Kosciuskos Big Red Carpet Care

Kosciusko's Carpet Care were sent over by a big box store when the fridge flooded the back of the house. After the dry out, which was successful ($3,987.50) Mr. Kosciusko said, "We lay tile." I checked their ad in the phone book, and it does list tile installation. What I failed to notice was lack of a license for doing any of the work listed in the ad. The tile was laid in a reasonable time frame. However, what at first appeared to be shadows turned out to be different dye lots. The spaces between the tiles ranged from approximately 1/16 to 3/16. The tiles were not level and some were chipped. When friends came to help move furniture they kept tripping over the tile. Mr. Kosciusko claimed it was impossible to level the floor, which resulted in the uneven tile, but he was willing to pop out the high tiles and relay them. He also offered to put sealant on the chipped tiles. The bill specified porcelain tile, but it turned out to be very thin, inexpensive ceramic tile. The tile also stopped short of the baseboards. Mr. Kosciusko said putting grout between the tile and the baseboards was construction work and not his responsibility. With people tripping over the tile became a liability issue, there was no choice but to have the tile torn out and replaced. When the tile was torn out it was discovered not enough thin set had been used, and the tile was held in place by the grout. Almost 90% of the tile popped out whole with no indication of thin set on the underneath side. Upon going to a lawyer, I found Mr. Kosciusko's charge for laying the tile (3085.00) was approximately $1500 over what a reputable and licensed tile layer would have charged for laying real porcelain tile. I had the tile redone by a licensed company, and there was no problem getting the floor level or ensuring that the spaces between tiles was equal. I also found out Kosciusko's Carpet Care has an unsavory reputation where tile is concerned, and I was not the first person to have their tile job redone. The silver lining is that in California there is no legal requirement an unlicensed contractor be paid by the customer, so acting upon legal advice, the money they would have been paid if the tile job was decent went to relaying the tile properly.