We hired Jon Lawson to do a bathroom remodel and install a tile shower. Lots of things went wrong on this project.
1. Jon had never built a shower using a waterproofing membrane/sealer such as red-guard.
2. The shower pan liner was not wrapped around the front of the shower curb, a common area for water intrusion. I made the extra effort to ordered a special single-piece 60" curb threshold and covered the curb with red-guard as a workaround.
3. I asked Jon for specific dimensions of our shower niche, which he agreed to build. I wanted a wide (rectangular) niche, what I got was a roughly square niche.
4. Jon did not measure around the perimeter of the shower and calculate the position of the initial tile gap to maximize the width of the cut tiles on the outside edges of the shower. We ended up with narrow 1" vertical strips of tile along the outside edges of the shower (not what I wanted).
5. The outside of the shower curb did not align with a small 6" wall as we agreed.
6. One of the metal schluder strips along the outside edge of the tile extends down to the floor, the other stops on top of the curb. The schluder strip that extends to the floor is recessed in a gap behind the tile on the front of the curb (difficult to clean). The schluder strip that stopped at the top of the curb did not cover the exposed edge of the tile on the front face of the curb.
7. The Durarock sheets were installed sitting on top of the deck mud. This is a HUGE mold no-no. The durarock may be mold resistant, but it will still wick moisture up from the always damp deck mud and rot out (cause mold growth) behind the durarock on the studs they are screwed to. I asked Jon to cut away the bottom of the durarock so it was not in contact with the deck mud. I had to ask him THREE TIMES to touch-up the spots he missed. Then when I went to apply the red-guard waterproofing over the durarock one evening, I discovered Jon had only cut away at the front edge of the durarock (making it appear as if there was a gap) and it was still in contact with the deck mud at the very back. I spend 2.5 hours cutting away at the bottom of the durarock being extremely careful not to nick the rubber shower liner. This issue could have been EASILY AVOIDED if Jon had just installed the durarock sheets with the proper standoff gap (Asked another tile contractor, and he said this should be about 1" gap). Since I was applying waterproofing red-guard, I could live with a much smaller gap as long as the durarock was not in contact with the deck-mud and the waterproofer could seal inbetween the two.
8. Jon did not use a trim-board to control the level of the deck-mud along the back edge of the shower when he poured it, leaving a noticeable "hump" along the bottom back edge of the shower, and made no effort to "float" the floor tile to correct for this.
9.The shower drain used was not height adjustable once the deck mud had been poured. This wouldn't have been an issue, if Jon had calculated and set the drain at the correct height. Our finished drain plate was approximately 3/8" lower than the top of the floor tile, AND the edges of the metal plate were covered by the floor tile so the drain was not serviceable (no way to remove the drain plate without breaking or removing the tile). We ended up using an extender ring to raise up the drain plate, but the tile cuts around the drain plate look really rough. All this could have been EASILY AVOIDED if a height adjustable shower drain had been installed. The drain is still not going to be easy to service. The round drain plate was set into grout to form a seal. This will crack and need to be regrouted each time I remove the drain plate.
10. One of the shower door side rails was installed backwards, leaving a noticeable gap at the top of the sliding door. The single-peice curb threshold was damaged (nicks on edges) when the shower door rail was fixed.
11. Silicon sealer was not applied along the outside edge of the shower door rails (corrected). The silicon sealer on the inside of the shower door rails had gaps (I fixed).
12. The shower valve was not securely attached to the mounting stud and there is a noticeable wiggle in the shower control lever.
13. When the shower value housing was plumbed in, Jon did not install the shower value insert (Delta Faucet and Valve). This caused hot and cold water to mix inside the shower valve housing and caused our hot water to be luke-warm and cold water to be not so cold. There was no permanent repercussions, but I did have to SPECIFICALLY ASK Jon to install the shower valve to fix this, even after we identified the issue.
14. Jon would leave trash (plastic wrappers) on our front porch and living room.
15. Jon stored drywall and durarock for the project on our front patio. We had a few days of rainy/snowy weather, and I had told Jon that sometimes rain/snow can blow under the north side of our patio. Jon made NO EFFORT to protect the drywall from the elements. I covered the drywall with my own tarp the first day. I told Jon he could use my tarp to cover these and that I did not want these to get wet. He would leave the jobsite (rainy weather in the forcast for that night) without covering the material. I covered it for him a total of three times.
16. We have a garden in our front yard. Jon dumped a bucket full of water he had used to clean off his tools (drywall mud, mortar, grout, etc) DIRECTLY ONTO the radishes in our garden. There were plenty of other places he could have dumped this.
17. The toilet shutoff compression valve leaked after it was repositioned after the initial installation.
18. Water was leaking out from under the toiled after initial installation.
19. Toilet leaking around tank seal and tank mounting bolts after Jon needlessly retightened these when he came out to fix the leaky valve.
20. Water was still leaking out from under the toilet. Opon removing the toilet, I discovered the wax ring was off centered, and one side of the wax ring had been completely squished on one side. 4/6 of the toilet drain flange lag screws were stripped out and the toilet flange was not sitting on the subfloor. There was a gap between the underside of the toilet flange where the old lenolium floor had been removed. The new flooring was not installed under the toilet flange, so it was floating above the subfloor. Jon installed the toilet right over the top of this probimatic toilet flange and made no effort to identify or correct the underlying toilet flange issue, leaving me with a leak.
The toilet incident was the final straw. After experiencing so many issues on this project, and listening to Jon's bullshit excuses, I decided I no longer wanted Jon working on my home.
Lawson Builders Reviews
We hired Jon Lawson to do a bathroom remodel and install a tile shower. Lots of things went wrong on this project.
1. Jon had never built a shower using a waterproofing membrane/sealer such as red-guard.
2. The shower pan liner was not wrapped around the front of the shower curb, a common area for water intrusion. I made the extra effort to ordered a special single-piece 60" curb threshold and covered the curb with red-guard as a workaround.
3. I asked Jon for specific dimensions of our shower niche, which he agreed to build. I wanted a wide (rectangular) niche, what I got was a roughly square niche.
4. Jon did not measure around the perimeter of the shower and calculate the position of the initial tile gap to maximize the width of the cut tiles on the outside edges of the shower. We ended up with narrow 1" vertical strips of tile along the outside edges of the shower (not what I wanted).
5. The outside of the shower curb did not align with a small 6" wall as we agreed.
6. One of the metal schluder strips along the outside edge of the tile extends down to the floor, the other stops on top of the curb. The schluder strip that extends to the floor is recessed in a gap behind the tile on the front of the curb (difficult to clean). The schluder strip that stopped at the top of the curb did not cover the exposed edge of the tile on the front face of the curb.
7. The Durarock sheets were installed sitting on top of the deck mud. This is a HUGE mold no-no. The durarock may be mold resistant, but it will still wick moisture up from the always damp deck mud and rot out (cause mold growth) behind the durarock on the studs they are screwed to. I asked Jon to cut away the bottom of the durarock so it was not in contact with the deck mud. I had to ask him THREE TIMES to touch-up the spots he missed. Then when I went to apply the red-guard waterproofing over the durarock one evening, I discovered Jon had only cut away at the front edge of the durarock (making it appear as if there was a gap) and it was still in contact with the deck mud at the very back. I spend 2.5 hours cutting away at the bottom of the durarock being extremely careful not to nick the rubber shower liner. This issue could have been EASILY AVOIDED if Jon had just installed the durarock sheets with the proper standoff gap (Asked another tile contractor, and he said this should be about 1" gap). Since I was applying waterproofing red-guard, I could live with a much smaller gap as long as the durarock was not in contact with the deck-mud and the waterproofer could seal inbetween the two.
8. Jon did not use a trim-board to control the level of the deck-mud along the back edge of the shower when he poured it, leaving a noticeable "hump" along the bottom back edge of the shower, and made no effort to "float" the floor tile to correct for this.
9.The shower drain used was not height adjustable once the deck mud had been poured. This wouldn't have been an issue, if Jon had calculated and set the drain at the correct height. Our finished drain plate was approximately 3/8" lower than the top of the floor tile, AND the edges of the metal plate were covered by the floor tile so the drain was not serviceable (no way to remove the drain plate without breaking or removing the tile). We ended up using an extender ring to raise up the drain plate, but the tile cuts around the drain plate look really rough. All this could have been EASILY AVOIDED if a height adjustable shower drain had been installed. The drain is still not going to be easy to service. The round drain plate was set into grout to form a seal. This will crack and need to be regrouted each time I remove the drain plate.
10. One of the shower door side rails was installed backwards, leaving a noticeable gap at the top of the sliding door. The single-peice curb threshold was damaged (nicks on edges) when the shower door rail was fixed.
11. Silicon sealer was not applied along the outside edge of the shower door rails (corrected). The silicon sealer on the inside of the shower door rails had gaps (I fixed).
12. The shower valve was not securely attached to the mounting stud and there is a noticeable wiggle in the shower control lever.
13. When the shower value housing was plumbed in, Jon did not install the shower value insert (Delta Faucet and Valve). This caused hot and cold water to mix inside the shower valve housing and caused our hot water to be luke-warm and cold water to be not so cold. There was no permanent repercussions, but I did have to SPECIFICALLY ASK Jon to install the shower valve to fix this, even after we identified the issue.
14. Jon would leave trash (plastic wrappers) on our front porch and living room.
15. Jon stored drywall and durarock for the project on our front patio. We had a few days of rainy/snowy weather, and I had told Jon that sometimes rain/snow can blow under the north side of our patio. Jon made NO EFFORT to protect the drywall from the elements. I covered the drywall with my own tarp the first day. I told Jon he could use my tarp to cover these and that I did not want these to get wet. He would leave the jobsite (rainy weather in the forcast for that night) without covering the material. I covered it for him a total of three times.
16. We have a garden in our front yard. Jon dumped a bucket full of water he had used to clean off his tools (drywall mud, mortar, grout, etc) DIRECTLY ONTO the radishes in our garden. There were plenty of other places he could have dumped this.
17. The toilet shutoff compression valve leaked after it was repositioned after the initial installation.
18. Water was leaking out from under the toiled after initial installation.
19. Toilet leaking around tank seal and tank mounting bolts after Jon needlessly retightened these when he came out to fix the leaky valve.
20. Water was still leaking out from under the toilet. Opon removing the toilet, I discovered the wax ring was off centered, and one side of the wax ring had been completely squished on one side. 4/6 of the toilet drain flange lag screws were stripped out and the toilet flange was not sitting on the subfloor. There was a gap between the underside of the toilet flange where the old lenolium floor had been removed. The new flooring was not installed under the toilet flange, so it was floating above the subfloor. Jon installed the toilet right over the top of this probimatic toilet flange and made no effort to identify or correct the underlying toilet flange issue, leaving me with a leak.
The toilet incident was the final straw. After experiencing so many issues on this project, and listening to Jon's bullshit excuses, I decided I no longer wanted Jon working on my home.