S C YOCUM

UPDATE ON WORK DONE BY S.C. YOCUM Less than 2 years after Skip Yocum did this unacceptable work for us, the stucco finish that he and his workers applied which he assured me would "last for many years" is already flaking and cracking. It appears that in the near future we will have to hire a reputable contractor to repair or redo what the Yocum company did. We have never been as disappointed in a company as we are in this guy! At this point, we feel we can do is warn others! This was by far the worst experience we have ever had with a contractor in my 60 years! Mr. Yocum was recommended to me by an engineering friend (who now regrets it) so I didn't check out Angie's list or BBB. Wish I had - I would have seen the bad ratings and stayed away. Mr. Yocum was very pleasant , congenial and personable when he was bidding the job. We thought the price was high and my wife wanted to get other bids. I however insisted, based on the recommendation of my friend who said this guy did top notch work that I wanted to use this guy because I wanted the job done right the first time so we hired him without question. BIG MISTAKE! When we came home to the original job everything looked fine - the chimney looked nice, and the entire area was cleaned up nicely, In a few days however, things took a turn for the worse. Large gray spots began appearing in the stucco at the bottom of the chimney making it look unsightly especially considering what we had paid for this job. I contacted Mr. Yocum about the problem by phone text and sent pictures and he said he would take care of it "shortly". A week or two later after some hard rains, we noticed that the stucco on the chimney was saturated with moisture showing that the chimney had not been waterproofed. This was included in our original quote and Mr. Yocum stressed its importance during his sales pitch but yet it was never done. I contacted him again and he again said he would take care of both problems "shortly". I contacted him a few more time over the next few months. Sometimes there was no reply and than every now and then he would reply with excuses - the rain or being really busy etc. He always assured me that he would get to it and say that he was going to check over the whole chimney to make sure everything was right. Winter came and I figured the repairs could not be made until spring. I did contact him again in spring and got a reply a few weeks later that he would be over to make the repairs. Fast forward to about 11 months after the chimney was originally completed by Mr. Yocum. Spots continue to get worse and the chimney looks bad -- water is still soaking the finish every time it rains which from what Mr. Yocum told us during his sales pitch is one of the things that leads to a failure in the finish. I had finally had it with all his excuses and failure to respond to my texts or phone calls! I wrote him a letter and gave him two weeks to make the repairs to the chimney. Originally I heard nothing and then I got a phone call from the friend who recommended him who I had copied on the letter as an FYI. He felt bad and got involved with this guy who he had known for many years and who he thought was still reputable and always did good work. He spoke with him on a Monday and Mr. Yocum told him that he would call me that day and get over to make the repair. When my friend called later in the day, he was blown away by the fact that Mr. Yocum had not called me! I told him at this point I had not expected him to. He said he would talk to him again in a couple of days. A few days later my friend told me he spoke to Mr. Yocum again and he would be contacting me for sure. Mr. Yocum did contact me, said he was at our house to make the repairs. He was very irate and annoyed and said "what do you want me to do here today" even though I had been telling him for 11 months and made it very clear in the letter. He said that the waterproofing was not part of his price and I reminded him that it was and that I had sent him a copy of his proposal with my letter to him and it clearly stated that the chimney would be waterproofed as part of the job. He said, in a very irate tone that he would take care of it and then proceeded to tell me that he can be a real pr _ _k, but than stopped and did not say anything else other than he will take care of it. My wife got home before I did and she called me and said - "you are not going to like what you see". She was right -- I got home and found that Mr. Yocum was there to make the repairs. He put some type of bright white coating on the bottom of the chimney although he did not coat all sides of it, and he also "painted a small area on one side at the very top of the chimney leaving our chimney with three different shades of white and looking like we hired a bunch of kids to do the work. I checked the chimney after the next rain and noticed that it appeared he put some type of waterproofing on most of the rest of the chimney. As if we were not upset enough with the way the chimney looked, he left the place a mess. The white stucco or paint type product that he used to coat the bottom of the chimney was slopped all over our walls, windows, screen and deck in an obvious attempt to show us how nasty he can be when ask him to repair his work. He even had this same paint on siding over where you turn on the water faucet which was not even near the chimney!. I was able to scrub off some of the product (after taking lots of pictures) but some areas I will have to repaint. When I showed the pictures to other people including the friend who recommended him it was also pointed out to me that the original job itself was pretty poor --- the finish was different from one area to the other as if different people had done different sections and no one had tried to blend it together. There were also some large voids where the stucco met the wall that should have been caulked to prevent water from getting in behind the stucco. The only good thing about this experience is that my daughter and her husband need work done on the chimney at their house at the same time we did. I strongly suggested Yocum (prior to him doing our job) based on my friends recommendation and they did get a bid from him. They however felt his price was way too high for them and hired another contractor whose price was about 40% of what Mr. Yocum was going to charge and they had no problems with the work that was done! Obviously at this point if we have problems with the work done on the chimney, if the stucco fails etc., we would not expect nor WANT Mr. Yocum to return to correct the problem - I cannot imagine what he would be like to deal after what we have been through with him to date! Do yourself a favor and DO NOT HIRE S.C. YOCUM to do ANY work for you! There are many more masonry contractors out there who will do quality work at a more reasonable price!

Our experience with the SC Yocum company was, unequivocably, the worst we have ever had with any service provider. I don't enjoy saying negative things about any person/company that works for a living; I know times are tough. I can only say I personally would never do business again with them, nor would I recommend them to anyone. Briefly, after we couldn't afford their first estimate, Mr. Yocum came back with a more affordable quote because "they had a couple of free days" between jobs. Perhaps this should have set off alarm bells, but we appreciated his apparent eagerness for our business. Mr Yocum was initially jovial but this quickly changed when we pointed out a number of problems with the work: 1) they offered us either white or gray pointing (we chose white), but the mixture set as a combination--not a light gray but rather a few inches of white followed by gray, etc. I've asked around for an explanation and apparently they didn't mix the concrete properly; 2) they left at the end of the morning of the second day to rush off to another job, leaving concrete pieces about the size of baseballs everywhere in the front yard near their work areas; 3) concrete dust from the job settled everywhere, leaving tiny white spots over many areas; 4) the pointing itself, mixed colors and all, was sloppy and looks amateurish, to say the least. Frankly, it looked like the rush job that it was, with no clean up. When I called them back to complain and inquired about the use of acid or other products to clean, Mr. Yocum said he never heard of that and instead tried to use a power water wash, which by the time they came back to address my concerns did not do the job. When I complained that I would not pay them until they cleaned up my yard and attempted to fix these issues, Mr. Yocum became irate. Rather than bore you with the details of this exchange and the rest of the story, I'll simply say that the entire experience was heartbreaking in that our porch looked no better than when they started, and in some cases (the concrete dust, for example), worse. I've had other companies subsequently look at the porch, and they were astonished by the carelessness and poor work quality. There are a lot of good masons out there. Do yourself a favor and keep looking.

Mr Yocum came to my house and gave me two estimated to repoint and waterproof the brick. I could not afford the whole job, so I agreed to have fixed the areas that needed to be done, which was extensive, and the entire brick surface waterproofed. I gave him a downpayment and he told me that they were very busy, but he would fit me in for October. They did the repointing on Wednesday and did the waterproofing this morning, Saturday. They are working 7 days a week because of weather problems this summer and fall. They do very neat work. I am impressed with the owner of the company and the quality of their work. I would recommend this company and will use them again.