Solistone and Concrete Care

Alex came out promptly when called and gave me an estimate of $10,000. His guys showed up on time, were very professional and worked very hard. But that's where the good news ends. Of course when they left it looked great but within days it looked dull and not at all like a $10,000 job. I called to ask Alex to come out and I had to wait two weeks for him to have time. The day he was supposed to come he called to say he couldn't make it and might come the next day but he would call me. I never heard from him and one of his guys showed up the next day with no notice. I told him my concerns and he said he thought it looked great. I said if that's the case, I'll go ahead and post pictures on Yelp and Angie's List. Then he said they would redo the part I was unhappy with, they would call to schedule a time to do it. Never heard from anyone again. Really disappointed as the pictures he showed me were beautiful. Most disappointed about customer service -- I had read about this on-line and mentioned it before contracting with him. Was told not to worry, they always make things right. I don't want to have to run after this guy. He should do the right thing.

The travertine floor had a lot of scratches from the previous owner. Solistone said they would get the scratches out as part of their service. After they were done, it was apparent they only worked on the largest scratches, not any of the medium or smaller scratches. So although the overall finish looked better at a glance, it quickly became apparent the floor still had many scratches and does not look reconditioned to nearly the level they promised. Also the grout was quite dirty. Although they made a quick attempt to clean the grout, it is still quite dirty and uneven in many places. They should have mentioned this before finishing and sealing everything, since now the dirty grout is essentially trapped under sealant. This way I could have had the option of doing a more extensive process to make the grout look better before it was too late to resolve anything. They did a lot of grout/caulking work as well. Unfortunately, they used grout where grout is not supposed to be used - such as around the perimeter of the floor and on surfaces where there is a change of plane or material. The proper way is to use caulk that closely matches the surrounding grout in these situations. So just a couple months after they did their work, the grout used in the improper areas was already cracked and flaking out. And I've heard that using grout around the perimeter is a huge no-no that any competent contractor knows not to do (because there needs to be an expansion gap around the floor to avoid structural issues with floor such as "tenting"). My floor was unusual in that the floor was put up against the baseboards by the previous owner with a gap in front of the baseboards. Yes, the baseboards should have been put over the floor. But solistone should have noticed this and not improperly used grout instead of caulk, thus compromising the integrity of the floor installation. Lastly, a lot of their caulk/grout work was quite sloppy, even where it was used appropriately. Also, they were paid to seal the showers and backsplash areas. They apparently didn't use enough sealer on these areas because water does not bead up much at all. The floor appears to have been sealed more thoroughly than the other surfaces. And they seemed to do okay on the granite countertops. But the showers and backsplashes have to be resealed because they weren't done right. Another issue was there was some tile work in two areas done wrong by the previous owner. Solistone said they could fix this by grinding out a line in the tile and using some sort of compound. They claimed it would be nearly invisible. I was skeptical it would work and was right to be - it looked worse than before. They at least didn't charge for this after seeing how bad it turned out. Lastly, they put an enhancing sealer on 2 stacked stone walls in the home. I later found out they were so sloppy they got the sealer all over the surrounding drywall. When I hired a painter to paint the walls in those areas, the paint wouldn't stick to the walls! So they had to do a huge process of sanding and using various priming products just to get the paint to stick in the areas where Solistone slopped enhancing sealer onto the walls. The 3,500 paid would have seemed fair if they had done a good job. But what was done was a low quality job, that looks okay when standing far away, but quickly degenerates and looks medicore upon closer inspection. I am going to have to have pay another company over $1,000 to fix the grout/caulking issues and reseal areas that weren't sealed properly - and even then I'm left with a floor with dirty/uneven grout and with many scratches that were not fixed. On top of this, they had a very bad attitude when confronted with the issues and made a lot of excuses. So basically I feel very ripped off and would not recommend these people to anyone. They might be okay if your stuff is already in very good shape and you don't have any unusual issues to contend with. But if you have a situation requiring careful professionals, I'd say look elsewhere.

Solistone did an excellent job cleaning, repairing and sealing both travertine showers in our home. The floors and wall tiles in the bathrooms were also cleaned and sealed as well as a marble counter top. Mr. Solis gave us a good estimate and he and his crew did a great job. Our showers look great. The work was done quickly and when finished, there was no mess and everything that had to be moved to do the cleaning was back in its proper place. Mr. Solis was very helpful and answered all of our questions. We are very satisfied with their service and will be calling them back when we need our showers, marble counter tops, or kitchen tiles cleaned.