On April 9, 2013, a severe hail storm damaged our house. Upon the suggestion of our insurance company, we contacted Total Construction. We signed a contract with Total Construction on May 6, 2013 for the materials and labor to repair the house. At that time, they told us it would be two weeks to a month before the work could be started. The roof was completed on June 28 (54 days after we signed the contract).
Numerous times after June 28, 2013, I called Total Construction Company to see when they would be able to finish the rest of the work. The fascia, gutters, and drywall still needed to be repaired. I had a difficult time getting direct answers and was told over and over again that I would be called back but was not. At one point, a secretary said that she actually did call and left me a voicemail, however, I did not receive that voicemail. We had informed Total Construction that my husband was not to be bothered by phone, as he was working out of town, and that I would be the contact person. However, on more than one occasion my husband was called at his place of work.
Our fascia was completed during the summer. Again, I tried, unsuccessfully, to confirm dates for the rest of the damage repair. My husband was called again, while working out of town, and informed they showed up at our house and realized they had ordered the wrong color gutters and asked him what color they were supposed to order. The color was written on our contract. Our gutters were finally completed Labor Day weekend.
The drywall work was completed the week of September 16. It has now come to our attention that the drywall portion of the work, in the amount of $541.49, was not covered by our insurance company because Total Construction told them it wasn’t caused by the hail storm. However, this is an assumption that is not accurate as we have never had a single leak in our garage until after the roof was damaged by hail - which makes it apparent that the dry wall leaks were the result of the hail damage to the roof.
Again, after numerous calls, I spoke with the owner of the company who said he would be sending their Quality Control person out to address the issues that we had. This person did come to our house and spoke with my husband and myself regarding our concerns. During that visit he inspected the roof and informed us that that a substantial part of the roof repair work was of inferior quality and needed to be re-done. The re-roofing was completed.
Finally, after all of the many concerns, delays, miss-information, etc., we placed numerous phone calls to Total Construction to request the bill for the work and materials used. At the end of October, I again notified them that we had not received the bill, at which time one of the secretaries told me it had been mailed November 12th. At that time, I reminded her that we were still in the month of October; she then changed the mailing date to September 12th. I'm aware that this could have been a simple mistake on her part, except for the fact, that the work had not been completed by September 12th. When we did finally receive the bill there was a clerical error which resulted in an overbilling. They did correct the error after we brought it to their attention. We paid the bill immediately.
Total Construction did discount the entire bill by $500 but, by giving inaccurate information regarding the reason for the drywall damage, we are now out additional monies over and above the cost of our deductible. Because of our multiple negative experiences with this company, we felt we were deserving of an actual discount; the owner accused us of extortion, despite the fact we were practically begging for our bill. We felt like the owner wasn’t interested in hearing our concerns. We are glad that the work is finally satisfactorily completed and that we have paid the bill, albeit seven months later. Needless to say, in the future we will not be recommending Total Construction and will take our business elsewhere.