I told him I had been screwed on my last bathroom tile job and the only thing I ask is that he do a great job. I did not go the cheap route. I budgeted $4000 in labor and paid for all materials on top of that. The bathroom is a simple rectangle. I chose basic tiles, no patterns or designs. 2 walls and a shower stall. He came by recommendation from a friend who is a senior interior designer and he just finished two bathrooms in her home. I know my friend's standards are so high people cant even stand to work for her so I did not doubt her recommendation for a minute.
He quoted a 1.5 weeks. He started on a Wednesday so based on his estimate he would be done the following Friday. He said he would work the weekend and be done. He was going to get it done quickly so he needed the higher labor fee to pay for the help he would have there to get it done quickly.
Many times he said he would work late too. 4 weeks later we were out of time, someone was moving into the apartment, he was warned constantly over the 4 weeks, he did not work the weekends, he did not stay late. He started 10, 11, noon and left everyday by 3. As the time ran out and he moved the deadline, he claimed he had just a few loose ends - a shower rod, a few hooks, a tiles cracked and needed repaired and a switch needed painted. I was out of town and we agreed to find some time to finish up those details.
I got to my home that I was now renting out on Airbnb, I walked into the bathroom and what I saw was something I was not prepared for and struggled to even process. He had damaged and ruined my bathroom, not remodeled it. He took $1600 worth of tile and grout and wasted it by sticking it to my walls as bad as a child might do. What I was looking at was unthinkable and completely inconsistent with what this man had been telling me on the phone. Had he finished in the timescale he originally promised I would have been there to watch the job but since he went 2.5 weeks longer I was out of town and he took full advantage of this fact.
I consulted a real tile expert who pointed out the failures of this man's work. None of his tile work was correct. Everything was fundamentally wrong and backwards. Even my tile expert was getting enraged as he looked over the job. Senseless damage like not wiping the grout of tile took perfectly good tile and ruined it. No extra effort is needed to properly wipe grout off tile and any contractor claiming to do tile work would never consider leaving the grout to cement to the tile. I learned the number one rule of tiling is to tile off a straight line. This man built a crooked wall and then tiled it. Needless to say the tile did not fit on the wall correctly. He tiled around a crooked mirror. He started his tile on inside corners and left cut edges on the outsides with edges that were misaligned beyond anything that one would consider acceptable. He did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.
He glued a base board on top of the tlle instead of tiling above it. He did not clean the floor before grouting, so large pieces of tile and debris were grouted into the floor grout and visible. He made an absolute mess of the shower floor, so much grout covered the small button tiles, many were not even visible, some sat at 45 degree angles. He slopped a mix of grout and silicone in the corners and along the floor where the walls and floor met as if he was tarring a roof. No precision used in any of this. Slopped on. He built a shelf in the wall that was clear evidence to my tile expert friend this man had never tiled before in his life. He did not frame the shelf properly, he left a lip of tile on the top, he tiled the floor of the shelf backwards which will alllow water to flow into the wall and down into my neighbors apartment. When I asked where to start on repairs, my tile expert friend shook his head and said it all needs to be ripped out and done over. $3500 in labor and $1600 in tile. Wasted by this man.
In a last ditch effort to have this man fix it I asked him to swing by. If I was going to have him fix it I wanted to be clear on his methods before I gave a green light. By the end of the meeting I could only see a completely incompetent liar. I asked for my money back so I could fix the mess he made and he refused and left. I hope I can post pictures because they tell the whole story.
Murphy's Reviews
I told him I had been screwed on my last bathroom tile job and the only thing I ask is that he do a great job. I did not go the cheap route. I budgeted $4000 in labor and paid for all materials on top of that. The bathroom is a simple rectangle. I chose basic tiles, no patterns or designs. 2 walls and a shower stall. He came by recommendation from a friend who is a senior interior designer and he just finished two bathrooms in her home. I know my friend's standards are so high people cant even stand to work for her so I did not doubt her recommendation for a minute.
He quoted a 1.5 weeks. He started on a Wednesday so based on his estimate he would be done the following Friday. He said he would work the weekend and be done. He was going to get it done quickly so he needed the higher labor fee to pay for the help he would have there to get it done quickly.
Many times he said he would work late too. 4 weeks later we were out of time, someone was moving into the apartment, he was warned constantly over the 4 weeks, he did not work the weekends, he did not stay late. He started 10, 11, noon and left everyday by 3. As the time ran out and he moved the deadline, he claimed he had just a few loose ends - a shower rod, a few hooks, a tiles cracked and needed repaired and a switch needed painted. I was out of town and we agreed to find some time to finish up those details.
I got to my home that I was now renting out on Airbnb, I walked into the bathroom and what I saw was something I was not prepared for and struggled to even process. He had damaged and ruined my bathroom, not remodeled it. He took $1600 worth of tile and grout and wasted it by sticking it to my walls as bad as a child might do. What I was looking at was unthinkable and completely inconsistent with what this man had been telling me on the phone. Had he finished in the timescale he originally promised I would have been there to watch the job but since he went 2.5 weeks longer I was out of town and he took full advantage of this fact.
I consulted a real tile expert who pointed out the failures of this man's work. None of his tile work was correct. Everything was fundamentally wrong and backwards. Even my tile expert was getting enraged as he looked over the job. Senseless damage like not wiping the grout of tile took perfectly good tile and ruined it. No extra effort is needed to properly wipe grout off tile and any contractor claiming to do tile work would never consider leaving the grout to cement to the tile. I learned the number one rule of tiling is to tile off a straight line. This man built a crooked wall and then tiled it. Needless to say the tile did not fit on the wall correctly. He tiled around a crooked mirror. He started his tile on inside corners and left cut edges on the outsides with edges that were misaligned beyond anything that one would consider acceptable. He did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do.
He glued a base board on top of the tlle instead of tiling above it. He did not clean the floor before grouting, so large pieces of tile and debris were grouted into the floor grout and visible. He made an absolute mess of the shower floor, so much grout covered the small button tiles, many were not even visible, some sat at 45 degree angles. He slopped a mix of grout and silicone in the corners and along the floor where the walls and floor met as if he was tarring a roof. No precision used in any of this. Slopped on. He built a shelf in the wall that was clear evidence to my tile expert friend this man had never tiled before in his life. He did not frame the shelf properly, he left a lip of tile on the top, he tiled the floor of the shelf backwards which will alllow water to flow into the wall and down into my neighbors apartment. When I asked where to start on repairs, my tile expert friend shook his head and said it all needs to be ripped out and done over. $3500 in labor and $1600 in tile. Wasted by this man.
In a last ditch effort to have this man fix it I asked him to swing by. If I was going to have him fix it I wanted to be clear on his methods before I gave a green light. By the end of the meeting I could only see a completely incompetent liar. I asked for my money back so I could fix the mess he made and he refused and left. I hope I can post pictures because they tell the whole story.