Reclaim Services

During a windstorm on 5÷25÷11 a large tree fell on our house and yard. Reclaim provided the quote and was hired for the work because of their relationship with our insurance.
We met with John of Reclaim and a structural engineer. The engineer reviewed the damages, found the house to be structurally sound, but said the porch should be «condemned.» He reviewed with John the work to be done; completely removing the roof over the deck, the deck itself, and the soffits. John took that information, wrote a proposal and submitted a quote on 5÷31÷11. Minor changes were made; upgrade to 5″ gutters, eliminated a cut-​out corner on the deck, extended the roof of the deck. Those changes were reflected in the quote from Reclaim.
Our project manager was Josh, When the work began we never saw any work permits, inspectors or official plans for the project and paid ²⁄₃ of the payment to start. When we asked for permits the subject was always changed.
Demolition began with any permits received from the city as well as lack of communication on the planned changes we had made. Aside from generally poor workmanship and lack of quality workers we also encountered:.
The roof was not removed and was only going to be «fixed.» It was propped up with 2x4s while the deck was built.
The lumber was warped; a number of knots fell through
The original posts were hand-​turned and were replaced with 4×4 square posts. The railings were 2×4 with radius for the top rail, 1×2 balusters, and a 2×4 on edge as the bottom rail. They used 42″ balusters with 2×6 as the top cap. Neither product was replacing what was originally there we were told «you can’t just go out and buy that kind of wood anymore.»
o support posts were replaced with 4x4s instead of the 6×6 posts that were quoted. When asked we were told «That’s what was there before, we just replaced it.»
o Countersunk nails were not consistent and created numerous splits and pock marks in the flooring.
o The flooring was installed with the crown of the wood facing different directions. When pointed out, we were told «that isn’t important» although that was the first thing that a number of others pointed out when they saw the project.
o There was no flashing installed between the porch and the house, although required by current building codes. Again we were told they were just «replacing» what was there.
* Painting of the House — we had approval to paint the entire house to match after the construction was complete. This information hadn’t been passed on to Josh and the work wasn’t scheduled.
No work was being done to upgrade any building codes. Insurance covered that, but Reclaim didn’t quote it because they were «trying to save us money.»
We contacted the owner Greg and he asked that we continue, that they would right the wrongs done. Work stopped while permits were filed. The scope of the project changed quite a bit due demolishing the porch and we now required all new siding and asbestos removal
The work wasn’t completed until ³⁄₁₂. The project manager was the biggest challenge and there were also times when no one would show up for a couple of weeks with no explanation or follow-​up. There were a number of items that we asked to fix or weren’t quality work:
* Putty used to repair splits and holes from large bolts and nails
* bead board was installed using screws, when replaced there were splits and splintered areas around the edges of the board
* Corners in the access panel on the ceiling aren’t flush with one another
* Quarter round installed to «hide» the hurricane brackets
* Stairs aren’t level and are bowed, warped and uneven — we were told «this is because of the pressure treated lumber.»
* Corner of the soffit is not finished properly
* Replaced gutters with standard 4″ gutters
* Large splits in posts and stair rails
* Cuts not flush, with many gaps between boards
* Decking installed with a substantial gap — leaving the boards nearly 1″ apart
By the time the project was «complete» I was so tired of Reclaim not following through that I just signed off on the project and figured we could fix these things ourselves.
After this there were still a number of insurance obligations to fulfill in order to get the money and pay the balance due to Reclaim. I still had to have a mortgage company inspection and to get the check endorsed from them. Throughout the time waiting for this I was harassed by the Reclaim financial services department and told that «it shouldn’t be taking this long» and that «Failure to pay Reclaim in a timely manner may result in subcontractors contacting you directly for payment.» Never did I hold funds from Reclaim or lie to them about where the money was. They knew about the entire necessary process from the beginning.
Following payment Reclaim sent a Lien Waiver and receipt, but with no apology or admission of problems.