Hammer Restoration Inc

The service turned out very well.  We were very pleased with them.  They did a very good job.  They were responsible.

Synopsis:  While Hammer responded promptly to our initial call (due to a relationship with someone who works in the business office at Hammer), their performance during the drying-out phase of the "restoration" was marginal at best, and took much longer than it should have due to crews not bringing in appropriate equipment and taking appropriate steps until 7 to 10 days into the work.  When the walls were finally dry, the "clean-up" crew consisted of two women who were not strong enough to move several of the items that needed to be cleaned under (not their fault, they simply needed additional help!), so they mopped around the edges and left.  Finally, after 3 weeks of being on site, Hammer called us 30 minutes before the tile and grout cleaners were to arrive and informed us that "they were concerned that their equipment would scratch our porcelain tile", recommended that we contact our tile layer, and concluded their work leaving us with coffee-colored grout and an entire storage room with mud still underneath all of the shelving units.
Details: As a business owner myself, it's not hard to see what Hammer's problem is - there is simply no management of their jobs.  The "Project Manager" (yes, the quotes are intended to convey sarcasm) showed up the first day, seemed friendly and competent enough, then promptly disappeared never to return.  Nor did he return a single phone call when we had questions or concerns about the work (or lack of work) that was being done.  (The Project Manager's voice mail greeting was revealing: "I can't take your call right now, if I don't call back in 24 hours, please call our office at xxx-xxxx".  In other words, "I'm not answering, wait until tomorrow and call the office."  Amazing.  At least be honest and just say "go away and leave me alone.")
The drying crews would show up for a few minutes each day, check the fans and dehumidifiers and leave.  After a week of virtually no progress in one room, it was I who insisted to the crew that the drywall would need to be removed before the wall was ever going to dry out.  In another room, they spent 10 days attempting to dry out a built-in wet bar before finally bringing in a device designed to dry interior spaces of cabinetry.  I hadn't known such a device existed or I would have insisted upon it's use immediately.  But, it's not my job to know these things, it's the Project Manager's job.  Too bad he wouldn't answer his phone nor was never anywhere to be found.
In this day of smart phones and iPads and custom-designed self-syncing apps, Hammer relies upon paper forms left at the job site to communicate information between the crews on a day-by-day basis, and there was no proceduralized means of communication between the crews and the Project Manager that I was able to observe or learn about.  The crews were competent and courteous, but the job lagged and eventually ended abruptly when Hammer decided they simply didn't want to deal with the tedious job of cleaning 800 sq. ft. of stained grout.  Had they told us they weren't going to clean the floor at the beginning of the job, I could at least have begun searching for a grout cleaner then, instead of living in a trashed home for an additional month waiting at the end of another contractors schedule. 
Bottom Line: The lack of communication between Hammer's crews and supervision, and non-existent communication between supervision and customers is unprofessional and unacceptable.  As time went on and friends and associates became aware of our situation, we discovered a consistent response when answering the question "who's doing the restoration work for you?".  Turns out virtually everyone who's had experience with Hammer Restoration has had similar results, and I've not spoken with a single person yet who would have recommended them to me had they known.  The only way Hammer Restoration stays in business is because their customers are - by definition - caught up in a crisis with no time to shop around, nor do they have any practical way to change restoration contractors once the job has begun.  Dealing with captive customers and not having to worry about earning repeat business means Hammer Restoration is free to simply continue with their antiquated and amateur business practices, unless of course word gets out to enough people enough in advance of an emergency that they know to call someone else.  Which is precisely the reason I've spent the additional time to write this review.  You've now been warned.

They came about a year ago. They fixed some central backyard and also done some cupboard work for me. Our overall experience is good and we will use them again in the future

When we had the fire it was August 2008. We got two bids one from ServPro and one from Hammer. I knew the project manager (PM) from hammer and having been burned by a home contracter before I went with hammer. Huge mistake. Everything started out ok and then the PM had a heart attack and was replaced by another guy, Jay Gustin.
After Jay took over we immedaitely noticed no work being done. We were living in a hotel and were not pleased with the lack of progress so we called Jay to talk about it. It took over a week to get him to contact us back and only after we left messages with other employees commenting on our concerns. When Jay called us back,we arranged a meeting in which we met with him to talk about progress. He assured us everything was on track and asked for our color scheme and carpet choices. It was the THrusday before labor day.
The day after labor day (Tuesday) we got him our color choices. He had stressed that these choices could delay the project so we drove to his work dropped them off and emailed them to him. There were concerns over the budget so we contacted him repeadtly to ensure we were within budget. He assured us we wouldn't exceed the $19,000 budget the insurance comapny had budgeted.
Two months later we still had seen little progress. It was Thanksgiving week and our insurance company had called us to let us know they would no longer pay for the hotel at the end of the month. We contacted Jay and told him, he assured us that it wou
ld be taken care of by then and if not the Hammer would pay the hotel fees. The Saturday after Thanksgiving Jay called us multiple times. When I returned his call he said he needed the color scheme becasue he had lost it and that he hadnt ordered any of it yet, so it being a holiday weekend he would be able to get the supplies in time to get us back into our house. He finally finished the work and we moved back in Dec 17th, 4 months after we hired them. To top it off, Hammer handed us a bill for $32,000.
We contacted our insurance company and because we had a verbal agreement we were on the hook for the money, nothing we could do. So he cost me $13,000. Plus we still had a punch list of things to do but they never came and finsihed them and we had to fight with them to get them to pay the month extra we were in the hotel.
Eventially we hired a outside contractor to finish the punchlist and billed hammer. We got an additional $1000 off the bill (but we had to pay it to somebody else.
So to summarize:(1) Took 2 months longer than they estimated.(2) Ran $13000 over budget and stuck us with it.(3) Refused to adjust the bill for our extra time in the hotel until I contacted the better busienss bureau.(4) Never finished the punch list and forced us to hire another contractor and bill them.
Worst experience of my life. I joined Angie's List just to write this review and prevent others from my experience.