Blackstone Restoration Group,Inc

Overall things went well, however hope a little more could have been done

It went very well. They were very good.

Blackstone was recommended to my by someone in my insurance agent's office. It appears to me to be a general contractor. They contracted with what seems to me to have been 4 separate subcontractors, of varying responsiveness & quality, which is why my overall rating is B. We dealt with Lou, who was pleasant, attentive and cooperative, although not always immediately responsive - I had to prod him for responses now & then. He put up with a great deal of indecisiveness from us - we kept changing our minds about the scope of work, both in large & small matters - and never once did he even intimate that he was annoyed, which I would have been if I were in his shoes. He gave us good advice about work we should think about having done. (I do believe, however, that he should have supervised the floor work more closely, as you will see from what I've written below. ) At no point did we feel that Lou was trying to oversell us. The portion of the work that was covered by insurance was done within the insurance specs & at the cost stated by the insurance. (Incidentally, this was State Farm & their estimates were entirely fair - even generous - and their service was everything we could have wished.) The additional work appears to me to have been priced fairly. Painting: B. The painters were cooperative but inattentive to detail when it came to things like cutting in & painting everything that needed painting. So we had to keep an eye on their work. When we wanted things done over, or little differently, they did it without complaint. One of them suggested an improvement in the kitchen, involving an exhaust fan, which has turned out to work quite nicely. Electrical: A. Excellent all the way around. The subcontractor was Adrian Man aka Delta Electrical Industries. He & his assistant were very knowledgeable & responsive. We put in one set of lights in the hall & living room, decided we didn't like them, & had them taken out & different new ones installed. There were issues involving placement of wired smoke detectors, and exactly where it was possible to hang lights (this being a vintage building). These guys helped us get it right. Flooring: C. This was the weak point in the services. Our kitchen floor needed rehabbing & required some wood to be replaced. The first time around, they didn't replace everything that needed replacing. Then they claimed to be able to replace wood with old wood that matched up with the existing wood, but ultimately said they didn't have the old wood after all. So now the kitchen floor has obviously been patched, since the new wood does not have quite the aged look the old wood has. They missed appointments without calling me. They kept sending out different guys who I had to bring up to date on what needed doing. They told Lou that I had told them not to bother with the wood under the refrigerator, which I did not do. We are not very happy with the outcome, although we can live with it, and not entirely convinced that it could not have been done better. My guess is that they underbid the job. Carpeting: B. Our bedroom carpeting needed to be totally replaced. The carpeting subcontractor was a nice kid, but not someone who could guide us in selecting the right carpeting. That is, if we had known exactly what we wanted, he probably could have provided it, but he wasn't able to point us in the direction we needed to look to decide what to get. So we went to an outside provider (Home One) to get our carpeting.

I was pleased with their prompt and professional response to our flood crisis on a day when most of the city was under a severe flood watch. I called several providers in the morning that I identified on Angie's list and none returned my calls. I was facing more than 12" of water in my finished basement and was desperately looking for relief. Blackstone was recommended to me by a friend who had endured a similar crisis. Blackstone answered my phone call and was at my home within an hour with equipment to pump the water out of the basement, the next day had crews ready to remove damaged property and ordered a dumpster. They worked with my insurance carrier to complete the restoration and renovation of my basement so that I did not pay for any of the work. All of the employees were great to work with. Blackstone installed new floor tile, walls, painted, and carpentry work. The carpenter was highly experienced and performed masterful woodwork. They were efficient and responsive to our tastes and requests. The crews were respectful, pleasant, and friendly. As is common in this type of work, the male crews were lax in clean-up, however, they responded well to my reminders about cleaning up and paying attention to details. Overall I was very impressed and pleased with Blackstone as was my friend who recommended them to me.