Storm-damaged homes struggle to find contractors

The Central Coast is still trying to rebuild after recent storms. Now, homeowners say contractors are hard to come by.

Some roads, homes and businesses are still a mess, and a couple of local companies say they’re booked on storm-related repairs for the next months.

Santa Cruz county homeowner Joyce she has property damage like a broken window and is even seeing mold.

Repairs she says need to be made right away but may take longer than she ever expected.

Joyce says she and her husband can use a large part of the downstairs portion of their home after flood waters rushed through the living area.

What’s left of the property and furniture once in there is now outside under a tarp.

“I just don’t know what the future is yet today of repairing our home” Joyce said.

That’s because the contractors she’s called don’t have availability.

Santa Cruz contractor Elite Construction Services Inc., say they’ve been booked out for months, and that was before the storms.

“We’ve been getting calls every other day for someone that has either landsliding or trees are falling across their property” said Elite Construction partner Eric Lamascus.

He says that his business is booked solid until July.

Eric says he saw a 25% increase in business before calls for storm repairs started pouring in and can’t grow fast enough to take on new projects.

“We can’t get talented crew people fast enough to staff the jobs properly, there’s training periods so, the opportunity to grow is there” Lamascus says. “We just don’t have the capacity and the storms haven’t helped.

Though the backlog is a factor, Eric says there’s other aspects to consider when taking on cases similar to Joyce’s.

“The reality is, the insurance settlements are never what it takes to actually rebuild, so that’s a bit of a problem.” Lamascus says. “It’s one of the reasons I’m not so thrilled about taking on those projects anyway.”

We made calls to other Santa Cruz contractors, they also have delays going into summer months.

As for Joyce, she did make some headway Wednesday. An excavator called her saying they may be able to see her in two weeks.