Zilco LLC

Rick was absolutely a pleasure to work with. I received 3 quotes to remove 900 sq ft of popcorn asbestos in our home and he came in at the best price and was the most responsive. He moved super quickly, he was able to do the work within 7 days, and his crew finished the work in 1.5 days. The house was spotless when they left and his crew and team called throughout the process to keep me posted on if there were any hiccups (needing to take down some cabinets that were in the way) & when they were finished. I HIGHLY recommend working with Zilco NW - it was such an easy process & excellent work.

We had an inspection of our attic done by a good company and were told we had a significant mold problem. We needed it removed asap and got a recommendation from this inspection company of another company with whom they had worked often, a company in their opinion that did a good job in mold remediation. This company is Zilco in Portland, OR The owner of Zilco, Rick Zillmer, came out, saw our mold situation, sat with us and explained the process as we asked our questions. We told him from the onset that we would be wanting a re-inspect from the first company upon the completion of Zilco’s work. When we asked for a ‘ballpark’ estimate, he replied he thought it would be ‘in the $2000 range’. I responded with (probably) raised eyebrows and a soft, ‘Wow,’ to which he replied, ‘Well it will be a full two days’ work’ (his quote).’ We were seeing this as at least a two-man crew job since Mr Zillmer used phrases such as ‘we’ and ‘they’ when describing the work to be done. He sent an email verification of the estimate, stating the amount to be $2180. Yes, a large sum of money for us, but the work as he described it to us (several labor intensive steps involved) and his assertion of the time involved for the re-mediation appeared to warrant the amount and we assumed this estimate included any follow-up called for by the re-inspection. We don’t question the quality of Zilco’s work for us. In fact, the re-inspection by the first company assessing whether all mold had been taken care of gave a thumbs up to the Zilco team. This first company took photos of the completed space, showed us photos of the work and commented that all areas had been remediated well. All this aside, though, we were left with a very bad taste about the end cost of the project and the following explains why. Three persons, not two, arrived to do the work, the lead man mentioning this twice to us. To us this implied it may be finished before a full two days. However, after just 3-1/2 hours this crew leader told me they were finished with the entire job. Doing the math on this, with our original belief it would be a two-man crew over ‘two full days’, we arrived, in our minds, of a proposed total of 32 man hours of work (8 hrs x 2 days x 2 workers). What actually transpired, however, with a three-man crew, was a total of 10-1/2 man hours (3.5 hours x 3 workers). To us, this total of man hours actually accrued was roughly only one-third the man hours upon which Mr. Zillmer based his estimate, since he’d stated it would ‘be a full two days’ work.’ Even if we ‘throw in’ a few hours to account for ‘extra’ time Mr Zillmer felt could be his due for the re-inspect, this total still falls short of his time estimate by more than half. However, we maintain we do not see the re-inspect time/man hours as ‘extra’ since Mr Zillmer knew of our intention for a re-inspect before he gave his estimate. I called Mr Zillmer when the crew left to talk with him about how we were seeing this: that his estimate was overstated based on the actual time it took to complete the job, even with the three-person crew. I included, ‘I think $2,000 for 3-1/2 hours work is very high,’ assuming his logic would show him this, too. His response: we needed to consider the travel time, the wear and tear on the negative vacuum machine, and the expense of filters for it. I thought this was a bogus response while I mentally noted that all of these things had already been worked into his original estimate. This is how estimators estimate, isn’t it? I kept silent after he defended his estimate at which point he then went on to say that, not knowing if the re-inspect would show more work needing to be done, he’d wait until the next day when the re-inspect was finished and he’d be willing at that time to talk with me about a lesser cost. I thanked him for his willingness to look at this issue the next day. The re-inspect happened the next day, with the crew having shown up a half-hour earlier to set up the neg vac. The inspection happened and the remediation was given a clean bill of health. At this point, the crew leader stepped inside to say he’d just spoken with the owner and that a check for $2180 could be written. I hesitated and then asked if the owner had indicated anything to him about a reduced amount. He said not but suggested I may call the owner. I was put off by a couple of things in this situation: I felt it was quite poor customer relations in that Rick Zillmer had his crew leader ask for the full amount of the estimate when just the previous day he had indicated he’d be willing to reduce the estimate if the re-inspect showed no additional work was needed. He was putting the onus on me to bring this up with him instead of the other way around. The owner of Zilco should have called me after hearing the work was completed and initiated a reduced amount. Instead, I had to do all the work in the conversation that ensued. Upon answering his phone, he offered nothing except a ‘Yes?’ after I identified myself. I needed to remind him of all that we’d both talked about the previous day. At the end of this he paused for a few seconds, at which point he said, ‘Well, I can see that I can reduce it to an even $2,000.’ I replied, ‘I was hoping for a few hundred dollars’ reduction, seeing as the work itself was done in one-third the time you’d stated.’ He stood by his reduction to $2000. I could not ever recommend anyone use Zilco for any remediation work. I have the impression that Mr. Zillmer assessed the situation thusly: ‘They know the total. They agreed to the total. They have the total amount. I will get that total amount.’

Everything went smoothly. I had an independent mold inspector check back 2 months later to assure that mold was gone. She found that they did an excellent job with the exception of some leftover debris and small area of mold not cleaned. I sent them the report and they scheduled to come back out and complete the work. They were easy to work with.

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I scheduled an appointment for an estimate with Rick. He showed up on time, briefly surveyed the situation, and I received a quote from him via email. After receiving his quote (and one other), I hired a mold consultant (The Mold Reporters) to help me sort through the very different options. I forwarded the report from The Mold Reporters to Rick to see if it impacted his quote; he told me it did not. Once I decided I was going to use Zilco, I emailed them a pdf of the signed contract, and set up the appointment via email. Rick worked with me via email to verify the best time to schedule a verification visit by The Mold Reporters. Garth and Mike showed up at 8 am on the scheduled day. They got to work right away, and finished the first phase of the remediation at 12:30. My verification appointment with The Mold Reporters was at 2:00, so Garth and Mike left, and returned at 2:00 in order to be present when The Mold Reporters did their walk through. They left after the walk-through (everything looked good), and returned the next morning at 8 am to finish the work (to apply sealant/paint to the areas they scrubbed/cleaned). They were done and out of my house by 9:45 or so. The Mold Reporters told me that the job looked good, that the containment was done very nicely. In addition to the mold work, the crew helped rearrange some of my insulation to make it more even, and took a look at another potential issue in my house. They also wiped down surfaces (e.g., on top of my door trim) in my house with a mold killing agent. I would hire this company again. Their price was excellent, their work ethic excellent, and per the mold consultant, the work they performed resolved my mold issue.

The owner is a really nice guy and very competent, however, the billing department was extremely unprofessional. I talked to the owner and advised him, that I have used my banks bill pay and you will be receiving the money according to the bank on July 24th. The accounting department was really upset stating they need to be paid the day they finish the work. This left a very bad expericene for me. When someone hassels me over money I do not want to do business with them.

The 4 man team, led by Garth, was here exactly on time. They were professional in all respects and did an outstanding job. Everything was removed and the area thoroughly cleaned. They offered to leave the heap filter machine in place overnight to dry the area. Garth returned the next day, again on time, to take the equipment away and do some additional cleanup. Extremely professional. Excellent work. Don't look any further, call Zilco.

Rick Zillmer came out the next day to give us an estimate on the attic remediation. Noting that it was too wet in the attic to perform the remediation, he instructed us to get the house re-shingled first to prevent any further damage and allow the attic to dry out. When notified that the roof was finished, he waited about 2 weeks for it to dry out, then started the work. After discussing the mold infestation in our house, it was decided that the best course of action would not only be remediating the attic, but also completely cleaning our house and garage as well. Hourly rates were discussed and agreed upon before work began. Rick was on site during the start of the remediation. He went over everything with me and his foreman. He purchased the cleaning supplies necessary for use due to our families chemical sensitivities. The foreman, Garth, was my main point of contact the remainder of the project. This was fine - Garth was an outstanding foreman, very knowledgable in mold remediation, friendly and professional. It was like having Rick on -site at all times! The team of 5 or 6 started immediately taking out mold infested sheetrock in the skylight well. They set up containment areas to limit/eliminate transfer of mold spores from one part of the house/attic to the other. Large air filters were brought in, and they started work in the attic. They started cleaning the house - wiping down everything, putting into boxes, and also packing all of our laundry into large bags for us to launder later. The garage was last - they wiped down everything in our garage (can you imagine!), and boxed things up similar to the procedure in the house. The house passed all inspections from an independent mold investigator after remediation was complete. We even had this independent investigator come back about 2 weeks later and mold levels were still well above 'passing'. We were still experiencing mold irritations, so we had Zilco come back out to take a look at the attic and help us troubleshoot. Both Rick and Garth came out on a Saturday morning before Garth had a tee-ball game to go to! They walked through the attic with my and pointed out areas that looked like mold, but were really just staining caused by the old mold growth (we elected not to have our attic coated with Kilz due to our chemical sensitivities, so seeing this staining is very common). They further went through the exact areas were we seemed to be having the problems and we NAILED IT! Garth and Rick pointed out 2 areas that were causing us trouble and gave us advice on how to fix it. For this hour of their time, they only accepted a diet coke for payment!!! My only 'complaint' was that it seemed the level of care taken in wiping off some of the objects before being boxed up seemed to vary between the individual workers and was a little 'hit-or-miss'. We ended up wiping everything off again as we took items out of the boxes. My mother-in-law and I just spent the weekend going through the garage again because this seemed to be an area that never really got completely clean (we never had tested, so I can't verify this with nothing other than my nose). I found some interesting things boxed together - the funniest was my jumper cables in with 2 patio cushions and 2 leather tool belts in a 'launder' bag! :) Overall, i think they did an excellent job. Garth was extremely professional and their customer service was phenomenal. I was only disappointed in the 'hit-or-miss' cleaning of boxed items. I don't wish mold infestations on anybody, but would recommend them to anybody who finds themselves in need of their services!!!

It all went very well. Rick was responsive to scheduling restrictions at my end. They did a great job of containment. They did not do some encapsulating that was in the original proposal, because they decided it was unnecessary, but they did more than expected in the bathroom walls and ceilings. So the original bid amount was still met. Since their AL listing mentioned to ask about a SR discount, I did, but Rick indicated that he never claimed to offer a Sr discount and suggested we see how it goes. That was as far as it went. But the work was good, including a final report documenting the total removal of mold for my insurance company. I would definitely use him again.

We were very satisfied with the work done and the cleanup. Rick closely monitored the operation. He returned Sunday and Monday during the drying out and air scrubbing to check on the condition of the areas involved. He was very easy to work with and gave many helpful suggestions regarding restoration of affected areas.

They are excellent. They were on time. We paid exactly what they gave us in the estimate. They were very professional. They were actually early for their appointment. There were no pores after they left. Everything was taken away and I was very happy with their work. They were even willing to start on a Saturday, they are very flexible and willing to help.

We had mold testing done by a separate company and they recommended Zilco Environmental to do the remediation work. We received three bids and theirs was the most reasonable. Mold remediation has a reputation for some contractors frightening people into getting more work done than is actually needed. I felt confident that Rick was honest with us. The actual work was done by a crew led by Garth and although we were surprised that we never saw Rick, the workers were polite and professional. The work was completed on time and on budget.