Ground Zero Restoration

I don’t normally write reviews but this company is so terrible and unprofessional that I felt compelled to write one to prevent other customers from going through turmoil I did. I had water damage in my house and contacted Ground Zero who came out right away. [redacted] came out and did the water damage assessment and told me that the entire project, tear down to restoration, would take 2 weeks and it would be just like new. [redacted] said he would personally take extra care of this project as we were both military veterans. Ground Zero arrived the next day and removed the dry walls from my first floor ceiling and second floor walls, closet, bedrooms etc. They also removed the carpet padding downstairs/upstairs. They put about 20 fans total throughout the house to dry it out. My house was a total mess, walls torn apart and drywall pieces everywhere, furniture piled up in different rooms, the kids and their beds crammed in my room etc. After drying out the house, that’s where the issues started. Ground Zero removed the fans but did not start on the reconstruction part. They said they needed the money in order to start the work. I told them my insurance company is still waiting on their invoice. A week goes by, living in a torn apart house with three young children, and I get a call from my insurance company telling me that an adjuster needs to come out because the initial quote from Ground Zero was outrageously high. Then my wife gets a call from [redacted] at Ground Zero asking her to lie to our insurance company because he charged the insurance company for hours he never worked. My wife told [redacted] that she was loyal to our insurance company and will not lie for him. Another week goes by and the reconstruction still has not started. At this point I’m starting to get upset. After multiple calls and another week, nothing. I then decided to go with another company because Ground Zero was taking so long to start and made every excuse not to start the reconstruction. I told Ground Zero not to come out to my house anymore as I found another company. Ground Zero then comes out the next day and starts the reconstruction. The workers who arrived, one of them being the supervisor, said it was because we complained that our children were “climbing in the walls” which is why they decided to start the reconstruction. That statement was ludicrous as neither my wife nor I ever said anything along those lines. To make it worse, it is impossible for any child to fit in a wall that runs 4 inches deep. Two workers show up and start working, one of them being brand new, the other is the supervisor. They said it should take no more than a week to completely done. The new worker does not know what’s he’s doing and does the upstairs wrong. The supervisor tells him to redo all the work he just did. Just about a wasted day. Then they worked on the drywall and attempted to cover the area with plastic sheets. When I got home, there was so much dust everywhere that I could barely see in my house. Having a plastic sheet with gaps and holes in it does little to keep dust inside. At this point I’m pissed because my young children have been breathing that crap all day. Every day for the next couple of weeks, I came home to an extremely dirty and dusty house, even after cleaning every day. I had to clean the areas I needed to use before even using it because it was so dirty. Then they started to paint the walls/ceiling. I told them the name of the color of paint that is used to paint the walls/trim. After they were done, I looked at the paint job and thought it was the worst paint job I have ever seen. First of all, the paint did not even match the original color, there were dark and light patches throughout the surfaces, and they left “boxes” around all the fixtures. There was one portion of my wall that just had painted rectangle in the middle of it for no reason. I have an open layout so it’s really obvious when paint doesn’t match. The supervisor said that he realized the paint he used was different than the original color so he decided to paint one of the adjoining rooms with the same color so it would match. Why would anyone continue to paint with the wrong color?! Now those rooms have different color ceilings that my other adjoining rooms and hallway. I told the supervisor that I’m not an expert painter but I know that painters should use painter’s tape around trims or even fixtures if you don’t remove them. He said “oh well we have painter’s tape”. They had it and didn’t use it? It was extremely obvious that they did not use any tape as some of the painted areas had an inch or two of old paint showing. He also said the paint he used appears lighter because my old paint was faded. That made no sense because faded paint is lighter so why would my original paint be darker. Plus, my house is pretty new. There were also gaps in the trim along the base of the walls where they had cut and failed to restore. Some of the trim either moved easily or came off. I also noticed that one of the legs on my entertainment center, which was moved by Ground Zero, was now broken. I told the supervisor all the issues I found and he came out again to fix it making excuses that it was the new guy’s fault. I call the BS flag because it was the supervisor that did the paint job and should have checked on the new guy’s work on the trim. The supervisor admitted to moving my entertainment center but denied damaging it. There were also stains on my carpet and paint on my rugs in other rooms which they failed to remove. The supervisor blamed the stain on my children saying it was juice. I told him that we don’t have any type of red juice in my house. He also blamed the paint store for giving him the wrong paint even after I gave him the actual paint cans that were used to paint the interior of my house. They damaged walls in other areas of my house and then tried to cover it up by painting over dents in the WRONG color! After several weeks of completely poor work, I spoke with the general manager. I told him that I decided to use his company because it was reputable however the work done on my house was substandard. The manager told me that the supervisor who did the work on my house has about 20 years of experience and is good and what he does. I also told the manager about his unprofessional staff who tried to get my wife to lie for them by trying to defraud the insurance company. The manager told me he was upset and would personally come to my house the next business day. I took off several hours of work to meet with the manager who never came to my house. The supervisor showed up and said the manager was busy and would not show up. The manager never answered my phone call or returned it. The supervisor finished up other the other areas and left the other poorly completed areas, per my instruction, as I told him I could do a better job fixing it myself. In total, this uncompleted project took 2 months instead of the 2 weeks that were promised. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Extremely poor workmanship and customer service.

This company is the best out there. I was referred to them by a friend. They were prompt to respond when there was a flood in my home late in the evening. They took care of everything from start to finish. They did all of the demo, dry out, and repairs to get my home back to a condition that was better that before the flood. They dealt directly with my insurance company to make sure that everything was covered and repaired correctly. They did not allow my insurance company to push me around and try to do the repairs "as cheaply as possible." Everyone on staff from the office to the drying and construction crew were professional and courteous. I hope that I never go through this again, but if I do, I know who to call. I would highly recommend.

My Ground Zero experience was exceptional. Everyone I dealt with was knowledgeable, friendly and provided excellent service. The work that was done was done with extreme professionalism and was completed in a timely fashion. I must say the completed job was exceptional. I highly recommend Ground Zero.