PAUL DAVIS RESTORATION

unknown

We had a section of our roof that was visibly sagging, and were very worried that we would have to replace the entire thing. A roofer who came to look at it told us he was going to have to cut holes in walls in the attic in order to access the spot.  Thankfully we got a second opinion from Paul Davis Restoration!  They told us that it was not necessary to cut any holes, and that they could repair the area from the roof surface.  They removed the existing shingles, replaced the rotting wood support underneath, and placed new shingles.  We had some old shingles left from when the roof was initially installed, so they used these shingles for the replacement and gave us $200 off their quote.  Everyone we met was very courteous and prompt.

We had a sick 6-month-old preemie, so this could not have happened at a worse time for us.  Paul Davis did the minimum, but they were not very compassionate or responsive to our concerns and questions.  Because the water went through the ceiling into the first floor, we were concerned about mold, which they totally brushed off.  We just ended up crossing our fingers and letting that issue go.  I guess we should have taken it up with our insurance adjuster, but he had told us that Paul Davis had complained about our questions and concerns, so we felt like we were getting as much service as we were going to get out of them.
They did show up promptly and got started on the cleanup right away, which may have made mold less of an issue, but they did not give us any criteria or evidence of when they considered things "dry enough" to stop drying and start repainting, etc.  This was a concern not just inside the ceilings, but also in the carpeted hallway upstairs.  They dried out the carpet and put it back down on new padding, without cleaning the carpet at all.  That seemed a little gross to us.
They did a fairly good job with the painting downstairs, except that they got some wall paint on the ceiling and the cabinets in a couple places.  It took us a while to notice that.  Upstairs, they cracked some of our trim when removing it and did not replace it, just put it back cracked, where it later fell off.  It was visible in a couple places, but not immediately noticeable, so we didn't get to bring it to their attention.  Also, they left a couple of "spare" pieces of trim on a shelf in the closet - we don't know whether they couldn't figure out where they went, or forgot about them, or what.  So we had trim work to do after they left.
The flooring was done by the flooring company, but the Paul Davis guys installed the cabinet, reinstalled the countertop and the toilet, and reconnected the plumbing.  This all seems to be done well.  A point in their favor is that the new cabinet is taller than the old one, which required adjusting the mirror, and they got a professional to remove it, cut it down, and replace it.  No one filled the holes where the old screws were or erased their pencil marks, but we did appreciate that they took care of the mirror the right way.
So they got our house back in working order, but their focus definitely seemed to be on doing as little as possible, as easily as possible.  There was also no real sense of urgency to getting the repairs done once the dry-out was complete.  The job took about 3 weeks, and I don't know if that is too short for everything to have dried out properly, or too long in total, but it seemed longer than that.  They were hard to communicate with and seemed too busy to work on the logistics of our job or call us back during the execution of the job.  Mark Rose was the supervisor on the job and was the primary one we dealt with. 
It was a good thing the insurance company was paying for most of this job, because we would not have tolerated this kind of customer service in someone we were paying ourselves (even though in a roundabout way, we were paying them ourselves).  We felt like they knew they were really working for the insurance company, not us, so we didn't matter.  A little compassion and a few kind words could have gone a long way.  We had a sick baby and then a car accident a week after the flood, so by the time everything was over, we were just glad to put it behind us.  It was an unfortunate situation, but the hassles of dealing with Paul Davis were almost worse than the flood happening in the first place.