INSTAR SERVICES GROUP

The house was built in conjunction with the A&E television show "Disaster Guy". The home took close to a month to complete which was the premise of the show. However Instar moved on to the next job previous to completing my home. They continue to have "punch list " items here in my home 15 months later. Overall this house was done well, it's in the incomplete items that I have an issue with and the lack of customer service, competent help and craftmanship. The last straw is my most recent issue in which the tile in the master bath is allowing for a leak into my kitchen through the cieling. This occured sept. of this year. The grout had fallen out of the corners of our daughters shower as well as the master shower. It had been redone in febraury of 2012 due to the same issue. Not correctly. It is now going on 8 weeks and I have 3 holes for the holidays in my kitchen ceiling and a pan in which to catch the water. Instar sent one of their sub contractors to address the issue about 6 weeks ago. He said he needed 2 weeks to match the correct sand type kaulking to my grout. Three weeks later a worker for him showed up at 4:30 pm, without notice, carrying 3 tubes of opened kaulking. I spoke to him and reminded him that he needed to remove the cracked falling out grout previous to applying the kaulk in which he responed he would. He went back to his truck and was speaking with his boss, on speaker phone, and I over heard the voice say to kaulk over it and get it done. I waited 15 minutes before checking to find him applying white kaulking over the grout. I said that the grout in my shower is dark brown, not white to which he responded, we are going to tint it with the grout tint we used on your floor. The grout on my floor is not brown either. At this point I asked him to leave. The next day I went to a hardware store, matched the kaulk, in less that 5 minutes. I spent 4 hours cleaning out the old and replacing it with the proper compound and the corners are right and tight again. The tile at the shower door still leaks and requires a tile contractor as I want it done right. I have another contractor coming to look but wont get to it until the holidays are over since Instar ony informed him 3 days ago opposed to the 2 weeks ago they told me. I can't say how this ends yet, my saving grace is the hold back I still possess.

InStar rushed the job. The company did the work very fast. I'm not sure how the waterproofing went, but I had water in the basement just a few weeks after the remodel. That's when I started to look at the details of the job, which was done in my absence. The major problem: InStar put vinyl laminate floor directly on concrete in a damp basement. There was no vapor barrier or subfloor. So water seeped under the laminate and stayed there. The laminate floor curled and was permanently ruined. I pulled it up myself. I ran a fan in the basement, and within an hour the floor was dry from the slimy water the laminate had been holding. Then I had to dispose of the ruined (yet new) laminate flooring myself. Also, the edges of some drywall by one of the doors was left open, with exposed crumbling white drywall. There was no vapor barrier installed behind the drywall either. There were three valves in the ceiling for turning on various outside spigots. The company almost completely enclosed two and left one less than half exposed. So I cannot turn on the outside water or have any access for plumbers or checking for leaks. I tried turning one valve using a hammer and screwdriver, but it caused damage to the ceiling. Lastly, when I called InStar to talk to the project manager, he didn't return my three phone messages. I researched the company further, and it is a national chain with very mixed reviews.