Maize and Blue Water Restoration

He used scare tactics and quoted us $8500 to rip out three corners of drywall where we had mold. The same work was performed for $2200 by another company. His quote for FOUR times as much! And, why charge $350 to look at mold? We asked him on the phone why it was $350 and he told that it's because of certain materials that need to be used, but he didn't use anything when he looked at it. By the time he left, we were so anxious about the ordeal.

I noticed mold growing on my laundry room ceiling. I figured it was from a toilet leak in the bathroom above that happened about 1-2 months earlier (toilet leak had been resolved by a plumber at that time). Justin came out shortly after being called and charged $150 for an estimate. He took some moisture readings of the laundry room ceiling (dry) and the bathroom floor tiles above (apparently damp). Based on this one reading, he told me the bathroom floor and laundry room ceiling needed to be ripped out and I should try and get it claimed through my home insurance (he gave me some 'pointers' on what they would or would not cover). The estimate was 'at least $5000' and that did not include rebuilding the bathroom and laundry room afterwards. I also had him look at the basement walls and he told me we had a mold problem (by visual inspection). A different mold remediation company that I hired to do the repair told me that ; a. the bathroom floor was bone dry b. charged me $1000 to perform proper mold remediation removal and repair of the laundry room ceiling and c. the white on our basement walls was harmless efflorescence (salt). Justin from MaizeNBlue also wanted me to pay >$2000 for an outside company to do mold testing both before and after his work was done. He seemed unprofessional and his costs seemed outrageously high.

After coming home at night to find minor flooding in our basement caused by a sump pump failure, we cleaned up the water and started looking on Angie's List for a water restoration company to come advise us on how to proceed next. Although we didn't find Maize and Blue Water Restoration on Angie's List, we saw a few positive reviews for them on a local news website. Since we wanted to keep our business local, we contacted them first thing the next morning and Justin, the owner, came out almost immediately with one of his associates. Once arriving, my husband and I were immediately suspicious of this contractor. In addition to have zero people-skills, their lack of professional logos on their car, shirts, etc. seemed odd. The first thing Justin wanted from us, before even looking at the basement, was a copy of our homeowners insurance policy. After looking at it and declaring that we wouldn't be covered for a sump pump failure, he and his associate started looking around our basement. Although he brought equipment to measure the moisture content within the walls, Justin only took about 5 measurements before declaring that everything would need to be stripped out and we were looking at a $20,000 basement restoration. The actual time spent surveying the damage to the basement was less than 10 minutes. Again, Justin kept bringing up the insurance. Although we were about 98% positive that the flooding issue was caused by the sump pump failure,which was not covered by our insurance policy (the float had gotten stuck and once we unstuck the float, the pump started working), Justin kept pushing the idea that the flooding could have been due to a sewer backup. When asked how we could determine whether or not it was a sewer backup, Justin said that we would have to talk to a plumber. I indicated that I would be happy to call the plumber we have used on a few occasions in the past and that we were very happy with (also identified on Angie's List), but Justin encouraged us to call "his plumber" instead who could come out immediately. Several times, we were strongly urged to not use the reputable plumber that we have had positive experiences in the past. Rather, we were encouraged to use "his guy." While I cannot say with 100% certainty, we definitely got the feeling that Maize and Blue Water Restoration was only interested in the potential insurance money we were sure to get once their recommended plumber documented that our flooding was caused by a sewer backup. The whole experience left us with a very sour taste, and we just wanted to get these people out of our house. Even as they were leaving with promises from us that we were going to call OUR plumber, Justin kept telling us that we should talk him for suggestions on we should word things to our insurance claims adjuster to increase the chances of having it covered by our policy. Believe it or not, but this whole experience cost us $150 for the service call, which we were happy to pay without question just to get them out of our house without further delay. Immediately after, we found a reputable water restoration company who came out the following day to provide a FREE estimate. This new contractor spent an hour with us looking at our basement and answering questions. His estimate was based on 20-30 minutes of measurement taking, which included measuring the entire basement, as well as taking well over 100 readings of the moisture content of our walls. His estimate came to $1,100 to remove the wet wallboard and insulation. When all is said and done, we will have our basement back to where it was before this whole mess for under $2500... far below Maize and Blue's laughable $20,000 estimate. Although we are doing much of the work ourselves, which admittedly saves labor costs, the $17,500 discrepancy would have paid for labor 10x over if we had chosen to hire the job out. Plus, we didn't have to commit insurance fraud in the process.