I’m really disappointed with Jim Black construction. I was pleased with them throughout most of the process, but unfortunately at the end they proved to be like most contractors I have ever dealt with.
I had a sewer backup into part of the living area of my house and after having the remediation done by another company (I used Yelp to locate several companies and went with the first one that was available to come out immediately. Apparently Jim Black does remediation as well but I wasn’t aware of that), I hired Jim Black to do the repairs. I chose Jim Black based on several factors. First, they were on a list of “preferred” contractors given to me by my insurance company. Second, after checking all the companies on the afore-mentioned list, Jim Black appeared to have the best reviews on social media. Lastly, when I called for a quote, apparently I somehow ended up speaking with the owner of the company – a man called “Jimmy”. At the time I had no idea he was the owner. I explained my problem and even though this was going to be a small job, Jimmy assured me Jim Black could take care of my problem and I would be treated like any other customer.
I met with the project manager (who even made a comment on our initial meeting about my phone call with the owner of the company) and scheduled a walk through with a quote. After getting the quote and discussing matters with my wife I decided to go ahead with Jim Black. I had to have drywall, trim and floorboards replaced, carpet replaced and walls painted. Through the entire process I was happy with the timeline, the crews that came out and did the work, and felt like Jim Black stayed in contact with me through the entire process. My biggest complaint with contractors in general is that they don’t communicate well and Jim Black was good about communicating with me. This was a pleasant surprise. Everyone that came into my home was friendly, communicated what would take place that day, was mindful of my house and my pets, and overall did a good job.
We get to the very end of the project and this is where things go south. I’m supposed to meet the project manager at my home to hand over the check and get two minor items addressed: A strip of trim where my newly carpeted stairs meet the hard wood floors of my kitchen needs to be installed, and the door to the water heater closet needs to be re-hung because it wasn’t hung correctly by the repair guys.
What he doesn’t know is that because of how everything has gone so far, my wife and I have decided to ask him for quotes for some major projects in the house. We want to completely renovate our downstairs bathroom, possibly remove a wall in our kitchen to open it up to our dining room, and/or completely remove and re-pour our driveway outside. Granted – we’re probably not going to do all three, but we do know we want these items taken care of, and already checked into re-finance options to pay for at least one of the projects. Between our equity, home values going up and rates being at an all-time low, it’s a good time to re-finance. We were ready to spend a lot more money with Jim Black than just on this particular project.
So back to meeting the project manager for the last couple of items and the payment check. Due to both his and my schedule, we’re unable to meet that Monday. He tells me he’ll give me a call a couple of days later to meet. Two weeks go by without a call. I call him, he apologizes, says he’ll call me in a couple days to meet. Two more weeks go by. I call him again. He apologizes again, and… says he’ll call me in a couple of days to meet. Again. Yet two more weeks go by. I’m now angry because I feel blown off, I just want this done, and the door that should have been hung correctly fell on my granddaughter while she was visiting. (To be clear – that wasn’t Jim Black’s fault – she was messing with the door when she shouldn’t have been. But… if the door had been hung correctly, or if I hadn’t been blown off by the project manager – it wouldn’t have happened.)
Ultimately I had to make an appearance at their office to get anything to happen, and due to more miscommunication that day with both the project manager and their accounting department I finally decided that Jim Black and I were done. The main portion of the project was finished and I was ready to wipe my hands of Jim Black. I had gone from extremely satisfied and ready to hire them for more major projects to simply wanting them out of my life. I shouldn’t have to make call after call after call after call to get a project finished. I’m especially disappointed because I thought “These are THE guys. This is THE company I’m going to use to renovate my house.” And then they let me down. Maybe it’s a good thing – before I get wrapped up with them in a larger project, but I thought I had finally found a decent contractor I could trust and work with. I guess I was wrong.
Why more than one star? I try to be fair about my reviews – I think a lot of people would give them one star after the experience at the end, but I have to take into account the entire experience. To be clear though – I do NOT recommend Jim Black, I will not be using them again.