Steven E Jaymes Contractor Inc

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Mr. Jaymes was extremely prompt and responsive. He was highly recommended by two co-workers. I contacted him via email and he came out to assess the project within a few days. He gave a fair estimate for the job and noted he could begin as soon as the materials were ordered. He sent us web pages we could use to pick samples -- to save us time. We did all communication via email -- which is more convenient for us. His staff showed up promptly on the day the job was to begin. The entire project was done a day ahead of schedule. We are impressed with the quality of the job and the professional way the entire process was handled.

Both jobs went great. There was a mix up on the color of the deck railing, but we worked through that. I watched how meticulous the crew was with measurements, checking and double checking. I would highly recommend him.

We had a contractor in to do floor leveling after pulling up carpet and tile to discover a large crack front-to-back through the entire house where the north end of the house had sunk by 3". I asked the contractor if he thought I should consult with a structural engineer. He gave me the name and number of Regan, Matonak, and Associates. I dealt directly with Dan Matonak who assessed the structure and original problem. He also walked around the entire house and found an additional problem! He saw that the brick was bowing about 3/4" inch at the back. The upper level of the house is open at ground level to the back yard, while the lower level opens at ground level to the front yard. In other words, the back of the house is in a hill. His assessment was that the bowing was caused by inward deflection of cinder block wall at about 30" below ground level, without even seeing the cinder block. He said "If you remove that wood paneling, I think you'll find cinder block and I think you'll also find a 1/8" or so horizontal crack going along the entire back wall". He was completely correct! He recommended several possible companies to do the repair of the block using different mechanisms. The least costly of these was using "The Reinforcer" which was installed by Steven E. Jaymes contracting company of Chambersburg, PA. The work was done in MD and they were done in a morning. The epoxy is very smelly, but the smell was dissipated in a few days. The great things about this solution compared to putting in steel pillars or trenching the outside and putting rebar into the existing blocks are: 1) less expensive. Since I removed all of the wood paneling and insulating myself, exposing the back wall, I saved a few thousand dollars. If I hadn't already planned on doing this to replace the insulation, it may have been more expensive than trenching out the back yard and putting rebar into the block, but not by much. That was a lot of labor 2) the carbon fiber strips are very thin and it is easy to put insulating and finish wall back up over them. I replaced the insulation with higher quality Dow Foamular and then put paneling back up and painted it. It looks a lot better than before and has better insulation category 3) they give a lifetime transferable warranty on the repair. These strips are so strong, they will never break 4) I get all the cracks sealed with epoxy, effectively water-proofing the back wall, even though that wasn't a major concern. There was dampness under the existing insulation, but it's nice and try now.