First Restoration Services of Asheville

The remodel did not go well. The contractor assigned to our project was very unprofessional as well as the painters, carpet layers, hard wood floor installers and carpenters were hardly craftsman in their trades. Their work was sloppy, as I am constantly finding and fixing poorly finished work. When I approached the contractor, with my concerns, he was very dismissive, basically leaving it up to me to instruct his employees on how to complete work correctly. There were other delays as well, as they attempted to use cheap materials in their work and projects had to be re-done. As a remediation company, they were great, yet their "restoration"/re-modeling work was to be desired.

This is a tale of two reviews. They needed to perform two jobs, first was drying the house, and the second was the repair. My first review is about the first crew who led the drying operation. These guys were terrific. I first called my insurance company the evening when we got home about the flood. The first guy was there by 10 am the next day to start the drying process, and by the end of the day they had the whole house fully set up with industrial grade dehumidifiers and fans. They came by every day like clock work and checked the moisture levels. They called every day with a status update to let me know how close we were, where they were still finding moisture, and how much longer they thought it would be. Within about 5 days the house was dry, they let me know, and they had all their equipment removed. So after this operation I was completely fine with them going forward with the repair. Things started out fine. We had issues with the independent adjuster first, meeting deadlines, and then had some fights about what would be covered in the repair. The PM, Carmelo Velez, was intially very easy to work with and held his own against the adjuster. After about two weeks they finally settled on a number. Thats when things started going downhill with him. Right off the bat, he told me, not in so many words, but that our job was small, and that without notice he'd have to pull people out for emergencies(bigger jobs). So i already got the feeling our job wasn't too important. Seeing as how my family was displaced, with a 2 and 5 yr old, we were already feeling stressed and anxious to get this job started. It started with me constantly having to ask about pricing for replacement kitchen cabinets, to which he kept telling me "i will drop off a brochure." This went on for about 3 days. Every day it was, "this afternooon, tomorrow morning at the latest." After the third time being told this I simply asked, when is this going to happen cause this is the third time you told me this. His response was, "Josh, I don't sit around the office all day looking for things to do. We are a busy operation. I have to wait for you to finalize your product selections and then i'll have to finalize the estimate yet again." This was the most unprofessional, discourteous response I've ever received. If this guy couldn't simply deliver some paper to me on time, nor could he show the slightest bit of professionalism after repeatedly not delivering, it made me realize there was no way I could count on him delivering on a construction project. I work as a project manager myself, and this is NOT how you treat your customers. If i promise to deliver something, I deliver it, and if something comes up, I reach out to them and explain the delay. Further more, I NEVER take a snide and sarcastic attitude. Not to mention of of those estimate redo's was because he slipped in a completely unneeded repair for over $400 that i called him out on, and another $800 repair that we previously agreed not to include. The only redo that was caused by me, was after we went over the insurance estimate, i had them change it to accommodate upgrades I wanted to do, and jobs I would do myself. I wouldn't recommend this company if you have a small job. And for the record, this small job was quoted at $18,000. There are plenty of contractors who would be happy to have this work, and it wasn't hard finding a replacement who was happy to take the job, and treated me with respect.

The process was smooth and they were very professional!

The team was professional and quick to respond. Evaluated the damage and began work immediately. Very thorough and made sure everything was dry before removing equipment.

Excellent job on my home. Great team of friendly people.

At first we were impressed with the crew that came out to tarp and assess damages. They were prompt and seemed thorough....until the next rain storm when half of our house flooded due to incorrect tarping on our roof. This caused further damage to our home requiring the floors to be replaced. FRS did agree to cover the cost since they were at fault, however, our original floor was not available and neither was anything comparable in color and pattern in the given price range. Our original floors were dark wood color, the closest replacement was grey. We were very disappointed to lose the floors that we loved and have to settle for something. In addition to the second loss at FRS fault, all subcontractors hired through FRS were very unprofessional. They would show up at random without a phone call or scheduling ahead. The quality of work was terrible. The roofer, drywall company, and flooring installers all had to be called back to fix mistakes that they made. We have a bubble in our floor that "cannot be fixed" according to the installer. The contract stated that work would be completed on Oct. 3rd 2016. Work was actually completed on November 18th. We were extremely disappointed in FRS and the subcontractors: Carpet City and Lawson's Home Improvement, which I plan to address in separate reviews for the individual companies. They made an already incredibly stressful experience so much worse and I will not recommend them to anyone.

Project went well! No complaints, looking forward to the next one.

Assessed the situation and called us to make a few decisions. Pulled cove base, moved bookcases and shelving, and mopped and brought huge air dryers for the areas, as there is no through air circulation. Later I think they sprayed with a pet-friendly mildewcide. We didn't need to replace any of the linoleum! They also checked the downspouts and found one had gotten clogged on the uphill side of the house, which may have contributed to the problem. After we got back, they came and moved everything back in place and took out the styrofoam risers that the unmovable furniture was resting on. We followed their recommendation to install a french drain along the entire back wall of the house, that is in the hill, and a sump pump. We've never had water problems since. And they trusted us to handle payment when we returned, which was 10 days later!

Their guys were prompt, professional and courteous. No complaints. They got us back in out house in five days after the dry out and then the insurance work took another 6 weeks. They held my wife's hand through it all.

The representative was very excitable, not calm or reassuring at all, and had a habit of interrupting me by raising his voice and talking over me. He seemed alarmed by the extent of the problem. I later learned that mold was not our worst problem. The main drain had a tear and had been leaking sewage contaminated water all over everything. Evidently, he was not knowledgable enough to know this even though he waded into it and assessed the situation first hand. I was able to tell as soon as I put on PPE and started the clean up myself. Over a week later, another representative from this company called to see about scheduling services and was very surprised to hear that we had an emergency involving contaminated water. By that time, the situation was being remedited by another company.

1st Restoration arranged their cleaning and their new installation phases to work around the other contractor involved in this massive project, the company who was replacing our entire HVAC system. 1st Restoration completed the cleaning and removal prior to the new HVAC system being installed, then returned once that contractor had finished, installing the waterproof sheeting once all the heavy traffic and equipment would no longer puncture or tear it.

They came in and dried out the water damage.

It was great. Very helpful and good service.

I contacted them just to get the drying services as I had a carpenter do the removal of wet flooring, cabinets and drywall after a leaking dishwasher ruined the wood floors. They inspected for free, gave a reasonable quote, provided the drying services while we were out of town, worked with our carpenter to coordinate, and came in under their bid. They didn't push too much looking for further problems and accepted my limited request without a problem.

Provided equipment & services related to drying our crawl space area under home resulting from a major water tank leak.

First Restoration employees were prompt, punctual, and competent. Mitigation began almost immediately and each step was explained to me in sufficient detail. I was so impressed with how everything was done that I also had them take care of the restoration aspect of the job. The process took place over a several-week period as we waited for things to dry out, new tile to set, paint to dry, and sub-contractors to complete their part. The end result was highly satisfactory. This disaster was not easy for me to handle and First Restoration employees' competence and understanding helped tremendously. Each and every employee with whom I dealt inspired confidence. That they are also skilled and knowledgeable about how difficult it can be to deal with a disaster inspired more than confidence. I am grateful that my insurance agent recommended them. I hope never to need their services again, however, I would definitely call them if I do.

Upon first contact, I felt the workers were courteous and diligent in their duties. the experience continued to go south after the first few days. We found MANY items packed away that were wet, (textbooks, paperwork, pictures, etc) that we did not know about until going back through the stuff, we just trusted that everything had been handled correctly. After a couple months of sitting in boxes like that, they are ruined, and I have no desire to go through the hassle of compensation. On their website they say they have been in business for some 25 yrs. but this was under Chris Sillman, and Shawn Sillman seems to be in charge now and is far from stellar in his services. He continually refused to return calls that were quite important. On their website under the process information, they state you are to sign a contract and THEN go to their warehouse to pick out the rebuild supplies. Why would I agree to prices on products I have not seen? When I addressed this, I was told it was not a requirement to use their warehoused goods, but this is not stated in their information. When I inquired as to what subcontractors they would choose to do the rebuild (in writing) there was no response at all. At this point I decided to do the work myself and save about $6,000.00 from their quoted estimate. I would not chose them again for any of their services.

Insurance company were the cause of any hang ups. Not first Restoration.

Discovered what appeared to be a large amount of water in my "crawl" space when having furnace serviced. In 5 years living here we've never seen water in there, and it appeared to be quite significant. We called First Restoration and they came out exactly the time we requested. First they did not make us wait a moment, they showed up about 5 minutes before the time we requested! Second, after looking at the situation, the service technician told us it was something we could easily take care of ourselves! then he spent 5-10 minutes telling us exactly how to do this ourselves! To me when a company is willing to tell you how to do something so you don't have to hire them, it is a sign of extreme honesty! I would hire them in a jiffy when/if we do find ourselves needing smoke or water damage repairs. Before he left we also had him come in and assess a water stain/mold spot on our ceiling from a previous (now repaired) roof leak. Again, he told us two options: One that would involve hiring to have sheet rock replaced - the other to do it ourselves and see how it works. Again, Extremely honest and professional. And again, if our attept doesn't work, they will be the company I call to have the work done! Family and locally owned, professional, prompt, and honest! Not easy to find these days

An extraordinary experience. To say that having a fire in your home is stressful is an understatement. But the people at First Restoration did everything they could to alleviate as much of the stress as possible. They not only provided the equipment we needed, they gave us information, and helped us know what to expect and what to do. We knew we needed help cleaning the house, because literally every single surface and item in all 2,400 sf was covered in smoke and soot. But it still wasn't fun to think about strangers coming in and handling everything we own. But the team of professionals from First Restoration was just that. Professional. Showing up on time every day for two full weeks, with smiles on their faces and incredible patience, they returned our home to a place of order and removed the feel and smell of soot far more quickly than we ever could have managed on our own...if we could have managed it at all. Because my husband and I both work from home, we had some unique scheduling needs that they bent over backwards to accommodate, never once indicating that it was the least bit inconvenient for them to do so. We never felt anything but grateful to have their help, and are thrilled by the quality and thoroughness of their work. And grateful to have insurance to cover it!