First General Services

I trusted my insurance company, who referred First General Services. BIG mistake! I should have had my own estimates done!
Although the flood remediation work was satisfactory, the bill has errors, false additions and significant exaggerations of the actual cost - close to my insurance limit. Is this due to a referral kickback?
Their estimate to complete all repairs is similarly overpriced, so I will be significantly out of pocket. Therefore, a different company will do the remainder of the work.
I would never recommend First General Services!

Do NOT use this company. They were recommended by our insurance Desjardins.
Our immediate encounter with First General should of been an indication of how things would go. When we came home to a broken water line on the second floor the whole house was flooded. We called Desjardins and the emergency response was quick. However First General wanted me to sign a form that said if the pipe break wasn't covered by insurance I would be on the hook for the demo labour. However because it was after hours, our Broker and Desjardins could not confirm if emergency response was covered. Basically if we didn't sign we would have to wait until Monday (Leak was on Friday night), until they could start the removal and clean up. Being under duress and the stress of the situation this was unacceptable and we had no choice to sign. (We ended up being covered, however if not we were on the hook for 12 works for 2 days of clean up).
Following the demo we were assigned a manager from First General who clearly doesn't know anything about construction. They refused to provide a construction schedule or timelines through-out. Their contractors didn't cover carpets, hardwood flooring during renovations. Causing more damage throughout the house, including 2 x damage floor tiles, scratches on new hardwood flooring and many dents and scratches, & broken furniture.
Contractors also had access to our lock box and would come and go as they wanted, without notifying us they were coming. The trades did good work but its because of the PM from First General that scheduling of trades wasn't done properly.
The worse people they use are the movers. They damaged so much personal property its unreal. They lost half of our house contents and took over a week to find it, well telling us to relax they would find it eventually. They damaged high end speakers, broke a lamp, damaged hardwood flooring, broke a marble counter top in bathroom and said they only move the furniture back into one room and was our responsibility to put the furniture where we wanted.
Bottom line First General doesn't care or protect your assets, or manage construction on a professionally while in your home. As well when we would inquire about when trades are coming or a construction schedule they would say were too busy as they took on additional claims so we would have to wait, until trades are available.
Beyond unprofessional service and clearly stems from management!!

Do NOT use this company. They were recommended by my insurance company so I went with them. They promised to remediate the water damage and rebuild the bathroom. I fixed the water problem myself with an independent plumber and all they did was demolish the bathroom down to the studs and remove the fixtures. Then they quit the job. Now I'm left with the shell of a bathroom and have to rebuild it with another contractor. It took them a month to do this demolition.

We had water damage to your laminate floors and our insurance paid this company to review, give an estimate and then recommended that they do the work - we only had to pay the insurance deductible. There are a series of big misses with how this company works and its all so frustrating.

The first group of people came in to asses the damage to our floors and check if it was still wet and where it was, about half of home needed the flooring replaced, its about 700-800 square feet. They indicated that 'their guy' would call us to set up some time to look at new floors. a week passes and there is no call - we inquire with the company 'when should this person call us?' 'tomorrow'. tomorrow comes and goes and nothing. it took 10 days for us to finally connect with the person who would show us the flooring because we had the same first name as someone else who he already called. he came and did a great job when he showed up, we talked about the preparation the floors would need need to do for his crew to replace our floors (essentially just move as much as we can off of them) and when they would come to deliver the floor and when they would start the work.

We asked if our closets could remain as they were (as it was needed space to move things off the floor too and it was not damage). he agreed to this and there is a track on which the closet door move so it creates a natural transition to the original laminate flooring.

They come back and delivery the flooring on Friday and then leave. they agreed to begin the work on Wednesday. a few hours go by and we get a phone call asking if we were still on for Monday. "what are you talking about, we agreed to Wednesday not that long ago". "oh ok, well come wednesday". We thought this was strange but did not think too much about it as maybe they just forgot.

Wednesday comes and they are here very early at 8 AM, the same guys who delivered the flooring. within 2 hours they had ripped up all of the old flooring (except closets) and it was great. They informed us it was still wet and not good to put the flooring in yet and so they left saying they would come back friday. Okay with me, I just want to have my floors fixed and 2 days is not that big of a deal to me. they left. 10 minutes goes by and there is another knock at my door. I open the door and there are 4 people trying to get into my home (2 are children).

I asked them who are they and what they want and they stated they were this company and where here to rip up the floors. My partner and I looked at each other because there were 2 people here who just left who did just that, what was going on? This crew seemed baffled that the floor was removed and indicated that they had called Friday to scheduled this to come in here for this. Well that would have been a good time to say who you were when you called rather than just the 'floor people', or maybe explain what you were doing/ what the plan was.

They came in and demanded that our closets need to be replaced too because of water damage, which was annoying because we had just spend the past days stacking them with items from the flooring.

Fine, we move them out and they leave saying they will come back. about 30 minutes later 2 of the 4 guys (including 1 child) come back and start working on the closets. it takes them just as much time as the other crew to do about 10 square feet. which is crazy to me. at the same time we are talking to insurance to figure out what's going on why are there 2 crews to do the same job. They eventually finish with the closets and come in to put some dehumidifiers and about 12 industrial air blows to dry out the concrete for 2 days until the flooring crew would be back on Friday. Fine.

they eventually fessed up that they were the "emergency crew" who deal with leaks and this company actually does not do the work that needs to be done, this is all hired our to other contractors who are just told either nothing, or close to nothing about the situation.

Friday comes and the Emergency crew collects their blowers and dehumidifiers (over the 2 days they were going the breaker tripped 3 times). we lived in a small room that could just fit a mattress on the floor and generally spent most of our time out of the home due to the noise. The original flooring crew ( the ones who originally ripped up our floor) comes back and finishes the floor, they do a great job.

They inquire when is the trim (a small piece of wood which connects the baseboard to the floor covering any gaps) is going to be painted. We informed them that we have heard of no such plans to which he informed us, that is not right, they need to come and do it. he showed us that there is some chipped paint on them sometimes down to the bare wood (especially in the closet area), and they also stated they could not put in the track for the closet door as they had been mangled beyond use when the Emergency crew took them out, (its true 1 of the 2 were badly warped). They left and we thanked them, they did a great job given the conditions they had to deal with.

we connected with First general about the trim and the closet tracks and they initially were trying to deny doing anything because they cant touch "the base boards" which are not the words we used. eventually they said they would have someone contact us about that. Similar to the first instance, this was ANOTHER separate contractor who was not informed of any details and took some time to connect with him.

he came to our home and had to be explained the whole situation, he had not idea about the work requested or why its in this state, or that these floor are new due to the water damage from before. They just threw the cheapest people they could at it without a care.

This new guy said he would come back maybe Tuesday, but definitely Wednesday. he would reach out on Monday to confirm. Monday comes, nothing. I tried calling him, nothing. eventually I get ahold of him and he says he will call me Tuesday because they definitely cant come Tuesday. Same story as Monday for Tuesday. I hear nothing until I get a text at 830 PM informing me he will be here at 1pm to replace the track or fix it and paint the flooring trim. great, its almost over. Tomorrow it will be done.

Wednesday comes and he is here when he says. The first thing he says is that he cannot do the track today because he forgot a tool he needs to do it so he will come back tomorrow some time when he is around the area. He brings the 2 people he said he would and then leaves to left them do the painting. they did a fine job (the painted the base boards fist general made a huge deal over too), a little bit of paint on the floor, but I just cleaned it up. they leave and it took about 2 hours for them to finish.

Ok the final day, today he will come and fix the track when he is around. I wait, and I wait. nothing. I call. Nothing. I text him. "Oh yeah, i cant come today, but tomorrow for sure"

I am now hopping that tomorrow will be the final day. and I can move my stuff back without having closets doors or other furniture in weird places of my home.

My overall experience has been ok, but no thanks to First General. The individual contractors they hire out are the people you should be going to in the first place for this because they do a fine job, its first general that seems to be main pain point of this whole experience. No communication.

Not responsive, not timely, and ultimately unprofessional. This has caused more issues them there was originally. Beware!

They start off as your best friend and then once you commit you can forget about communications with them. Damaged property, sub par work as you had to be careful to notice damage done as they will not tell you. Had bench broken, trim not put back (behind a cabinet so could not see), drywall paper torn, drywall gouged when flooring went in etc. Still coming across issues however was advised by first general work was complete without even asking us nor having seen first general through entire restoration. Emails impossible to get a response etc. Waiting over a month to settle & pay account to get nightmare over and done with.

Funny now it has been a while and I am starting to notice the shoddy workmanship that was done. Behind furniture in bedrooms where the flooring was done the trim is not attached against wall as it is just leaning with 1/2 inch gaps in it. Basement has drywall paper torn from it and yes also hidden. So I guess as we move or rearrange furniture more and more items will appear. Too much.

Still no response so now do not care as money sitting in my account. If your insurance recommends First General please for your own sake get them to send someone else. They do not care about you or your loved ones only the 10-15% they get from subtracting the job.

I have also been waiting to settle up on this claim since July 27th so that I can pay for the work without any reply from them. Have not replied nor has tried to get a hold of me so I guess the gaslighting is not only when work is being done but also to get paid. Don’t care as it is sitting in my bank account and I refuse to chase them to pay them. But my piece of advice is to stay as far away from them as possible and am ashamed of my insurance company sending them here in the first place.

We had a very negative experience with First General. The project was not managed well and as home owners we had to step in to communicate with trades. They even had difficulties getting us a lock box. We needed to be home for the majority of the work being done which impacted our work schedules.

A fairly simple project took 6 months and required us to be in constant communication with First General as no one was overseeing the project. Several trades did a poor job and no one took accountability.

I would not recommend First General.

Had a fire in my garage. First General came to start the clean up and inventory all the content. What an amazing group of gals & guys. Kind and considerate while going through each item at a time. Thank you so much for making this process much easier for me.

Gina McCormack
Owen Sound

Like another reviewer said if your insurance company sends them, refuse and either request a new one or insist on getting your own. They will try and find the cheapest and least qualified people to do estimates on damages. The worst part is they will work with the insurance company to get your claim denied. This is why insurance companies use them as a set up so you don't get your own contractor. The only thing they care about is getting the referral profit that they add to the contractors they choose. They do not even know who they send to your home just as long as it is someone who is desperate to please the insurer. Most companies who you call will work with YOU to get what you are owed so they are never used by a company like this. So this company will use small timers who can't compete with the high rated companies you find on homestars. Thats called bulk contracts where they make money by handling insurance jobs instead of doing big jobs like the pros. Thats my opinion do with it what you choose but consider this a warning.

This is the worst organisation you can ever think of working for. They bad mouth their clients, no team work, I’ll mannered staff, only after profit and not customer satisfaction.