Avoid a home remodeling nightmare – two real life stories!
Margo Kaufman famously once said, “remodeling is like pulling a loose thread on a cheap sweater – the job keeps unraveling”. This is the unfortunate reality when working with multiple home remodeling companies. Below are two true stories of local home renovation projects. They are not written to give you nightmares, but to persuade you to do your own thorough research when hiring a home remodeling company.
Remodeling Nightmare Story #1
Eighteen months ago, a Local family hired a home improvement company to put bay windows in their living room. The contractors arrived one morning and started removing the aged, smaller windows. With complete confidence that the workers had everything under control, the husband went to the bathroom to take a shower. Once he was in the shower, he noticed the shower walls felt hot. Initially he thought it must be from the hot water, but quickly realized the wall was EXTREMELY hot. As he hurried out of the shower to grab a towel, he heard a loud commotion in the living room. He walked out to see smoke bellowing into the living room and kitchen area.
The subcontractors had used a blow torch to remove the old windows and the ignited the insulation! Rather than raising alarm, the workers tried to quietly put out the fire by filling a small water bottle from the swimming pool and pouring it onto the fire. The fire began to swiftly spread up the walls to the second floor. The workers then grabbed a hose and tried to put the fire out that way, resulting in water pouring through the wall and into the living room.
The wife was working in her office on the first floor when the supervisor came in and asked if there happened to be any smoke upstairs. She walked into the living room bewildered and attempted to process the nightmare in front of her. The supervisor ran up the stairs, then ran right back down the stairs and out the front door!
The baffled husband, wrapped only in a towel, began dialing 911. The Fire Department arrived and was able to swiftly contain the fire. However, the water and smoke damage transformed their beautiful home into a wet, muggy, unlivable structure. Their nightmare had just begun.
The family was moved into a hotel as they began collaborating with the general contractor and numerous insurance companies to assess the damages. They began to try to salvage what they could from their house and started the laborious process of taking an inventory of every single item in the house.
They were finally able to find a rental house (no easy feat) and spent the next 9 months fighting with insurance companies as they waited for their home to be restored.
In the end, the homeowners were left on their own to fix this using their own insurance policies.
Remodeling Nightmare Story #2
Another family hired a general contractor to remove a fireplace and install large windows in its place along their living room wall. They started the process prior to Covid and waited for nine long months for the windows to arrive from the manufacturer. The homeowners were so excited when the windows finally arrived, and the general contractor began the process of demoing the fireplace and installing the new windows.
The day the work was began, the subcontractors arrived with cigarettes in hand, rocking out to Metallica. One of the subcontractors even brought their dog to keep everyone company. All of this was quite a nuisance for the husband/homeowner who was working from home. On one occasion, the homeowner walked out to find the subcontractors walking about aimlessly through his home.
Unfortunately, no prep work was done, so as the workers removed the fireplace and cut through the bricks/sheetrock, dust saturated everything in the home, including every crevice of the scraped hardwood floors and every inch of their new leather couch.
When the workers left after the first day, they didn’t clean anything, and the remaining disaster zone was in total disarray. The contractor promised to have a cleaning crew come the following day, but the crew never arrived. After the homeowners complained about the dust covering the entire house, the workers put plastic OVER the already dust-covered furniture and electronics.
The project continued to go downhill from there. The window the homeowners had eagerly waited so long to arrive was damaged by the workers. The sheetrock was not installed correctly, the roof repair was shoddy and had to be completely redone, the wood floors were irreparably damaged and embedded with dirt. The moving of a gas line led to a suspected gas leak and the homeowners were left without hot water and possibly a dangerous situation if it had not been found. Fortunately, the workers’ cigarettes did not set off a gas explosion, but it did leave the house smelling like cigarette smoke
Finally, in an effort to fix up the house, the workers were told by their supervisor to clean up the dust. They carelessly decided to use a spray bottle of degreaser and paper towels to wipe down the brand-new leather couch. They had also begun to mop the hardwood floors which were covered with dust from the sheetrock and plaster, just spreading the mess even more. None of these actions are recommended by anyone, anywhere, at any time!
Inevitably, the homeowner told them to get out of the house and never come back. He canceled the workers and Modern Blu is helping restore the homeowner’s awful experience.
Unfortunately, there are many other remodel horror stories that could be told – as the time subcontractors moved into a house while the homeowners were away – they even set up beds and a makeshift kitchen in one of the bedrooms!
We want to hear from you… Email us your worst home remodeling experience.
What is the takeaway? Make sure to hire a reputable contractor! Here are five basic, but helpful tips:
- Use a local contractor: If they are in the local area you know how to find them if something goes wrong. Make sure to request that the general contractor not use any new crews for your project.
- Do research on the company: Make sure and check Google or Yelp for reviews. Also, check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure the company hasn’t received complaints about their work.
- Ask for references: Any reputable company should be able to provide references. If they haven’t been in business long enough to be able to provide references, you should choose another company.
- Ask to see proof of liability insurance: This will ensure the company is able to pay for any damages caused by their workers.
- Hide the degreaser: Please, just hide it.