First General Services Ura

This company was sent by our insurance company following a flood in our basement. We had already removed all the furniture, flooring and drywall up to 2 feet. All they did was come in with a dehumidifier and spray the foundation for a total of 15 mins. 3 days later the came back to pick up the dehumidifier. Another 10 mins. A week later they came and removed the flooring which we had brought up and put in our garage so they carried it from the garage to their truck. For this they charged the insurance $4000 which was taken from the amount we received for repair. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY!!!

In March, we had an ice dam in our eavestroughing causing a flood in my craft room in the basement. First General sent highly competent crews to clean up, dry and restore the room. Every worker was respectful to us and our home, knowledgeable and hard working. Special mention must go to Matthew who installed the new flooring and moved my things back into the room. He went above and beyond to restore my room to normal. He was amazing and I would have him work in my home anytime!

First general review

I guess this is less of a review more of a public service advisory

Wow where to begin. If youre reading this chances are you have had some sort of issue with your home and they have been assigned via your insurance company.

You will be assigned a project manager (first general term for guy who makes a quote but does nothing after to keep the project going forward) If youre real, real lucky you will get a mediocre one. But were typically not that lucky are we? The third party guys they hire will tell you youre lucky you got the mediocre one.

First off set your expectations up front. It will take a long, long time. There will be many delays. Crews will just not show up. They will do the bare minimum. They will leave screws /staples /nails in your driveway (yes I pulled a screw out of my new truck tire picked up nails and staples). My baby helped pick up cigarette butts that they leave all over your driveway. Im getting off track. They make things worse before better. They will walk in with steel toes full of salt and snow on your hardwood floors while youre watching the snow melt and a salt puddle build up so they can switch to running shoes. You then clean up and do it all over again every time they go out for a smoke

They will stand around talking to you and lean back on walls and lift one foot up just so they can muddy up a wall too (floors were not enough). - no they do not put anything down to protect your floors.

You will get so upset you will engage their CEO. He will help for about a minute and then go silent. You will get the worst possible crews you can imagine. If youre lucky (first general term for loose your cool and demand service) then you will get Matt.

Matt is amazing hes just working for the wrong company and not in control of scheduling (which is a first general term for tell customers what they want to hear and do whatever you want). To be very honest he does exceptional work but he needs to open his own business. You will also only meet Matt if you complain enough since hes busy fixing everyone elses mistakes as the QC manager of the company. Hes often We did that didnt we? Embarrassed. Poor guy. Moving on..

You will be blamed for all delays. So keep all correspondence since its fun to send back proof you confirmed this or that and delays are not because of you. Do not expect a response after proving it however.

Expect extreme stress within the family. Your wife will be upset, you will arrange things like time away from work dealing with pets etc yet no one will show or theyll try to show up on a random day for an hour. The project manager will leave you to deal with various contractors and his team. He cant actually plan and his guys will do whatever they want anyway so youre the PM. They can take three weeks work and stretch that many months. Your neighbours will regularly ask what did they even do for an hour?? Well over 4 months and counting for me.

If you have floor damage and they need to sand and refinish some of it and like me say well what would it cost to do it all. You call the flooring guys and they say a price. You ask first general they will charge more for the removal of trim and furniture etc. in fact it was close to double the cost of the floor. So in my case it wasnt worth it since I had a dog and it was hard to justify. They they come to do the floor and the never even remove the trim anyway unbelievable by the way as I write this I asked why they worker decided to cut these corners. I asked the PM and the CEO. It has been over three days and I have not got a call back or email or anything. Oh and they started a day early so I hadnt had moved everything from the rooms since I worked off their constantly changing schedule. So they threw our stuff in other areas I wouldnt have and we have to eat on the floor since our arrangements for a place to stay was the next night as per the schedule I confirmed a million times.

In the end you will just want the company out of your life and will accept mediocre finish to just get them to leave. Your wife will be in tears. You will be angry. Youll hate your home and want to sell it but its not finished and under renos so youre stuck. Your stuck in hell dealing with people who I now genuine believe do all this on purpose. The incompetence will make you believe its intensional. How can they screw up one place so bad. Like consistently.

I suppose you could be getting a quote without insurance. My advise dont. If you dont like the feeling of smashing your head against the wall hire someone else. Anyone else.

Have a good chat with your insurance if they try to push this company on you. Youre in a better place to ask about a pay out and get your own guys. Youre managing a project anyway with incompetent workers you may as well hire competent people.

First General came to quote my job and had a price to me in in a very good turn around compared to the other 2 companies I called in. They met all my requests and timelines....and most importantly BUDGET!

Our house in Dunrobin, ON was destroyed by a Tornado. First General was assigned to us by our insurance company and it's been one of the worst experiences of my life. It took them almost 3 weeks to remove any salvageable contents from our home and by then mold and mildew started to set in. Most of the items they could have saved are now unsalvageable because they waited to long. Items that were there are now missing from our home which we can only assume were taken by these contractors. Brutal experience would not wish these guys on my worst enemy.

We recently had a roof leak during late spring due to a wind storm and heavy rain fall which damaged the interior walls and on the advice from the insurance company we called First General Services who promptly dispatched a crew to start the drying process. They next tore down the damaged walls and in a few weeks repaired the whole area including the roof work. The whole process was completed in a timely and professional way. The crew members were helpful courteous and friendly. We would recommend First General Services without hesitation.