Last December we had some mold issue on the ceiling and had a company remediate it. The company also is a general contractor. In the process of ruling out a leak from the roof they got on the roof and found that there may be enough hail damage to warrant a home insurance claim.

The claim went through once the snow was gone and the roof could be examined in spring. The claim included roof, siding (only on part of the house), soffit, fascia, chimney and flu caps, gutter and some metal window wraps. We got checks from the insurance company in a piecemeal manner (e.g., $5000 on a check, $1800 on another check) over several weeks (a total of a little over $20K). The guy from the GC company took care of sending the checks to our mortgage lender, getting them endorsed, etc.

We got a new roof in spring. We did not sign any contract or description of what they would do. We expressed concern that we don’t have anything in writing or haven’t signed anything, but we kept receiving text messages asking what color shingles we wanted, and once we told them what color, they said they could come on a certain day and poof! the roof was done.

They wanted us to endorse and hand over all of the checks from the insurance company, but I only handed over two checks, with the combined amount a few hundred dollars over the “roof + chimney” cost on the claim explanation doc. Then I realized that chimney (flue cap and chimney cap) work was not done so we have overpaid a few hundred. We now have about $5K worth of job left to do under this claim.

During the conversations during roof work they have hinted that they have gotten to be very busy and they may not get to the rest of the job til winter or spring.

Late spring/summer we realized that we want some additional work done not covered by the claim (replace some windows and having trims on windows that we are not replacing wrapped in metal). We asked repeatedly for an estimate for that work from this GC since spring/summer, but no response (Nov now). When we call and happen to connect they would say they would give us something by next Monday or by the end of the week, but that time comes and goes and it’s like crickets.

We got an estimate for just windows and wraps from multiple other companies but decided just get windows (and not wraps) for various reasons. It seems like all contractors are after big jobs, and I’m afraid no one will be interested in this kind of a job (wraps only are about $2K). We feel that if they had said initially that they were too busy to move on our job, we could have shopped around other contractors to do $7K (window wraps and siding etc covered by insurance claim) work. Now the construction season is ending, and I’m afraid next year the costs will be higher than what was estimated by the insurance earlier this year. We also need the original GC company to do the chimney work or refund the extra amount we paid, if they are not doing the whole job. We are also finding some issues on the roof job that they did we may want them to take a look or remedy this in spring. I’m trying to get confirmation on if they plan to come back in winter/spring and they can do various additional jobs we need done aside from those covered by insurance and have not been able to get them to respond.

I’m so frustrated by this situation that I’m losing sleep over this. It seems like contractors are always super busy and after big jobs. How can people with small jobs get their attention? - or just a call back? The company just telling us they’re busy this year but they’ll be sure to put us as one of the first on their list next spring would alleviate a lot of stress. Is this a typical situation for small job customers now a days? Should I just stop bugging them and wait to hear back from them in spring? Should I ditch them and find another company who will do all of the job?

Sorry for the long post and thank you for your input!