrong, the floor isn't even actual wood, and some parts were just left undone. And to top all of it off just today he came by to check on a few electric wires that seemed to be tangled around, he cut them which was fine, but something possessed him to then proceed to cut our fiber optic cable! So now we have to pay for a technician to come and fix it. Which by the way he didn't seem to understand that an electrician would not be able to help because it's not an electric wire that he cut. And then he had the nerve to ask my mother to take down the bad review she had written. It's almost laughable at how terrible this guy is. I hope I never have to deal with this man nor this company ever again.

This did not go well. Don't pay attention to their mission statement . . . it has nothing to do with how they actually do their job. If you ever use them, be sure to have a lawyer review the contract before you sign. I was still in shock about my whole house being gutted after a fire, and way too trusting. The contract protects them, NOT YOU. I paid the price. Their slooooow pace of work in getting the house closed in (roof, windows) resulted in additional damage not covered by insurance. We parted ways at the end of the contract term, and the house couldn't even pass a close in inspection. They kept money they hadn't earned, and much of the work they did had to be redone by another contractor. Needless to say, they cost me a lot of extra money to do things that should have been covered by insurance. I have a long list of specific problems/issues, but the bottom line: it was an awful and expensive experience.

They did a great job and I would hirer them again.

Awful. Unprofessional. Unresponsive.

USAA set Jenkins up to repair damage to my home due to a pipe bursting. I went with them because, as someone who works full time, I really didn't want to have to manage a bunch of different contractors myself. Unfortunately, I found myself having to manage a bunch of different contractors by going through them, so it didn't work out regardless.

From the beginning they got off to a bad start. They were late the day of the inspection, and then didn't follow up after USAA approved the work. Delays happened constantly, and no one could manage to follow-up in a timely manner or via a preferred manner of communication (work phone when I'm at work, cell phone when I'm at home, or email any time, yet I can't count the number of times I left work to find time-sensitive messages on my cell, or heard later that someone called my cell while I was at work and just didn't leave a message).

The work that was completed was only because of my pushing the various contractors who worked on each individual piece, not because of anything Jenkins did to move it along (every single one of them got incomplete and untimely information from Jenkins). I counted no fewer than five subcontractors used, some of whom damaged the work that others did, leading to having to have it redone.

Horribly managed project. I ended up managing it and wasting a ton of time I didn't have (which was why hiring Jenkins appealed to me originally). Ended up taking 2.5 months instead of 10 days, during which time I was paying for a vehicle I couldn't use because it was trapped in my carport by a pod that Jenkins wouldn't remove (I had planned to be without it for 10 days). Jenkins couldn't even get the subcontractor to pick up the pod, they had to have it towed away.

In the end, I would have been better off taking the money and hiring my own subcontractors.

unknown

Jenkins immediately responded to water main leak and cleaned up the backed up water and mess that occurred. They were professional, friendly, and skilled at what they do. Some other work to include carpet repair is still pending but the workers that did the drywall and painting and wood work were so awesome I wanted to acknowledge the work done now. Thanks Havier! Also thanks to Bill and the other staff for an awesome job!

unknown

Jenkins Restorations was on the recommended list of my insurance company. It was the best decision I made to select them as my project manager for my house. And I was probably one of his most demanding
clients they ever had to work with—sending hundreds, literally, of emails.
Fortunately for me, they could deal with my
emails and calls sent at the most unexpected times of the day.
I was absolutely traumatized by my fire and loss of my
family home and contents. The Jenkins team had extremely qualified
and reliable sub-contractors who restored my house literally from the ashes in the
contractual 10 months. I kept a daily
photo journal of the reconstruction process of my house. It is now a slide show
in iPhoto with haunting choral music playing throughout. I look at this periodically to remind me to
be grateful for his professionalism and expertise in rebuilding my home. I can
easily review the distinctive phases, from the
black-grey period, transitioning to the white ghost-like stage of
smoke/odor elimination, then to the
ductwork, and rough-in of wiring and
plumbing. That was followed by the “quiet” stage where insulation on both the
exterior and interior walls magically
masked the sounds of the outside world.
Then came the sheet-rocking and “mud” stage. And the house started to have real rooms Jenkins Restorations directed me to a national plumbing contractor, where a
3-women team, whom I called my “dream team”, carefully held my hand for each
one of the myriad of decisions I had to make over the 8 months of selection and
bidding, with the last 2 months being the time period where the fruits of all
my decisions were delivered to the house.
Jenkins Restorations was constantly aware of my concern to stay as close to
budget as possible, with a few overages for capital improvements that I wanted to
have in my house—upgraded kitchen and bathroom cabinets, granite
selections, interior doors, and interior
wall formaldehyde–free sound/insulation
batts, and special order shower doors.
Furthermore, the Jenkins team made architectural recommendations for my foyer area, updating
the space by eliminating a dark hallway, where I first witnessed the fire at
the electrical service panel, and thereby, helping to wipe away a horrible
memory of August 11, 2012 fire. Other
suggestions like a knee wall in the master bath were also critical to the
improved appearance of my newly reconstructed home. They also suggested
extra-wide simple floor molding for the main living areas, and this was a
welcome addition to the simple mid-century modern architecture of this Carderock
Valley View model. All their suggestions,
especially the foyer alterations, improved the feng shui of my home.
And last but not least, the Jenkins team met with me often for
updates, changes, and room specifications. With a blue magic marker, they would
detail what needed to be done. In fact,
they met with me at extraordinarily early hours in the morning, so that I could
make it to work on time. They fought
beltway traffic in order to arrive promptly at the house before me, and had
routinely gone into the house for a pre-inspection. I was always amazed to see
the black Jenkins truck parked in front of the house before I arrived from my rental
house only 500 feet away!
During all the critical phases of this 10 month
reconstruction, a family friend, who was staying with me and had
single-handily built his own house in Colorado, was my resident
construction quality control consultant.
Many evenings the two of us would visit the house, with flashlights, to
review what was installed. He was so
impressed with what he had found, studs above windows or doors marked with blue
marker for additional support or rework, insulation properly installed, and
vapor barriers in place. He remarked on
construction details that I did not notice, and was very impressed with the
workmanship.
The most impressive stage was the period between April 1 and
June 1. That is when my house really
came together. The Jenkins team timed and orchestrated the painting, inside and
out, door installations, tile work in the kitchen and three bathrooms, and wood
floors and the arrival of appliances.
The Jenkins door and molding contractor worked extraordinary hours over Easter
time to get the doors installed, along with artfully constructed book shelves
in two rooms.
Presently, I am in the 3-year warranty period with Jenkins
and my insurance company. There are still some punch
list items, and they are being addressed in a timely manner. I am confident that Jenkins will make
sure that as house issues arise, they will be examined and repaired.
I could go on for many more pages about Jenkins Restorations and
all the quality work done on my new “old” house built in 1965. This company has given me a very
distinctive home. Every day I wake
up filled with gratitude for this demonstrated competency and craftsmanship. Team Jenkins was and still is a
pleasure to work with.

We used Jenkins as a matter of a recommendation by USAA Insurance.
The primary job entailed removing the floor, vanity, tile, toilet, shower stall, fixtures in the master bath, plus replacing the ceiling in the garage under that same space. (Tub overflow pretty much destroyed the master bath / garage ceiling.)
Along the way, we decided we should replace a smaller bathroom on the same floor of the house, and this included ripping out everything and replacing it with updated fixtures, except the actual shower.
Demo Phase:
A plastic / nylon bag was used for the dumpster. A single person came to the house to demo the baths, and he removed pretty much everything.
- Issue: He used a razor knife and cut the carpet at the threshold between the master bedroom and the master bath. However, the cut was at an angle and that meant that when a stone threshold was installed, the carpet could not line up to the door area because there was no carpet... and we were clear that about the fact that we were not replacing the carpet in the master bedroom.
- Issue: For some odd reason, the demo man left the trim molding on the walls, even though it was all going to be replaced.
Installation Phase:
The Plumber -
The plumber was fantastic. He knew exactly what he was doing and did not cut corners. There were times when he didn't show up when he said he would, and there was one instance where it was clear that he did not want to fix something that he did wrong; He used an old piece of pipe (finish on it destroyed) to connect a NEW toilet in a NEWLY redone bathroom, and when it was pointed out... he clearly ignored us. [Next time we just will with hold payment.]
The Tile Installer -
The tile guys were personable, however, that's where things end in a good light.
The floors were installed well, with one odd exception: since the demo guy left some molding on the walls in the mater bath... the tile guys decided to leave about 1/2 inch between around the edge of the floor installation. I pointed out that since ALL of the molding was being replaced, that the title needed to be brought almost to the wall.
The Jenkins Project Manager / General Contractor basically had a and quot;so whatand quot; attitude about this. Their solutions was that they'd just use a LARGE show molding to cover it up.
On the wall tiles, it was not immediately obvious that the tile job was poor. However, once we got the lights installed we noticed that the tiles are not flush with each other. So this means that there are ~40 or so tiles that are uneven with the others.
Jenkins basically told us that we could have the tile guy come back and removed them, and the reseat them... but as most people know, putting tiles back in after forcefully removing them doesn't generally work that well. ...and this was a large number of mis-installed tiles.
Lastly, they did not put down drop clothes until we mentioned that the carpets looked filthy.
The Painter / Drywall / Carpenter team:
The guy that installed the cabinet (vanity) bodies seemed to be doing a good job. However, he was also the person that was mudding the walls...
Rather than fix the walls PRIOR to installing the cabinet bodies, he mudded them (spackled them) AFTER installing them. As such, the cabinets (which were dark) had a TON of joint compound all over them. Moreover, intricate spots where is was not easy to spackle were never done properly.
When the painters showed up, I paid pretty close attention. I warned them that I was not the kind of person that deals well with poor painting jobs, as I grew-up in the painting business; My father was a painter, and I also had my own painting business.
Wow. Talk about not paying attention to detail.
- One of them spilled paint all over the granite vanity tops and tried to hide it. (It's pretty obvious when the granite has been sealed and water beads everywhere except ONE part of the slab... AND I'M THE ONE THAT SEALED IT.)
- Fixtures were installed while both the paint AND the drywall mud was wet...
- Areas where the prior paint job showed through were not given a second coat, EVEN WHEN WE POINT IT OUT.
- They used OUR ladders, taking apart one of my extension ladders and putting it together BACKWARDS
- They got paint all over the garage area. Literally, there are spots all over the garage where paint has been ROLLED onto them. (e.g. the garage door opener, my tool chest, EVERY ladder we own [4 of them in the garage], LIGHT FIXTURES, THE FLOOR, etc.)
Final verdict:
During all of this we were in constant contact with Jenkins. Any complain I made was down played, and one of the more serious complaints I made wasn't even responded to by the Project Manager until I pushed the issue. At which point the PM side stepped the arguments I was making by trying to side step into a message about the professionalism of everyone. (Which if that were actually true, the carpet wouldn't have been destroyed, the tiles would have been install correctly, the paint job wouldn't have large areas that STILL need to be given a second coat, etc.)
There is NO WAY I can recommend Jenkins, and, frankly, when you pay the kind of money we did for a small job, you shouldn't have to watch the contractor like a hawk.
Of course, we have pictures of everything, and we have full motion mini-security cameras in the house everywhere. So we have a pretty good record of what transpired.
Save yourself the annoyance.