We had water damage to your laminate floors and our insurance paid this company to review, give an estimate and then recommended that they do the work - we only had to pay the insurance deductible. There are a series of big misses with how this company works and its all so frustrating.
The first group of people came in to asses the damage to our floors and check if it was still wet and where it was, about half of home needed the flooring replaced, its about 700-800 square feet. They indicated that 'their guy' would call us to set up some time to look at new floors. a week passes and there is no call - we inquire with the company 'when should this person call us?' 'tomorrow'. tomorrow comes and goes and nothing. it took 10 days for us to finally connect with the person who would show us the flooring because we had the same first name as someone else who he already called. he came and did a great job when he showed up, we talked about the preparation the floors would need need to do for his crew to replace our floors (essentially just move as much as we can off of them) and when they would come to deliver the floor and when they would start the work.
We asked if our closets could remain as they were (as it was needed space to move things off the floor too and it was not damage). he agreed to this and there is a track on which the closet door move so it creates a natural transition to the original laminate flooring.
They come back and delivery the flooring on Friday and then leave. they agreed to begin the work on Wednesday. a few hours go by and we get a phone call asking if we were still on for Monday. "what are you talking about, we agreed to Wednesday not that long ago". "oh ok, well come wednesday". We thought this was strange but did not think too much about it as maybe they just forgot.
Wednesday comes and they are here very early at 8 AM, the same guys who delivered the flooring. within 2 hours they had ripped up all of the old flooring (except closets) and it was great. They informed us it was still wet and not good to put the flooring in yet and so they left saying they would come back friday. Okay with me, I just want to have my floors fixed and 2 days is not that big of a deal to me. they left. 10 minutes goes by and there is another knock at my door. I open the door and there are 4 people trying to get into my home (2 are children).
I asked them who are they and what they want and they stated they were this company and where here to rip up the floors. My partner and I looked at each other because there were 2 people here who just left who did just that, what was going on? This crew seemed baffled that the floor was removed and indicated that they had called Friday to scheduled this to come in here for this. Well that would have been a good time to say who you were when you called rather than just the 'floor people', or maybe explain what you were doing/ what the plan was.
They came in and demanded that our closets need to be replaced too because of water damage, which was annoying because we had just spend the past days stacking them with items from the flooring.
Fine, we move them out and they leave saying they will come back. about 30 minutes later 2 of the 4 guys (including 1 child) come back and start working on the closets. it takes them just as much time as the other crew to do about 10 square feet. which is crazy to me. at the same time we are talking to insurance to figure out what's going on why are there 2 crews to do the same job. They eventually finish with the closets and come in to put some dehumidifiers and about 12 industrial air blows to dry out the concrete for 2 days until the flooring crew would be back on Friday. Fine.
they eventually fessed up that they were the "emergency crew" who deal with leaks and this company actually does not do the work that needs to be done, this is all hired our to other contractors who are just told either nothing, or close to nothing about the situation.
Friday comes and the Emergency crew collects their blowers and dehumidifiers (over the 2 days they were going the breaker tripped 3 times). we lived in a small room that could just fit a mattress on the floor and generally spent most of our time out of the home due to the noise. The original flooring crew ( the ones who originally ripped up our floor) comes back and finishes the floor, they do a great job.
They inquire when is the trim (a small piece of wood which connects the baseboard to the floor covering any gaps) is going to be painted. We informed them that we have heard of no such plans to which he informed us, that is not right, they need to come and do it. he showed us that there is some chipped paint on them sometimes down to the bare wood (especially in the closet area), and they also stated they could not put in the track for the closet door as they had been mangled beyond use when the Emergency crew took them out, (its true 1 of the 2 were badly warped). They left and we thanked them, they did a great job given the conditions they had to deal with.
we connected with First general about the trim and the closet tracks and they initially were trying to deny doing anything because they cant touch "the base boards" which are not the words we used. eventually they said they would have someone contact us about that. Similar to the first instance, this was ANOTHER separate contractor who was not informed of any details and took some time to connect with him.
he came to our home and had to be explained the whole situation, he had not idea about the work requested or why its in this state, or that these floor are new due to the water damage from before. They just threw the cheapest people they could at it without a care.
This new guy said he would come back maybe Tuesday, but definitely Wednesday. he would reach out on Monday to confirm. Monday comes, nothing. I tried calling him, nothing. eventually I get ahold of him and he says he will call me Tuesday because they definitely cant come Tuesday. Same story as Monday for Tuesday. I hear nothing until I get a text at 830 PM informing me he will be here at 1pm to replace the track or fix it and paint the flooring trim. great, its almost over. Tomorrow it will be done.
Wednesday comes and he is here when he says. The first thing he says is that he cannot do the track today because he forgot a tool he needs to do it so he will come back tomorrow some time when he is around the area. He brings the 2 people he said he would and then leaves to left them do the painting. they did a fine job (the painted the base boards fist general made a huge deal over too), a little bit of paint on the floor, but I just cleaned it up. they leave and it took about 2 hours for them to finish.
Ok the final day, today he will come and fix the track when he is around. I wait, and I wait. nothing. I call. Nothing. I text him. "Oh yeah, i cant come today, but tomorrow for sure"
I am now hopping that tomorrow will be the final day. and I can move my stuff back without having closets doors or other furniture in weird places of my home.
My overall experience has been ok, but no thanks to First General. The individual contractors they hire out are the people you should be going to in the first place for this because they do a fine job, its first general that seems to be main pain point of this whole experience. No communication.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,500.00