Paul Davis Restoration & Remodeling of SE WI

I was truly lucky my insurance company recommended Paul Davis Restoration and Remodeling of SE WI. We experienced a kitchen fire and Paul Davis Restoration was at my house the next day. They listened, inspected and recommended a course of action. The equiment arrived the same day. It felt like my problems were reaching people who cared. Every question was answered, every concern was addressed. Didn't matter how many times I called. The professionalism was exceptional and I highly recommend Paul Davis Restoration.

Review: I had some bathroom work done which included a ceiling exhaust that had to be out in the ceiling. The contractor had to go in the attic to install the vent that goes outside. In doing so stepped on a beam and which resulted in a hairline crack in the ceiling. He fixed it with putty/spackling and painted it. It was fine for a while but it has recently reappeared. I called a few times and finally got in touch with the person. He didn't really want to help. He said he could do the same thing he did to repair it the first time. The crack could reappear. He is the reason the crack is there in the first place.Desired Settlement: I'd like the ceiling where the crack is to be fixed.

Business

Response:

November 25, 2013

Revdex.com of Wisconsin

Re: [redacted]

Customer Concern #[redacted]

Dear Sir/Madam:

The following is an update on the above-referenced customer complaint. [redacted],

[redacted] went to Mr. [redacted]’s home on Friday, November 22nd. He treated the cracked

surface with vinyl spackle. [redacted] will be returning to Mr. [redacted]’s home on Tuesday,

November 26th. At that time he will place two coats of paint over the spackled area. Upon

completion, Mr. [redacted] will assess the ceiling with [redacted] to see if this meets Mr. [redacted]’s

satisfaction.

We believe that Paul Davis Restoration & Remodeling has addressed Mr. [redacted]’s customer

complaint and no further action by the Revdex.com is necessary.

Sincerely,

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

A few months ago I had a fire in my kitchen. I was given a list of restoration companies by my insurance adjuster. I contacted a couple of companies the day afterthe fire.A representative from the Paul Davis Restoration company returned my call that same day .I was so amazed how fast the assessment of the damaged was done and the clean up work began. Everyone that Paul Davis sent in to restore my home were professional,friendly and arrived on time. I would recommend this company to anyone.

I recently hired Paul Davis Restoration (PDR) to handle emergency response for a water loss. PDR staff responded immediately to initiate mitigation procedures. Our project manager, Eric [redacted], was a pleasure to work with. He did an excellent job keeping me informed on how things were progressing and was always available to any questions, which he answered thoroughly. The mitigation team who did the work was very professional, prompt and thorough. I’m very pleased with the job PDR did and would highly recommend using them for mitigation and restoration work.

I had a major leak in my condo in which the resident above me had a hot water heater leak. Within 15 minutes of a call made by the condo management company, a crew from Paul Davis was out to assist in clean up. Insulation and drywall were removed, fans and a humidifier were on drying up the mess. Within days, a new crew was out to repair. Outstanding drywalling, outstanding painters, outstanding crew. Always prompt. Easy to work with. I would recommend them in a heartbeat!

I am taking a moment to let folks know I had a positive experience with Paul Davis and their staff. They were attentive to my feelings and took good care of my items while we were displaced from our home for 4 months. Any issues that arose where handled professionally and they were responsive to my many emails.

I worked with Bryan and his crew and it was a big help at a time when you it after a fire. They were great and got my things cleaned and back to me in the time they said it would take. Very professional .

Our home was severely damaged by fire May 6, 2013. Paul Davis Restoration and Remodeling was contracted to complete three major responsibilities for us: secure the home site, create a structural cost estimate and restore our home’s belongings. The purpose of this letter is to outline our experience with this company in hopes that their customer service, restoration practices and ethical standards can be addressed. It is our hope to prevent other vulnerable families, from experiencing the challenges we incurred with Paul Davis.
Securing of home site: The afternoon of May 6th Paul Davis personnel began clearing out the fire and water damaged structure and securing the house. Overall the cleanout of the damaged structure went well. The PD subcontractor employed to cover the roof assured the property owners that their materials would stay intact and protect the remainder of the home. We questioned the manner in which the tarp was secured. He shared that he had experience in the winds and rains of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandi. Wisconsin's weather might be more of a challenge than planned. Within a couple of weeks a portion of the tarp had blown off and continued to rip. This caused rain to soak part of the remaining subfloor in the home. We made personal contact and multiple phone calls requesting PD to reattach the tarp. Paul Davis personnel would commit to a time to address this task, but would not follow through. We made multiple trips to the house to check on the repair only to find our home uncovered. When questioned, one PD representative questioned us about the tearing in the material! As a result replacement of a greater portion of the subfloor was required in the rebuild of our home. Also, PD staff was reminded twice to use their heavy-duty company wheelbarrow, not the owner’s personal wheelbarrow. The owner’s wheelbarrow was damaged in hauling heavy refuse out to the dumpster and had to be replaced.
Creating Structural Estimate: The Structural Cost Estimate is the amount of money the insurance company provides as payment to rebuild the damaged home. It required six attempts to receive an accurate structural cost estimate for our home. Each time we received a new estimate (approximately 30 p. document) we examined every line item as the requested change/s might or might not be made, along with additional changes that we were not made aware of. Reviewing this document took at least one hour to review, depending upon the number of changes that had been made and the research needed to do to complete the review. Upon recommendation by a professional building expert we hired a structural engineer to provide a professional opinion of the fire damage. The price difference between the initial estimate and sixth estimate was over $31,000!
#3 Restoration of Salvageable Items: Paul Davis was hired to restore many of our belongings including furniture, dishes, clothing, shoes, tools, jewelry and many books.
• Furniture: Paul Davis hired JnW Restoration, (Lake Mills) as a sub-contractor to complete restoration work on approximately twenty pieces of wood furniture. We were told JnW had completed other restoration furniture work for PD. They highly recommended this firm for our restoration project. We questioned that some of the badly damaged furniture could be restored but we were told that we weren’t familiar with quality fire restoration. JnW assured us that he could bring all pieces to pre-fire condition; explaining that he had the techniques and equipment to do the job! During an eight month waiting period several e-mail were received from JnW assuring us that restoration was moving along well, but refused allowing us to view his progress with our furniture. Our insurance adjuster told us PD is a “restoration company” and that we needed to trust them. In January 2014 we received communication from JnW that our furniture was being delivered to PD warehouse and that he’d been able to bring it to pre-fire condition! We were thrilled! Before we could make arrangements to go to the warehouse we received another communication from PD that some, not all of our furniture, had been delivered and that NOTHING had been done to restore our furniture! It looked like it did the day it had left the scene of the fire! (At this point we learned that PD did not even know where JnW restoration was located, asking us if we knew their location!) To Paul Davis’ credit they did at this point, pay for a replacement bedroom set. (Unfortunately, it was delivered about 6 weeks after we returned to our home, leaving us to sleep on a mattress on the floor.) Upon the enthusiastic recommendation of a PD employee we agreed to have them take our remaining wood furniture to a nearby, highly expert Milwaukee restoration company. The PD employee was confident about his expertise and convinced us that this was indeed the company we should have used to begin with. When our pieces were delivered we were appalled! Our custom made light maple pieces and cherry end tables had all been stained a dark mahogany color to disguise the severe fire damage of the furniture. (Fortunately we had photos of these pieces pre-fire.) Once again, we asked how PD could subcontract with this company and/or even deliver our furniture in such disgusting condition. The PD rep hung his head in silence. Eventually, our insurance company provided monetary compensation for all furniture. The time, the frustration, the waiting, the difficult conversations, and written communications were very challenging on many levels.
• Jewelry: Though we were assured that no valuable items such as jewelry and money would be removed with our salvageable items, the homeowner’s jewelry was missing. In an unrelated conversation discussing the structural cost estimate with PD personnel, we were told they would investigate where the jewelry might be. Later that week those items were discovered at the PD warehouse at 4th Street in Milwaukee! In addition, much jewelry needed to be cleaned by us, and/or replaced, due to the harshness of the cleaning process used by PD (elastic destroyed, tarnishing, rusting).
• Clothing: Many of our dress clothes were taken to be cleaned, or dry cleaned and hung in plastic holders. We assumed that if PD had gone to this trouble and expense, these items would be satisfactory for wear again. Not the case. A very small number of items were restored to original condition and acceptable for continued wear. Many items were returned with scorch marks, holes, missing closures, and/or had lost their original color. Even everyday clothing had to be washed by us multiple times in an attempt to remove smoke and/or chemical odors. Upon recommendation of our insurance agent, we questioned PD staff who questioned us about our honesty! We then made arrangements for PD personnel to pick up damaged items to prove our point. The representative that came finally acknowledged that there had been mistakes made in processing our clothing.
We spent days working to restore our clothing. In this process we learned:
--our clothes retained a smoky smell in spite of PD attempts to clean them and “perfume” them with some type of chemical.
--synthetic fabrics may seem odor free at first, but when worn and warmed they develop a smoky odor.
--elastic does not hold up through the cleaning/deodorizing process. Since many clothes have elastic we were left to wonder why these would have been taken to a “restoration center” and stored for us.
--leather does not withstand the cleaning/deodorizing process, leaving our leather shoes, belts, boots and accessories dry, stiff and faded. No amount of oiling would repair their condition. Again, why would these have been taken to PD warehouse?
--While we were told by PD staff that none of our clothes from Master Bedroom closet had survived we found multiple items at PD warehouse after beginning to purchase replacement clothes. (We are unaware of how PD is paid by our insurance company but we can only wonder why they were taken to the warehouse.)
Dishes: Upon arrival to PD warehouse we were thrilled to begin going through our crystal and dishes. Nearly all of our crystal had been cleaned beautifully and was truly customer ready! However, we had 3 sets of family heirloom china stored in a china cabinet. We checked the top items of the first six boxes. Pieces were wrapped carefully and secured with tape. Around box # 8 eight, we noticed a big tray that had significant sentimental value and decided to unwrap and view it. We opened it to find the signature flower design intact on one half of the tray and nearly completely absent on the other half. When we started opening other pieces we found the same issue. And once again, we were left to wonder why items that had been ruined would be carefully packed for our pick up. In the end, we stayed at the warehouse and went through each box, documenting each loss. When PD personnel were questioned about this, they just stood mute, looking at us. No response. We were learning that this is a pattern of behavior, a strategy, of a number of employees.
• Books: We owned many books due to the nature of our professions. Upon opening boxes at the PD warehouse we found a very disturbing pattern of packing. The top layer of books in these boxes were packed with titles that looked fine and were ready to be read once again. However, under this lovely layer would be books covered with ashes, water rippled, totally unusable books. We spent hours in the warehouse listing out damaged titles for replacement. Again, we questioned the staff as to why they’d done this and again, a mute response!
• Tools: Multiple boxes of tools that had been water damaged were brought out for our examination. We were left to wonder why these had not been cleaned immediately after the fire since so many metal items were rusty to the point of being unusable. Nearly every tool needed to be replaced. The outside of our sewing machine case had been cleaned. A PD rep removed the cover for our examination only to find it had not been opened and cleaned! He informed us it was much too late to be salvaged; it too had to be replaced.
Living through a house fire is a daunting, overwhelming, and emotionally challenging experience. It requires much energy and strength to bounce back. The homeowners must navigate the necessary steps to restore the actual home structure, inventory destroyed items, and shop for replacement items. They must partner with builders, contractors and restoration personnel. Our experience with Paul Davis Restoration and Remodeling created much more work for us. The increase of the time required by us due to their poor workmanship was unnecessary. Their mute response to our questions and challenging our questioning our integrity was very frustrating on an emotional level. We hope this letter will serve as documentation for change and that others suffering significant loss will not have to experience what we did with Paul Davis Restoration and Remodeling.
Should there be a need to examine e-mail communication, discuss the issues addressed within this letter, we welcome your contacting us. Thank you for addressing the needs posed within.
This complaint is being posted on the Revdex.com Website to alert others who experienced a tragedy of the negative customer contact we experienced with the Paul Davis Company.