COLFAX CORPORATION

Colfax did the work itself in a timely and competent way, but were inexplicably unaware of the technical and procedural requirements for the job. Their incompetence resulted in fines, delays and extra expense. In their proposal, Colfax said that they would "be responsible for notification to IDPH and the City of Chicago Lead Environmental which requires a 7 day notice prior to the start of the project." They performed the work without providing either notification, and because of this failure we, along with Colfax, were issued summonses by the inspector. When I pointed out that they had not performed critical work specified in their own proposal, they responded that "The proposal inadvertently included a mention of fees which does not apply for lead work, only asbestos work. This statement is part of a ?boiler plate? proposal which should have been deleted before sending." In the face of all evidence, they continue to deny that either the CDPH regulations or the terms of the signed proposal obligated them to perform the notification. Colfax also did not understand what was required for most of the items on the mitigation plan, coded as "WSP," and did not seek clarification. They called for an inspection after scraping and priming (which was all that was specified in the proposal) and the inspection failed because we hadn't done finish painting. The job supervisor was completely surprised that finish painting was required by the mitigation plan, and said that the inspector "can't make you do that." As it turns out, this assertion was not correct. Colfax made no attempt to remedy the situation. We hired another contractor to do the finish painting. After we received the summonses and out of concern for their own legal situation, they repeatedly emailed me to pressure me into completing the finish painting.

Efficient and prompt.

lVery well , except they left screws in the stairs, even after they removed the metal strips and asbestos tile and painted the stairs with one coat of white primer.

Colfax was phenomenal.

I contacted them before we moved into the house to schedule some work. They came out to the house the next day and gave me a very reasonable estimate. They told me that they worked on schools during the beginning part of the summer and I would have to wait a little to get the work done if I wanted the price they quoted. I was more than happy to wait knowing that the company was reputable enough to be removing asbestos in schools. They arrived a month and a half later as scheduled and performed fantastic work. I was very impressed with the company and with their employees.

We had contacted five comepanies, but Colfax was the only one from Angie's List. They were thorough on the phone as to the fact that they did supply the services we were looking for and discussed with us the process that they would take to solve the issues. With an older apartment building (80 years old), we had original windows that needed to be removed because of the lead-based paint on them. Colfax came out to the appointment when they said they would and walked though the steps in the process. They were licensed in removal of lead-based paint (necessary for City of Chicago work) and they came with a copy of the license. They gave us a bid within five days and the pricing was less that any of the other non-Angie's List companies. Colfax set the appointment, arrived when they said they would and compleetd the work within a couple of hours. They also helped us walk through separate solutions (incluing scraping, priming and repainting the windows). We chose to remove the old windows and replace them with new windows. Our company - Chicago Apartment Source - has ben in business for 30 years owning and managing buildings in Chicago. We have never had issues such as this, but are glad we found Colfax through Angie's List. We hope we don't need them again, but if we do, they will be the first ones we call.

I would recommend them, they were great.

Their quote came in significantly less (under half!) to their closest competitor, who wanted to be there for several days. Alex (the supervisor) brought in a crew of about ten people, all who were very cordial, and knocked it out in a single morning. They left a few people to wait for a third party air sample firm to confirm the air was clean (it was, first shot). The crew did a wonderful job, between closing up the area for contamination to leaving it absolutely spotless afterwards, with the materials nicely bagged in appropriate hazardous waste bags and carted off for legal disposal. The site supervisor was quite courteous and gave me cards with the cells of some of the workers (as we were obviously not able to go into the workzone while they were in respirators, etc). Would highly recommend them for a professional job, well done.

Their bid was about $4,000.00 lower than the other bid I received from another contractor. We called them and they showed up the next day and removed the asbestos. They cleaned up after the job was done.

They came out promptly and provided a quote within a few days. Their price was higher than another quote we got from a competitor. We will most likely hire the other company for this reason.

I didn't get a call back from my 1st phone message but called again a week later and spoke to Gary. He apologized for the unreturned call and came out the same day to give an estimate. He took tile/mastic samples from the sunroom and basement and explained to my husband that there would be a $25 fee for testing each sample, to be waived if we chose to use them for the removal. When he called with the test results, he said that the tile and mastic (glue) from the same room each counted as a separate sample, so we would owe $100 for the testing if we did not use them. My husband felt somewhat deceived, as his understanding was that the tile and mastic from the same area would count as 1 sample, so he thought we should only be charged $50. I don't know if he was just misunderstood or misled, since I was not there for the conversation. There was difficulty getting a return phone call after we decided to give them the job. Once scheduled, the crew was on time, professional, and did a fine job.

Kurt explained to me that references for residential customers were "not worth his time". He said that if he had the job, he would "provide everything I need". Kurt also said that it was too much work to rummage through files just for me. He said that it was a lot of "red tape". Other companies were happy and willing to provide references.

They were able to schedule the work right away, and the techs showed up on time. We were a very small job for them, so the follow through (getting the reports back, etc.) took a little bit of effort. Overall, it was a good experience.

Worker showed up early for the job and were done before noon. The job was clean and quick. With the air sample all was said and done by 1pm. I was quoted for an all day job and thought that should have been reflected in the final price since no on site estimate was preformed by Colfax. Overall I was satisfied with Colfax, mainly because they were the only company who would give me a ballpark estimate on a property that I hadn't owned at the time.

Denis Malloy at Colfax's office set up the job in a helpful and competent manner. Carlos and Mike arrived at the house reasonably on time on the appointed day. They set up quickly and went to work, and arranged for the air sampling technician to arrive at the appropriate time. The job was completed by 3pm, and they left my basement cleaner than when they arrived. I would have no reservations about hiring them again, if I ever buy another 100-year-old house.

NEAT AND TIDY JOB. WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WORKERS WERE ON THE PREMISES EXCEPT FOR THE FACT ALL THE ABESTOS WAS GONE.

I SPOKE WITH ANDY WHO ANSWERED ALL OF MY QUESTIONS TO MY SATISFACTION. HE WAS ABLE TO GIVE ME A ROUGH QUOTE OVER THE PHONE, BUT I HAD HIM COME OUT ANYWAY TO GET AN OPINION ON REMOVAL VS. CLEANUP OF THE EXISTING ENCAPSULATION. IN THE END, ALTHOUGH THEY OFFERED A VERY GOOD PRICE, I DID NOT USE THIS COMPANY, BUT INSTEAD USED A COMPANY LISTED ON ANGIE'S LIST FOR $100 MORE.