East Coast Restoration LLC

Description of Work: Restore End table and coffee table

Description of Work: Over 7,000 sq. feet of historic home roofing needs to be stripped of old coatings and recent (Dec,. 2010) faulty coating by local painter and a "one word paint company" representative. It is such a disaster that it has been almost impossible to find anyone who would attempt to tackle the problem. It will be an incredible job and estimating the man hours it will take to accomplish the task:. completely strip and seal the roof.. then coat with product/s that will insure preservation of the roof. is a real feat in itself. Virtually every contractor consulted simply want to remove the grand old terne roof (1900 era) and replace it with a new metal roof.. which will devalue the historic value of the home. I began to look for roofing in the historic area that had obviously been recoated recently and the same name kept popping up: David Straight. A long time resident of Summerville who had recently used his services (and her roof looks GREAT!) couldn't say enough in praise of him and his crew. Reading the prior review, I have to believe that it is true that most folks will take the time to complain about services when they don't understand the scope of what was contracted or have a grasp of what actually CAN be accomplished in certain situations. In our case the overall project encompasses some very difficult estimating and thorough knowledge of what is the composition of the historic terne metal. It is painfully obvious that the prior job was not researched even though the painter and his " one-word paint company " professional representative "knew all about it". Two weeks post-job, it was cracking and peeling and trapping water underneath lifting paint. Today, it is an incredible disaster and the subject of a lawsuit. Both plaster and sheet rock ceilings have been damaged by leaks that did not exist before the Dec. 2010 job.

Description of Work: I had a slow leak under my kitchen sink that went unnoticed for about 9 months. When I started seeing the hardwood floor in front of the sink start to discolor and separate I started looking for a leak. About a week after I started looking the base of the cabinet under the sink collapsed and I could see the sub-floor was molding and very wet. I called the insurance company and they sent someone out that estimated what the damage was. I asked if they could recommend anyone and he gave me a list of about 3 companies and my neighbor gave me another. I called and got estimates from all of them and went with East Coast Restoration. Their estimate was in the middle and I liked Mr. Straight, who was very personable and seemed very knowledgeable. The estimate he gave me gave me some concern as all of the measurements and things were for the walls and ceilings and not the floor. He said that the problem was with the computer program but the measurements would work for the floor. He also said he would take off for any of the work I wanted to do. I told him I would do all of the painting. He was also going to take down the door frames that did not have doors and replace them, the one that went into the hall was to be removed all together and the wall to be made level with walls on each side of the present door frame so that the wall was flat from the living room to the crossing hall. He was to build replacement cabinets for the damaged sink side cabinets that would match the remaining cabinets, replace the molding around the floors, take up the damaged hardwood floor, remove any damaged sub-floor, and remove and treat any damaged drywall and insulation. I was paying him extra to put hardwood floors in the hallway that led to the bedrooms, and fix the floor in the hall in front of the bathroom that was sagging.. They started the demolition and as they pulled up the flooring we discovered the water damage extended about two thirds into my dining room and up under the front windows. The water had also traveled under the wall and had damaged the hardwood at the front door. The insurance adjuster had only figured the water was under the cabinets on the sink side of the kitchen and had maybe traveled 14 inches out into the kitchen area. He asked what I wanted to do and I told him to pull it all up. The cost of the repair went up. I called the insurance adjuster and he told me to let him know when it was all up and he would come by and check the damage. By the time everything was up, all of the hardwood had to be replaced. We also discovered that some of the sub-floor was particle board and over the next few days while everything was drying out it crumbled. I realized there was a problem when his crew came by 2 days later to prep everything for the next morning. They started getting ready to lay the new hardwood floor on top of the crumbling particle board. I stopped them and told them they needed to get hold of Mr. Straight as that was not acceptable as I would have nothing but trouble with the new floor if they laid it on top of that. He told me the cost would go up because the wood needed to replace the particle board was not cheap. I told him that I had several sheets of ¾” plywood (the kind he told me he would have to use) out in the garage and he could use that. He still went out and purchased some more wood. I had to leave while they were doing some of the demolition as I am allergic to mold, I also had to leave when they treated the wood that was moldy and the floor areas that were discolored and moldy. They took pictures so that I could see what they had done and the effect of the treatment since I could not be around when they did it. They had the drywall up and the new insulation in when I came back. The following day Mr. Straight came by the job site and he told me that he had not been able to find any materials to build the cabinets to match what was there and that the company that had made the cabinets I still had up had gone out of business several years ago and that no one made that kind of cabinet any more and he could not find the materials to build anything that would match or come anywhere near matching them. This was after I had specifically asked him when he was writing up what I wanted if there would be a problem matching the existing cabinets. He told me it would not be a problem as the materials were readily available. He told me he could not in good conscience build a set of cabinets that would not be up to his standards. I was so stressed by all of the extra damage, costs and things that were supposed to be done and now it seemed couldn’t be that I called my ex-husband and he said that he would pay for all of the cabinets to be replaced. I had thought about replacing the cabinets and had actually looked several places at them. I knew what I wanted and what they cost. I gave my list and the place I had looked at them and Mr. Straight said he had an account there and could get me a discount so he was going to take the rest of the cabinets out while two of his crew went and picked the cabinets up. I had a doctor’s appointment so I left. I was gone for about 3 hours and when I got back the old cabinets were gone and they were finishing installation of the new ones. The only problem here was that the new cabinets were not the same size as the old ones and the ceramic tile that was still on the walls did not meet up with the new cabinets. There was about a quarter of an inch gap between the upper cabinets and the cabinets and the base cabinets had a 2 inch gap between the counter top and the bottom of the tiles. I could not match the tiles either. I asked him why he had not waited until I got back and asked me what I wanted to do about that and he told me he had spent to much time already on this job. He told me I could take them off. That is when I noticed that the drywall they had put up that was now behind the base cabinet was not even. It went back and forth, it was behind the tile in some areas, in front of the tiles in other areas and even with the tiles in others. When I brought that to his attention he told me they could fix it when I had the tiles off of the wall. They took the door jams out and replaced them with smooth frames. When I said something about the door he was to have removed and made even with the wall he said he would have to charge me extra as they already had the floor down and the new frame in. I told him to leave it as I could not afford any more. Which brings us to the wood floor. They could not find transition pieces to put between the hardwood floor in the hallway and the bedrooms. They said that was because they had raised the floor in the hallway to match the entranceway and they didn’t make transition pieces that height. I told them that was funny because when my ex and I had put the original hardwood floor down we had a transition piece that dropped down that far. After checking they no longer make them. Mr. Straight said they would have to fabricate some pieces for the doorways and asked me if I remembered how the original piece looked. I did a simple side drawing of the piece and they went and fabricated the pieces. They were not what I had drawn and when they tried to sand them down they scuffed up the new hardwood floor. They said not to worry they could fix that. Then they sanded too much out of the piece so it cracked and they took them up. I paid for an 8 foot piece of wood and they went and made 3 more door pieces. They also did not look like the drawing I had done and when installed they have a ¼ inch square edge. By now all he wanted to do was finish and all I wanted him to do was finish as well. I told him I would get in touch with my son who does this kind of thing and have him make me the door pieces and he told me when I got the tile off of the walls and the door pieces to let him know and he would come back and fix them. When I contacted Mr. Straight he said that he was finishing a job and would be by or contact me on Friday. Friday came and went and I heard nothing. I called and left another message on Saturday as he told me when he was working for me that they worked on Saturdays and indeed he worked at my home on both Saturday and Sunday. I did not hear anything from him that day and Monday I called and left another message. I did not hear from him on Monday either so on Tuesday I called and told him that it seemed he was avoiding me and that since he didn’t seem to want to fix the problems I would look for someone to do the work and send him the bill. I heard from him about an hour later and he started out by saying he didn’t know what my problem was but that I still owed him money for the job he had done and that he had done all of these other little things for me and where did I come off saying he was avoiding me he had been very busy. He just kept saying I owed him money and not addressing the problem so I hung up and then got in touch with Angie’s List.